Celica Forums Install Guides and Technical Articles Interior Guides Center Console - Custom Lighting Using Colored Film

Change Center Console Lighting by Using Colored Film
By RicePowered (Darren) @ EverythingCelica.com

A couple of people have asked me take some pictures of how I changed the lights for the A/C controls. Here you go

Items Needed:

Find Point X-acto Knife
Scissors
Colored Acetate (Comes in multiple colors, used for lighting)


Remove the center console.
Use the X-acto knife and careful remove the green rubber covers from the two LEDs. This will make them white.


Cut Acetate to desired shape and size. Trim in needed.
I used super glue to hold it in place.

I cut 5 pieces to fully cover the center section of the A/C controls. They a made a small hole in the acetate to make way for the center knob.

anyplace i can get that stuff online or what store would it be at?

This should be carried at any "GOOD" camera store or arts and crafts store.
I know it is sold online, but I don't know where. I found this at a A.C. Moore where I live. This should also be carried at a lighting store. College Campus Stores usually carry this stuff too for their Drama Club and such.


OH and I forgot ... for the cig lighter I just removed the blub and wrap a piece of acetate around it and shoved it back into the hole. That's why you can see a slight white section in the Cig Lighter.

is that the same stuff you used to do your cig lighter?

yup

RicePowered,

If I remember correctly someone posted that they had used the same technique (colored acetate) to changed the clock color. Was this person you? If it was, can you post some pictures of that?

No I didn't do this ... but it wouldn't be all that hard.
The only bad part is that the clock is green. Putting a color in front of it will not only dim it a little but it won't come out looking 100% like that color. I don't know how to completely change the clock color.

to completely change the clock color you will need a new clock teh only way to change it is with the acetate but it will dim an look a lil off color. teh lclock is a led readout and it canot be changed by simply changing leds.

hey i got a question...if i just took off the green covers ...the ac controls would be white? right? would it look any good?

No it doesn't i've already tried it...looks way plainer then the green covers..just get the colored acetate...i'm going for the color Blue..

Ya i did that to, it makes it like a peachish color.

how bright does it look after the conversion?

I did this with blue acetate...came out crappy...not enuff light shines through and you can hardly see it..so if you wanna go blue dont bother with acetate i think neon is the way to go

damit dude...i was gonna try this acetate stuff...seems like it worked frine for him...hmmmm might still try it? is it like a litght blue or like turqoise(spelling)

can you do the same thing with the gauges? i guess not, but just checking

i painted the bulbs red with clear transparent paint.

I like Darren. Good work. Are you going to change the dash lights to a more red than the amber now?

i just used fingernail polish to paint my lights...ghetto, but FREE (i just stole some nailpolish from mom hehe) and it looks great, it's really pretty bright at night, have to put on 2 coats though or hte lights look like pink

i know this may sound stupid but are the bulbs hot enough that over time the acetate would burn or would nail polish burn as well just asking just in case...want to be positive before i do something

the transparent paint i used came out good...it's still bright for me.

yea dude doesnt have to be supre bright aslong as you can see it...im gonna try the blue this weekend if i have some free time

where t get the paint? looks nice!

hey rice...will this acetate stuff work if i put it over the clock...or will it just melt???

If anyone has tried blue can you post a pic, I have tried the neon thing twice and both times it didn't work at all.

I tried painting blue with some transparent glass paint. Ended up looking greenish.

BUT, the problem is, with the LED Blue Dash conversion, I turn down the brightness on the fuel/temp & radio LEDS (they're a lot brigter than stock amber), and the HVAC controls arent bright enough, even w/ clear lights.

Light bar seems to be the way to go if you're goin with the Blue inside.

acetate can also be picked up for FREE at any gift wrapping service or flower shop... in MANY colors

or for about $0.99c at Target/Walmart/Rite-Aid or any other store that sells gift wrapping supplies - and sometimes even in your local grocery store's gift card isle

I did something very simple and it came out great, red, and bright.
1)I took off the center console
2) Pulled Knobs off
3) Unscrew the 4 screws
4) Used red brake light tape, and applied one layer of tape to the back of the console, similiar to what RyOlSe did.
5) I stripped off the green rubber-like material from the bulbs ( I tried to leave them on, but it came out way too dark). I simply took them off using my fingernails, took a few trys
6) Slapped it all together!

