[JCunningham]

incredible mod, xenawise. Looks perfect. That will surely make your truck stand out. I just have one question.... why are you listening to paula abdul??? :?

at 4:13 in the morning

 

[dmaxx3500]

you beat me to the HUD ,ive got a 2010 vette and a 2011 camaro units[camaro wont work]what unit are you using ?acadia?,what switchs?,ive got the wiring plugs,i figured out how to fit them in the dash[modifie the left top defrost tube,,also on the lighting thing ive got a acadia nav in my nnbs trk,its red,i want green/factory,,are the red lights in radio just covers?,i just ordered 3.5mm nut drivers,,PM me if ness and we can swap phone numbers as i hate typing ,,great work

 

[McDowell]

I would like to know where you got your leds from and are just any brand smd ok to fit or certain specific ones?? please let me know

 

[Zxceelxuz]

I want to know where that HUD came from. I miss heads up the most from my old 97 Park Ave.

 

[Redclay83]

I like the project. It looks really good!! I am curious though, how did you get the 4x4 Trans axle Select Switch apart to turn those lights to red as well?

 

[camfire87]

Man you must have some steady hands. I can't even fill a coffee mug up to the top because I end up with it all over myself! Never mind trying to solder those tiny little diodes.

 

[Xenawise]

I know it's been a few months since I last posted but sometimes work projects get in the way of the personal projects. :x But there has been some progress over the past few months as well. First off is the power sliding rear window button conversion over to the red. The switch is much the same as the door lock switches internally for the most part, so the conversion was pretty easy:

So now everything in the interior has been changed over to red illumination. You can see the new 2014 GMC Sierra has red backlighting on the controls as well, since GMC has taken some of the design queues from Pontiac since they shared some interior design folks. I think you will see more and more GMC vehicles using red illumination for backlighting as designs change in the future to differenate GMC from the Chevrolet brand.

I like the project. It looks really good!! I am curious though, how did you get the 4x4 Trans axle Select Switch apart to turn those lights to red as well?

This is a great question as I had difficulty getting this switch apart. The "correct" way to get this switch apart is to first get the control knob with the rubber grip off first. To do this you need to take the switch out of the dash of course:

Then you need to get the outside plastic cover off like so:

Once this is done you need to pry the control ring forward so that it releases from the clips inside the switch. I used a small flat head screwdriver to get in-between the black plastic of the ring and the printed circuit board and slowly and gently twisted the screwdriver forcing the control ring to seperate from the snaps inside the switch:

You can see that black plastic that is going into the rest of the switch in that cutout of the printed circuit board. That goes inside the switch into a clip that rotates the switch contacts. You will have to pry on the otherside as well to release the snap on the opposite side. Notice how I am holding the switch. You can see some solder joints on the right side of the first picture. Move the control ring so the plastic piece that goes into the switch body is in the middle of the cutout. Once you pop the control ring loose from the internal switch contact ring you will left with this:

Now you can see the plastic light guide that the control ring was around and that this is screwed into the back part of the switch body. This is why you cannot take the switch apart from the back. You have to get the control ring off first!

 

[Xenawise]

Now you can unscrew the light guide and remove it from the switch and you are left with the upper printed circuit board with the LEDs on it that indicate the mode the transaxle is in as well as night illumination provided by the light bulbs:

I had a red bulb from some old Pontiac switch that I had but I did not have any more. So I decided to use a red SMD LED that I had from another Pontiac cluster and had to modify the switch PCB as you can see in the following pictures:

 

[Xenawise]

you beat me to the HUD ,ive got a 2010 vette and a 2011 camaro units[camaro wont work]what unit are you using ?acadia?,what switchs?,ive got the wiring plugs,i figured out how to fit them in the dash[modifie the left top defrost tube,,also on the lighting thing ive got a acadia nav in my nnbs trk,its red,i want green/factory,,are the red lights in radio just covers?,i just ordered 3.5mm nut drivers,,PM me if ness and we can swap phone numbers as i hate typing ,,great work

I am using a 2007 Acadia HUD in the pictures. I want to get a later model Acadia HUD (2010 or newer) but I have not found one yet. I am very interested in the work you have done behind the dash to get it to fit, and I will be PMing you so that we can talk about it.

incredible mod, xenawise. Looks perfect. That will surely make your truck stand out. I just have one question.... why are you listening to paula abdul??? :?

at 4:13 in the morning

I graduated high school in 1986 so let's just say that had my teenage years in the '80s so I have a fondness of '80s music! I am also a night owl as I work nights and it is not uncommon to find me working on projects into the wee hours of the morning!

