Removing the orange color on your gauge needles

[1st Gen Sol]

Those needles off the Camry look sweet. I wonder if they sell those at the dealership without having to buy the entire guage cluster.

[SleeperSolara]

Not bad.
Here my setup up.
Day:

Night:


I know the bulbs are still the stock orange bulbs wit out the green rubber cover but the needle light up really nice to the red.

[Duffman]

hey have you had any problems with the calibration of the needles when you take them out? I took them out on my spare cluster and wiped off the orange color and painted silver nail polish on the back but havent tried them out yet...

as for the splotchiness/etching the acetone leaves, you can try coating the needle with clear nail polish or varnish, which should make it nice and shiny

I took pictures of the gauge positions for the temp/fuel (fuel when full, temp after driving a while) and checked my speed/tach on a level road. Used one of those drive-by speed clocker things the police use (thanks, Lackland AFB Security Forces!) to get the speedo accurate (yes, I put the needles back on while driving the car!) and then headed back out to the road to put my tach in place. Adjusted the fuel gauge when I filled up and the temp after driving a while. Had to be adjusted, but nothing impossible. If you can't get one of those radar traps, get a friend to drive in front of you and match his speed, and adjust from there.

[Duffman]

Those needles off the Camry look sweet. I wonder if they sell those at the dealership without having to buy the entire guage cluster.

ROFL, you'd still be cheaper to go to the junkyard or eBay I think. Dealers = Ripoff...

[1st Gen Sol]

ROFL, you'd still be cheaper to go to the junkyard or eBay I think. Dealers = Ripoff...

Never said I was gonna pay for them.......courtesies of having a hookup at the dealership also make for better prices, but I was just curious......not many junkyards around my way.

[RichD978]

Those needles off the Camry look sweet. I wonder if they sell those at the dealership without having to buy the entire guage cluster.

They probably won't sell just the needles. My bet is even if you want the entire cluster they'd have to order it.

[Duffman]

For those following this subject:

After putting in the white gauges from the Camry cluster, I decided I needed some good, white light behind it to make the look complete. Well, I didn't feel like going all-out like Josh with the CCFLs (props to you on your efforts thus far, you've got more talent than I!) so I went with pre-made LEDs from AutoLumination.com (http://www.autolumination.com/). I got 5x 194 Super Whites from their site - they're the second set on the 194 page, designed for wide angle and gauge use. I also got 2x 194 Inverted Lens bulbs for the license plate bulbs (hey, it looked good on an IS350!). I'll try to get some pics tonight (I'm packing for a trip to Florida tomorrow), but the results were AMAZING. I'm very happy with them!