sonett - reworking dash, aftermarket gauges, and switches
A while back I installed a voltage gauge and oil pressure gauge from SpeedHut (photos). The gauges work very well and look great. The problem, if you can consider that, is that the new gauges are LED lit and therefore don't match the lighting of the original gauge cluster. The LED lighting is much whiter and much brighter.
I can't do anything about the color but I can do something about the brightness now that SpeedHut offers a dimmer rheostate. The dimmer was $15, plus a whopping $15 in shipping which was terrible but worth the price to have dimmer gauges over the life of the car.
While I was reworking the gauges, I decided to move them from under the ashtray area (where I have my bluetooth stereo receiver), to the vent holes previously used for my factory AC. I was willing to lose the air conditioning vents because I recently removed my A/C components so those vents were not connected to anything. If my car had never had A/C, I believe those vents would have been fresh air vents. In my case, they weren't anything any longer. They are however a good size for gauges.
I also reinstalled my dash (HVAC controls). While everything was apart I opted to paint my crappy looking faded gray blower motor switch. The vsaab mailing list suggested I use Testors 2549C paint. It worked but took a few coats to get a consistent coverage. It is the right color and the switch looks much better.
