Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Will do they should be here sometime next week.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Your not kidding about the shipping, they were here today. I tried both white and green and ended up with green. I put the four wide fire green in the back light spots and two straight fire green in the turn signal spots. The high beam and brake light are straight fire white. The only one I left a bulb in was the temp light since I have a gauge I don't think it even works.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

That looks great!

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

As I watched my dash lights go out one by one, I knew I had to do something, now I know what. Those look fantastic!
Just wondering, has anyone tried red?

Thanks,
Jim

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I haven't, but I have some reds lying around I could experiment with.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

If you have a spare dash already out, it would be cool to see, but don't tear your trick apart for that. The green really pulls the image off the, not sure the red will do as well, but curious since i was going to do more red accents.
Thanks again,
Jim

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I got bored. Here's what it looks like with red LEDs. Lighting is a little uneven as I used two different types of LEDs, one pair brighter than the others.

Sorry for the poor picture quality, all I had with me was my phone and it has a hard time focusing in the dark.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I've been meaning to ask, can you give us some more specific info about how you adapted the festoon lamp to your glovebox door switch? Looks like a great idea, more light there would be nice to have.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Solder one end of the festoon to the contact spring inside the switch/bulb socket and solder the other end of the festoon to the hot wire coming from the fuse panel. I covered the solder joints with shrink tubing. Then you can just attach the festoon to the upper corner of the glovebox with tape or a dab of glue. If the festoon is polarity specific, make sure to solder the end that wants negative to the switch/bulb socket spring which functions as the ground in the circuit. Just use a short run of wire from the spring to the festoon. The switch comes apart so you can solder to the spring outside the socket and then reassemble it.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Thanks! That's one more small project to add to my list.... :chevy:

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Look for a very bright festoon that has lots of LEDs on it to get the maximum amount of light and that directs the light into the glovebox. You don't need to be concerned with how wide the festoon is since you won't be fitting it into a possibly restrictive fixture. I used one of these:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2-x-36mm-1-...72.m2749.l2649

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Rich...

Lotsa good info here.

Subscribed.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Rich, that red looks great, thanks for testing that out!
It may not be quite as good a contrast as the green light, but way ahead of my all dark dash!
Also, I will have to look into the glove box light too, didn't know these truck had a light there...

Thanks again!
Jim

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Well, a lot of these trucks, including mine, had no glove box light from the factory. There are kits available from various vendors to add a light. That's what I did, and I'm considering changing to a brighter light for it.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

That's right, the glovebox light was an option. I added it to mine using a socket and harness I got off one in the junkyard. My truck originally didn't even have a cigar lighter! It was real low optioned.

The dash LEDs are a inexpensive and easy way to improve and upgrade the look of the dash. All kinds of colors are available. The red looks slightly subdued probably due to the inside of the housing being painted light green which takes a bit of the edge off the intensity of the red. These red LEDs are very bright and luxuriously red when seen directly or from behind a red or white lens. But they still make the instrument panel look interestingly different. I'm going to stick with the green though. For now. Of course they are so easy to change, you could have a different color every week if you cared to.

I'm glad some folks are finding the contents of this thread useful and helpful.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Thanks for taking the time to post all of your work. That is a good tip about the standard bulb with the green boot for the shifter. Now I have to see if I can find one of those green boots. Are you still using that or did you find another option.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I just switched to an LED that fires in all directions. You can probably get the little green bulb condoms at any parts store that carries aftermarket gauges.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Check amazon for the green covers. I just bought a pack myself. Works Great.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Where did you get the green leds?

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I've got 194 LED in most colors from Amazon.

I also even out the backlighting by where I chose to place reflective vs nonreflective tape on the back of the gauge housings.

Just did a 1968 Impala:

.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I got all of my LEDs on ebay. There are some links elsewhere in this thread.

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I recently put these in mine, (sorry don't have a picture), I was please with them AND the best thing is they are indeed DIMMABLE.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I thought I should bring this back, as it was a great write up. I used the red side firing LEDs that were found from the eBay listing above. They have a nice glow, great lighting, and great upgrade.
Rich, thanks again for the help!
Jim

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

Looks good. Thank you all for the inputs. Im looking to do mine as well, i cant see my speedometer at night. Debating on the color

Re: Need help with dash lights
 

I had never opened this thread before. A whole lot of good info, glad I finally did.