Red lights in the dash instrument cluster and HVAC controls is the easy part. I have a newer Delco head unit in my 89 RS and wanted to change its illumination from white to red. Taking the face plate off was easy enough, just unsnap the clips along the perimeter and it comes right off.



Then get inside and undo the connectors to free the face plate from the body



Then you end up with this

 

Then I removed the screws holding the circuit board to the face and saw that the lights are soldered to the circuit board



Instead of removing and resoldering new lights on, I went the easy way and colored the back side of each lens where light shines through to illuminate the letters on the buttons, and also around the other various ***** on the backside of the faceplate itself, I just used red model paint.



My end result. I did the same thing to the defrost switch by taking it apart and painting the back side of the "lens." I colored the bulb behind the HVAC controls, but later I'll have an LED there to brighten it up.

 

Awesome.

 

The model paint you used looks like flat red. They have a translucent red for model car tail lights that would show through better.

 

Actually, I was looking for that tail light paint when I did this. The place I went to would have had to order it, so I used what I had. I even tried a red Sharpie (which might account for the flat look), but even the small marker wouldn't reach in the smaller buttons. Now that it's done, I think the tail light paint may have washed out with the light behind it, as it is now, the radio shows up much brighter than even the HVAC controls which have a colored bulb (washed out too).

 

Nice work! If you want to change the display to red just get a piece of that thin red tinted plastic and put it over top and re-assemble. Its usually found at arts and craft/hobby places.

 

is there a way to change just the gauges to a differant color light?

 

very cool, nice work

 

That looks awesome man, kudos for your patience!

 

By painting the inner bezel a different color , since you have a camaro if you take the cluster apart the black bezel behind the plexi will be blue. If you paint it red you gauges will be red. Any color you paint it the gauges will light up in that color. You can also use those bulb condoms.

 

Easy as that. I painted the back side of my bezel metallic silver and used red lights available at the parts store. I painted the front side of it red to give the illusion of a red ring around each gauge.

 

Al Hasse: do you have a picture of it lit up?

 

Here ya go. Don't mind the Z28 logo on the speedo, the RS just wants to be one

 

now did you use different bulbs or anything? or standard bulbs with the bulb condoms on? The color just seems to pop really nicely.

 

Just red bulbs from the parts store (#194R, "R" for red). That's also a timed exposure (about 4 seconds) so it appears a little brighter than it really is, but it's easy on the eyes while driving and easy to read at night.

 

what do you think it would look like blue? my stereo is blue so that way they would match. do you think it would look bad?

 

That's a personal preference and I can't really anwer for you, whatever works for you is good. Being former Submarine Navy, I acquired a liking for red backlighting on instruments at night. The cluster had blue lights in it when I bought it from a friend, but since nothing in the car was blue, I replaced them with normal white ones.

My other RS has the teal colored Dakota Digital gauges and my radio backlighting goes well with them.

 

That looks great! Since my IROC is red on red... a red lit dash would look sweet with it!

 

I wonder howgood this will look with mywhite face gages

 

Hey, dragging up an old thread, but how do you take that damn toggle switch cover off? I need to get it red.

 

The red's awesome. That came out really good