Led interior

[Byoung1330]

I just soldered white LEDs in my cluster. They made my cluster look blue. Did my auto hvac control also an it looks white like I wanted. Why does my cluster look blue. Because of the overlay or what?

 

[HiHoeSilver]

I just soldered white LEDs in my cluster. They made my cluster look blue. Did my auto hvac control also an it looks white like I wanted. Why does my cluster look blue. Because of the overlay or what?

Yes. The "clear" lens has a tint. I think there's at least one person who's taken it off, but I think it's ill-advised. @ScottyBoy

 

[ScottyBoy]

What year? If it's a 03-06, the bluish tint can be removed if you CAREFULLY shave the back of the gauge cluster overlay with a very sharp razor blade. I have done about 4-5 clusters like that and they came out great. I also damaged one overlay in the process. So I can not stress enough that you have to be careful when shaving it.

 

[HiHoeSilver]

What year? If it's a 03-06, the bluish tint can be removed if you CAREFULLY shave the back of the gauge cluster overlay with a very sharp razor blade. I have done about 4-5 clusters like that and they came out great. I also damaged one overlay in the process. So I can not stress enough that you have to be careful when shaving it.

Oh, it's the back of the overlay.... Duh. What do you mean 'damaged' was it rendered useless?

 

[ScottyBoy]

Oh, it's the back of the overlay.... Duh. What do you mean 'damaged' was it rendered useless?

I scraped too much/cut too deep. It wasn't COMPLETELY useless, a few lines on the tach were missing and there was basically a white "hole" in that spot. It was definitely a very obvious visual flaw, but not totally unusable. But being that this was for a customer, I had to replace the overlay. At least it was a stock 1500 overlay, so I quickly (and thankfully CHEAPLY) grabbed one at my local U-PULL-IT yard to replace it with. That was only the second one I ever did, so I quickly learned my lesson. I haven't damaged one since. Well, not enough damage that it was visible from the front of the cluster anyway. Lol
I started charging an extra $25 for that service of removing the blue layer/film from the gauge overlay, which is actually a bargain considering it's several hours of tedious scraping/shaving involved, and I go through about two or three blades. I actually started using an EXacto knife with the blades with the slightly curved tips, they don't catch or snag like a flat razor blade does.

 

[DougAMiller]

Gently remove the blue tint from the back of the overlay with a dish scrub pad (I used one of the green ones). Use plenty of water while you're scrubbing it. Worked great and didn't remove anything else or leave any scratches.

 

[arctictwist]

how was this process? got pictures of how it came out?