right, i meant for him to keep the gel, but ditch the idea of using diffusion.

 

you guys are both awesome. i couldn't imagine two better people to help me with this. the problem with the diffusion is even with the lights off with or without the gel you could barely notice any brightness coming from inside and back. notice with your LED's the brither the whiter and there's a lot of white there. i could probably pull off the string with diffusion and thatr power inverter, but it will be easier weith the EL panel because i can cut it to shape. they key to having nice gauges iseven bright lighting and there's only one bright part of the string, the string itself. if i tangle it around the back there will be light, but it will barely be a difference if the gel goes in with stock white lights from the cluster.

so here's my idea. i bought the EL panels and am going to cut them with a razor to the shape of the cutouts i have of the gel. i think 4 panels will do the job and somehow secure them together in place with somekind of special glue. then i'll wire all 4 panels together to one distributor? safe? it'll be gel on top of reverse El. all that will be left to do is stick the panels back together and hook up to powersource. i won't even have to take the cluster out however i will still want to light up my needles red.

well, i'll be waiting for those panels to come in. i might need 4 of them, but judging that the cluster itself is at least 12'', i'll need 6 total, 2 pieces per panel. that's a lot of wires connecting to each other! i'll have my soldering iron ready smile.gif

your dad needs to take pictures of my car cool.gif i read that GEL fades overtime anyways, so with the sun hitting the dashboard its lifespan will probably be limited and gradually get brighter over the next few years.

thanks for all of your help and support with this. at this point i can assure you guys, it's going to look HOT!

 

you guys know what i can use to attatch the plastic gel sheet to the gauge without destorying both? supergle has a tendency to get messy and melt plastics.

i tested the indiglow panels today with little progress, almost no light. i think it would just be best to test the gauges without any other lights so i will be opening up the cluster using redz bros DIY.

 

dude... i already told you what you need to know. one side of the gel is gel, the other is plastic, use the other side to glue.
buy multiple layers of a very light gel and jack it up with steel wool. each layer gets darker, but fuzzier so you don't see the EL.

 

alright thanks man i'll try to test it first if it's too dark on the cluster. it is very dark but it works great next to something bright enough and i think the regular lights will do the job. i'll check back in to show you pictures. if not then i have some lighter blue somewhere in my room from way back.

even the indiglow without the gel isn't too bright. ah we'll see. all in good fun. it's my first time toying around with this kind of stuff.

 

are you running it at running battery voltage? 14V? or are you running it from green/white and green/black wires on the car?

 

12v from a battery charger. maybe that's the problem afterall. i could find a 14v charger somewhere in the house haha

 

that really wont make a huge difference.

use thin clear double sided tape, just avoid the parts where light shines through.

 

^awesome, thank you! we'll see. i wish they had some already blue el panels like they do the night lights.

what can ya do?

 

if i had done this, i would have probably bought blue el string, and secured it to the back of the clear gauge pieces wherever i needed it to shine through, still using the blue gel.

http://www.shopping-headquarters.com...29417-v428.asp