LED Interior conversion....review and how to do it right with the right products

[nsrZ32]

I've always loved the Z32 interior and have customized mine to my liking. The lighting has always left a lot to be desired though.

After a lot of research I decided to go with a full LED interior kit from member baithabay ([email protected]). I installed the kit today and figured I'd do a quick write up for you. Since a lot of people have been talking LED's lately I wanted to save you the trouble of researching it.

Start with a fully assembled interior....and get ready to take stuff apart

First thing to remove is the side pods, they each have two screws on the bottom



Once removing the screws on the left side, ease the face of the pod out

Unclip your connectors to remove the face (so that its ready to be shipped out to Yosof) and then remove the circled retaining bolts

On the right side, slide forward the face, disconnect the electrical connectors and then remove the screws holding the hazard switch in (circled below), pop off the button on top, and remove the hazard switch.

Once that is out of the way, remove the screw behind the switch and the two lower bolts that are in the same place as the ones on the other side

From there snake the wiring out of the back of the pod housings and remove them.

The hood that covers the gauge cluster and functions as the dash is retained by two screws on the underside. Remove those two screws and take the cluster hood off.

Once off, remove the two circled screws and disconnect the electrical connector on the right

Remove the metal shield and cluster surround.

Next you'll want to remove the steering column cover, there are six screws holding it on, four are visible, the remaining two are under the interior panel which is easily removed by four visible retaining bolts

It will come seperate into three pieces once removed

That will put you here.....

Now remove the ignition cylinder illumination ring (now is a great time to clean it and all other components as well) it will slide off once the bulb is twisted out



Next you will want to remove your gauge cluster. The top two screws are already removed so you will just have to remove the bolts in the lower corners of the cluster. There is one on each side.

There are 3 connectors on the back of the cluster to disconnect and one to unclip on the upper right.

Ok so now you will have all the hard part out of the way. Make sure you keep all your screws, bolts, and components organized incase you can't get back to it right away to put it together. And don't sweat it if you find cracked pieces (as its all probably been apart before since our cars are coming up on 20 years old) or even if you break something yourself. Super glue is your friend

Since I had everything apart and the gauge cluster out of the car I decided now was a good time to update the look of the Z32 cluster while installing the LED's. I purchased a set of Titanium gauge rings from CZP to install in the cluster. To remove the plastic face there are 8 tabs holding it down, carefully depress the ones on the bottom first (circled below) and then remove the plastic cover.



I'm sure the plastic cover is discolored from age so now is a great time to polish it. I've had super luck with Meguiars PlastX, so what better time than now to get it looking good?

Might as well do the gauge ring, dome light cover, and any other bulb covers while you're at it. They turn out great.

Back to the gauge rings.....once the face is off, you will notice that the gauge faces are slightly recessed in the cluster

The gauge rings are machined so they fit snugly, you can coat the insert with a light adhesive if you want, but you might not need to

It only takes a minute while everything is infront of you, and IMO is certainly worth it.





Ok so now its time to put everything back together. Here's what you will get from baithabay in the mail (pods, all your LED's, and the old stuff he removed from the pods)

If you're a confident with a soldering iron he'll send you directions to do it yourself. I prefered to have him do it for only a couple bucks more

Ok, now comes putting the LED bulbs in. On the back of your cluster remove the large bulbs by twisting the housings out and pulling the bulbs out.

My Veilside cluster had blue Raybrig bulbs in it when it came over from Japan, but here's a conventional bulb vs. LED comparison

Installation of all of the bulbs is very straight forward. Yosof includes instructions, but I'm not much for instructions haha. Just pull out the stock ones and install the LED's. If an LED does not light, just flip it over in the socket and it will illuminate.

For the ash tray and glove box lights, if you're careful with a very thin set of needle nose pliers you can remove the stock bulbs without breaking them and pop in the LED's.

For the floor illumination lamps, twist out the old sockets, insert the LED bulbs, and twist the sockets back into the lamp housings.

When you get to the license plate lights you will need to remove two screws on each. If they're anything like mine, they are going to be badly yellowed and dirty. Something else that's good to polish

If you have aftermarket gauges like I do, you can purchase LED's for those as well so everything is an exact match and clean. The gauges will have twist in bulbs on the back side and are very easy to change.

Once you get all your bulbs in and everything put back together, its time to kick back and admire the HUGE difference.

LED License plate lights

Inside













All in all I am very pleased. Definitely a very nice update to the interior lighting of the Z. I chose an all blue setup but red, green, white, etc are available. There are pictures of each in the trading post sticky that Yosof aka baithabay posted up.

[LAKE ERIE Z32]

that looks awsome man, definitly a sweet update. i cant wait to get mine =) im still thinking about makeing mine a couple diffrent colors

[billabong093]

Looks great

When i can afford to trade up to a TT this will definitely be one of the first things i do to it. I already have his thread bookmarked, and its cheap too. definitely worth it IMO.

[franklin93zx]

Jerry you Z just gets better. the led's look amazing thanks for the info

[Z-owned]

Good write up there are two other screws in each pod though usually in a diagnal angle I noticed weren't in yours but others might want to take note of.

[Infinitiguy19]

Thats beautiful but why two tachometers?

[nsrZ32]

Jerry you Z just gets better. the led's look amazing thanks for the info

Thanks!

