Yesterday I took off the rubber jacker that goes over the climate control knobs so that they were clear, and today I bought red transparent paint and I painted them.
Sorry for the bad pictures, i turned the flash off so that you could actually see the light glowing but then it came out really blurry
Where'd you get the paint from. Looks good.
Gotta keep on livin', L-I-V-I-N
Stained glass section at Michael's craft store
thanks
Uhh I think the brand is Step 2 but just go to the stained glass section of any crafts store and look for transparent glass paint or just transparent paint. Just look for bottles with a large variety of colors next to the stained glass materials.
Yeah now that you said Delta I see that logo on the bottle. But that's acryllic paint not transparent paint.
I brushed it on, it's almost gelly it was hard to apply it smooth but if you are real careful with it you can get it on pretty smooth.
I did one coat and another coat 30 minutes later came out great.
You have burnt out lights in your stereo too?? Mine are ALL burnt now, the only thing that lights up is the ugly green display. (ugly because i too have red painted clear HVAC controls, and i changed my gauge cluster lights to red also. green is out of place)
thomas francisco wrote:You brushed it on? Man, that must be hard to do. i don't think I could do it without obvious lines..
I bought a brush when I went too (the isle with the really good brushes were on sale for $1.99, these had rubber grips on them haha)
and I bought a medium sized one so that I could get everything and spread it out and also get details.
The paint spreads real easy if you take your time you should have no problem
Redzed99 wrote:
You have burnt out lights in your stereo too?? Mine are ALL burnt now, the only thing that lights up is the ugly green display. (ugly because i too have red painted clear HVAC controls, and i changed my gauge cluster lights to red also. green is out of place)
Lol no they aren't I didn't have the key in the ignition or anything I was just in the car and turned the dash lights on.
But I agree with you on the green out of place, I'm going to get a new stereo sometime soon and hopefully find one with red LED.
i used a sharpie marker and it works great....
I'm thinking about putting the rubber cover back on, making it look unchanged except for the red line in the knob..
i used transparent model car spray paint....pretty easy to do and looks good
Look just like mine. I used stained glass paint from a Michael's Arts store as well. But I found krylon translucent stained glass paint at my local store. I shot mine up with a couple of coats and threw on a UV/moisture resistant clear coat. Been great and haven't rubbed off for almost 3 years.
Hmm... that sounds like a pretty good idea. Thanks
For those of you who have done this,
Quote:
KrylonŽ
Paper Finishes
Stained Glass Sheer Color
Sheer Blue
Create the look of real stained glass on your scrapbooking and paper projects with Stained Glass Sheer Color!
Spray on transparency for an embellishment you can see through, mist over black and white photos for a color tinting effect, or add this high gloss finish to cardstock or foil for endless creative possibilities.
Transparent color for paper crafts
Use for transparency, foil, paper and more
Available in 4 jewel-tone colors
3oz Can
MSRP: $4.80
[/quote
Is what I found. it looks as if it will work - because I can't find this Delta paint, or Krylon, within sixty miles of me. Go Figure; sigh.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2508821
I had that stained glass paint from Michaels, only I did mine in blue. It bothered me cause you can clearly see it isn't blue behind it. So I did an LED swap and what not to make them a ridiculously bright blue. So the lights behind it are really blue, and the knobs themselves are clear. Looks awesome
Exodus,
I bought the blue Krylon Stained Glass transparent paint today. How hard is it to do a LED swap? I've got to replace my cluster this week anyway.. so I meidswell do it while I'm down there.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2508821
I just changed the lights to blue leds (super glue works wonders) and took a black sharpie to the center of the knobs so they aren't so bright, actually looks pretty cool, but now the transparent red on the faceplate looks purple, only drawback. You think if I got some transparent paint that's somewhat green, it would show through as a fourescent green? hmm. Worth a shot, I can allways take my new dremel to it.
thomas francisco wrote:Exodus,
I bought the blue Krylon Stained Glass transparent paint today. How hard is it to do a LED swap? I've got to replace my cluster this week anyway.. so I meidswell do it while I'm down there.
The LED swap isn't difficult at all. You have an 04 Cavy, so you'd swap in #74 LED's. I bought mine from :
http://autolumination.com/74.htm
All you do is basically remove your dash, remove your bezel, unscrew the HVAC and pull it out as much as you can. Some people have better luck with this, mine you can only pull out maybe 4/5 inches? The bulbs are right behind the face. You can see how they connect on the back of the HVAC. They are in these little twist-lock connectors. All you do is turn them and they come off. Remove the bulbs, insert new LED's, voila.
There is this massive topic that Buzz started a few months ago with methods for changing the HVAC colors and what not which is here:
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=45&i=82654&t=68177&p=1
To make the light brighter, you have to do a few tricks. One of which is covering the plexiglass that is under the HVAC face with tin foil, and only cutting out the small holes where the knobs have to go in. The objective being to focus the light more so. Another trick would be to sand the side of the LED bulbs so they are rounded off, which sends out more light as well. The topic should give you more insight. Any more questions, just ask
I'll post a pic of mine when it gets dark to show the outcome of blue
I ordered two 74 bulbs; I saw the pictures. I'll do this. The paint is on the way, and the LEDS. My new cluster is coming in. Boy the lighting in my car is going to look different.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2508821
The only trouble I had with my led swap was the damn stock bulbs. I couldn't get them out. So what I did was break them then take some needle nose pliers and pull on the plastic part thats attached to the filliment.
http://nwgme.org
Hey Tom, if you are doing the swap, you don't really need to do the paint. I actually found that the bright light with the clear knobs looked best. I originally had the blue LED's in there along with the blue knobs, and the blue knobs seemed like a little over kill and made it a tad darker. Plus the clear ones look better in the day in my opinion. If you read that topic I posted from buzz, I really do recommend you do that foil trick. It really does make a difference in light output.
Bhirst, true. Removing the stock bulbs is kinda a pain. I actually used to teeth to bite down on the base of the light, and pulled the twist-lock with my fingers to get it apart. Those bulbs were pretty damn hard in there. I don't recommend others to do that, cause if they burst, might be a problem, lol.
Here is a pic of mine at night, this is with (2) #74 blue wedge LED's, both with sanded edges, all clear knobs with the plexi wrapped in foil. I didn't care to have the icons illuminated since I know what they do, and the more light to the knobs, the better!
So if I do the aluminum foil trick, none of my icons will be lighted up?
Then I don't know what to do.
I bought the HVAC gauge overlays from BLACKCATCUSTOM when I bought my new cluster... so I mean, it's kind of a waste if you can't see them. Perhaps I should stick with the stock white lights, maybe get a LED white light, and just do the blue overlay on the knobs?
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2508821
