So I finally made the jump and did a large portion of my interior light conversion. My goal is to do the entire dashboard with Blue LED lighting. After a few orders, I finally today got what I think is the correct LEDs to do the job. All the LEDs came from superbrightleds.com. These guys are great to deal with, and I get almost all the shipments the next day. This is all done on my 08 1500 QC.

I started using a thread called "Blue Dash Lights" as my guideline for this project, though i did find several noticable differences in my truck.

Starting with the Cluster. Contrary to what i saw on other similar posts, my cluster only has 5 lights in it. I successfully used B8.5D LEDs from superbrightleds.com. No modification to the bases or cluster was required. This was a plug and play swap. No need to disassemble the cluster or needles either. There there is a small bit of hot-spotting, but it's not that noticable if you're not looking for it. I wish my cluster was more like the photos TCCCustoms posted in the above thread, 11 LEDs instead of my 5 would have definately smoothed out the light spread. But I'm happy nonetheless.

Next the HVAC control. There's 3 lights in this module. superbrightleds sells T1.5 Twistlock bulbs that fit perfectly in these sockets. However, when i used these bulbs, there was an obnoxious hot spot area. I couldn't live with that. I happened to have a few spare B8.5D LEDs from the cluster, I found that these fit the holes too. At first they kinda flickered intermittently when in the sockets. The only thing that I needed to do is slightly bend up the tabs on the flange side of the bulb housing. This made the contacts fit firmly against the contacts on the PCB of the HVAC control. Again, I'd still prefer a slightly more even light spread, but this is plenty acceptable for me.

The procedure for both the 4x4 switch and headlight switch is very similar. Remove both of these from the dash and bring them to the bench. You'll need a electronics vise and good soldering iron for this part. First, remove the screws from the back side of the module. Then holding it with the buttons/**** facing down, remove the back of the assembly. You'll be left with the back half of the assembly with the circuit board in it all full of dielectric grease. On both modules you'll see a small bulb in a square white housing. This is the point of no return! Grab the white part with a pair of pliers and gently rock it back and forth until it breaks free. This will leave you with two solder pads underneath where the bulb housing was. I used WLED-X leds for this part. You need to remove the LED, resistor, and diode from the base. You'll take this WLED bulb and straighten the leads out. Then using a pair of pliers, gently squeeze the base where it meets the LED itself. Do this a few times, from all sides, and it'll break the glue holding it together. Then you can grab the LED and pull it straight out of the base. Leave the resistor and diode attached to the LED, but trim the leads to about 3/16". bend the remaining tails 90 degrees toward each side. you'll solder these tails to the pads on the PCB that you exposed earlier from under the old lamp housing. Polarity does matter. I can't remember which way each was supposed to be. If you get it backwards, just pull it back apart and reverse the contacts.

The rear sliding window switch was the hardest. I had a hard time getting the switch out of it's bezel, and then again, to get the switch itself apart. it's just a matter of wedging in little screwdrivers until you get it to pop out. then again to get the switch itself open. Once it's open you'll see a bulb soldered to two contacts in the center of the switch. First you'll have to unsolder this bulb. the WLED-x is too big for this application. I used a #74 bulb removed from it's base. Removing this LED from the base is the same as with the WLED-x from the previous steps. once it's out, shorten the leads and solder it where the original bulb was. Again, polarity matters, so make sure you have it right before you reassemble the whole switch. You can plug it in to the harness and see if the LED lights with the running lights on without assembling the switch.

Now after you've tested everything for proper polarity, put it all back together, and you'll have a dash lit up in the color of your choice.

I still need to do the 3 lights in the overhead console. I thought they were the same as the HVAC, but they are definately smaller. I'll post up when I figure that part out.

I do plan on doing the radio too. I just haven't gotten that far yet.

I also want to do the VFD displays in the cluster, radio and overhead. I plan on simply using theatrical lighting filter between the VFD and the existing lens. I plan on using RoscoLux #74 "Night Blue" as it seems to match the Blue LEDs very well.