did anyone have any problems with the plastic cracking as you were removing the rubber?
and does anyone have any ideas on how to make them not so plain and by plain i mean clear
has anyone painted the backs of the knobs if so does enough light shine through to see the color?
i did 2 things.... i used fabric dye and boiled the knobs in water with the dye to tint the knobs. i also put some colored plastic on the back of the knobs to make the color show more when the lights are on
can you get a pic of that? I would like to see that.
you could always change the bulbs for the hvac as well
i went out and snapped some pics for you
the knob on the HVAC
here's one of just the knob
this one shows the red plastic i glued to the back
*EDIT the plastic isn't the cleanest job but its not noticeable with the knob on
Edited 1 time(s). Last edited Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:20 PM
I have been told you could get stained glass spray paint from a crafts store...
Dis_ill_usions wrote:I have been told you could get stained glass spray paint from a crafts store...
you can do that too.
what i did was paint the lil indicator thing the color of my car and changed the bulbs to leds. heres a pic you can see in the background
sleepy sunfire wrote:i did 2 things.... i used fabric dye and boiled the knobs in water with the dye to tint the knobs. i also put some colored plastic on the back of the knobs to make the color show more when the lights are on
very interesting way to do it
i just used model car paint on the back side of the knobs. worked great. usually you cant help the cracking, but if you paint them it doesnt really matter.
I'd replace the bulbs before painting the HVAC knobs but if want some color in the daytime, you'll have to. LEDs are a must at night, though. Here is the thread that will explain how to do it...
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=45&i=88865&t=68177&p=1
...Below is the foil trick that will make the knobs brighter by concentrating the light. It makes a huge difference in brightness...
buzz122 wrote:The story goes like this......
You have this clear piece of plastic that diffuses the light from two LED's onto three knobs... simple yet effective...... well, not quite effective...... some of you that have worked with illuminating plexiglass, might know this, but for the rest of you, i'll explain it........ I'm gonna try and stay away from getting to technical....
So, the basics: light diffusion.......
when you shine some light trhough a clear plexiglass piece, the light will go in, bounce around a bit, and escape whereever it will come perpendicular to a face. If its diffused, letsay you rub some sadpapaer on one of the faces, it will seem like that face will just "LIGHT UP"...... in that case all of your light that hits that face will get diffused.....
The goal here is to trap the light in, and direct it in the right dirrection.....
Question, how do we get back the light that were loosing at the edges.....
'quite elementary my dear Watson"....... foil...... yes i said aluminum foil.
Take a piece of foil, and wrap it around the clear piece, that is behind the black cover of the HVAC........
you will need to trim it afterwards, and here are some hints to do so:
a) the holes for the lighs are through and through, but you only have to trim out the back side of the light holes.
b) only trim the the backside of the knob, where theres a hole.
c) the front side of the knobs, you trim the whole recessed piece.
you should be able to understand the concept, once you take it apart.
Now for those that want even more light on their HVAC's, after they have wraped it, and have taken care of the "lost" light, youre going to have to pull out your recently replaced LED's.
Once they are out, You grab some sandpaper, and sand the sharp flat corners of the the bulb to a round tip, as opposed to a flat top. This will give you even more light dispersion to the sides of the bulb, as oposed to just the front.
Now, GO out there and get your HAVC's lit up in all sorts of rainbow colors, and get em brighter than they have ever been, and be proud of your mod, show it to the world..................................................
I compared the Tri-Power 3 LED Bulbs here...
http://autolumination.com/74.htm
...to regular single LED #74s and they are a bit brighter but you'll have to drill out the stock bulb holes. If you don't have access to a drill, I'd go with the regular ones but if you go with the Tri-Power LEDs be extremely careful drilling. I went through two clear plastic pieces.
all i did was buy some off ebay for like 11 bucks, it sounded easier than getting the plastic off
its not whats under the hood, its how you use it
2200 soon to be turbo
Pat Korgie wrote:all i did was buy some off ebay for like 11 bucks, it sounded easier than getting the plastic off
it took me all of about one minute per knob to remove the rubber. take a utility knife and cut from the bottom half way up. peel. viola they are clear
(tabs) wrote:Pat Korgie wrote:all i did was buy some off ebay for like 11 bucks, it sounded easier than getting the plastic off
it took me all of about one minute per knob to remove the rubber. take a utility knife and cut from the bottom half way up. peel. viola they are clear
I did mine sitting at a stop light waiting for it to change...
Dis_ill_usions wrote:Pat Korgie wrote:all i did was buy some off ebay for like 11 bucks, it sounded easier than getting the plastic off
11 bucks wasted....
I ended up doing this simply because I wanted clear knobs, and I already used stained glass paint on my existing ones. I didn't have the time to go to a junkyard, so this was the easiest route. Mine with shipping, however, we like $9, lol.
My knobs look exactly like the guy that posted the bright blue ones. I have clear knobs, used to foil trick, and sanded the edges of the bulbs down so that their circular, and that was the result.
yellow22 wrote:Dis_ill_usions wrote:I have been told you could get stained glass spray paint from a crafts store...
you can do that too.
what i did was paint the lil indicator thing the color of my car and changed the bulbs to leds. heres a pic you can see in the background
A peice of pinstripe works well with the indicator on the knobs it even fits in the cut out perfectly
z28guy(KGM BEOTCH)
^^^ yea i just used my touch up paint and it matchs my body color perfect then lol
Just did this the other day, and did the clothing dye method (thanks to sleepy for the idea)...looks great. I did dark blue; looks like smoked knobs in the daytime (unless the sunlight hits em directly, then they look blue), and just barely blue at night. The blue replacement bulbs are coming in soon, so I'll post pics when I'm done with the whole thing. Thanks to whoever figured this out the first time
Mine look like these, haven't changed them to red Led's yet but will be very soon. They let out just enough light so there not too bright.
1997 Sunfire SE
Here's the knobs after the blue dye. Unfortunately the camera won't take a good pic at night, so I can't show the blue bulbs effect, but it's subtle. Basically instead of yellow, it's just blue, not any brighter at all. I like it
my green didnt work so good...
so....new idea
haha for real
i think i am gunna do mine in the blue considering that there are some other blue accents throughout the car ive been looking for led bulbs for the corner lenses but alot places only make that size in red and yellow
I'm just going to bring this thread back instead of making a new one so don't get mad. But anyway how do you get the hvac knobs off? I can't find how to do it for nothing. I tried the old standbys already pulling until I think it's about to either pop off or break, taking every thing around it that I could apart, hitting it with whatever tool was in my hand at the moment, you know the usual stuff. But nothing worked how do you do it???
2002 Pontiac Sunfire SE Sedan 2.2l Ecotec 4 Speed Auto.
