Page 1 of 1

How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2012 10:08 pm
by troopiec
I just put in blue LED's in my cluster and it came out awsome except my speedometer needle is yellow inside and it does not glow with the blue light like the Rev needle which is completely clear, it looks pretty bad:

Image

Image

is there anyway to get the yellow out of the speedo needle??? please some advice, ive read up that you should not remove the needle as its almost imposible to put it on again in the right position, so i dont want to mess with that, is that yellow on the needle on the inside of the plastic or could i try rub it off with thinners on the outside? its quite a tricky situation :?:

thanks!

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 7:42 am
by SonOfAnarchy ZA
is the bottom of the needle yellow or is it the whole thing?

what ever you do dont paint the top of the needle the light wont come through it might be the paint on the bottom of the needle might have turned yellow its very comon

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 12:39 pm
by troopiec
Its really hard to see where the paint all is hey, I've taken it out again to get the needle clear, so what I think I'm gonna try is gently sand the underneath of the needle and hopefully thatl work, I just want It to be clear like the rev needle, but I really don't want to pull the needle off as its risky, so I'll just carefully sand it underneath with it still fitted

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2012 8:16 pm
by troopiec
:facepalm: well ive F#@ked up!!! i sat carefully with a tiny piece of sand paper under the needle and ever so gently sanded it for quite some time, and no change in color, so in one last effort i tried some thinners :facepalm: now i know thinners will mess up plastic and perspecs but usually only the surface and then you can polish it up again, well not in this case, it flipping cracked the needle in half :cry: :cry: so......... no use in crying over spilt milk now, looks like i wouldve needed a different needle anyways as the plastic is stained inside with the color so no way i wouldve gotten it clear anyhow.

So now i need to get a new needle! does anyone have a broken cluster laying around with a clear needle for me pleeeeaaase? I looked in my moms 2002 Almera and it has the same needle as my car except in red. So even a sentra etc i think is all the same.

Any help would be greatly appreciated please as now my car is going to stand.

Image

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:56 pm
by nissan sss
I gently cleaned only the boom of my needels with thinners so that the whole thing will not get dull, and painted them red, looks good.

good luck think the sentra needel is the same but they are all red

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:05 pm
by troopiec
Well problem is all solved now thanks to some guys on the forum, Riekert sent me a spare cluster to take the needle off but in the process of the needle transplant my speedo mechanism started sticking, looks like the age of mechanism and my last tiny bit of pressure on it caused it to screw up, no matter how gently i put the needle in it would stick, and the mech is loose, so i put riekerts cluster back together nicely and then bought another cluster which had all clear needles, heres the end result, im happy with it:

Image

My advice is avoid trying to remove and refit needles, i managed to put Riekerts needle back on nicely without damage but its a delicate operation and risky.

Thanks guys for all assistance! [smilie=200sx_200sx.gif]

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:38 pm
by Riekert
Haha awesome man!! Glad u got it sorted! :D

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:21 am
by SonOfAnarchy ZA
where did u get a new cluster from and how much

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 5:44 pm
by troopiec
Got the cluster from Pakimonster, he wanted R800, the housing of the cluster had a broken tab tho, so the top tab that bolts the cluster to the dash was broken off, so i basically had to strip that whole cluster and put the components with clear needles into my housing, because im not risking taking off needles anymore.

Re: How do i make my Speedo needle clear??

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:19 pm
by POWDER
Nicely done cuz. . . I have always liked the blue LED look. . . Sorry I didnt read thos sooner, could have helped u with a clear needle, have 2 lying around somwhere from my cluster rebuild.

Nice job. . .

Sent from my GT-P1000 using Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2