Well. I've removed the rubber from my HVAC knobs like soo many people here have done and I was thinking about doing something to change the color of them..
If I where to apply a thin layer of blue finger nail polish to the back of them.... wouldn't the light still shine through making them glow blue? I quess I could always just try it and have some nail polish remover handy... but I'm wondering if anyone has ever tried this before.
Well I dont know about nail polish.. but I was going to try that same idea with stained glass paint I found from my lil' sister's last school project.
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- putting the pieces back together -
I used a thin layer of modeler's enamel paint, which worked decently -- not the best though. If you can find something *meant* to pass light, you'll get better results.
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i used the stuff that is on those 3D glasses works great for me.
i used some colored transparent film
needs a revamp tho. pictures used to be bigger
Changing the color of the knobs gives an appearence thats its the color, but its still kinda eh looking. You will still be able to see that it has a faint yellowish tint to it. If you really want to change the color, the best way is to change the lights. I had the knobs painted blue, and it was eh, so i got new knobs, kept them clear, but changed the lights blue and used the foil trick, and WHAM, the knobs are as bright as my guage cluster, lol.
Why not just upgrade to LED's in the HVAC and rap the clear part in alum wrap to make it work better... Make sure to cut the top around the knobs out to let the light from them out from there.
Cool.... thanx.... I'll probably go the LED route... but I'm going to wait and see how my cluster turns out first so I know what color I need for sure...
LED route will easily give you the best results. Just make sure you sand the edges of the bulb to give it a more rounded appearence, and wrap the plexi glass with foil (its one of those you'd have to see things to understand when you get in there). I went this route and like I said, my knobs are as bright as my cluster, lol.
Exodus 259 wrote:LED route will easily give you the best results. Just make sure you sand the edges of the bulb to give it a more rounded appearence, and wrap the plexi glass with foil (its one of those you'd have to see things to understand when you get in there). I went this route and like I said, my knobs are as bright as my cluster, lol.
Forgot to say that about sanding the tops, but be carefull cause the first one I did I pushed to hard and ripped the top of the led out of the bottom.
SuperBrightLED.com is so sweet!
just use rit dye and boil them for a few seconds...works great!
Use Rit Dye, And LED's. I had red led's with the stock cav plate and knobs. It looked light pink, so i swaped for sunfire parts, and now i love my hvac.
Cool...
The only reason I was thinking of using finger nail polish was because I know light transfers through it well... I've actually used it for simular things like this before with good results... although it doesn't stand up to heat very well.
Depending on how hard it will be to change my gauge cluster.. and or if I decide it's worth it or not.... I might just leave the rest of the gauges stock and make the HVAC controls red instead..... although my Alpine deck kinda clashes since it's blue wich drives me crazy....
Thanks for the ideas guys..... when I finally get off my ass and do it... I'll posts pics... (shouldn't be very long).
.... i took some black ones out of a new cavalier....
I used those little colored transparent tabs that go on file folders. just found them in a desk upstairs and thought I'd try it, they are square, just put it behind the black cover piece, fills in the whole circle, and cut a small hole for the shaft that the knob sits on to go through, did a couple of layers on each knob, to get a darker blue, looks great and bright, best part-super easy and cost nothing, you can see the blue during the day as well, but i like it.
Where can I order new knobs online, pls help I want to try some of the tricks you guys mentioned?
I just used a blue permanent marker and colored the back side of them. It is light enough to let the light shine through and gives it a nice look. I should have a extra set of knobs laying around.
I used stained glass paint.
jnickel wrote:i used some colored transparent film
needs a revamp tho. pictures used to be bigger
That is what I did as well only in blue. Stained glass paint sounds like the best option to me.
FORGET GIRLS GONE WILD WE HAVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING GONE WILD!
judov79 wrote:I just used a blue permanent marker and colored the back side of them. It is light enough to let the light shine through and gives it a nice look. I should have a extra set of knobs laying around.
I tried this as my first attempt. I did not like it though because the blue was not even. Some spots were a litle lighter and some darker. It is like trying to coloer with a marker you will see the lines the marker leaves.
FORGET GIRLS GONE WILD WE HAVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING GONE WILD!
swap out the lights for LED's, wrap the defuser with tinfoil. I added 2 5v led's as well , clear knobs and I came out with this.
Memeber since '99
cardomain New England Tunerz
sorry..forgot to add that I've got 4 LED's total. 2 replacement LEDS (with a flat top wide angle dispersment) and I added 2 5v LEDS facing inwards from the side of the cluster. I know it's got some dark spots...but that's ok.
Memeber since '99
cardomain New England Tunerz
Thanx guys.... Since I'm lazy... I fiqured that I would try painting them first to see how it looked... They actually came out looking kinda cool... at night there a darker purplish red and instead of looking backlit... they just seem to glow.
I decided to go with red instead of blue... screw it... I'm leaving my cluster stock.
I actually used red metalic finger nail polish like I was thinking of doing.... it worked pretty good... although time will tell how well it holds up..
I'm using my PS3 to post this... but once I get my PC back online I'll post some pics.
Ok so I must really be behind the times...
How do you remove the rubber around the knobs? Those green ones are wild in the dark Zero! They'd go wicked with my dash.
Is there any step by step on what you did?
Buddy Club Ecotec Cavalier
* More to come *
