Yes, if I'm not mistaken, the new Mustang has something like over 200 colors you can change your dash guages to...

I think one of those Scions (or all of them) also offer guage color changing capability too.

'Twould be cool, if MINI offered it.

 

Congrats Uber S. Here's a part number for the radio SMD LEDs from DigiKey: 160-1579-1-ND. I didn't do my OEM radio. I did break it down and was going to until I saw how small these are. If you think the dash LEDs were small, these are about a 3rd the size about 1mm square. I don't have a solder iron small enough! The MFSW LEDs are larger than the radio, but smaller than the dash, and weren't bad to do. Sorry, I don't have a part number for them .

@Wagnbat: He said "BZ" LOL. Thanks shipmate!

 

Thanks, BluMiniMe - your how-to was very helpful . I emailed Allied Electric yesterday, and they're sending some sample led's to try to help me find the right one. I'll give the digikey ones a go if none of the samples work out, but since Allied was so helpful, I'm gonna try to stick with them. Also, the '05 MFSW led's are the same size as the radio's. If the small(er) led's from Allied work, I'll post the part numbers as soon as I can.

By the way... are your gas/water temp gauges a little purple? I've got some bleedover coming from the needles/red warning led's and it 's kinda the only tarnished spot on an otherwise clean look.

 

My pleasure, UberS.

G'luck with the radio and MSFW.

I tried 3 times to find a way into the climate control ****-- the big round one, and I just couldn't do it without desoldering significant other pieces. I was afraid it wouldn't work once I did. So, my dash has an orange ball with blue wings. Not a bad look.

I do get a little purple bleed over at the temp and fuel needles. The white plastic guage face piece doesn't have enough shroud in that area to keep the blue and red needle LEDs from bleeding together. I had an idea for super-glueing some plastic in there to shroud them better, but I'm too lazy.

Except for the time factor, I thought overall, this wasn't too hard. A little patience and the right tools made it a breeze-- good weekend project while its snowing outside! You?

 

As far as the AC goes, I didn't take the climate control **** apart either. I wanted all of the little text displays (odometer, OBC, radio, AC) to stay orange. It kinda goes along with the needles, IMO. Also, I wasn't able to come up with a filter that could let enough (blue) light through without spotlighting from the LED's. I also replaced the little green LED's on the AC buttons with leftover orange ones (didn't want too many colors on my dash). The orange LED's are a little too bright though, so next time things are apart, I'll find a way to dim them down a bit.

I didn't have the right LED's for the waterfall lighting, but I was able to rig the blue LED's (AND6BB's from allied) to work. I still need to replace the flat tire reset LED and the door handle LED's. And while everything else is apart, I'll see what I can do with the purple bleed over problem. Super glue and plastic ain't a bad idea...

All in all, I think this was really easy. Once I had the soldering technique down and the right tools (I didn't know that a T6 torx even existed!), things went smoothly. Definitely a good weekend project, but I wouldn't know about the blowing snow...(note location! )

 

Good to see someone else finally is stepping up and doing this too! I seemed to be one of the only ones for the longest time...

 

I think it was your "how-to" I swipped! If that be the case, many thanks. I did mine almost 2 years ago after I found a how-to. Only recently bought a digital camera, and someone PM'd me to post pics, and so this thread. Props Sarcux

EDIT: I didn't speak to this, and I don't think the how-to's do either. What filtering element did I use in the text windows? I experimented with different layers of plain old wax paper. When I found a balance between the "spotlighting" and daylight visibility, that's what I used. I don't recall exactly, but I think I settled on 9 layers? Not sure.

 

Yup, that's mine. Glad people are still getting use out of it. I'dnever soldered before that, and didn't have much trouble - which makes me surprised that more people haven't done it. Oh well - maybe I can get it published in MC2 magazine, hehe.

 

Wow, wouldn't that be kewwl to get published .

 

Maybe Barry or Gary will see this.

 

That looks great! I may have missed it, but how did you do the lights for the Climate Control system?

 

Nope, you didn't miss anything. I didn't think it was worth mentioning. There simply isn't any real difference between doing the dash and the controls. They are somewhat easier because the modules disassemble easier than the dash. Soldering is merely more of the same as with the dash.

 

I would do this if it weren't for the probablitilty of there being warranty issues. I guess I'll have to wait a few years.

 

how did you guys get your climate control apart? Mine has some miniature torx screws in the back that No one seems to sell a tool small enough for????
thanks

 

I didn't touch my HVAC, just the gauges.

 

And just remember, that's MY write-up he teefed!

 

Great job BluMiniMe! . Thats one of the most awesome looks I've ever seen! Very you-nique! Now if I could only find the time to do that...

 

Would be cool, a new Mustang only does 124 color though. I'm researching doing a variable color setup with a **** aroud the light intensity button to change from red to blue (get most all of visible spectrum, but then I'll have to do complete custom diffusers and lots of wiring and sodering so I'm saving for a long vacation and until I can afford a spare guage set so if I f it up I'll still be okay to drive. Like this you must soder each led, but I'd need to to RGB LEDs which up the $$$ and have more wiring to control the levels of each color, much more involoed. But MINI could possibly do it on the 07 if they think Ford got a good response with it on the stang. Also another cool thing I saw on the Mustang was computer screen aftermarket guages, so the tach could be switched to a backup cam when in reverse then back to a tach while you're doing regular driving, much the same way the cam with the Nav unit works.

 

The second linked Word document is wonderful and also shows how to open up the dash board AND the gauges- both are things that are usually not documented in Mini's official How-to instructions (they usually reference other dealer service articles, most of which are difficult to find). There are several add-on parts, both OEM and aftermarket, that require a dashboard removal, and now I know how- thanks!

This is a MOD that's not for the faint of heart, but it IS hella cool. Maybe one day...