Wanna get the Blues?

[lithiumus]

Leo, the red plastic piece is just a filter in front of the clear plastic that makes the illumination red/orange.

I also removed mine but even with a Blue filter, it still looks greenish blue... I'm trying to get the letters to the same color as the newer TL / Accord / RL blue color. Maybe my blue is not dark enough or do you think that the display on the newer cars are not Green and are in fact a deep Blue?

D'Ecosse, How dark are your Blue filters? I can mail you a small sample to compare. Your illumination color looks more blue than mine...

I've got my cluster out. There is an assembly on the top and I think I see a similar orange/red filter... I'll have to take it apart tonight and see. I'll take pics...

 

[NSX~PERT]

Hoops7k,
I want the blue color everyone else is using on here but not sure which color it is.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

Hoops7k,
I want the blue color everyone else is using on here but not sure which color it is.

When I bought the gelsheet, I was at the shop and just picked the one that had the tastiest looking dark blue. No particular color I had in mind and it worked out fine.

 

[D'Ecosse]

When I bought the gelsheet, I was at the shop and just picked the one that had the tastiest looking dark blue. No particular color I had in mind and it worked out fine.

Mine is the same as Malibu's because he was my source! <!--StartFragment -->

 

[lithiumus]

Hey Malibu,

Can I send you a piece of my gelsheet? LMK if there is much difference. If yours is a lot darker, I may need to pay you for some... PM me your addy if you are ok with doing a compare. Thanks!

 

[splitz]

Yeah, I'm going to need some too.

Can this stuff be used to change the dash light? (flame suit on)

 

[lithiumus]

Which dash light?

 

[lithiumus]

Ok, so here is the latest… I got my hands on an NA1 Type R cluster and before I install it, I want to convert the color to Blue or OEM green to match my other illumination in my interior. (3rd gen TL colors).

I started by addressing the easiest part first; the top light that casts an orange light on all the gauges. The piece easily unscrews which reveals a 1mm thick light orange (almost fluorescent) plastic lens with a black painted pattern. Instead of trying to recreate the lens, I simply used my lighter blue acetate and cut out 3 pieces. I then painted the black pattern, aligned the acetate and taped them on the top of the cluster. I removed the orange plastic lens and placed the light assembly over top of the acetate. Pretty easy to do and the OEM yellowish bulbs end up casting a bit of a blue/green light. I’ll probably get some Blue LEDs so that it eventually casts a true blue.

I’ll add pics tonight.

The Gauges = mission impossible.

You never thought you’d hear that coming from me but I’m going to give up on removing the orange from the 4 gauge pieces. The bulbs on the back are the OEM bulbs (slight yellow). I opened up the back of the cluster and separated the front to access the inner parts of the assembly and access the individual gauges, hoping to find some red filters, plastic pieces, etc…

The only red I found was painted in a triangle where it casts light on the Odometer and the Trip. Nail polish will probably easily remove this…

The orange for the all the gauges are painted on the back the gauge face similar to how the Climate control face was painted. The only way to remove the face from the clear plastic and assembly is to remove the needles which I am not willing to do on Type R gauges which are just too rare to play around with like this. I’m considering not removing the red paint on the triangles either due to this. Since NS tries to use standard templates it looks like there is some strange paper on the back of gauge face with markings on it. I have no idea what they are trying to do and if those pieces of paper are glued on the back of the faces (most likely) it will be nearly impossible to do this without damage. About 90% - 95% of the rear orange painted face is covered by this strange paper…

So the cluster looks a bit strange with orange backlit faces and blue / green color cast from overhead.

Idea / solutions

- put different color bulbs and try to change the color from Orange to Green / Blue. (difficult as Blue is opposite to Orange)
- turn off the gauge bulbs and get brighter Blue LEDs for the top light and hope it casts enough light to illuminate everything

Side note
I think the reason my climate control is not as blue as I’d like it to be is the fact that green with blue creates cyan which is a lighter blue / green. So I either need to use a much deeper blue filter or try a magenta / purple filter.

 

[BioBanker]

Garrick - Ive got an idea. Put your damn car back together and drive it!

Do this stuff in the winter. Clearly you havent been back long enough to realize that warm weather must be taken advantage of, not for tinkering but for driving!

 

[lithiumus]

Garrick - Ive got an idea. Put your damn car back together and drive it!

Do this stuff in the winter. Clearly you havent been back long enough to realize that warm weather must be taken advantage of, not for tinkering but for driving!

