Quote:
Originally Posted by 740iS
Love the white and ///M decal. Do tell the details.  |
Sorry I didn't do a DIY, because I wasn't sure anyone else would really want to do this.
The stakes are pretty high and it's by far the most difficult mod I have ever done!!
Here is the thread that got me started on the idea:
DIY: Change your gauge cluster light colors!
It wasn't until I had the cluster apart that I realized our gauge back-lighting was different... The LEDs for the gauges aren't on the green circuit board, like the E90. Took me a while to figure out where they were.
Other than that, the steps are pretty much 100% the same.
Let me just say this before I go into details.
You will have to be VERY good at soldering VERY SMALL items, and be willing to cut a hole in the Tach gauge face for the back-lit ///M option.
If these cause a "pucker factor" for you at all, I suggest you read no further
Changing the 8 orange SMD chip LEDs in the cluster to white ones is not for the weak of heart, as I just about trashed my cluster 2 or 3 times.
The LEDs are very small (2835 Chips - 2.8mm x3.5mm and .8mm thick) and are not mounted on the solid green FR-4 PCB under the gauges, as in many of the other clusters out there...
I bought the white LEDs here:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...led/1843/4456/
They are mounted on 2 flex circuits (see photo) behind the 2 large gauges, and one of them can't be removed due to the cruise control indicator motor. So, the chip LEDs have to be removed and soldered with that Flex Circuit in place.
What a pain in the $%^ that was... several hours, a few choice words, and a couple of repairs to the flex circuits.
Once you have the LEDs changed, it's a matter of painting the rings behind the gauge faces flat white (or the color of your choice) to better reflect the light. I used an airbrush, so it was pretty easy to do this part...
I also cut the faint orange Red-line section out of the gauge face and replaced it with my preferred day-glo orange vinyl (looks yellow in the photos) and also added the same color stripe to the cruise indicator wheel to replace the white one that shows when the cruise is set.
Note 1: If you want to change the color of the needles from orange, you can replace the 4
even smaller LEDs on the green PCB to another color, these would be pretty straight forward to do, compared to the flex circuits.
These are under the white plastic motor pods shown in the photo and can be accessed by removing the white pods... pretty easy.
Note 2: If you would like to change the color of the text between the gauges, from orange to another color, you could remove the LCD display and change the LEDs under it to get a different color.
The thread referenced at the top for the E90 shows how they did this.
Making the back-lit ///M badge:
1. Find a very thin piece of clear plastic to use as a substrate (I used part of a PIAA bulb package that had a clear window in it)
2. I used a very small (7mm x15mm) custom vinyl decal that I purchased a few years ago and stuck it to the clear plastic
3. Then I spray painted the front, over the ///M decal, flat black (with the airbrush)
4. When Dry, very carefully remove the vinyl allowing the clear plastic to show in the shape of the ///M
5. Now put another white vinyl "M" over the clear plastic to replace the painted M that you just removed
6. Cut 3 very small strips of vinyl to size for the /// (I used M colors, but could use German flag or others) and place them in the correct locations
7 I used very thin (.1mm) clear 3M adhesive and applied it to the backside of the substrate so I could attach it to the Tach gauge face.
8 Cut the substrate to only about an 1/8" larger than the vinyl ///M on all sides, but be careful to not remove any of the black paint while doing this, if you do carefully touch it up.
Now, all you have to do is cut a hole in the Tach gauge face in the shape of the ///M vinyl
I put another small ///M vinyl decal on the face where I wanted the back-lit ///M to be and carefully cut around the ///M letters with an xacto knife, make sure it's a new blade.
Then carefully lift the section out that you just cut around, and want to cover with the ///M badge you made above.
Once the hole has been cut and opened, you can carefully place the ///M badge you made over the hole, and you now have a back-lit ///M on the Tach.
Sounds easy huh?
Took me about 2 days to figure out how to do it, and then another day to do the actual work.
** Replacing the LEDs was
BY FAR the hardest part of the job, but cutting a hole in the Tach face was the
most stressful, as there was no turning back!!
Thanks,
John