In the console I have tried different technics w/acetate... Red is easy... w/blue you must put at least 3 layers... but it come out a little "cyan" (looks very similar to the indiglos gauge faces) anyways looks nice...
In the clock I put double acetate (red) at night looks pretty good red, but, during daylight you can barely see it ('coz the smoked acrylic)... I guess I'm gonna try w/ 2 or 3 layers of blue...

would the acetate melt from the heat of the cig lighter

It takes some hours... but yes.. it will (sooner or later!)

OK, I just got done with a center console paint job, came out great, BUT, as I had it all apart, I found that one of my LED lights are burnt out or something, and not lighting, there anyway to replace these? Perhaps if there is, I'll just replace them with brighter different color LEDs

No question, the red film makes your controls look sharp! But revisiting the idea of just taking the covers off the LEDs, there was a post in the mods section where someone used clear LEDS for the outer dials (red-to-blue temp dial and the fan dial). I think he left the center unchanged... in any case, it seemed to look good in that it brought out the blue and red that you see in the day but gets lost in orange at night... Did you try the clear only on the center, or did you try it on the outside dials as well?

i tried changing the leds to a hyper white, and those bulbs blew in a couple seconds, then i tried some with higher wattage, and they came out way too dim!, so if you try, make sure you get a high enough voltage, and that they are the high entensity ones...

so no one has found an easier way to jus make the light blue without replacing the bulbs. because im tryin to figure out if i should use paint.

warning, do not use nailpolish, bulb temperature will burn it, i tried and it turned out to be nasty, i had to clean those bulbs afterward

ok i put two coats of acetate behind the whole ac housing, i cut a hole between all the three knobs, it came out nice but the ac and defogger light is white and green when you press it. i know theres two bulbs behind the knobs, is there anything behind the ac button and the defogger or r they working from the same 2 lights? if not, how can i change the ac light itself. stupid me, i bought clear paint but never used it. im gonna paint it with clear paint next week.

So if I put acetate over the cig lighter and it melted, what's the worst that could happen?

Can anyone in NY do this? I'm willing to pay top $$. Send me a PM. Thanks.

this is simple to do... doesn't take any intelligence whatsoever

It may not take intelligence, but it does take time, which I do not have.

takes less than 10 minutes...

I was showing my g/f (also a celica owner) lastnight about how easy it was... she couldn't believe that it was that incredibly simple! (pull the 4 climate control knobs. pull the lower center console up and out. unscrew the four screws, 2 behind the knobs and two (now visible) fastening the upper console. pull the upper console up and out of the way...take the film and tape it into place... now put everything back together again)

I found that cutting the film was the most time consuming aspect.

Is there anyway to change the light color behind the defogger/AC? It still shows up peach. Thanks.

cutting the film is like cutting a piece of paper...

here is the information you were looking for on what colors can be used to change what into what...
https://celicahobby.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/268819/clock-how-to-change-color.html

yeah, mine shows the same...are those buttons removable in any way?

I have mine set up so if you change from fresh air to circulate the knob changes colors same with the lo to high knob. All I did was take off the A/C controls panel, remove one of the bulb covers and I colored the backside of the panel with a sharpie. Ill try to add pics sometime soon.

i just found a website that sell bulb covers (like the green ones that come on our cars) maybe we could just get a cople of these for about a buck a piece and skip the film thing. im sure it would turn out better. check it out and let me know wut you guys think. ill order them as soon as i find out the diameter of the bulbes in the ac panel so i can order the right ones. ill post sum pics of the install. the site is http://www.electronicplus.com/content/ProductPage.asp?maincat=la&subcat=lmi

I just completed the RJ Autoworks gauge replacement from orange to blue and everything there looks great and works fine but when I used the bulb cover replacements from there (which happened to be too big but I cut them down to fit the best I could) the lights for the A/C and all don't work. The only light out of the 4 that works is the one for the rear-defogger. Both buttons still work though (A/C & rear-defogger) but only the rear-defogger light works. Anybody have any ideas as to why those lights don't work anymore? Is it possible that it could've blown a fuse somehow? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

did you check the fillaments? maybe the bulbs just burned out when you were doing the install?

hey does anyone know the size/name of the bulbs used in the ac panel????

Did you remove the covers? I've heard many reports that bulb covers really don't work well, they don't let enough light through.

yo the same thing happened to me too!!! i wish i can fix the bulbs. i went to the dealership to replace the bulbs and that didn't work either. so i'm still stuck wit no light in the center console other than the defogger. Does anyone have an answer to this problem??