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Just a picture sequence on how to disassemble a digital dash to change the color. Do this on a soft surface, but not on carpet as in the pictures. This was a junk dash, so I wasn't concerned about static electricity.

Edit: Sorry for the lack of pictures for so long. The pictures *should* be up for good now.

what kind of material do you use to replace the amber color?  

Hey Jeff, you can use colored plastic film as an overlay, you can repaint the color plates with a paint that can withstand a couple hundred degrees and adheres to plastic, you can use an electroluminescent strip, a neon light, cold cathode tube, LEDs, colored bulbs....your choice, really, and of course what you use depends on what colors you're looking for.

is all i did was cut the colored plastic folders that you can get a walmart for $.33 to the right shape and put them in place of the orange plastic peices and put it all back together and it looks awsome!!!*note, you want to get the foggy or clouded kind,if you get the totally clear ones you will be able to look through the guages and see the light area behind them* also you you should see them in blue!!!!

Oh yeah, I should've mentioned the clearness thing...thanks Got any pics of yours Roger?  How well is it showing up in the daytime?

it looks great durring the day. it actually seems a little brighter than the original orange plastic peices. i'm working on getting some pics as soon as i can figure out how to use this camera right.

I was just redoing my color plates again and realized I didn't mention a few things before.  You typically can only fit one layer of plastic film between the color plate and the LCD, so the darker the color the better.  The thing you're contending with is that the halogen illumination bulbs give off such a yellow light, it tends to show right through the color of the film you put in there.  Meaning, if you use a fairly clear medium blue film the actual color will end up being yellowish with a green tint.  IMHO it's better (though definitely tougher) to repaint your color plates if you want to get a darker color.  Just make sure that if the paint softens with heat, you put a clear plastic sheet between the color plate and the LCD or they could adhere to each other, making future color changes a real problem.........The End.

Any pic's of the after?

Only a couple pics of the one I did the other day.  No pics of the previous tests because I wasn't happy with the paint I used.  These are the ugliest colors by far IMHO:







For the life of me I couldn't get the camera to catch the colors right.  The backlighting is actually more greenish, and the lit segments are more yellowish.  And it's a lot more vivid than in the picture.  So far I've had the best color results with paint.

Hey guys, I've been messing with the color plates a little, and I am in the process of laying out a color scheme to match my radio. I need to get something to reduce the yellowing that the normal backlighting causes.
I'm using 1/16" Lexan that I sandblasted on the back. I used Photoshop to design the layout, and I need to print it out on a opaque trasparency and try it.
the cool thing about making the layout is that you can add a gradient on the tach or speedo or other readouts.
I'll convert the Photoshop image to Jpg and provide links to it soon.

I literally just walked in the door from testing out my cluster.
I got the white the way I wanted it, no yellowing at all in the middle cluster.
the outer clusters were a little yellow, I'm going to paint the insides of the light boxes white and try it again.
I replaced the halogens with LEDs that I got from Advanced auto parts. I had to solder them into the original halogen sockets, but they worked great.
only thing is if you get the contacts switched you won't get anything from it, hense the Diode of LED. ÂÂÂ
all you got to do is turn the socket 180* and it'll work.
the sandblasted Lexan worked perfect. It diffused the light enough to evenly light the whole display.
way better than painting the old plates. plus I can switch back if I want to.
I used my dads laser printer to print on the transparency the way I wanted, I didn't make my blues dark enough so you can't see the gradients very well. tomorrow I'll print another version with darker blues. I'll put pics up soon, next post.

here are the pics, Finally. lol!

so what if you put in blue LEDS in the place of the backlights and used the blue tint? I would love to try it with yellows, but i dont have a spare digi dash and i dont want to mess the one in the INDY up.

well.... my guess is that it would be blue.
I forgot to mention that if you want to use the LEDs that you need to jump the relay for the dimmer adjust.