i finally tackled the gauge cluster today, it was scary but successful!

i removed the gauge cluster and the shift indicator. the indcator takes a little working to unclip it from the shift "rope" so that you can freely work on it. once you get them out you will need to fully disassemble the gauge cluster.
its very easy to do at first. several torx screws hold the back on, some pressure cips hold the plastic front that covers the gauge face. then remove one clip connecting the odometer computer to the back motherboard and these two simply pull apart and you are left with the plastic gauge face piece. the needles pull out, reinstall at the same position as removal to be sure it doesnt affect readings.
I also found out that the tinting for the odometer display doesn't matter due to the display being green. Don't bother with that part.

to remove the gauge overlay from its plastic backing requires some patience. it is glued together in small spots. simply take some nail polish removed and try to get the fluid in between the layers right where the glue is. let it sit and weaken then carefully pry them apart. sometimes just pulling the two halves will separate it, sometimes a knife is required (and recommended) you can easily split the overlay thus allowing light through the hole in that spot and will look bad. this is the riskiest part of the procedure




heres the scary part, using sandpaper you need to sand the backing off to remove the green tint. thankfully the black outlining of the letters is doubled up on the front side so you CANNOT ruin your gauges by sanding them. you can however remove the red battery icon tint and the blue high beam tinting. the red on the gauges (rpm temps etc) is on the front and cannot be easily removed. you will end up being able to see light clearly through it with no tint.




then you just re-assemble everything and install whatever colour LEDs you choose for your backlighting. the white sockets are for illumination and even say ILLUM beside them. gray sockets are warning or indicator lights
i am lacking two leds for this project (it only requires 6) but here is the final product so far.

 

Nice write up, just saw this on utube (intentional) and the guy did not remove the two layers correctly had four-six holes where the glue held the two layers together.

Still trying to decide what color I want as back light, definitely not green.

 

Where did you get the LEDs? This looks like something I wanna try

 

Looks good I like

 

You can get leds from eBay (hit or miss quality on cheaper stuff) another popular place is LED Replacement Bulbs for Cars | 12v | Super Bright LEDs
You can either use the gauge cluster or I believe it's t5 wedge that's small enough.try to get 360° light for best results.
That's the best part, as you can see this process makes the face have no tint so absolutely any colour led you put in is exactly the colour you get!

 

U know what model number bulbs they are