Clock Light, and Climate Lights.., questions.. Options

[cnelson]

hey, i'd like to change the clock and climate lights to blue, but not really sure how to.. I heard useing paint for the climate but does that work as good as LED lights? I'd like LED lights, but not sure how to install them? And how to install a differant color for the clock, and how to i take out the clock and climate box to change them, i read the articles but still a bit confused. Thanks. -cneslon.

[trdproven]

I've been wanting to do the same. I've read the stickies but they aren't detailed enough for me to actually see what I need to do. What I did was put transparent colored sheets behind my buttons to do the effect.

This post has been edited by trdproven: Dec 12, 2006 - 7:23 PM

[cnelson]

Did that seem to work, or no? -cnelson.

[Zimluura]

tackle the clock first. basic dis-assembly...
1. first take off the plastic around the gearshift. just pull, but watch the cig lighter which'll still be attached.
2. remove 2 little screws at bottom of center plastic trim. then pull that big piece off. clock and i think hazard button are attached with wire harnesses.
3. undo the wiring harness(es) for the big piece.
4 take it inside and disasemble the clock part from the back (this, for me, was much easier than actually getting the clock module away from the big piece).

what i did to get a blue clock. broke the little transparent brown plastic piece out of the big trim. cut up an 8th inch thick rectangular piece of plexi-glass. file it so it fits perfectly. then put it at the front, and a few lighting gels (or office file folder tabs) behind it, sandwiched between the plex-glass, and the clock assembly. it isn't bent like the original brown piece, but it's snug and now it's blue.

i have a 1MB html howto for the climate control. if you pm me with your email address i'll send it to you.

have fun
ny

[cnelson]

Not sure i understand how to take the clock.. if you could go into more detail? Thanks. -cnelson.

[Zimluura]

alright cool, this is only from memory though. i'll modify my original instructions with more detail.

1. first take off the plastic around the gearshift. just grip the plastic piece and then pull upwards, it's only held in there by clips, not screws or anything. but when you do watch out for the cigarette lighter which'll still be attached to the plastic piece by a few wires...this wire harness is a pain in the a** to get out so i just let the whole piece flop to one side of the center console


2. next up is the really big piece of plastic trim that covers the climate control, stereo, 2 vents, the hazard button, and the clock. taking off the gearshift trim should reveal 2 little screws at bottom of this huge piece of plastic. remove the screws then start pulling outward on it. pull close to where it seems still attached, the rest of the attachement points are all clips. when you get all the clips free there is a wire harness to the clock and the hazard button. unplug those

3. take this whole piece inside and flip it over. i think you should see 4 little screws on the back of the clock. i don't remember much else about dis-assembling the clock. so i can't say much for sure, there might be some plastic clips to deal with, it might just be those screws.



ok, now we're on to modifying the clock. iirc, there are different kinds of clock in the 6th gen, i think there is one with a white clock and a green filter over it, and a green clock with a brown filter. i'm not really sure if this is true, just some conversation i recall hearing on this forum.

what i did to my clock:
i definitely had a brown filter over my clock. since i was going for blue, that wasn't going to cut it. so i broke the brown plastic filter out of the big trim piece to which it seemed glued.

then i cut a small rectangle of plexi-glass and played with re-assembling my clock with this new clear filter sandwiched between the clock's circuitry "guts" and the big plastic trim piece. when the piece was too big i'd take my trusty bastard file to it to make it smaller. when i got it to be the right size, so it would fit snuggly and not rattle around. i also cut a few pieces of blue lighting gel (i think i used 3) and put them in the sandwich as well, between the plexi-glass and the clock circuitry.

then put everything back together, and you're done. you can also try to just plug in the clock and turn the lights on (or the whole car on, i don't think it makes a difference) to see if it's brightness/color-ness is good. since it's a filter that you're putting on the more color you put in, the dimmer the clock gets so play around with it.

[DeW_H0e_GT]

what lighting gel did u use?..mind showing me what u used?...ive used the dividers but its showin indiglo color instead of blue.....

[Zimluura]

i bought some here.
http://www.axemusic.com/prodtype.asp?PT_ID...lighting%20gels

did a search for "lighting gels" and got the one that said "just blue"

with 3 layers of those (one pack comes with a ton). i had something allot closer to led-blue than indiglo.

also, there might be a better place to get gels online now, this was just the only place i could find back when i did mine.

-ny