Interior lights, which bulbs? Options

[6strngs]

ok, I changed my clock to blue today following the how-to and using a folder divider-tab thing! woot! but now I want to change the rest of my interior lights to blue now as well! for the gauge cluster, I'll be getting some reverse-glow gauges (probably these) and I'd like my mph to be blue, the kph to be red, the needles to be red, the milage and trip odometer blue, turn signal lights blue. as far as I know, all other cluster lights (brake, oil, airbag, battery, seatbelt, etc.) are red so they can stay the same, except the fuel light, so I'd like to make that red as well. (blue highbeam light can remain blue)

I want to make the light in the driver's side window switch blue.

I want to make the light around the ignition blue.

for my climate control, I'd like all the regular lights blue, and the lights that are in the little squares that light up when the button is pressed to be red.

I'd also like the light above the rear view mirror that comes on when the doors open to be blue.

ANYWAY!!!!!!!! My question is, what bulbs do I need? I know most are 194 and 74. But the thing I really would like to know, is how many of each to complete all this? also, I'd like to know the recommended brightness (for the bulbs that are available in different brightnesses) For the dome light, I'd like it to be just as bright as the stock light, so I dunno if I can do that with LED lights, or if I could find a regular light bulb in blue. For the ring around the ignition, I'd like to be as close to the stock brightness as possible, maybe a little brighter. For the window switch, I want it brighter than stock. In the celicatech how-to the guy used a 5000MCD so I think that's what I'll be going with. For climate control and gauges cluster, I dunno, I want them to be nice and bright but not annoying when driving at night, so probably pretty close to stock brightness.

now before you yell at me, yes, I did look in the sticky, but some of the links are dead, and some aren't really how-to's so much as "hey, look what I did." so I came up with as much info as I could. I mostly want to know how many of each bulb I'll need so I can order the correct amount.

This post has been edited by 6strngs: Oct 24, 2006 - 11:58 PM

[Stu37363]

from my experience you dont want the window switch to be brighter than stock. i made mine blue and had to rough it up and angle it just so it didnt blind me.

the needles and trip are lit off the same bulbs, so unless you want to do some serious custom led work they will have to be the same color.

as far as guage cluster lights, if you have cruise control it is green, so you may want to think about that one.
i didnt mess with those lights because the color is kind of painted onto the back of the gauge material.

i tried the blue dome light and it just got on my nerves, i couldnt use it to actually find anything in my car.

you can get the 194 and 74 bulbs that are 12v and ready to go for the guages, the keyring can be done with a 74 i think, but i had to use 2 leds in mine to be happy with the look.

for the red lights you want in the climate control i would try to find 3-milimeter rectangular leds.

for the cc backlighting i cant give you any advice, im still trying to perfect that look. i ended up backlighting each button with an led instead of using the plastic to disperse the light, but im working on lighting the dials still.

as far as the turn signals, i think there is a walkthrough on them. i did the bottle cap thing and it worked great (youll know what i mean when you find it)

best advice i can give is try not to mix and match your bulbs too much, try to stay with the same type as much as possible. i think i have some super human ability to see the slightest differences in blue so i had to do some extra work to make myself happy.

as far as how many to order, just count how many you think you will need and get extra, i know i cant stop finding things to change to blue... stock radio, keychain alarm light, etc

good luck