Blue clock light

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Well after modding all the interior lights in my car to blue led's , i decided i didn't like the light spread behind the odo/dte lcd and the clock lcd.

Due to the small angle of bright light produced by the led's ( about 30 degrees ) , the clock and odo/dte lcd came up very bright around the led and darker around the edges ( allthough was still bright ) , just the bright dot of the led's were sorta more visible through the lcd's. The clock was the worse as it only has 1 globe hole / i originally mounted 1 led in there , the 1 led combined with the concave defuser lense in the clock resulted in a bright dot in the centre of the clock and the edges very dark .

I just finished re-doing the clock again earlier today , i ended up popping it open (easy) and mounting 3x small 3mm leds behind the clock lcd, also added a flat light diffuser cutout/made from a white plastic ice cream container.

Came up a treat , in the flesh this display looks totally/eveny lit in colour and brightness all over, just the crap pic with my rubbish camera made the centre look a bit lighter ( im suprised it even came up this good with my rubbish webcam camera ! ). Very happy with the results and will be re-doing the odo/dte lcd backlighting again soon.

I'll post up some document soon on how to mod the backlights for the lcd's with led's / for the clock and the odo/dte lcd's ;) .. cheers

[MOOSEXR6]

Hey Dude,
Your light mods sound interesting. keep us informed.
Tell me what sorta fog lamps you got on your XR6 and is it the one you have pictured here. If so I'd like to see more picks of this Black Beast!
moosexr6

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by MOOSEXR6

Hey Dude,
Your light mods sound interesting. keep us informed.
Tell me what sorta fog lamps you got on your XR6 and is it the one you have pictured here. If so I'd like to see more picks of this Black Beast!
moosexr6

G'day , the lights are .. as stated on the box "Monza Driving lights / H3 12v 55W / die cast rust proof housings / with extra projector globes / 2 globes in each lamp" .. came with the lot / relay / wiring / fuse etc etc , got them cheap for $20 from k-mart as the box was damaged , all the stuff was still in the box though and in new condition/nothing broken or missing . Bargain .

My car is actually 'Galaxy Blue' , just with the polish and wax i gave it ( to give it the wet look ) , plus it was raining that day / overcast and the car was wet , it looks really dark on days like that .

looks good ;)

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by ziggee

looks good ;)

Thanks mate , 'Hopefully' i'll get arouind to getting a new camera this weekend , then i'll attack the ode/dte lcd in the dash again and post some 'how to' photo's with documents , i'll take out the clock again for anyone wanting to do this mod , and snap some pics of it inside and expalin how to do that too .

I can't stress enough though how much i need a new camera before i start taking 'how to' photos , my camera at the moment is buggered , that shot above is about the best pic that has come out of it in ages ( and it's still not no where near what it looks like by eye / or with a good camera ) .

cheers.

[Andy XR8]

how do you replace the standard globe as mine is blown and i actually didn't think it had a light behind it is there a workshop article on this

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by FORD_AU3_XR8

how do you replace the standard globe as mine is blown and i actually didn't think it had a light behind it is there a workshop article on this

Note: the centre face panel (cfp) does NOT need to be 'totally' removed to access the clock.

To change the clock light/globe .... Remove the radio and ashtray , remove the 2 screws on either side of the radio (radio must be removed first to access these 2 screws), remove the 2 screws from inside the ashtray holder slot too.
(radio , ahshtray , and 4 screws to remove all up in total. ) .

The cfp is now loose and ready to unclip , unclip the cpf away from the dash working your way from the bottom to top (pull it off), once it's unclipped don't try to pull the cfp too far out/towards you, or you will rip off/disconnect all the vac hoses behind the cfp. ( the bottom of the cfp will only come away from the dash about 1" and the top of the cfp will come away from the dash about 2" to 3" / give or take a bit / this is because the vacume hoses, the cigarette lighter wires and the ashtray light are still connected ).

You should now have enough room to access the back of the clock to change the globe . If your having problems changing the globe in the small amount of space , then just unplug and remove the clock ( 2 phillips head screws holding it in ) , you will be able to get a small stubby phillips head screwdriver behind the cfp to remove the clock to change the globe if needed.

The globe/light base in the back of the clock is a green plastic twist style base , use some longnose pliers or tweesers to stick in the holes of the lamp base , then twist anti-clockwise to remove the base & globe.

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Bit of an update , just got a new canon digital slr camera . Just messing around trying to work it all out , i thought i would just chuck these pics in so far while messin' . Now i just gotta figure out how to adjust the shutter speed with no flash on ( the blury/sorta out of focus pics had no flash / took ages for the pic to snap / had to hold camera perfectly still for a few seconds ).

[Lukeyson]

looks good man !!!
I am liking the Speedo and clock !!!

[XR6-VCT-2000]

cheers mate , i got a few bad shadows and blurs happening ..lol , gotta learn to hold my hand more still and set the shutter speed to a bit faster . I just re-did the clock the other night ( modified since 1st pic in this thread ) , i've managed to spread the light evenly behind the clock lcd nicely now, i gotta do the odo/dte lcd in the tacho cluster next .

Just a note to those wondering , I don't use the ashtray , so i pinched the wiring for the light in the ashtray and wired a blue led off it , and mounted the led underneath the ashtray instead, pointing into the coin tray.

Hopefully i'll have some better pics again soon once i sort the camera out / just realised i forgot to snap a pic of the electric window switches .. oh well . next time..
cheers .

[Andy XR8]

thanks for the help mate. haven't changed the globe yet though will get around to it soon by the way those led's look tops

[Andy XR8]

just need a headunit with blue lighting to match it all in

[Yum-Yum]

Awesome job mate, can't wait to get ripping into mine. Can you change the lighting on the deck yourself or do you need to get a new headunit?

ps:how's the doco???

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.

I looked at changing the lights to blue in the headunit/radio when i did the dash. But after pulling it apart i realised a few problems...

1./ the small bulbs in the radio are soldered to the pcb , these could be replaced with even tiny 3mm led's , but even then the new leds would be too big to fit into the holes in the defuser, behind the radio/headunit front face.
It is possible to mount leds around the inner face or the radio , placed next to the defuser , i tried this and they over-ride the brightness of the standard globes np, all the buttons and around the volums dial etc etc lit up nicelly blue.... but then i came across problem #2 ..

2/ the light behind the lcd in the radio is un-accessable ! (i think its a cathode tube mounted under a large IC and plating, and even in the space provided if i could get to it - looking how small the area is there would be no room for blue led's , not even 3mm leds , not even close ! .
I decided i didn't want the radio lcd that greeny/yellow and have my clock and ode/dte lcd's blue ! , and im getting a new double-din popout screen etc soon anyway , so i though i would leave the radio as stock all over / incase i decide to sell it - as its coming out soon anyway .

cheers..... documents in the process on how to change the clock light to led's etc etc .