Looks great When i can afford to trade up to a TT this will definitely be one of the first things i do to it. I already have his thread bookmarked, and its cheap too. definitely worth it IMO.

Thanks man. I agreed that its worth it and is certainly a good on a budget type modification as the price is right.

Thats beautiful but why two tachometers?

Better visibility by allowing you to keep your eyes on the road and watch RPM's, shift light, and its more accurate than the stock tach

[T45]

Nice. Now clean that filthy dashboard Pig-pen, I spotted like 13 specks of dust on it.

[itZjoker]

looks good, but the lighting doesnt look evenly distributed in the gauge cluster

the 60 and 260 km/h mark look brighter than the rest

[nsrZ32]

Nice. Now clean that filthy dashboard Pig-pen, I spotted like 13 specks of dust on it.

haha I'll get right on that

looks good, but the lighting doesnt look evenly distributed in the gauge cluster

the 60 and 260 km/h mark look brighter than the rest

There is a very minimal difference, the vehicle was parked in my garage and the pictures were taken at night and it makes it look like a larger difference than there really is in person

[Zmazaing]

Hey I hope you don't mind answering a quick question, how did you get the little window washer button to light up? I did mine a while back but the little brown encasement was different from all the rest.

[Z32TT]

nice write up i just emailed him on this kit i actually like it much better then stock

[Z32 TwinZ]

[300freekzx]

[nsrZ32]

Hey I hope you don't mind answering a quick question, how did you get the little window washer button to light up? I did mine a while back but the little brown encasement was different from all the rest.

Not sure to be honest. I sent the pods out to Yosof and he soldered in the LED's, I installed the rest of the kit, but didn't do the pods.

nice write up i just emailed him on this kit i actually like it much better then stock

Me too, definitely much better than stock.

[300freekzx]

I like it. My pods look good but I cannot get other lights to work like the temp lights the washer and the igniton ring light. Do you know the type of bulb for those lights.

[L.A.Z32]

Iam loving your lights good work Now I know my next mod to my z

[Z_Fanatic]

Looks really good, loving the blue!

By the way, where did you get the bulbs for your Autometer gauges? I have a Phantom boost gauge and was wondering if you picked them up from the guy who did your pods or somewhere else?

[nsrZ32]

I like it. My pods look good but I cannot get other lights to work like the temp lights the washer and the igniton ring light. Do you know the type of bulb for those lights.

The bulbs came with the kit. I'm not sure on the bulb sizes off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure the cluster bulbs are 194's as for the mini's I couldn't tell you.

Iam loving your lights good work Now I know my next mod to my z

Thanks! Glad you guys like it

Looks really good, loving the blue! By the way, where did you get the bulbs for your Autometer gauges? I have a Phantom boost gauge and was wondering if you picked them up from the guy who did your pods or somewhere else?

I ordered those bulbs as an ala carte option with my LED kit because I wanted everything to be an exact match. Was only a couple bucks more for the additional bulbs.

[300freekzx]

[QUOTE=nsrZ32]

The bulbs came with the kit. I'm not sure on the bulb sizes off the top of my head. I'm pretty sure the cluster bulbs are 194's as for the mini's I couldn't tell you.

If you find out let us know buddy

[dozug]

Thank you Jerry this thread was great guidelines!! I changed my cluster cover today, lol it looks nice! I should try the bulbs next time if i get the bulbs!!

[painjunkie]

dude, when i close my eyes and think of my interior this is what i see, lol. looks awesome man, how much did it run you total?

[jkilby18]

hey dude i cant find that kit any were could post the link

[John1006]

Reasoning on 2 tachs? lol

[jschrauwen]

Impressive mod Jerry and an outstanding write-up.I wouldn't mind seeing your handi-work again if you're heading down to ZDayZ at the end of the month?

[92nismoZ]

well first off i'd like to say i love the car beautiful machine well built, and everything simply amazing, and choose to delete this is you wish, but the second tach i know you explain the better visibility at night it be closer to the actual rpm's then stock gauge, but i mean i must say i think like rice when i see that. with being a car guy for as long as you have been im sure cant you just tell when you're approaching redline, im 20 and can tell when mine is near and im sure you have more experience in racing/overall cruising then me, so shouldnt you just be able to hear it comin up? my .02 not that it means anything anyways, beautiful car once again take it easy!

[aka_jesus85]

what size is the bulbs, i need specs cause i dont wanna get the wrong size. i seen like two threads about the LED interior.

[evan_aggie]

So, I got everything installed from DualZSF (yosof/baithebay) whatever you want to call him....

I was pleased but then I decided to order some HP lights for the kick plates and for the gauge lights rather than use what he provided. The HP lights are FAR better at lighting the gauges.

I used red for my gauges and blue for my pods. The Red was probably 30-40% brighter overall and did not have bad hot spotting.

Also, my kick plate red lights are far brighter because they are pointing down in one direction. Something else important to note... the HP lights fit better than the normal LED lights b/c they are thicker.

Anyway, just my two cents...

[aidanair]

hey what are the bulb types required? i know the cluster is 194 and license plates too. what about the ignition key ring and ashtray and foot lights and glove box

[itZjoker]

I got the same LED kit from him.Overall they were okay, there were ALOT of hotspots around.Also some bulbs didnt even fit right. I took apart my whole dash to get the lighter ring LED in and it didnt even work because it didnt fit.And for some reason, I didnt have a glovebox light (wtf?!) my model is a 1996 too