Instrument Panel and Misc

[Machspeed]

I guess I use the gun because...

A) it's got enough thermal mass that that tinned wire is sticking NOW.

The foil has no mass, so it's up to temp instantly.

B) I can drop the gun and get on the stick before the solder flashes.

I can't get my iron back in the base, then pick up the stick and catch it before it freezes.

I guess my hands are not steady enough anymore.

I definitely wouldn't want to heat it slowly no matter what the ratio. (60/40, 70/30..)

Maybe there's some new magic solder that's low enough.

I see those crimp splices you heat to shrink the tubing and flow the pellet with a regular butane lighter.

But that's witchcraft to me.

Continuity glue would work!

[ArdWrknTrk]

I can also tell you if you are going to paint the needles to get the HiPo? paint.

I used Testers orange and they look great in day light but with my green LED's I cant see them, they turn dark / black, but I can see everything else just fine.

Just a heads up.

I went with LED's I found off Ebay, cant remember if they dim or not but on high they are not over bright for me.

I also used LED's for the warning lights across the top.

I like the bright turn lights. The high beam light at first was too bright, most of my night driving is real early so I can run high beams most of the time, but it is ok now.

Seat belt light is only on a short time and not a big deal.

I used the stock bulbs in the lights / wiper switch, HVAC panel / ash tray & radio (that has stopped working) because finding LED's to fit them can be hard with the sockets & covers they use.

Dave ----

Dave, your issue is that LED's only emit light at certain wavelengths.

If you look at a color wheel you will see green is diametrically opposite red.

While that means they're compliments, there is no red light to fluoresce the pigment in the red paint.

Green is about mid range in humans range of perception, while red is off at the very long end.

 

[86 12 Brutus]

those are cool I use them at work. Only thing is they dont have enough solder for my tastes in them. But I never had one fail though.

Be careful with led dash lights, some of them are to bright and you cannot dim a led with a reostat. we thought about this as well but decided to just go back with regular light bulbs.

The blend door. They all almost always break, Brutus's did and so did 2 of our Lincolns back in the day. I bought 2 small hinges from the hardware store and installed them on the blend door and put some very thin felt like packing material on the front of the door to seal it better when it's closed. works like a charm.

[86 12 Brutus]

Be careful with led dash lights, some of them are to bright and you cannot dim a led with a reostat. we thought about this as well but decided to just go back with regular light bulbs.

The blend door. They all almost always break, Brutus's did and so did 2 of our Lincolns back in the day. I bought 2 small hinges from the hardware store and installed them on the blend door and put some very thin felt like packing material on the front of the door to seal it better when it's closed. works like a charm.

The whole entire instrument cluster and wireing has been completely redone. if you need any help, just ask

[ArdWrknTrk]

Be careful with led dash lights, some of them are to bright and you cannot dim a led with a reostat. we thought about this as well but decided to just go back with regular light bulbs.

The blend door. They all almost always break, Brutus's did and so did 2 of our Lincolns back in the day. I bought 2 small hinges from the hardware store and installed them on the blend door and put some very thin felt like packing material on the front of the door to seal it better when it's closed. works like a charm.

But a lot of these replacement LEDs are able to be dimmed.

There's some kind of sorcery in their driver circuitry, because I find it hard to believe there is a PWM in the T-10 base of each lamp.

My Sylvania's definitely do dim.

Although, like most LED's they will only go to a threshold and not fade out entirely.

[86 12 Brutus]

But a lot of these replacement LEDs are able to be dimmed.

There's some kind of sorcery in their driver circuitry, because I find it hard to believe there is a PWM in the T-10 base of each lamp.

My Sylvania's definitely do dim.

Although, like most LED's they will only go to a threshold and not fade out entirely.

got a part number Jim?

[Gary Lewis]

got a part number Jim?

My HiPos dim, but since I've not had the truck out of the shop since I put them in I cannot say how much they really dim.

Having said that, from my experience you aren't going to get too much light with today's LEDs. Even the HiPos. A few years ago at one of the GTG's David/1986F150six and I put LEDs in his dash and added a ballast resistor so there was enough current draw to make the voltage drop across the dimmer effective. Later he sent the ballast resistor back as he ran the LEDs on full all the time.

[FuzzFace2]

My HiPos dim, but since I've not had the truck out of the shop since I put them in I cannot say how much they really dim.

Having said that, from my experience you aren't going to get too much light with today's LEDs. Even the HiPos. A few years ago at one of the GTG's David/1986F150six and I put LEDs in his dash and added a ballast resistor so there was enough current draw to make the voltage drop across the dimmer effective. Later he sent the ballast resistor back as he ran the LEDs on full all the time.

I run mine on full bright and they are not too bright, I think just right.

Dave ----

[ArdWrknTrk]

got a part number Jim?

Let me look, George.

It's raining right now.

[Rusty_S85]

Be careful with led dash lights, some of them are to bright and you cannot dim a led with a reostat. we thought about this as well but decided to just go back with regular light bulbs.

The blend door. They all almost always break, Brutus's did and so did 2 of our Lincolns back in the day. I bought 2 small hinges from the hardware store and installed them on the blend door and put some very thin felt like packing material on the front of the door to seal it better when it's closed. works like a charm.

You just have to make sure the bulbs you get have a voltage range. If they are just 12 volts then they arent dimmable. Ones I get are 9v to 24v. They dim some but not fully, the only ones that I have that actually dim quite a bit are the B9AS socket festoon bulbs for my '56. Those dim way more than the T10 wedge base bulbs as they are like 4v to 15v range.

Full brightness BA9S festoon bulb 4v to 15v range

Full Dim

For my T10 wedge I dont have a photo of full brightness and full dim but the change is not as drastic as on my BA9S. The T10 wedge you have a hard time finding them with a 4V to 15V range, I havent found any of them to be honest all I have found are 12V - 24V range.