Thinking about a dash light upgrade. Your thoughts?

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cruiser

cruiser

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The factory instrument panel lights in my 1974 Duster are pretty dim, even when the rheostat is turned all the way up. Has anyone out there done the LED upgrade, where you simply plug the LED bulbs into the existing bulb holders on the back of the instrument panel? There are several colors of white available, so I wouldn't want a very starkly white light as it wouldn't match the off-white color of the radio and heater panel. What color did you use? Were you happy with the result? Is your instrument panel brighter at night now? All ideas welcome - thanks!
 
There's another post talking about this right now.

IMHO

Stick to the 158/194 incandescent.

The parts you don't add don't cause you no trouble!
 
I replaced the two cluster bulbs in Vixen with white ZEVO LEDs from OReilly and I really like it a LOT. They don't dim, but that was the whole frikkin point. I want them bright. lol I can see them very well at night.
 
I got LED bulbs from "superbrightleds.com". I used the "cool white" 6500k, 110 lumens, 0.7 watts, 194-style led bulbs. They are a direct replacement for the "194" bulbs that came in the dash of my 71 Demon 340. They are definitely more white than the OEM yellow-ish bulbs but are SO much nicer at night. And they are not polarity sensitive and are dimmable. My summary is I should have done this swap a LONG time ago! You can now drive the car at night and see the instrument panel gauges without issue.
 
I also got dash LEDs from Superbright. They are good, but do not dim. I believe there some that can be dimmed. SB is good because they have a big range to choose from.
 
Dana67Dart said:
There's another post talking about this right now.

IMHO

Stick to the 158/194 incandescent.

The parts you don't add don't cause you no trouble!
Click to expand...
Dana - dumb question, I know, but what's the difference between a 158 and a 194 bulb? Is a 158 just a higher wattage (brighter) bulb than the 194? I think the 194 is what the owner's manual calls for.
 
cruiser said:
The factory instrument panel lights in my 1974 Duster are pretty dim, even when the rheostat is turned all the way up. Has anyone out there done the LED upgrade, where you simply plug the LED bulbs into the existing bulb holders on the back of the instrument panel? There are several colors of white available, so I wouldn't want a very starkly white light as it wouldn't match the off-white color of the radio and heater panel. What color did you use? Were you happy with the result? Is your instrument panel brighter at night now? All ideas welcome - thanks!
Click to expand...

My 2 cents...



I have done this upgrade and fooled with it a lot until I got it the result I wanted.

1. All headlight dimmer switches are not alike . Some dim more or less than others. The one I found that worked properly , I got from Nappa.

2. Be sure to clean the blue hoods that the lights go in to. Most are extremely dirty and fogged up cutting the amount of light going through them.

3. Paint the white surfaces with a super white paint for better reflectability.

4. Check for areas with light leakage and seal them up. After 50 plus years, these materials shrink and no longer seal properly

5. As Demon X suggested, these work great ! "superbrightleds.com". "cool white" 6500k, 110 lumens, 0.7 watts, 194-style led bulbs.

6. Make sure you have good grounds and 12 volts to the cluster.
 
You might want to check the voltage for the bulbs and make sure it's right before you fix it.
Also, are all of them lighting up? I never had a problem seeing my stock dash, but I did have headlight switch reo's with bad spots in them so it would blink out when adjusting the brightness, and I wasn't getting proper power to the bulbs on one dash.

Edit: Somehow I missed SuperCuda's post. What he said.
 
I did an led upgrade to my 70 Ralley dash. it isnt bad bought the bulbs in bulk offf ebay I beleive. I do recall there is polarity so if you put the led in and it doesn't light, turn it 180 degrees.
 
You want the "Warm White" LED bulbs to match the color you get from the incandescent lamps. The dash has a blue lens over the bulbs to shift the color to pure white (more or less) — if you get "Bright White" or "Pure White" LEDs, the actual color on the instruments will shift toward blue. This might be OK in terms of visibility, but it won't look like the stock lighting.
 
The IP lights in my 66 were dim also so I replaced all of them with the XENON 2886X bulbs, you don't have to worry about putting them in backwards or not dimming properly like you do with LED's they look just like the 194's only they are brighter. I put them in my 68 also and I have no problem seeing the gauges, not overly bright and you can dim them the way that you want. They cost a little more than the 194's but to me they are well worth it.
 
68 CUDA FORMULA S said:
The IP lights in my 66 were dim also so I replaced all of them with the XENON 2886X bulbs, you don't have to worry about putting them in backwards or not dimming properly like you do with LED's they look just like the 194's only they are brighter. I put them in my 68 also and I have no problem seeing the gauges, not overly bright and you can dim them the way that you want. They cost a little more than the 194's but to me they are well worth it. The stock 194 bulbs are not bright white, but more very slightly yellowish "warm white". Is this how the 2886X bulbs look in your dash? Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
I bought some LEDs off Amazon that were nightly rated and they work great. I think mine were bright white, but the blue filters in the dash made them the original blue, just brighter.

You might want to pull the dash out some to install them, as it is a crapshoot on polarity, particularly when you can’t see which way you are putting them in. Buy new 5/8 sockets while you are at it.
 
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