NOTE: Myself or the Dodge Forum are not responsible for any mishaps or problems while wrenching. Also we (the forum and myself) are not responsible for knuckle busters, alien abductions, fines, tantrums, whining, drinking behaviors, throwing of tools, fried electrical circuits, or other respectable conditions that may occur during this mod.. all modding is done at your OWN RISK!! This thread is intended to be used as a guide to help you on your own project.


Okay, so I decided to take my stock cluster and make it all LEDs but, I wanted to make it so whatever color I put in would show in the cluster.. so here's what I did :


I started by taking my stock cluster and removing the screws that hold on the plastic cover

<pic>


Once the screws are removed, the clear plastic cover and the black space piece will come off and you will have exposed gauges and face plate..


Next remove the needles CARFULLLY.. I just got a good grip on the and pulled up till they popped off, place them aside for later....


After the needles are removed, there is a a space between the faceplate and the back of the cluster... use a small putty knife and pry it slowly up till the gauges pop out of there sockets it will look like this (mine still has the needles on


<pic>


After that is loose, you will have a clear plastic plate with the face plate glued on in with the gauges on it.. CAREFULLY place the putty knife between the face plate and the clear plastic piece and pry off the face plate ( pry really slowly as to much will rip the face plate pretty easily) after you are done you should have this:

<pic>

Now, take the face plate and turn it over.. you will see a white coating and a green coating.. take a piece in fine grit sandpaper and sand all that sh^t off over all of the areas where there are numbers on lines for the gauges.. should look like this when you are done:

<pic>

You are now ready to reinstall the faceplate to the clear plastic piece... there are 3 grooves (one on each end and one on the bottom) to line up the face plate again... I also put a few drops of super glue on it to hold it in place..


Next, take the piece and mate it back to the rest of the cluster, re install your needles... Then, take the clear cover and the black piece and put the screws back it that you first took out...


After all that install the LEDs of your choice... there are 5 on my cluster for lights.. whatever color LED you choose with light up you console.... I decided to go with white..


As of now im still waiting on my LEDS in the mail so final product pics will be coming shortly!


Hope this helps everyone!


-Old_School

 

You can buy colored LED gel caps to place over the LEDs to change colors to anything but white.

What is the sanding thing all about? You lost me on that step/requirement.

Run the needle re-calibration routine once you get it all put back together.

What of the other LEDs at the environ controls, matching stereo colors, etc? What are you planning there to get the entire thing to match?

I love interesting mods and applaud your "just do it" efforts!!!

IndyD

 

I added a bezel that I can change the intensity and color (purplish to blue to greenish blue). It cost $10 off ebay, I was luck and had a friend with a live read out dash unit so I could verify all my gauges again. Post pictures of what it looks like when you're done Old_School, It should look pretty sweet.

 

The propose for the sanding was to remove that crap from the factory that makes the stock bulbs shine the ugly green color.. that way when i install white, it comes out white or whatever color i may change it to.. ect....


As for the HVAC, door switchs, and my overhead there all going to be red LED and my aftermarket head unit and siriusxm already display red.

 

I thought about that route but, i have read alot of reviews that say they start failing after a year or so .. that's why i decided to do this...

I'll get the final pics up as soon as the damn USPS delivers for me! lol

 

I wanna see this. Sounds very cool! I want to change to colors inside my D as well!

 

USPS says LEDs should be in my mailbox tuesday by noon so, as soon as i get them i'll be putting them in and taking pics

Then all i will have to do is find a way to get the miles on the odometer of this cluster to match the miles on my truck... i have emissions inspection due ASAP and im assuming that when they hook up the computer to the OBD II plug that they will be able to see the real miles??

 

The miles on the cluster shouldn't correspond with anything they check, but if they do it's not the end of the world, it just means you have to mark that block on the title that stats the odometer reading isn't correct and explain to the buyer what happened.

 

WOW! that's all? i was told that you can have the cluster flashed but it means a trip to the stealer...

 

Well yea,

Look at your title and you will see it, however it could lower what your truck is worth slightly. It would be better to have it flashed, but it's not needed.