In this DIY, I'll teach you how to change the colour of your speedometer and tachometer in the cluster! Sick of your boring old greeny aqua colour??? IT CAN BE CHANGED!
What You Need
- Screwdrivers
- 3M Transperancy Film (for Inkjet Printers)
- Inkjet Printer
- Sticky / Electrical Tape
- Scissors
Removing the Cluster.
Firstly, you'll need to remove the cluster cover. Carefuly pull at the top and pull backwards until it unclicks and comes off.
Make sure you pull this plug out (press in one side and pull out).
With the dash cluster cover off, you'll be able to see the main cluster display screwed into place. There are 4 screws holding it in .... make sure you dont drop them into the dash!!
With the 4 screws off, you should be able to pull the whole cluster out with ease. At this point ,, unplug the loom from the left side as seen below.
With the side loom off, you should be able to get to the other two looms at the back of the cluster - unplug these as well!
Most cars take ages to get the cluster out, in the echo it took all of 10 minutes Smile
Pullings apart the Cluster.
Turn the cluster around, and take a look at the back! There's heaps of globes for all the warning lights some have caps on themand some dont. Playing with these globes might be a future project
Here, you need to emove the UV cover from the cluster, theres 5 clips holding this in. Carefully unclip them making sure you dont break any, and the cover will come off.
In its full naked glory, you can see the concave mirror that magnifies the digital display to appear so deep int he dash. Its a simple but very effective illusion that some other Toyotas (such as Soarers) have used in the past.
At this point, remove the two screws from the front of the unit, to take off the main display cover .
Scared yet? Dont be.... We need to get closer to the digital display! With the two screws out, unclip the 3 clips .. and remove the cover.
With the cover off, it is possible to remove the digital display for a closer look (like i did below), but i would not advise it - it's fairly delicate. Make sure you take a peek at how it all works -- very interesting!
You should have something like this .... the LCD and circuitboard cover .
Colouring the display!
With the cover off, we'll use this to colour the display. HOW your ask? Fairly simple!
Prior to doing all of the above, I went to Officeworks and purchased a few pieces of 3M Transparency Film for use with inkjet printers. I opened up Photoshop (you could also use MS PAINT) and drew a big rectangle. The rectangle must be big enough to totally cover the space you see in the picture above. I then printed it onto the transparency film (the rough side, not the smooth one). Once printed out, leave it to dry somewhere --- whatever you do, DONT TOUCH IT, smudge it, or put finger prints on it!
After waiting about five minutes for it to dry, I cut it out and bent it in half.
I then cut it to size so it would roughly cover the space as needed.
Using sticktape, i then STUCK it to the cover. Ideally i should of used black electical tape - i'll probably go back and redo it in the future.
Carefully place the LCD cover back in.... making sure both screws and all clips are on tight.
Looking into the mirror from front on, you can see how the LCD is mirrored. It APPEARS to be bright pink, however it WONT BE. Keep in mind, the natural colour of the LCD is a bright greeny, aquaish, colour.
I plugged it back in, and made sure it lit up ... all good! "its still hot pink"
Yes, it still appears to be bright pink... but this will change.
Now, to reveal what colour it really is, we have to put the main cluster cover back on. The hot pink ink on transperency film combined with aqua glow of the LCD gives you the finished product ... a whitish/lilacish colour.... very nice Smile
Heres another pic with everything back in place.
Now for the close up... absolutely flawless !!!
With some imagination, Im sure you could create just about any colour you want.
For Example...
2 layers of Pink Ink - Lilac as I produced.
1 layer of Pink Ink - shoudl give you a whitish colour
Yellow Ink - will probably give you green
Dark Blue as i also tested - will give you a very bright blue colour as seen below Wink It was a bit hard to see during the day, but at night looked AWESOME.
Keep in mind that the more layers you use, or the darker the colour, the darker the overall display will look. You are effectively filtering the LCD even more than it has been already.