I would like to know where you got your leds from and are just any brand smd ok to fit or certain specific ones?? please let me know

The LEDs that I used are from Oznium.com. The LEDs I use in the cluster are the PLCC4 type ( they have 4 seperate leads ) and I have to bend the leads on one side out so they don't contact the PCB and just solder on the other two leads on the other side to the board. The PLCC4 type are here: http://www.oznium.com/plcc-4. They also sell the PLCC2 type which is used in many of the switches and they only have two leads: http://www.oznium.com/plcc-2.

 

[Xenawise]

Another part of this conversion to red for the interior backlighting is that the Pontiac and Acadia have white displays for the radio, HVAC and instrument cluster displays. These are Vacuum Florescent Displays ( VFD's ) so they normally have that greenish blue color to them. But with the use of a filter, you can change the color of the displays. To get the white, you need a rose colored filter ( kinda looks pink ) for be placed over the displays. Pontiac and Acadia accomplish this by using rose colored display bezels on the radio, HVAC and instrument cluster displays. So, I got a hold of these bezels and used them on my HVAC and radio displays. The instrument cluster is a different animal since it uses different displays than the Acadia does. But I used the Acadia filter and cut out the areas on the instrument cluster where the displays shine through. Since the factory cluster has the blue/green filter applied on the cluster overlay, I had to cut those out so the VFDs could display without any filter. Then I cut the Acadia filter to slightly larger size and placed them on the displays. Then I put the factory overlay over all this so all you see is the displays like you would if this modification was not even there but you can see the cutouts if you look closely.

So now, the backlighting is all red and the displays for the radio, HAVC and the cluster displays are all white now. I might look into changing the cluster illumination to white now but have the hash marks in the speedo and tach light up red like the Acadia and the new 2014 Sierra Cluster using what they call gel filters. They use these gel filter to change the color of stage lights. I can cut out a stencil that only colors the parts of the cluster that I want colored and leaves the rest white. That way, all the numbers and the smaller gauges would be white, just the hash marks on the speedo and the tach will be red colored. I might even color the gas gauge hash mark by the "E" red as well as oil gauge hash mark by the "0" and the temp gauge hash mark by the "260" red. Maybe put yellow and red has marks in the tach for yellow line and red line. And last but not least, make it so that the km/h symbols do not light up at night, presenting a cleaner speedo gauge at night at least. Alas, the ideas for mods never ends!

Until next time, let me know what you think of the new mods or if you have any questions about them.

Xenawise

 

[deathphoenix99]

I wish I had your soldering outfit. Looks good man.

 

[Whiteycrewcab]

Ok..I will be dropping my truck off with you for a full conversion! LOL Work looks great man, I REALLY like the idea of the HUD as well...might have to find a way to incorporate that in my 05.

 

[Whiteycrewcab]

Actually I had a quick question... is my 05's dash lit up with standard bulbs or LEDs? And if they are the standard incandescent what is the bulb number? That would surely be easier than soldering those little buggers. I appreciate it.

 

[Xenawise]

Actually I had a quick question... is my 05's dash lit up with standard bulbs or LEDs? And if they are the standard incandescent what is the bulb number? That would surely be easier than soldering those little buggers. I appreciate it.

The illumination in the 03-07classic clusters are soldered in light bulbs. They do not use LEDs. You can however replace them with LEDs and Speedo has a do it yourself kit that you can replace the bulbs with LEDs and change the color too!

See this link for a disassembly of the cluster:

http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/forum/sh ... hp?t=24215

And this link for the Speedo DIY kit to change the bulbs to LEDs:

http://creaturesofthenightperformance.c ... 4552.aspx#

Good luck!

Xenawise

 

[Whiteycrewcab]

Sweet! Thank you very much!

 

[TexasZ71]

uhhhhhhhh can you make the 9+ hour drive to san antonio texas and do this to my truck.......

i pay in beer...possibly non **** hugs

no but seriously this is awesome. i was just thinking about doing this. i put LEDs in my dome and map lights...and i love them. one of my lights on my traction control button is going out. i suck at electrical stuff....and my hands are NOT that steady. i either use to much force taking things apart and break them...or not enough. there is no happy medium

 

[ooohhdave]

The red looks awesome although it reminds me of German cars not in a bad way or anything.

 

[Tstorm]

what size SMD LED's do i need to get? I want to get blue to swap with my 2008 silverado cluster.

 

[Tstorm]

what size SMD LED's do i need to get? I want to get blue to swap with my 2008 silverado cluster.

 

[Tstorm]

okay i found the bulb sizes but how man bulbs do i need for just the cluster gauges? and how many do i need for everything else? I have the lt2 package silveraado