Switched my incandescent dash lights to LED's...

[GuyWithRacingStripes]

A while ago I installed the "reverse glow" gauge overlays, well scence then the "yellowness" of the rest of the dash lighting really stuck out to me, so i decided i would replace them all. well i bought a 50 pack of "hyper white" leds off ebay that came with resistors so they wouldent blow off of the cars 12volts. the LED's i bought were LUMINOUS INTENSITY-MCD:5000 with a vieing angle of 15* which is quite narrow, however the price was right (10 bucks) so i figured id find a way to get around it. the whole process took me about 4 hours, and this was the 4th time ive dissasembled the dash, so i felt confident in what i was doing. well first off i decided to dissasemble the climate controlls. to access them you have to remove the stereo trim, the under column panel the dash around the gauges and then finally the trim around the climate controlls. the panel is held in with 3 bolts, and on the reverse side had several wires and plugs. the center plug for blending air temps has to be unbolted due to the rigidity of the cable which makes instalation difficult. i was hoping that the bulbs would shine directly onto the panel, but light is distributed by a layer of clear plastic where the 2 bulbs were inserted into. being that leds project light, i had to sand (yes i sanded them) them down to about half of thier original length so i could insert them sidways int othe holes. i secured them by using my sodering gun to melt the plasic around the power conections of the leds. after reassembly and putting it all back together, i was very suprised to find that the light was VERY evenly dispersed and looked awsome with a light blue tint, it matched my gauges and kenwood deck quite niceley. second i needed to replace the led in the dimmer/lightswitch area to the left of the column. getting this one out was a tad tricky because it is secured with three metal tabs that u have to squeze to release the panel. after that it took me about an hour to fit an LED in where the original bulb was, it was a VERY tight fit, the original buld is SMALLER than an led! so space is very limited. after finally getting it seated and connected properly (also difficult) i put the dash back together only to find that the fog light swith has its own light in the switch, so now it glows an ugly yellow, compared to the rest of the dash. last and the most easy was the light in the shift panel, it is dispersed in the same fashion as the climate controlls and it only took me 10 minutes to do that. next time i get some time im going to replace the fog light switch, glovebox light and the lights in my dome lights. ill try and get pics soon, and maybe go into more detail if requested so.

[T-Punk]

that sounds like a lot of work! Not for me but hey what ever makes you happy. I'm still loving the stock red look of the firebird interior lights.

[casketcrewchick]

I too like the red lights in my bird... and I will eventually get red neons to go under the dash and seats. hehe

[lifeguardinme19]

I too love the red lights in my firebird. I'm hoping to find some guages for a guage pod that light up red so it all matches