DIY: jdm Hotness amber lighting!

[doihavebdis]

So you want that uber h0t jDM stylez amber look in your interior? Well its very simple and non-time consuming as painting bulbs and such.

This covers the simplicity of doing so, everything from radio to cluster ( I have yet to do the climate control yet

Tools/Supplies Needed:
Philips Screw Driver
2 Butter Knifes
1 School Tab (orange/amber)
5 #24 bulbs
5 #73 or #74 bulbs

Bulbs can be purchased from http://autolumination.com . I paid $14.00. Unless you can find them locally, do that!.

CLOCK:
First start by getting you two butter knifes and sticking them on to each vertical side of you center vent that houses the clock. Once they are a little bit in, pry them out, to pull the clock towards you. The vent is only held in by two little clips. Don't worry if the vent it self pops from the housing (as mine did) they pop right back in.

Once the vent is dangling, unclip harness from the clock in the back. So now you have the center vents in your hand.

Get your philips screw driver and un do the two screws holding in the clock.
Once the clock is out disassemble. This is easy. Just undo the eletrical tape and use a small flat head to undo the little clips holding it together.

Once you have it apart it looks like this.
.

Now just lay the divider tab over top and then resemble.


Put the clock back in the went, screw it back in, the put it back in your car and test it out! All done!

RADIO
I took the easy way out on this one and just bought a USDM Type R radio from a friend. You could find out the bulb #'s and replace them or just buy a amber lite radio.

Just remove your shift knob first. The there are 6 screws if I remember correctly. Two at each side of the top (one beinhd the glove box, open it you iwll see it). The two in the middle side of each side, then two down by the ebrake sorta. You will see em. This is also easy. LOL.

Make sure you glove box is open and the ebrake down and pull the console off. Its a bitch if you have a short shifter, but you prob already fiqured that out if you have a short shifter... anyways...

Once thats out. Undo the 4 showing screws and pull out your radio.. replace the radio or do whatever.

CLUSTER
This was prob the most time consuming of the three, because you have to get the cluster out, which isn't hard @ all.

Just undo the two screws in the front bottom of the cluster. Next there two in the front of the 'dome'. Use a flat head to pop off the little covers and expose the screws. Take them out.

Now this is kinda tricky, because you have still unclip your defroster, dimmer light, and hazard switches. Manuever the the cluster dome and feel for the clips or push the buttons thru the cluster out towards you and unclip them. Once they uncliped the dome is done.... throw that to the side.

Now there is 4 screws holding down the cluster itself. Undo them.
Next unclip the two big white clips, the speedo cable, and some random small blue clips from the back of the cluster and pull it off.

Now that you have it off, take it inside and clean the front of it with some plastic scratch shit.

Now look @ the back. There should be five #24 bulbs ( the bigger ones) and thress #73 bulbs ( the small skinny ones). replace them with your amber bulbs you bought. Then put them back in. Be careful, now that I think of it, two of the bulbs are for the blinkers and will make them look weird colored. dont replace those ones...

Now you should put it all back. Its optional to use the last two #73 bulbs in the top part that shines down on the needeles but its up to you.

This has been my half ass typed Do it your self amber shit! Enjoy!

[socalef9]

what color tab did you use? is it red or orange.

[JDMEFSiR]

Uber nice write up homie, I think i'm defiantelty gona do the clock, because my other goodies already light up in a nice red/amber color. Thanks mang!

2 questions:
1. I saw your link to the H-T thread, what tab color worked best for you?
2. And did you cut your dimmer wire like the other guys did?

One guy got the amber colored tab from a CRV in a junk yard, this way, it would not effect the brightness of the clock, when you turn your driving lights on.

[doihavebdis]

I used one amber/orange tab. I cut it in half and used just that. So it was one orange thickness. I did not remove the red thing in the clock ( you will see)

i didnt cut my wire. I'll chekc back when it gets dark. it looks and matches my radio in the day time

[doihavebdis]

I def need another amber strip for night

[JayDeeEmDC4]

pics?

[Madrussian03]

do you happen to know what bulbs i need for the eg cluster and climate control and switches? what number and how many? is there a way to find out what the sizes are?

[Madrussian03]

Hey, i figured out what i need for the cluster and climate control, now wondering about the switches, they have the tiny bulbs in there. How did the color come out? Picture would be niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

[boosteDC2]

hey, the amber clock worked out great. i produced the perfect color. i found that just using a piece of orange divider gave it a bright yellow look, u get the best result with orange and red overlapping