bigwoofer

Let me know what you think of the latest mod I have decided to try and make work. It is on the last page of my sounddomain.com page.

Check out this mod -- Page 13

OPRAKU

Hey man that looks pretty tight! At first when I looked at it I thought "Dayam the Pro can go that fast?!?!".. then stupid me, I realized that it's in km/h...LOL...

BL_Protege

that's really kool. much more different then the stock green or amber

Nuder

cool beans man!! So when is it gonna be ready by?? and will we get some instructions on how to do this?? I've been dying to turn the lights blue rather than that amber.

NegatiZE

That looks great! How did you do it?! Man if I ever find a way to get my gauges blue, like in VWs, I'd rip my indiglos straight off.

hihoslva

C'mon dude - out with it!!! This board is not meant for secret-keepers, it's for SHARING!!! Didn't your momma teach you ANYTHING about SHARING?!?!?!?

Serously, though - I hope you will share your tips with us when it's done - and how close is it to the "VW Blue" we all seem to love so much? Have you been able to change ALL of the amber lighting (like the AC cluster, and other stuff)? What about the odometer? It ooks like it's still amber in your picture - any plans for that?

Let us know - we're dyin' over here...

~HH

hihoslva

But on the Protege5's with the amber gauges, changing the bulbs does virtually nothing.

While the bulbs have the little amber "condoms" on them, the gauge faces also have an amber coating on the back. A few gys have replaced the orange bulbs with blue ones, only to get a little "redder" color from the dash, but not even close to blue.

~HH

bigwoofer

Which is why what I did is the shiznit!!!!!

I am working on a complete walk through of how I did it, but it involves taking apart the speedo cluster completely, removing the needles, etc. Not for the faint of heart when you consider the cost of replacing the cluster.

sandman

AARRRGGG... and i wanted to be the first to get the blue gauges!!

way to go man!! That's lookin sweet.. I got my hvac controls switched over to blue, so the last thing left is my gauge cluster. Just that damn removing the needles hassle that's holding me back...

FINALLY my blue theme will be completed..

hihoslva

So sandman - how did you do the HVAC controls to blue, anyway?

~HH

sandman

'twas a snap!!!

pop out the center console, take off the hvac controls from the panel.

There's a sheet of clear plastic that's got some orange dye on it. That's what makes your dials orange. i just removed that, and used it as a stencil to cut a sheet of blue lighting gel. Put that in in place of the orange plastic and reassembled the works - the only catch is the button that takes you from recycled to fresh air is still orange!! I didn't realize that till i had everything back together, so my next day off i'll be fixing that little 'issue'

I don't have the digi cam - so i can't pop off any pics right now, but soon as i have it, i'll post some up...

hihoslva

Excellent, Mr. Sand. Much appreciated. Once bigwoofer decides to share his dirty little secrets (especially about getting the gauge needles off), I'll be all set to do my own "blue man" mod. I've wanted to do this forever, and even went so far as to call my Mazda dealer and get him to fax me the blow-out diagram with the bulb nubers on it and junk. But once I heard about the film on the back of the gauges, I gave up.

Bigwoofer - any info or plans to change the lcd odometer to blue also?

~HH

NegatiZE

This is a little off topic, but a while back I tried pulling off my center console thingy without disconnecting the HVAC cables. All I got was the top part of the console popped out. Snapped it back in and said forget it. I realized that after I did this, my little hazard light button button between the two air vents doesn't light up at night anymore. Do you think I just pulled out the plug behind it or did I break something?

hihoslva

Could be either - broke it or pulled the plug.

Do the hazards still work? If so, maybe you busted the bulb or something. If not, probably the harness came loose. I guess it's possible the harness came "halfway" out, and just the illumination got disconnected. Give it a look-see and try to fix it.

~HH

NegatiZE

Yeah the hazards still work. When I get off my *** I'm going to pull apart the console the right way and try to fix it. While I'm at it I'll see if I can make my HVAC controls blue also. Woohoo! Now where can I get some of this blue stage lighting gel offline?