I FINALLY finished my install. Its been taking me days. For some reason my water temp premium gauge would not light white as per instructions, it was acting odd so i had to rewire it in my own way to make it work properly. Instead of hving it light differently for day/night, i added a switch so i could simply switch it to my likeing.
I had some problems as i neared the end. As i was finally done and ready to go, i go to put the plastic cover back, and guess what, its hitting the gauges. I had to pull it all back out of the car and daringly take a heatgun to the plastic as i screwed it down to form a shape around the gauges, it worked suprisingly painlessly. While i had the gauges out i decided to swap the stock lights for some old led bulbs i had from my previous car, theyre white. Its not much brighter than stock, just a different shade. The gauges are working beautifully now and everything is buttoned down. I made one big mistake, i drilled the hole for the button in the wrong spot, slightly off, but i guess it still works, just looks bad, i think im letting some nit picky things bug me. Overall i spent MANY, MANNNYYY hours in this project and i almost regret it, but looking at the finished product, im impressed.
To anyone else looking to do this, take some advice
buy the premiums! they are so much thinner and you wont have to do any rewiring of the rear circuitry like i did
Take your time, measure twice cut once, once its cut, its cut. Do small incrememtns even if you know theyre too small.
Plan everything out and dont let the proceeding step cause problems every time.
I really woudnt reccomend anyone doing this as its just a big pain in the ass, but if youre semi-stupid and like to jump into big projects thinking theyle go smoothly like i always do, go for it, just dont half ass anything or itl look really bad. Heres the pics
You can see my switch in the little removable slot built into the center trim.
BTW, i have 3 settings.
1) Both white
2) Both amber
3) Water temp amber and Oil pressure white
