This first image is to give a representation of how bad the gauge lights were compared to the LED photos later. The gauge lights were nowhere near as bad as they look here, the camera just doesn’t bring up light very well.

This is the target dash. To remove the dash you need to firstly remove the two screws at the top marked by the green arrows. Next you need to remove the choke and wiper knobs.

The wiper knob is relatively easy to remove, first you need to remove the lock nut holding it, if it is tight you’ll need to use two screwdrivers into the grooves in the nut using each other for leverage, you do this by crossing them over before you start twisting the nut. Secondly with the wiper you need to remove the knob, this is very simply removed by a small screw hidden underneath but on the knob.

Next we need to remove the choke, with this job though we don’t need to completely remove it because we will carefully push the dash out of the way with the choke still attached. My first step is to pull the choke out as far as it will go then remove the lock nut like on the wiper side and let it hang loose.

In this image you can see how I flipped the dash over out of the way. Also in this image you can see the upper two screws that remove the gauges (marked by green arrows) these screws have another two screws opposite on each gauge.

Next we can take the gauges out, what I do is bring them forward then carefully pull the globes out from behind them and let the globes hang through the hole so that they don’t fall back in the dash. The speedo gauge also needs the speedo cable removed, which is held by a screw fitting onto the back of the gauge.

Here are the two gauges removed, you may note that the gauge holes are marked as to which globes are meant to be pushed into them for when they go back to the dash.

Taking the gauges apart is easy but the speedo needs special attention, firstly it needs this nut removed from the shaft, then when the face is removed the whole fitting will come forward out of the gauge.

Here are the LED sets I bought from eBay from the member wiseleader: http://search.ebay.com.au/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZwiseleader

Pictured is two kits, one blue for my car and white for the wifes, if you want the original look then naturally go for white.
These kits include: 20 pcs of LED, 20 metal mounts, 20 pcs of resistors, 20 pcs of heat shrinking insulating tube.

Here is the blue kit separated so that you can see what comes in each kit. These items came from hong kong but we had no problem getting them in and wiseleader had them at our door in well under two weeks.

Here is one of each item, depending how you are going to set them up you may not need to use everything.

Here I am showing how the LED fits into the plastic sleeve, it then slides into the metal housing which you can fit into your gauge and lock up with the nut. It is worth noting here however that the nuts are very small and week, do not over tighten them with a spanner, in fact I was making them hand tight and they were perfect.

Here I have set 3 LEDs up for parallel wiring. In parallel these globes will each get a 12V source and an earth, the resistor will protect the globes from the extra load it would otherwise take. A diagram for wiring in parallel and series is shown later.

To remove the front face of the gauges you will have to bend the lip up slightly that holds the face on, you can do this easily enough with a screwdriver. You’ll need to do it around the whole face of the gauge.

With the plastic face and the support ring removed we are left with the gauge face to take off, these just slide straight out. They do however have a small lug either side (on the tabs, marked by green arrows) which you can slide the face back into to get it exactly in position when you go to reassemble it.

With the final face removed this is what we are left with. I don’t intend on taking any more of this apart, with a nearly 40 year old gauge I doubt I could get it to work again myself if something went wrong.

My next step is to mark out where I want the globes to come through from the back (so that they avoid everything) and then whack a hole through that is large enough to accept the thread of the holders for the LEDs. I am keeping them as close to the outside edge as possible because this is where the free space for the gauge face is and how the light gets through.

Here I have drilled the four holes and put the holders and nuts in to hold them all, it is now ready for the LEDs and wiring.

The LEDs are now in the holders and it is all ready to be wired. This setup will be wired in series, the four globes will allow enough voltage drop to work correctly and no resistors will be required.

Here’s a photo of the LEDs from the inside of the gauge, note how I have kicked them towards the outer wall of the gauge to allow as much light as possible to shine into the edge.

The speedo gauge didn’t have enough space around the outside of the face so I carefully wired the four globes around the inner lip of the face and then put a small flap in front of them to stop any direct light shining into the drivers eyes. Here is how it looks under the camera flash, you can still easily see the LEDs glow.

Here it is at night. The globes were so bright they were making it hard to see the road but my mate Ben told me to throw a standard globe into one of the grey (adjustable) lines and then the dimmer switch would work again (it didn’t work with only LEDs in the wiring).

Here’s my original attempt, the speedo was easily drowning out the fuel gauge so I reworked the fuel gauge to have the LEDs at the front of the gauge too.

Here is the completed setup with the LEDs at the front, I later changed it and moved them all to the rear (and grinded a little from the outer lip of the speedo face to allow the light through) which looked a lot better and gave me the ambient light style that I wanted.

Here’s the dash and gauges from outside the car, I also wired the blue LEDs into my four smaller gauges in the console which looks awesome at night.

Here is my final attempt at the gauges, they now look great and have a decent ambient light that has no chance of being seen from outside the car or getting into the drivers eyes. I was VERY happy with how it all turned out.

A special thanks to my mate Ben for this guide, he showed me where to get the globes, he gave me ideas on how to mount them, he helped me with the dimming problem, overall he should have written the damn guide himself… ;) Thanks Ben

is Bens awesome X2 dash setup, looks absolutely awesome!

Finally, here is the wiring diagram for parallel and serial wiring of the LEDs. They naturally don’t have to wire directly to the battery, in fact to get them working perfectly I wired them straight into one of the grey wires that were used to originally power the globes for dash lighting.