A got tired of the orange lights on the E46 cluster. So i decided to do something about it.
I ordered some PLCC-2 ultra bright White LED's and a set of Chrome rings for the dials off ebay. I took apart the cluster and removed the old LED's and soldered in the new WHITE LED's.
It was an easy enough job to clip in the rings. I painted the dials first but they looked terrible as you could see the paint strokes. So i used nail polish remover to take off the paint. This ended up removing EVERY bit of paint, includeing the white strip on the back of the needle (which is what has messed up the dials and I cant fix it), the grey colour on the plastic(which I sprayed with a satin black paint and in my opinion looks 200% better then the grey it was before). The nail polish remover also made the needles go from clear to hazzey So the light wont travel the full way down as they did before. I ended up using a Sharpie marker and it does the red perfectly(I will know for when I do the 330cd Dials next week)
And I STUPIDLY damaged the outer glass at the bottom and cant find where the bit went in the room. So got to find that and stick it back on
They are pretty nice for my first attempt. This cluster was my test cluster which I would be happy enought to drive around with.
If anyone would like the buy it from me pm me. I dont need it as it wont suit a diesel and I would like to cover the cost of the LED's, Cluster and Rings.
Some pictures so you can make up your own mind. I would appriciate some feedback
I ordered some PLCC-2 ultra bright White LED's and a set of Chrome rings for the dials off ebay. I took apart the cluster and removed the old LED's and soldered in the new WHITE LED's.
It was an easy enough job to clip in the rings. I painted the dials first but they looked terrible as you could see the paint strokes. So i used nail polish remover to take off the paint. This ended up removing EVERY bit of paint, includeing the white strip on the back of the needle (which is what has messed up the dials and I cant fix it), the grey colour on the plastic(which I sprayed with a satin black paint and in my opinion looks 200% better then the grey it was before). The nail polish remover also made the needles go from clear to hazzey So the light wont travel the full way down as they did before. I ended up using a Sharpie marker and it does the red perfectly(I will know for when I do the 330cd Dials next week)
And I STUPIDLY damaged the outer glass at the bottom and cant find where the bit went in the room. So got to find that and stick it back on
They are pretty nice for my first attempt. This cluster was my test cluster which I would be happy enought to drive around with.
If anyone would like the buy it from me pm me. I dont need it as it wont suit a diesel and I would like to cover the cost of the LED's, Cluster and Rings.
Some pictures so you can make up your own mind. I would appriciate some feedback