Club 80-90 Forums

All done Bit of a fiddly job, but worth it in the end . Not as bright as the one I saw, but OK

I changed mine some while ago and they were not very bright. someone on a forum said to line the bulb holders with silver selotape xmas type
Did this and 50% brighter!

put some 'ultrabright' red L.E.D.s in the instrument lights on my T25, from the R.S. Components catalogue, but while they're bright enough to hurt your eyes if you look at em 'head on' while conn. to a battery, when fitted in the dash they dont illuminate the std. black dials all that well, L.E.D.s tho, only cast quite a narrow angle of light i've since found out, not as much as a bulb which obviously casts light in all directions.
wet and dry papering a flat, or 2 flat surfaces on the domed end apparently makes a difference tho, if you can be arsed!

Why not paint the original bulbs with a thin coat of blue enamle paint?

Regards Jonathan

could be worth a try, Jonathan.

I did try painting, on another van i had, not very effective.
I was going to try glass paint, as used in craft work but never got round to it.

Seen a few vans with the leds but they seem over bright and the light dissipation seems very uneven leaving a really bright spot in the middle of the dials and not much elsewhere.
I much prefer using green "286's" bulbs and getting some bulb holders from something like a MKI Golf which twist straight in and lets you replace the bulbs.
Also, the replacement bulb holders from VW for the heater controls also let you replace the bulbs so you can everything the same colour.
286's are available in clear, green, red, blue, amber etc...

Just seen BULB PAINT on Ebay. Trying to work out how to put link up

Item No is... 300063983742

Might be worth a try

I picked up a few blue bulb covers in my local motor factors. Removed bulbs, popped these little rubber things that look like very small blue condoms over the bulbs, put the bulbs back in and the dash is now blue! Looks excellent! I forgot to do the one on the diff lock control though so thats too bright in comparison now. But all this cost me €2 and 5 minutes! Bargain! I did the bulb behind my heater controls as well. Im glad I didnt go down the LED route now.

@T25: Where exactly did you pick up those white dial faces?

Now that looks a very good idea.

What are these things called then. I don't fancy going in and asking for little blue condoms

Theyre just called bulb covers. I reckon youll end up having to describe what they are to motor factors anyway though. I dont think theyre too easy to come by.