I drive it! Just with no interior door panels and Arshad's exhaust!

Not to worry, SOS sent my JDM switches and custom billet door handles and the leather from leatherseats.com is coming on Friday. I should have 99% of my interior done over the weekend.

 

[lithiumus]

Cluster Top light assembly

Top light assembly close up

Orange lens just pops off

Painting acetate to match OEM painted pattern

Rear of assembly removed

Front View

Rear of Tach, notice the provision for Auto and std TCS light, and all the weird paper glued on...

Inside of cluster, notice the slots for Auto bulbs

Tach back on, notice the red painted triangle

View from bottom, you can see the acetate

Top view of acetate, I used Scotch tape to create the frosted texture of the OEM lens on the sides...

 

[Synthesis]

the blue looks sweet.... different on the nsx..... but i think i'll keep mine red.... better for night ridin, sonnn

 

[MvM]

Sorry for asking but...

What I understand is that the red glow from the dashboard comes from a red-colored filter placed in front of a ordinary clear/white/blank incandescent or LED-light.
By changing the OEM filter you can change the color on the dash in any color that you like.

This Gel you are mentioning, is a something like a thin colored plastic sheet or is it something else ??

 

[lithiumus]

MvM, you are correct in some cases...

It's been such a long project (for me at least) so this is what I can remember... It looks like there are 3 ways Honda chose to create the Orange / Red illumination.

Color filters
Brown or Red acetate like filters is used in conjunction with standard OEM bulbs (incandescent / slight yellow) to create orange /red colored illumination. Sometimes the filter is attached directly to an opaque white filter where the letters are fully transparent. As shown above, a fluorescent orange filter is used to cast an orange glow inside the instrument cluster.

Paint behind white opaque letters / symbols
Brown paint is printed on the back of letters and when used with standard OEM bulbs, it creates the orange / red illumination.

Paint on clear plastic
Red / orange paint is used on clear plastic that usually surrounds a bulb to project an orange glow

NSX parts
Cluster = Paint behind gauges, Paint (red) on clear plastic (odo, trip), Color Filter (Orange) on top
Clock = Color Filter (red)
Climate Control = Color Filter (red), Color Filter (brown – buttons), Paint behind dial area
OEM radio = Color Filter (red), not 100%, I’m guessing paint behind face, brown filter behind buttons
Dash switches = Color Filters (brown)
Defog / Cruise = Color Filters (brown with white)
Headlight Switch = not 100%, I’m guessing brown filter
Mirror switch = Paint (brown) behind letters

 

[MvM]

MvM, you are correct in some cases...

It's been such a long project (for me at least) so this is what I can remember... It looks like there are 3 ways Honda chose to create the Orange / Red illumination.

Color filters
Brown or Red acetate like filters is used in conjunction with standard OEM bulbs (incandescent / slight yellow) to create orange /red colored illumination. Sometimes the filter is attached directly to an opaque white filter where the letters are fully transparent. As shown above, a fluorescent orange filter is used to cast an orange glow inside the instrument cluster.

Paint behind white opaque letters / symbols
Brown paint is printed on the back of letters and when used with standard OEM bulbs, it creates the orange / red illumination.

Paint on clear plastic
Red / orange paint is used on clear plastic that usually surrounds a bulb to project an orange glow

NSX parts
Cluster = Paint behind gauges, Paint (red) on clear plastic (odo, trip), Color Filter (Orange) on top
Clock = Color Filter (red)
Climate Control = Color Filter (red), Color Filter (brown – buttons), Paint behind dial area
OEM radio = Color Filter (red), not 100%, I’m guessing paint behind face, brown filter behind buttons
Dash switches = Color Filters (brown)
Defog / Cruise = Color Filters (brown with white)
Headlight Switch = not 100%, I’m guessing brown filter
Mirror switch = Paint (brown) behind letters

Thanks for the long explanation. Certainly doesn't sound like a simple job to me.
Dumb question again, would in not be possible to just switch out the bulbs or LED's (if used at all) with LED's in the color you want to have.
That way you wouldn't have to mess with filters etc. etc. Although I would not know how that would look like behind the orginal filters gel etc.

 

[lithiumus]

Thanks for the long explanation. Certainly doesn't sound like a simple job to me.
Dumb question again, would in not be possible to just switch out the bulbs or LED's (if used at all) with LED's in the color you want to have.
That way you wouldn't have to mess with filters etc. etc. Although I would not know how that would look like behind the orginal filters gel etc.

