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Blue Dash Light Modifications

6K views 38 replies 10 participants last post by  Xyphoid 
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#1 ·
Just saw a car on www.trueblueford.com, with Bright blue Dash lights. Any one have any idea on how this is done???? I have posted this question on the website, but no-one seems to be replying. Has anyone done this, or knows the cost involved ??? The page is http://www.trueblueford.com/MattsEF_ghia.html
Any ideas would be appreciated.
 
#2 ·
by the sounds of the time he took and the cost, he has just soldered HI LED's into the bulb sockets. from what i can remember from mucking around with dick smith kits as a kid, you would most likely have to work out the voltage required for the LED and fit the right size resistor behind them to bring the voltage down.

i would suggest going and chatting to someone at dick smith or tandy or something and telling them what you want. if you don't i'm going to anyway.

that blue looks cool!
 
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#4 ·
The Tandy man comes to the rescue. I will take my dash out over the next couple of days and will try some LED's of our shelves to see how it goes. If anyone wants the details, email me at grantjas@bigpond.com and when I figure it out, I will email you back with the part numbers and wiring proceedure.
 
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#5 ·
ive already done the blue led's a fair while ago and got in contact with matt for instructions.. although i had already worked it out myself

you use high brightness blue led's.
if your not good with a soldering iron or know how to solder forget it already :)

if anyone wants the details and info on how to do it like the car on trueblueford email me @ exodius00@hotmail.com and if your lucky ill help :)

and u can blow normal led's, and mr tandy man, normal leds arent bright enuff to light up your dash :)

i also have blue interior lightbulbs, looks like crystal/blueish white globes.
 
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#6 ·
ive already done the blue led's a fair while ago and got in contact with matt for instructions.. although i had already worked it out myself

you use high brightness blue led's.
if your not good with a soldering iron or know how to solder forget it already :)

if anyone wants the details and info on how to do it like the car on trueblueford email me @ exodius00@hotmail.com and if your lucky ill help :)

and u can blow normal led's, and mr tandy man, normal leds arent bright enuff to light up your dash :)

i also have blue interior lightbulbs, looks like crystal/blueish white globes.
 
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#7 ·
if anyone wants info on how to do it
email me @ exodius00@hotmail.com

(posts not coming up for some reason so sorry if theres 2/3 of them!)

ive done it to my ef falcon like the guys on the site. looks good

mr tandy man, normal leds dont work :)
 
#8 ·
Hi Guys, Yeah thats actually my car featured on the page. I actually hunted around a bit to find the right LED's. I originally had Hi Red's that were 2200mcd. (From Dick Smith). It worked, but the dash was a fair bit dimmer than stock, so I ended up taking them out. The Place I got the LED's was from Jaycar, And the Blue LED's are 4000mcd. These were actually the dimmest of the range of colours that they had, (Blue, Red, White, Yellow, Green). The Resistance Value is 560ohms, and the Resistor, and LED's are soldered on to the Bulb holder, with the Resistor being placed inside the Holder, and covered with Heatshrink tubing.
Finally, Doug Bevan will be putting a doco on trueblueford, on how this is done, complete with formulae for the LEDs, Pics, etc. This should be ready very soon.
P.S. Exedious, My Laptop was stolen, so I lost the emails that U sent me, and was wondering how your beast was coming together. Id love to see some pics of what its like !!!! Cheers, Matt
 
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#9 ·
Thanks for all your help guys !!!! Im going to give the Clock a go today, and see how it goes. (If I stuff the clock, then big deal I guess).
P.S. This is fantastic how every one helps each other out here. I have never seen this much dedication to any make / model car before. Many Commodore owners are more concerned about just HOLDEN together their cars, and not with modifying them or anything. Fantastic stuff guys, and thankyou again !!!!
 
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#10 ·
your clock will look extremely wrong/stupid/ugly/spastic if you put blue into it.

there is a orange film inside it to make it orange on the lcd display, dont try it ! :) lol

i have yet to change mine and will be changing in the next few weeks, normal celafane film doesnt work either! :)


matt: my car is doing quite wel, blue came out fine! and sorry to hear about your laptop being stolen. my car is also lowered now too on stock rims (sleeper) and stereo soon to be put in, what tv unit you running etc? indash popout or seperate lcd? just curious on your stereo specs. ps. what resistor did u use for the light above ur keyhole? mine lights up the street still! lol

also i have found a way to change your lcd display for your odo as well, i will be posting pics/info soon as well.. but ask xphoid.

also, you will need to know how to solder, because if you dont, well.. aRGH! :)
 
