I used the DIY from the SL forums. It was easier than I expected, but still a challenge. Only burned myself once during the process. I might change the needle colors to red later down the road... but they don't look bad the way they are for the time being.

 

LOOKS AWESOME!!! I wanna do that to my tC....was soldering hard and where did you purchase ur LED's?

 

I ordered the LED's from ebay. The LED's you need are PLCC-2 LEDS. The seller's ebay store is http://stores.ebay.com/HKJE-Led-Lamp-Center. They are shipped from Hong Kong. Only took 4 or 5 days to get here. They send them registered mail (signature required). They cost me $0.99 + $13.50 for shipping and I received 50 LEDS.

Soldering was tricky but it was my first experience soldering and I didn't screw anything up. I didn't need any additional solder. I was able to reheat and re-use the solder left on the connection.

 

yeah it did look good...
thats why ur doing mine next bro lmao

 

one million dollars gets it done!

 

how many LEDs did you actually use just for the dash??? all 50???

 

soldering is easy, i learned when i was 7 when i modded my ps1, since then i chipped over 50 ps2's 12 xbox, change leds in alot of my stereos and gamecube. all u need is a steady hand, and a 30 watt soldering iron for surface mounting leds. oh yea are the leds u got 500mcd ones. planning on doing it for my tc and and a friends

 

The LED's are the 500mcd ones. They look a little brighter and a little more blue in person. I bought them from an ebay store http://stores.ebay.com/HKJE-Led-Lamp-Center. It was only $0.99 for the actual PLCC-2 LED's (PLCC-2 are the type of LED's that you need to use for the conversion) and $13.50 for the registered shipping from hong kong. Took like 4-5 days to get here.

I used 24 LED's. If you just change the guages, you will only need 14. If you do the HVAC instrument panel, you will need 12 (if you have the tools necessary to remove the LCD screen. If not, you only need 9 for the HVAC unless you do the indicator lights for when the AC is actually on and if you change the blue and red LED for the actual dial.)

Long story short. 50 is a perfect number to do the job.

 

Standard gauge conversion (gauges and odo only) = 14 LEDs

The above with shift lights on the auto cluster changed = 22 LEDs

Center console w/ buttons, button indicators and clock = 16 LEDs

For a regular gauge, odo and center console conversion it takes 30LEDS

Great link! I have been looking for a better deal on these, so I will order some and try them out. If they are up to par with the ones we were getting it looks like my prices will drop considerably for the conversions! Just so you know though, your direct link does not work. The one I came up with was:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...led&category0=[/u]

 

thanks for the reply sicklecell... but you mentioned "if you have the tools necessary to remove the LCD screen"... what id that tool and how do i get that??? once again thanks...

 

hey. dave, yeah..i knew about this ebay store, but was very skeptical as far as what their quality was..

the price seemed too good to be true.. but obviously they worked for sicklecell.

let me know how it goes!

 

I am going to get some and run them at their max (20mA) for a couple of days straight, then run them at a little over thier max for a day or two. If they survive a good stress test then I would be happy to use them. I have 50 of them coming right now. I'll let you know how they turn out.

 

You can use solder wick or a solder sucker from radio shack. The biggest thing is to be patient. A lot of people have cracked them. Just take your time with it. Look at my walkthrough in the tech gallery on the circuit mod, I have a few tips on there.

 

^^patience and being careful... it's kinda frustrating when the first time i cracked it.. it was after i had soldered it back in and was putting things back together..

i personally use the solder sucker to get all the solder first, and then wick to clean it all up... make sure all the pins are loose before you take it out.

thanks! ebay might actually prove itself to me yet!

 

I'm not sure if doing red needles in blue gauges is a good idea. I friend had that color scheme on his Z and the needles ended up black (lights cancelled each other out i think). So basically, you can't see the needles moving at all. But, that was from the 91-96 300zx's, so it might be different. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

 

^^.. uh.. it's fine...

haven't seen any um.. light cancellation?

 

The LED's seemed to be a good quality. They actually look a little better than the stock LED's. Thanks for correcting the link. The Solder Sucker is the tool I need to pick up. Don't crack that LCD screen or you will probably have to but a whole new unit. Good Luck.

 

I have red needles with blue gauges. The only thing I would change is the shade of red, but it looks pretty nice.

 

at what part are people cracking the boards? I think this mod is going to be my summer mod.

 

yup same here... thats why im gettin more info as early as now...