I'm considering that because I can't get access to rear of the gauges but Blue is opposite to Orange on the color wheel so I'll either need a bunch of filters and extremly bright leds or turn off the bulbs and hope the overcast Blue gives enough light.

I'm going to try some different LED colors but I'm certain that it will be difficult to get a proper blue.

 

[splitz]

So is it pretty much isn't worth doing?

 

[lithiumus]

Everything was good until the cluster gauges. If you go with a set of indigo or other JDM aftermarket set, you will be fine.

Really, its up to you how far you want to go. The OEM red climate control and clock are hard to read and the blue is much brighter so its really up to the individual if they want 100% continuity or just settle for some orange illumination...

 

[lithiumus]

After talking to a lighting guru at work it seems that the gauges are a dead end unless you are adventurous enough to pop the needles off and peel that crazy white paper off the back and use nail polish to remove the brown / orange paint.

As I feared, the reason Blue and Red are on opposite sides of the color wheel is that they filter each other out. That means that the brown filter had taken out most of the blue light from the source. If I add a blue filter in between the source and brown, I’ll filter out most of the Red but then the brown will filter out most of the blue leaving just a weak purple color…

Maybe purple isn’t so bad with a blue or green overcast from above…

I found a company that is THE source for acetate type filters. It’s called Roscolux. I’m trying to get their booklet of over 200 filters so I can match my LCD color to the TL blue LEDs.

 

[lithiumus]

UPDATE!

OK, we are back on! After discussing some light theory with a colleague, I was able to get the instrument cluster to light up Blue! I confirmed this on the weekend and I’ll send pics as soon as I install the cluster next week.

Some Color Theory
Red and Blue are on opposite sides of the color spectrum. Red / Brown / Orange filters subtract all colors EXCEPT Red / Brown / Orange from the light source (white or incandescent slight yellow). So what happens when the light source is already devoid of all Red / Brown / Orange? For the most part, ALL light will cancel out.

Testing the Theory
Because the gauge filters let Orange through and not a pure Red, I obtained some Blue 5 LED 194 wedge bulbs for the larger cluster bulbs. Since the light source has only Blue, I’m essentially forcing the Brown filter to send whatever color it can after mixing with the Blue.

The result is light blue color coming through but it’s very dim even with the much brighter blue LED bulb, makes sense as the filter is basically trying to filter out all the blue it can.

Front light source (final save)
Luckily, the front lettering of the gauges is actually White which resets all the colors that are removed from the brown filter in the rear. I used 74 wedge Wide angle Blue LED bulb to project blue from above onto the faces of the gauges through the blue filters.

The result is a nice blue illumination for the gauges.

Last items
- I’m waiting for one more 5 LED 194 blue bulb before I install
- Need to remove the red paint on the triangles as it dims the blue for the Odometer and trip
- Test the above lighting without any filters (strange pattern) to see if I can get more light cast
- Pictures!

 

[D'Ecosse]

Sounds promising - we need to see the pics Garrick! :biggrin:

Will this require other things done previously or just the bulb replacements?

 

[lithiumus]

Sounds promising - we need to see the pics Garrick! :biggrin:

Will this require other things done previously or just the bulb replacements?

Will do!

The only thing it will require is modifying the top light assembly. I'm going to test without filters at all and see what that crazy pattern really does. Worse case would be to have clear acetate and paint that strange pattern in black, so it should evantually become a simple mod. I don't mind posting a new thread and sum it all up...

 

[Hugh]

I just picked up a Comptech short shifter kit and since I have some blue acetate lying around I'm finally going to give my CCU the blues since I now have a more compelling reason for removing the center trim panel. I have a Navpod so my clock is not an issue. Should match up nicely with the Alpine 7996 like in Ken's car.

 

[demigod]

I just picked up a Comptech short shifter kit and since I have some blue acetate lying around I'm finally going to give my CCU the blues since I now have a more compelling reason for removing the center trim panel. I have a Navpod so my clock is not an issue. Should match up nicely with the Alpine 7996 like in Ken's car.

It's about time man. :tongue:

 

[Hugh]

It's about time man. :tongue:

I have been so damn busy running the current business, setting up the new business, doing the NSXPO thing, then the emergency surgery that the last 3 or 4 months have been a blur. I still owe you a Dream Theatre CD don't I? Damn I suck.