Wizdum's Super bright speedo mod

wizdum · 11-03-09, 06:11 PM

First post here so take it easy on me.
Found this at autozone and thought it would work for speedo lighting. AutoZone.com | Interior Lighted Accessories

Just cut the battery pack and switch off.
This stuff is really thin, I discoverd you can break or cut it to length and it still works.
It also has 3M adhesive on the back.

wizdum · 11-03-09, 06:22 PM

It is very bright at night. I guess you could cover portions with electrical tape to get the desired brightness.
Also the link is to a red version. couldn't find a pic for the white one.
My speedo is stock uncut.
I left the stock bulbs on and pulled power for the l.e.d.s from one of them.
No problems with passenger side glare either!
Might readjust it later to get the lower gages better, my main focus was to light up the speedo.

phocus · 11-03-09, 06:50 PM

Looks great, how many led's did you use, and what was the cost?

wizdum · 11-03-09, 07:02 PM

I broke off about 5", this left 10 of the original 15 l.e.d.s.
Cost was $19.99, expensive I know, but theese have a huge life span probably will never have to replace theese. If anybody can locate theese cheaper let me know I have some more things planned to do with them.

wizdum · 11-03-09, 07:05 PM

I also recommend warming it up a little before bending.
I found out you can break it if you bend it when it is cold out.

phocus · 11-03-09, 07:09 PM

OOPs, I forgot,,,, Welcome to Mud !!

jfrench · 11-03-09, 07:31 PM

How about some pics of your zebra stripe 40. Nice mod by the way. Check out amaurer's cluster mod thread "aftermarket gauges into stock cluster".

wizdum · 11-03-09, 08:12 PM

More Zebra pics here http://forum.ih8mud.com/members/wizd...ebra-fj40.html
Still peicing together some things in some of the pics.
1967 FST by the way.

Bret · 11-03-09, 08:21 PM

I'm glad someone found a legit use for those! I was looking at them the other day and was thinking WTF would those be good for!

camcruiser13 · 11-03-09, 08:23 PM

nice work that looks sweet. i need to do something with mine

numby · 11-04-09, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wizdum

More Zebra pics here http://forum.ih8mud.com/members/wizd...ebra-fj40.html
Still peicing together some things in some of the pics.
1967 FST by the way.

Is your truck one of the wildlife safari trucks that were sold in Oregon a while back?

middlecalf · 11-04-09, 08:36 AM

Man, someone would for sure shoot at your rig out here in the boonies even if we don't have zebras. Don't put any antlers on that thing.

wizdum · 11-04-09, 09:51 AM

Picked it up in Sisters, Or. as far as I know it was original to that area.
This 40 has almost zero rust.

josharre2000 · 11-04-09, 10:11 AM

Welcome!

legion · 11-17-09, 01:41 PM

I did something very similar with what appears to be the same LED's. Bought mine at Walmart for $16.79 and bought red LED's as I didn't want the dash to affect my night vision. I used the whole string and am very happy with the way it turned out. I saved a bunch of pics during the install and may do a step-by-step write up on same. The length of the LED string works perfectly for the older dashes (like my '63) that has only an idiot light at the lower left and lower right hand corners for oil and spark.

They worked perfectly and when you leave the entire string intact the ends wrap around and above the oil and amperage idiot lights to allow for better light cutoff so that the idiot lights remain dark unless they were to come on in which case they'd be less likely to be washed out by light bleeding over from the speedo's illumination.