Center Dash Removal

[RyanExplr01]

Hey Guys New To The Board I just bought some LED's for my center console because my HU is all blue and I wanted to change the lights underneath it from green to blue so they will match. My question is how do i go about removing the center dash with all the A/C consoles and such to put these new bulbs in.... ?

 

[celly]

It's not so cut and dried to simply add in a few LEDs to change the lights to blue. There have been quite a few threads on the subject. Might want to use to SEARCH function to scour the archives to see what it's all about. A lot of the threads include photos.

To remove the "radio bezel", use a 7mm socket to remove the two bolts on the front of the bezel (just above the three HVAC knobs). You gently lift the bezel out after that. Then remove the multitude of plugs from their sockets. Pretty easy to do, but takes some patience if hasn't been done before. A lot of those plugs can be in there pretty tight if not done before. I'm taking a pretty simplistic view of the task. You'd be be served finding some of those threads I mention. That's how I figured it out. That's also why I decided not to change any of the bulbs.

Welcome to the site. A GREAT Explorer resource.

 

[RyanExplr01]

I just read through about 20 different posts and some people said they have seen it done and others are saying no blue led will make them green because the stock nobs and such have a green tint sheet or somthing but what I'm wondering is can't you just take that out so it's all blue lights shining through....?

 

[celly]

I just read through about 20 different posts and some people said they have seen it done and others are saying no blue led will make them green because the stock nobs and such have a green tint sheet or somthing but what I'm wondering is can't you just take that out so it's all blue lights shining through....?

You probably can get them all looking blue, but it's a lot of work, IMHO. Some of the bulbs have a green "condom" over a white bulb. The best way to get them blue is to replace the condom with a blue one. I know the HVAC overlay has white bulbs behind it. The overlay has a green "lens" ("sheet" as you put it) behind the symbols. It would be tricky to remove them, but I'm sure it can be done. Just seemed like a lot of work to me amd I wasn't convinced I'd like the results. And you're right, blue LEDs don't really do the job because in almost all cases, you're dealing with white bulbs behind something green. Same holds true for your speedo cluster. Your best bet to to open up your radio bezel and see how the different knobs etc. are illumininated. It all became much clearer when I saw it first hand.

I did buy a white-faced HVAC overlay that sort of shone bluish (more of a turquoise), but it was so dim I didn't like it (replaced it with an HVAC unit from a '01 Sport instead which is green but matches the other mods I did from an '01 Sport).

Good luck with the project if you decide to do it. Anything can be done with the right expertise and patience. I don't really have either.

 

[Greddy X-Plorer]

Hey Buddy, I have this thread saved on how to install white face gauges and it has pics on it on how to remove your dash and it really really helped me a lot. Here's the thread, hope I helped... http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46290