I have a 94 ford ranger and I would like to paint my instrument panel so that I could paint it to make my dash a different color at night. I don't know how to remove my needles. I know I have to do this to get to the part that I have to scrape the green off of. Does anyone know how to do this. It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

I'm not sure about the Rangers but my S-10 I change to blue by getting bulb covers and putting them on the dash illumination lights.

That probably doesn't help but I figured I would throw it out incase it does.

 

When I did it, I was told to use a fork which I did and it worked great. Just put it under it and make it leveled and pulled straight up, had no problems, to bad I don't use that cluster anymore though, heh.

 

do a search for it in the interior section. there is alot of info there already but basically there is a film that regular bulbs light up so changing the bulb colo wont really effect the clor they light up....

 

Huh? I've done the mod. Removed the needles, removed the guages and lightly sanded the reverse side of them and replaced certain bulbs with LEDs and I had the desired colors, let me see if I can find a picture.

 

It's easier to do with glass paint, actually. My how-to is here.

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/24

The problem is that LED's generally don't illuminate the dash evenly. Also, with glass paint you can do multiple colors which you can't do with colored LED's. My dash is red with blue highlights, yellow warning lights and blue needles.

I've added some stuff, like a blue faced radio now with white display (Ford CD6, but from an aviator with the buttons modified with glass, but here's a picture of it somewhat represented.



I DO have LED's in the cruise control pods, headlight switch, etc, though. There's how-to's on how to make that mod on my cardomain site as well.

Notice I have an Explorer EATC instead of the standard heater controls. That how-to is also over there -- but it's not simple, lol.

 

Sweet! Thanks for the link! If I decide to do anything to my sport trac guages ill definately refer to that.

 

Whats the diff between the sport trac gauges and the ranger gauges??

 

Well I have an 00 ranger so it came with this super ugly stupid looking one. This is what came stock in mine And than I got One that was said to come out of an 04 Sport trac but Im pretty sure they come in all newer rangers. I now have an RPM Guage and a better looking display. Adds a lot of style.

 

my cluster guage is exactly like the 04 sport trac

 

Yes, the sport trac gauges look sharp. I've thought about that, but haven't cruised the yards for one. I'd modify it also if I did.

My accessory gauges on the A-pillar pod are white face, so the sport trac gauges would now be a better "blend".

 

Wow, they do look nicer, I may want to do that one day. That's when I'll mod the gauge colors, so I'm not without a cluster for a couple days.

 

This is more an "overnight" or afternoon mod as I've documented it. The paint dries pretty quickly.

 

yea... it takes time lol