Celica Forums General Discussion Videos, Pictures, and Audio Clips center console lighting

well, in anticipation of my red Carbon Fiber overlay, I decided to change the color of my A/C controls, my clock, and my A/T lights to red. There's still a little work to be done: the A/C and defogger button are almost completely white, the stereo needs to be turned red real bad (probably sometime this week), and the whole thing could be a little darker.

Sorry their off a camera phone, so the pictures don't quite do it justice. Please wait for all 4 pics.

1/4

2/4 - The "N" is darker than the rest, otherwise all the other ones are the same color (despite what my camera phone says)

3/4 - stereo needs to be changed badly!

4/4

hey that looks nifty.. how'd you do it

take apart the center console, then...

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f_128133_0_collapsed_2__1.html

for the a/t lights I had to disconnect the shifter. There's 2 screws that let you pull it up. When you've taken out the center console you'll also see the clips that hold on that centerpiece. Grab firmly and pull toward you and up, same on the other side. Then it was a matter of pulling out the light, removing the green cover, and then covering the area with cellophane (you'll see which area to cover when you take it out)

I should've taken pics of the whole process, not just the end result...

argh yah i forgot about that install guide

nice

cool man.. I have been wanting to do that.

it's helpful to have someone with you doing this. I had my brother holding stuff, shining the flashlight when I needed two hands...make the job a lot easier.

sweet!!! gotta try it.

I had fucked up my A/C in the process of changing the A/C lights. My A/C doesn't work anymore. I need to find a small enough neon to fit in there (6 in).

It doesn't work, or it just doesn't light up? That really sucks man...

How did you change the clock? Also with acetate? Thanks.

yup, the install for the clock is here:

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f_1870216506_0_collapsed_2__1.html

I don't really see my clock during the day (especially with shades on) but I have a watch on my wrist or I can check my cell phone, and to me it's really worth it (can barely see it in the daytime while stock). I used three layers of red. It's about three large screws to disconnect the clock from the center console and 4 small screws to take the clock face out of the assembly, real easy. I have very little modding experience and I took my time doing this, but it was altogether very easy to do.

EDIT: oh yeah, definitely cut that green wire. This would be almost impossible to see at night without that.

Anyone near NY who knows how to do this? Willing to pay top $$. Send me a PM, thanks.

Just do it yourself man. It's a lot easier than it looks. As long as you don't force anything to bad nothing will go wrong. It took more than two hours for me, because I like taking my time, but in the end I learned a few things about my car and gained some confidence.

I find it helpful to print out all the instruction guides I'm going to use and have them in the car with me.

i wanna try the clock one and the a/t. i'm doing led conversion for my ac controls.

I was going to do it myself, but I have zero time (work, school, girlfriend, etc.).

Does anyone know if blue acetate 100% works? Most of the pics I've seen are either red acetate or blue neons.

Thanks.

for blue, it's best to use neons. You could use acetate but it'll probably be too dark for your liking. This might help you out:

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f_1869870766_0_collapsed_2__1.html

as for time, I'm in college too, and I'm living in my dorm so if I want to mod my car I have to drive home (anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes depending on traffic) so I can sympathize with you. Just make an appointment with yourself and block out some dedicated time for it...in fact if your gf is willing she could help you out.

For blue, would it be possible to use lighter acetate or less layers?

Only one way to find out

just don't use superglue to hold the acetate. Scotch tape works great

EDIT: it's all about personal preference. Some people think that blue acetate will be bright enough, others don't. Personally, I think you may want to go with a neon to match the brightness of you (very nice lookin) gauges, but do what you want. It's your car.

How do you change the lights behind the defogger/ac?

Both unfortunately. I've been on the lookup for Optx mini neon lights by Streetglows, but the only place to find them is the internet. Anybody can score me some in SoCAL, I will buy one off of you!

For the clock, I find that masking tape works great! Make sure the acetate is firmly held against the LED readout or else the display will be blurred.


Acetate, LEDs, or Optx ultra mini neons. I recommend you be very careful when doing this. Don't make the same mistake that I did. Make sure you take the green caps off the A/C LEDs before you do anything else.

Acetate and Optx can both be found in the install guides section.

Because Ulithian is paying, I really wish I lived in the New York area just now.

I followed the acetate method, but the actual buttons still light up peach. Is there any way, besides using neons (which I have no clue how to do) to make them light up blue?

^^ post some pics man I bet it wasn't as hard to find time as you thought.

as for the A/C and defogger buttons, I'm probably going to take it off tonight and do my stereo. I'll try playing around with it a bit more, but I really don't have a clue.

I would post pics, but the blue looks terrible (compared to my gauges). I put up 3 layers and its really really dull and some of the peach comes through. I'm going to look into neon. Does anyone know of any tutorials on how to fuse the wires?

Also, what is a "scotch lock" referenced in this post?

https://celicahobby.com/ubbthreads/thread.f_1869870766_0_collapsed_5__1.html

Thanks.

well, I went to Radio Shack to look for the LEDs, but they didn't have the right kind. I went to Fry's Electronics too and they didn't have it either. As a result I didn't take apart the center console this weekend to fiddle around with it. I'll do a little more digging around town before ordering off the internet. as for scotch locks...I have no clue...splicing wires shouldn't be that bad provided you have enough free play on the wire to work with. You could always do a search on google.