I have a 1971 Challenger with standard gauges. That's the single large speedometer on the left and four smaller gauges running across the dash to the right. The gauges have no built in lighting; they are flood-lit by a light-bar recessed into the padded dash above the instruments with three bulbs/reflector assemblies each with dual blue-green lenses (the Rallye dash with four large gauge pods uses a light bar with four bulbs/reflectors/lenses) that "flood" the instruments. The non-Rallye bulbs are #1816, the Ralllye are #1893. These bulbs are on the interior light dimmer circuit. They do an OK job (not up to modern integral gauge lighting but readable).
I'm changing to the rallye instrument panel but the four-light light bar for that one is very expensive. The three-light I have puts the light floods in the wrong place and two of the gauge positions are in the darker areas. That and while the four-light Rallye bar has the bulbs above the lenses, the three-light has the bulb in between each dual-pair of lenses, so the floods are mostly reflected through instead of direct from the bulb. The gauges are still visible at night but not as well as I'd like. And since the stock rallye bezel is woodgrain instead of a textured black, the light in the wrong areas produces a lighter area around the gauges too so they don't stand out as well.
I'm not interested in changing the color of the lighting. I _may_ still decide to switch the bezel from woodgrain to a matte or textured black (the gauges are black with white lettering and orage pointers).
Would it be feasible to use something like an LED tape strip? I'm thinking of removing the three reflectors completely, mounting a white LED strip (in an aluminum channel held up above the lens area), cutting out the entire lens area and using a single strip of the blue-green lens material across the entire opening. I can then patch in pieces of opaque material over the lens to reduce light output where its not needed. I've used strips with dimmers before (not in a car though) and they seems to work ok. The one caveat I can think of now is that when the dimmer is at full bright, the strip may put out too much light; I might need to find a way to pre-dim the strip so its peak brightness is 'just right', or find a strip using appropriately low power LEDs... even 3528s may be overkill without that pre-dimming.
I do have a spare 3-light bar so if I muck it up too badly I can still fall back.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
I'm changing to the rallye instrument panel but the four-light light bar for that one is very expensive. The three-light I have puts the light floods in the wrong place and two of the gauge positions are in the darker areas. That and while the four-light Rallye bar has the bulbs above the lenses, the three-light has the bulb in between each dual-pair of lenses, so the floods are mostly reflected through instead of direct from the bulb. The gauges are still visible at night but not as well as I'd like. And since the stock rallye bezel is woodgrain instead of a textured black, the light in the wrong areas produces a lighter area around the gauges too so they don't stand out as well.
I'm not interested in changing the color of the lighting. I _may_ still decide to switch the bezel from woodgrain to a matte or textured black (the gauges are black with white lettering and orage pointers).
Would it be feasible to use something like an LED tape strip? I'm thinking of removing the three reflectors completely, mounting a white LED strip (in an aluminum channel held up above the lens area), cutting out the entire lens area and using a single strip of the blue-green lens material across the entire opening. I can then patch in pieces of opaque material over the lens to reduce light output where its not needed. I've used strips with dimmers before (not in a car though) and they seems to work ok. The one caveat I can think of now is that when the dimmer is at full bright, the strip may put out too much light; I might need to find a way to pre-dim the strip so its peak brightness is 'just right', or find a strip using appropriately low power LEDs... even 3528s may be overkill without that pre-dimming.
I do have a spare 3-light bar so if I muck it up too badly I can still fall back.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