#11 ·
Well I thought Dang it if I stuff it I can always buy a new Instrument cluster.....
So off to Jaycar I go to find the Hi Intensity LED's & like wow they have a sale on where they are normally $10 but today they are $5 yep read that $5.. OK Ill take 10 of thanx & the resistors (560ohm) were $2.50 for a pack of 8.
So back home with my trusty soldering iron (& my brothers electronic expertise) We set off into the unknown & found it pi** easy..
Thanx matt & exodius for the mention of this mod...... IT LOOKS WAY COOL!!!!!!
Hmmmm Im looking to find what else I can play with
Cheers
Brett
 
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#12 ·
i have all the instructions on how to do it/pics for the installation still of matt for whose interested..

who emailed me before asking for help, sorry accidently deleted ya emails before reading them, drop me a line if u want the info forwarded.

exodius00@hotmail.com
 
#14 ·
Sweet stuff svo308.... Im jelous that you got them so cheap!!!!! I got mine for about $8.00...Its good to hear that people are having no troubles with this. I assume that soon people will be thinking that Tickford released Blue Dashes for special cooking models.. Hehehehehe.... As for the AU2, I checked one out And I see no reason why it wouldnt work. From memory, even the odometer colour can be changed on them !!! (Lucky B@#$%^d hehehe..) As for my Clarion, it is a dash mounted pop out model. I got it imported from Japan very cheaply, and at the time, the sony models couldnt receive channels 10, and 2, and were 4 times the cost of the clarion. I posted in the EF-EL deck forum, for more details....
Exodius : Sounds sweet :cool:, How do you strip off the Orange film ???? I used RED Leds, and it looked good, but they seemed to be very bright at the centre of the Odo, and very dim towards the outside, so I ended up removing them. I havent actually changed the keyhole light, or the interior lamps yet, Cause I lost your email, I dunno where you got the blue lamps from ????
 
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#15 ·
Thanks for that Exodius.. Youre Right, it came out A Dark Purple colour.. Looked different, but not really the effect I wanted.
I tried it with the Dash, (I only bought 1) and it sort of worked !!! (I guess you need another 5 for the full effect !!!!)
Yeah, it wasnt as hard as I thought It would be. PS. SVO302, which Jaycar store did you pick up the LED's from ??? I paid $7.80 for mine...
 
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#16 ·
You can pick them up cheaply (LEDs) from JayCar right now because they are on sale and dropped from 7.80 to 6.80 i think.

Bankstown is where i normally go, nicer people :)

Also just make up some business blah, and get a trade card, spend over $25 and get 10-30% off.. easier :)

Whoever asked me about changing headlight bulbs, theres no point, for some odd reason changing them to a High Power 100w from a 55w (Standard on all falcons) makes them blow on occasion, although you can buy the 100w h1/h2/h3/h4 light bulbs from servo's and for some reason they work and dont blow (others cant handle heat and DO NOT, i repeat DO NOT touch your globes with your fingers, they will definately blow).

With interior blue/ish look bulbs (pictures will be soon available on my page or somwhere)

I researched for ages what they were and colours you could get them in. Finally i found them in australia but some asian places.

To expensive, a shop in cabramatta wanted $60 for 2 "wedge type bulbs"!, what a f)(*&n joke! .. American Auto Spares in Homebush have them for 10.50, they arent *FULLY* blue, they give you more a "icey white blue" look, which is what you want anyhow, because blue interior lights would annoy you after a while due to no light actually coming through.

If your in other states, my suggestion is to search around or order from syd, they're called "wedge type light bulbs". (ps, they are 1mm wide then normal, careful when you put them in, you might break them!)

I have emailed most people with the instructions that Matt sent me for the LEDs for everyones dash etc. If you need any other help just drop me an email. (lucky im on cable and can send these files so many times in one night, lol)

Changing the film in the clock i will do shortly and have a fair idea and will tell all how to do it as soon as i have a chance to play around with it again.

ps. xyphoid, drop me an email exodius00@hotmail.com
 
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#20 ·
Enother easier way is to get little coloured condoms which fit over the 5w globes which are found in the dash.
These are also found in the undersides of the dashes of statsmans and fairlanes to light up the floor.
 
#22 ·
Nope, dont waste your time....
Open up any EF/EL dash / even check the cigarette lighter light.
They all have blue condoms on.
Thats how ford gets the dash to light up white. The blue filters out the Red/Orange colours out of the spectrum.
To get any blue light out of a light bulb, you would need to filter out about 90% of the light frequency, meaning that if a standard 0.5Watt Bulb is 3000mcd (Approx), then the amount of actual blue light would be 300mcd (The dash would not appear to light up - even at night). You would have more luck with orange filters, as these only filter out about 30% of the light, but your dash will look like the older EA-ED, and Commodore VB-VH Dashes. - Not that impressive really.
Remeber, the Blue LED's are actually brighter than the standard bulbs, and the reason why There are no pictures of these Blue Dashes at night time, is due to their brightness, My digital camera cannot handle the contrast. The photo I took was around about noon !!!
Trust me, the daytime photo's do not do this mod justice !!!!!!
 
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