Dash Cluster

[domdada]

So I was bored out of my mind at work today and was so slow because it's the 4th....I decided to take apart the dash cluster and see how difficult it would be to change the orange to a different color. I don't know if anyone has gone as far as I did.....but here's what I did.

First I seperated the the three pieces which were easy....nothin but clips holding it together.

Next I seperated the Bezel that has the notches for the speed, rpm, ect.

I didn't take off the needles because I have had a bad experience with that before so I peeled back the gauges and noticed the lights were leds that were sodered on.....they are the little white squares with the yellow in the middle. Seeing this I knew that they weren't orange leds. They are white.



So I looked closely at the plastic bezel and noticed that the orange part is transparent paint that was laid on it giving us the orange glow. So I took my trusty pocket knife and started to scrape away...Here's the end results. Believe me, White Looks So Much Better Than Orange.



I'm happy with this so far, but I'm gonna do more research about the rest of the orange lights....the needles, the 2 LED Displays, steering wheel, ac controls, and anything else that's orange.


Modified by domdada at 10:47 AM 7/21/2008

[vballer22]

NICE! I love it. After doing this, what would you rate it on a level of 1-10 in difficulty?

[adidas2go]

Nice! Ill do a quick how to on this in the morning

[domdada]

It's about a 5.....The orange strip is a very thin and is surrounded by the black areas, which is paint as well. You have to go right to the edge of the black and make sure you don't strip the black areas but at the same time you have to make sure you get all the orange off.

The orange paint overlays the black too.....you don't wanna scrape that part of the orange paint. It's kinda difficult to discribe what I am saying by words but once you have the bezel infront of you, you will understand what I am talking about.

Also, I kept some rubbing alcohol next to me to clean the areas that I scraped off. I scraped off a section at a time, cleaned the area, put the bezel up in the air with the front of it facing me and checked to see if there was any orange I missed and to see if I got close enough to the black edge.

[dangeris]

This is awesome. Thanks for the write up but how do you take the dash off to get to the cluster? is that in your write up as well?

[mikegtr06]

awesome, i love it, it i could just find some blue transparent paint now......

[l33th41]

Sweet! Gotta love the custom jobs...

[racingtiger03]

awesome, i love it, it i could just find some blue transparent paint now......

Go to your local wal-mart or arts and crafts store. Go to the section that has stained glass paint. Find color you are looking for. Purchase, then apply carefully lol. Not sure how well it would adhere to the surface, but you dont have to worry about LED's getting too hot and burning it through

[domdada]

It's kinda difficult to word out in my part but I'll try my best and if anyone can word it better for me....please do.

1) Drop the Steering Column -Put your hands between the bottom of the neck of the steering wheel and the steering column and pull down. This should drop easily, it's a matter of a couple clips being undone.

-Next is the difficult part to describe. The black trim around the dash cluster, where the push start button is, needs to come off. Using 2 hands, put your fingers in between the bottom of the black trim and the plastic glass where the gauges are (where the 2 come together at the bottom). Now with a little force, pull out towards you and it should come loose....again a matter of a couple clips.

-Now here's the tricky part. To take off the top part off, get your fingers between the black trim and the actual dash (where the two come together). Once the tip of your fingers are in......bend the trim down and pull out towards you and it should pop out. There is a wire harness on the left side, (for the 2 buttons to scroll through your mpgs, temp, ect.), unclip this.

-Now turn the left side of the trim out towards you, and let it hang over the right side of the steering wheel. And Wallah.....the dash cluster is exposed. There are 2 screws on the top of the cluster holding it in place, undo them and then simply pull on the bottom and it should come loose. The wire harness that was plugged in to the balck trim is kind clipped on the left side of the dash cluster, free it up and tilt the cluster to where you can see the harness plugged behind it. Undo that plug and the cluster should be all yours.

-The cluster seperates by pullling up on little tabs. Once you get to the bezel, be supercareful with the needles. They are super sensitive.....trust me I know because I'm having a couple issues with it.....damn needles.

I hope this is understandable, if not, someone please clean it up a bit.

[itsdavid]

So is everything orange changed to white?did you have to scrap off one orange bulb or several?

[NightSky]

Do you mind re-posting the pics? Would love to see what this looks like.

[domdada]

itsdavid --they are not orange bulbs that I scraped off. On the back side of the bezel, there is a tranparent orance paint that I scraped off, this allowed the light to shine through it and gave it the white look. The LED lights are white not orange. Everything that is giving an orange color in the car is not because of the LED lights. Nissan used orange background to give off the orange color.

NightSky--Pics are up again, I appoligize about this. I move the pics in a different folder in my photobucket account and forgot that it would remove the images here.

[NightSky]

Thanks for the re-upload. Am really liking the way it looks and like how simple it is. If you figure out the rest of the lights, definitely post an update. I really don't know why Nissan chose orange. Even the Honda A/C has better lighting. >_<

[LongBeachCoupe]

Pssst.. theres one on ebay for under $100 if someones interested!

[domdada]

What's on ebay? if it's a new instument panel tell me please cause the needles on mine are driving me insane.

[adidas2go]

.......

just go look for it on ebay

[domdada]

ok....been searching ebay for this instrument panel, nothing has come up. LBC, let me know if that's what you found and if so can you give me this link to the page.

[LongBeachCoupe]

cant find it anymore... i assume its sold... but i couldnt find it in completed auctions either.. so you have a shot... i just cant find it

[domdada]

I looked too....every possibly term it could have been under and I didn't find anything. Oh Well, I'll be calling a few scrap yards I guess.

[whoadyitzd]

Thanks For The How To Take The Cluster Out Had To Change Out My Cover Broke Mines HaHa