DIY 7th Gen Blue Gauges

[MJL]

After seeing pictures of people with different color gauges, not just stock red (coupes) or white (sedans), I've been searching for a way to change my gauge lights/color. I found an awesome DIY over at everything-honda.com that you can take a look at here

gauge color change DIY

I used this DIY and finally finished my gauges and took pics. The DIY is pretty much spot on and it does requires a lot of patience. Other than that it was a pretty east DIY. I ordered the colored film from ebay and when it arrived did everything in about an hour. Heres my finished product -

Gauges and Radio
Gauges

On a scale of 1-10 in difficulty I would rate this a 5. The hardest part for me was getting the film cut out right so it would cover all the area I wanted. And getting it in the right place was annoying since the sticky adhesive made placing the film difficult, which is why you need to be in a patient mood for this mod.

[RTexasF]

Nice look....you weren't EVEN kidding about the patience required.

[VTECaddict]

i think it looks ok. i'd prefer to leave the white parts white and just make the green (sedan) or red (coupe) parts blue

[MJL]

I wasn't a big fan of the off-white-somewhat-yellow color of my gauges so I really wanted that swapped, especially after coming from a truck that I had the ability to swap bulbs easily to change the colors. If the gauges had been anything like the new 06 style I might have kept them the same but these had to go! The pics don't do it justice really, it has a much deeper blue than what is shown, so I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

About the only bad thing is that since changing the radios color, it makes it a little hard to read on sunny days, but even before that, it was still a problem reading the radio face on sunny days, so I was already used to dealing with low radio face visibility.

[WolfpackBill]

Awesome mod!! I saw the thread a while ago on everythinghonda and I really like it. But the more I drive my car, the more I like the stock white letterings on my instrument cluster. I remember when I had my Explorer, I actually printed out designs (mine was flames) and glued it on the cluster and then added a film like this one to change the color from bluish-green to completely blue. It looked awesome!!

[princess]

The blue is really pretty!

Why didn't you just change the bulbs you wanted, instead of the film stuff?

[MJL]

Originally Posted by princess

Why didn't you just change the bulbs you wanted, instead of the film stuff?

I have little experience when it comes to leds, and from what I've read, that's what the 7th gen accords have in the gauges. So I didn't want to have to worry about the leds, the correct resistors that go with them and making sure they were all wired and soldered in the correct order so that each one lights up. I think THAT would have taken more time than just using the film.

When I can get around to it, I will probably pull the radio and do that with the lights for the radio buttons. But for now, until I get more practice with leds, I just wanted to use the film.

[CBass170]

I've tried to check out the DIY for the blue gauges for a couple of days now and it will not come up. Is this link no longer available? Could someone post this again or send it to via email? Thanks guys and gals.

[MJL]

I just clicked on the link and it worked for me. heres the address if it helps.

http://www.everything-honda.com/foru...ead.php?t=3529

[mnkyman]

sorry to revive an old thread but, i was looking for the blut tint on ebay and couldnt find the buyer

any help?

[faboloso]

Originally Posted by mnkyman

sorry to revive an old thread but, i was looking for the blut tint on ebay and couldnt find the buyer

any help?

this should do it
http://www.decorativefilms.com/Oracal.htm

[MJL]

Try this...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Blue-Transparent...QQcmdZViewItem

If you need a different color, search through their listing. Not sure if 12x12 will be enough for what you need, the auction I won came with 3 8x10 sheets and I think I used 1 and a half. And make sure you get film with no adhesive, theres already a tacky substance behind the black of the gauges that gets in the way.

[mnkyman]

great, thanks for the help mjl


hey quick opinion question...how do you think it would look if i did it all blue and left the speedo in the middle white?...i tried to photoshop something of it..and it came out looking bad..the Photoshop of it ...so im wondering what do you think it would look like?

[MJL]

Heres a quick PS I did, nothing fancy but it gives you an idea. Honestly I don't think it would look right, but I'm comparing it to MY gauges that were the older style. Yours will look different since you have an 06+. My suggestion if you were going to do this mod would be to do everything in blue but the speedo and reinstall it and test it to see how it looks, you should probably do that anyway in case some of the film shifts and makes white areas that you want to be blue. The speedo is the easiest part to change so if you decide you dont like it that way its easy to take it back out and make that part match the rest.

If you do leave the speedo white take pics so we can see the difference.

[mnkyman]

sounds cool, i think im going to try if over xmas break, and ill make sure to take plenty of pictures


another quick question, do the gauges come out lighter in the pics than what they actually are? ..cause it looks kind of like the gauges are a light blue from the pictures and i want to go for something of a more darker look, but if they are just the pictures that come out lighter i could care less.