[tjjoiner]

Just a brief update on my own gauge cluster color swap.

Last year, I swapped out the standard bulbs for white ones. I have trouble seeing at night so the increased brightness over the factory incandescent bulbs was a huge improvement for me. There was a slight greenish tint to the light as a result of the factory gauge tinting. It wasn't ideal but I could live with it. I was just glad to have brighter gauges.

Well, this year, with coronavirus keeping everyone shut in - including myself - I decided to see if I could do something about that green tint. After checking out other forums and reading through this thread, I thought I'd try scraping the tint off. After testing a portion of the gauge face that is usually covered by the gauge bezel, I realized...

Yes, you CAN remove the tint.

I used a curved blade. I thought about sandpaper but I like the precision of the blade. It's a pain in the butt and I highly recommend you leave the transmission selection, "x1000r/min," and "mph km/h" sections alone as these areas do NOT tolerate removing the tint very well. I had to come back with a paint pen because light was poking through.

But anyway, it was tedious but it's done. I left the red needles and red portions of the gauges. I also left the tint on the PRND21 because, as I said, removing the tint from the inset portions of the gauges is not at all forgiving.

I also removed the tint from behind the odometer.

I'll try to post a photo later tonight but so far I'm very pleased. My next project will be the HVAC control lighting.

 

[WolfShaman]

Okay. The following has been confirmed by myself to work in a 2005 element:
194 bulbs (5LED) fit in the front side markers and license plate lights. (194-CWHP5 (cool white) or 194-AHP5 (Amber)). Other colors available.
NEO3 (1 LED) bulbs fit in the environmental buttons (pick your color). Bottom row, to answer that question.
NEO4 (1 LED) bulbs fit in the environmental dials (pick your color). Top row, to answer that question.
74-CHWP (3 LED, cool white) bulbs fit in every dash spot and in the gear indicator on automatics. Other colors fit as well.

Are the NEO3/4 supposed to be 3, 4, or 5mm? Are they plug and play, or are there modifications that need to be done to make them fit? Thanks.

 

[Meltman]

I'll add my method for removing the "tint" off the cluster. I used a two part method.
To remove the needles I used the "two spoons" method with paper towels under each spoon. Worked fine.

Step 1, use acetone to quickly remove the tint. You'll remove some black paint around as well. Note: Acetone will EAT THE PLASTIC so your goal is to remove all the tint then STOP. Don't try to make it perfect, that's what step 2 is for.
Step 2, use brake cleaner on a q-tip to remove the smeared black paint. Brake cleaner will not really eat the plastic but will clear off the remaining haze of black paint.
Step 3, use a paint marker and a bright shop light to fix light bleed through.

In this picture I've done step 1 and 2 on the tach.

In this picture I'm working on covering up the light bleed through on the kph portion of the gauges.