dudelovett

I'm looking to take apart the gauges on my 91 Formula soon to throw in some blue bulbs. Is this gonna be a tough job? How exactly should I go about getting the dash apart? Any help is appreciated.

Derek

Drew

iTrader: (58)

I don't agree with your motivation, but it would be even worse if you screwed up the car in the process.

You'll need roughly 30+ bulbs. seriously... lots of bulbs inthe Firebird clusters. I took the bulbs out of a cluster and used them as spares for 6 different cars and they lasted 4 years.

Remove the center accessory switch bank, two 7mm screws in the bottom, then pull it out carefully. Then remove the underdash panel on the drivers side, its held with three clips, pull firmly and evenly, and try not to lose the clips. Then remove the 3 torx screws along the bottom edge of the knee bolster. Then pry out the two plastic caps and remove the other two torx screws, then pull off the knee bolster. It may have spring clips, some have them some don't. Either way it'll either drop down or pull off with some help. Then remove the 4? 7mm bolts across the bottom of the guage bezel, then the 4? 7mm bolts across the top that go into the dash bezel. Then tilt the steering wheel all the way down and tilt the guage bezel out. Then you should have 4-8 7mm bolts holding the guage cluster to the dash. Remove them and the guages should pull straight out. The bulbs are held in with sockets with bayonet locks. Just turn them and replace them one at a time.

reassembly is the reverse of removal.

88 WS6 TransAm GTA

iTrader: (1)

acually, youll only need 9 colored bulbs for the guages

deadbird

Even tho my opinion of the color choice GM/Pontiac used for the bird gauges doesn't matter, I had to change them myself because it wasn't very tolerable to look at (never been a big fan of orange gauges)

I used autometer bulb 'condoms' to change the color of mine. Eventually in the future I my 'upgrade' to colored glass bulbs.

Here are 3 somewhat crappy pics of my gauges in the dark

http://www.deadbird.org/z/gau1.jpg
http://www.deadbird.org/z/gau2.jpg
http://www.deadbird.org/z/gau3.jpg

My cheapo camera takes awful dark pics, they look much better in person.

Do not use painted bulbs. After a very short time they turn a sickly off color from what they originally were.

There are more like 10-13 bulbs in the cluster (never counted but I know it's not 9 or 30). I'd say the camaro probably had 9 bulbs in it (never counted them either).

dudelovett

Thanks for the instructions Drew, they were a big help. It's actually 9 bulbs for the guage cluster.

Pics soon to come.

Drew

iTrader: (58)

Glad it worked out for you.

Altogether there are MANY bulbs in a Firebird cluster, the colored bulbs however are only a small number of them.

Also the Firebird dash I stripped was from an 87 and used orange condoms over white bulbs... hence the reason I was able to use them in Camaros/Firebirds, etc.

FlyinLow89

On Macewen Motorsports There are instructions how to do it...It really isnt that bad...and he tells you how many bulbs you need for what model/year etc.
http://members.aol.com/RMacEwen1/