Idid all blue LED's in my cluster including turn signals. They look great and are a lot brighter than factory. I'm using the single LED's now but will probably get the 4 LED bulbs for more brightness.

 

Do you have any night time pictures of your dash?

 

is that factory? or did you paint it...if so how?.. i ruined my cluster trim by trying to paint it

 

That's factory.

I have about 4 of them.

 

Yeah, check my gallery. They're not the best but I'm gonna try getting some better ones soon

 

Mike that is one sweet truck you have there. One question did you have to do any mods to make the led lights work?

 

Originally they were transparent, the heat of the bulbs causes the plastic to "rot" and become opaque. The blue lens are light filters.

If you remember science class, white light is a mixture of the primary colors of light. RED, BLUE, and GREEN, exactly like on a tv set. You take away the RED and BLUE light, and leave green, you dimmed the light by two-thirds.

Just by removing the blue filters themselves your dash lights will be at least 2x brighter.

GE makes a bulb 194-G for Green and is a great replacement in these clusters. IMO.

 

HiPoParts Garage -

 

There is only one thing that bothers me about that kit, Dennis.

When they say it restores the blue color from the incorrect green tint.

The green tint is correct, not incorrect as they state.

I've owned three vehicles that used the same type lens filters. A 1972, 1973, and 1981 etc...

And they all have a green tint. They Did when they were new.

I know, it's nit-picking, so I'll shut up.

 

I brought this colour issue up with Bill from Hipo

Here his his explanation

Dennis,

Sorry, I missed this message at first.

I am preparing a page to explain the color of these clusters. The
correct color should be light blue with a touch of green. As
incandescent bulbs age, they produce a yellow light. New bulbs
produce a near white light. Also, the filters change as they age.
They get a frosted look that seems to block more of the blue light and
allow the distorted green light through. The correct color for these
dashes is a blue/green. It is neither blue nor green.

Take a look at the attached photo. You will notice that the NOS lens
on the right is clear, not ?frosted?. The one in the middle is from a
cluster from a 1979. Notice that you can see through the one on the
left, but not the one in the middle. As these filters age and are
exposed to the heat of the incandescent bulbs, they ?frost? and this
blocks significant amounts of light and changes the color of the light
output. If you put white LED light or a brand new white incandescent
bulb through these two filters you get two different colors. The one
on the left produces a light blue with a green tint. The one in the
middle produces less light and it appears more green than the light
from the NOS filter. If you change the bulbs to a super bright white
LED, the colors or the light created show even less signs of green
light and appear nearly all blue. You will also see that the filter
on the right is typical of many clusters. The heat produced by the
incandescent bulb actually melts the lens. You will notice that the
heat has cause the color of the lens to change to a more green color.
Add a worn out bulb to this and you really get a green light.

There is another factor in dash color often overlooked; the headlamp
switch. The headlamp switch usually does not die all at once. As the
rheostat in the switch begins to fail, it reduces the current output
to the interior lights it controls. This reduced current also
produces a more yellow light output. When less than full current is
applied to incandescent bulbs, the light produced becomes a deeper
yellow.

Maybe this makes more sense now? We provide kits in blue and green,
so people can select the one that they prefer. We are working on kits
that produce a correct blue/green color, but they do not work in the
trucks. The kits use bulbs with a combination of LEDs to produce the
correct color. The design of the truck cluster does not work with
these bulbs. There are just not enough bulbs to mix the light
properly. It produces spots of blue and green unfortunately.

We are preparing a page with this information as well as photos to
demonstrate these points. the dash may appear green for several
reasons, that does not mean it is the correct color.
--
Thanks,

Bill
HiPoParts.com

 

Ok, then why is my Factory LCD clock on my 1981 the same shade of green, as my cluster on my 1981?

 

Cause it isn't a 73-79 ?

I dunno

 

LOL, Me neither.

 

Nope. Didn't have to make any mods at all. The bulbs I put in I got from pepboys and are a direct replacement of the old ones.

 

Cool Now I can be Blinded By The Light.