why changing colours doesn't work
There has been a lot of discussion on the TOProtege forums about changing the cluster colours. I was fortunate enough to pick up a spare cluster for a future project, and figured I might as well dissect it and really find out why changing colours is so tough. So, combined with a "how-to" is finally an explanation why we can't easily change the cluster colour, and how to take it all apart, hopefully without breaking anything!
1) Take out the cluster. Not tough to do - I'll post up pics later if anyone needs it.
2) Separate the back and front main parts. There are 6 plastic clips that hold the two sections together, and no screws. Just push down on the clips and the two pieces should separte. The following 3 pictures show the location of the clips.
- Left Side and Top Clips
- Right Side and Top Clips
- Cluster upside down: Bottom Clips
3) Next step is to take off the needles. This is probably the hardest part of he whole disassembly. The spindles are incredibly easy to break. I was being very careful and still broke the spindles on both the smaller needles. The trick is to get something underneath the body of the needle and pull straight up. STRAIGHT up. If you pull on an angle at all the spindles will break. Hopefully when I finally reassemble the cluster I'll be able to use krazy glue to hold the two smaller needles in place.
- Cluster with needles removed
- Broken spindles on the two smaller needles
4) Once the needles are removed, take out the 2 black screws in the centre of each gauge - 6 screws in total. At this point the gauge faces and the "light guides" underneath should easily come out.
- Faces removed
- Faces and light guides removed
5) Finally, here is why the colours cannot be easily changed. You will see on the back of this cluster that there is a green film embedded into the plastic. I tried to scrape it off, but it only scratched the plastic, and did nothing to remove the coloured film.
- Face Backs
I also took apart the mazdaspeed cluster (same as P5). The colouring is embedded red instead of green in this cluster. It's unfortunate that Mazda built them this way...
It seems like the only solution is to get custom gauge faces built. As of January 2006 I'll be investigating where these can be made with a clear film instead of coloured, and for how much. I'll be updating my website http://www.kgm.tiwing.com, under mazdaspeed -> projects) once I find out more information.
Edit: in the MSP cluster, I've had red, amber, blue, and purple bulbs installed, and red, amber, and blue LED bulbs. the only ones that worked well at all were red and amber. Purple and blue were way too dim and the colours were not true. Amber was "reddened", while red was actually a very nice blood red...
There has been a lot of discussion on the TOProtege forums about changing the cluster colours. I was fortunate enough to pick up a spare cluster for a future project, and figured I might as well dissect it and really find out why changing colours is so tough. So, combined with a "how-to" is finally an explanation why we can't easily change the cluster colour, and how to take it all apart, hopefully without breaking anything!
1) Take out the cluster. Not tough to do - I'll post up pics later if anyone needs it.
2) Separate the back and front main parts. There are 6 plastic clips that hold the two sections together, and no screws. Just push down on the clips and the two pieces should separte. The following 3 pictures show the location of the clips.
- Left Side and Top Clips
- Right Side and Top Clips
- Cluster upside down: Bottom Clips
3) Next step is to take off the needles. This is probably the hardest part of he whole disassembly. The spindles are incredibly easy to break. I was being very careful and still broke the spindles on both the smaller needles. The trick is to get something underneath the body of the needle and pull straight up. STRAIGHT up. If you pull on an angle at all the spindles will break. Hopefully when I finally reassemble the cluster I'll be able to use krazy glue to hold the two smaller needles in place.
- Cluster with needles removed
- Broken spindles on the two smaller needles
4) Once the needles are removed, take out the 2 black screws in the centre of each gauge - 6 screws in total. At this point the gauge faces and the "light guides" underneath should easily come out.
- Faces removed
- Faces and light guides removed
5) Finally, here is why the colours cannot be easily changed. You will see on the back of this cluster that there is a green film embedded into the plastic. I tried to scrape it off, but it only scratched the plastic, and did nothing to remove the coloured film.
- Face Backs
I also took apart the mazdaspeed cluster (same as P5). The colouring is embedded red instead of green in this cluster. It's unfortunate that Mazda built them this way...
It seems like the only solution is to get custom gauge faces built. As of January 2006 I'll be investigating where these can be made with a clear film instead of coloured, and for how much. I'll be updating my website http://www.kgm.tiwing.com, under mazdaspeed -> projects) once I find out more information.
Edit: in the MSP cluster, I've had red, amber, blue, and purple bulbs installed, and red, amber, and blue LED bulbs. the only ones that worked well at all were red and amber. Purple and blue were way too dim and the colours were not true. Amber was "reddened", while red was actually a very nice blood red...
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