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I certainly wouldn't want to use paper -- nothing flammable near bulbs that get hot enough to burn fingers -- but if I can find some tinted plastic and figure out how to wedge it in place (or put it under the OEM overlay?), that idea has potential.
assuming you are talking about backlight bulbs (still not hot enough, they come with thin plastic on them OEM, hot but not fire hot) you are taking about indicator bulbs. They are extremely low wattage. Barely warm.
I certainly wouldn't want to use paper -- nothing flammable near bulbs that get hot enough to burn fingers -- but if I can find some tinted plastic and figure out how to wedge it in place (or put it under the OEM overlay?), that idea has potential.
Taillight tape.
I used that stuff back in the day to change the color of the dash lighting on my Integra. Taillight tape comes in orange and red. It's the translucent tape they sell at autoparts stores that people are supposed to buy to cover smashed up taillights.
You layer it to get the desired color you want. I think I had to do 3 layers to get a deep red.
Man if OLT hadn't mentioned that I would've never remembered doing that 24 years ago.
I thought about window tint (which might discolor over time), but don't care for mods that are difficult to reverse. The taillight tape might be removable if applied on top of the indicator overlays (not sure if that's doable), but the backside is likely a little cubby that would make that impossible.
Hey, so I was messing with putting a new radio in my IS300 and I decided to fix a glitchy LED bulb in my climate control with a normal bulb. So I got out my old IS300 dash lights and took a pic for you.
The largest in the photo is a 168/194, and you can see the bulbs are offered in various sizes. I think the smallest cover is pulled off a light in a switch, you know one of those tiny "bulbs are glued into the bases" twist bulbs
It would be nice to find a multi-size, multi-color pack to experiment with.
It bugs me that 24 years ago you could've bought a package of covers exactly like this.
I remember seeing them in the lightbulb aisle of Trak Auto, it was one of those autoparts stores that also sold performance parts for American cars and had them in stock on the shelves.
It bugs me that 24 years ago you could've bought a package of covers exactly like this.
I remember seeing them in the lightbulb aisle of Trak Auto, it was one of those autoparts stores that also sold performance parts for American cars and had them in stock on the shelves.
Knowing the way things work these days, there's probably nowhere that is still capable of manufacturing them, having only had one factory that supported the whole industry, and they shifted everything over to LED products... Everyone else is just a drop shipper.
Well hold on.... So I just typed in "bulb covers" in JEGS and Summit Racing and did find some. But they don't give a lot of info about them... like sizes. I did see some say "peanut bulb" (that's slang for 168/194) and some other size term I am not familiar with.
I typed the same search term into ebay and also found a bunch, it looks like ebay might be what you need! Type "bulb covers" into the ebay Motors section then look for the seller called: Memotronics LLC.
They list bulb covers in 3mm 4mm 5mm & 10mm in a bunch of colors.
Oh and came back to add that Tanin also sells them. That was another result on the ebay list. So you can get them thru their website or their ebay store
Last edited by 1997Soarer; 02-21-24 at 09:39 AM.
Reason: added Tanin also sells them
they used to be sold at autozone back in the day, then i found an online source with thicker covers that were much nicer, but that source seems gone 20 years later.
@1997Soarer , well done. I'm not sure why those were so hard to find when something as simple as "bulb cover" turns them up... I found that seller on eBay, and they have three color options (light blue, dark blue, and green) in the 3mm size, which looks to be a pretty good match for out gauge cluster bulbs. I had measured stock at 2.76 mm and the #37's at 3.09 mm.
Throwing "3mm" into the search terms results in a few more seller matches with orange and yellow, among other colors. One is a multi-colored pack that looked interesting, so I clicked on it and ... it's Tanin Auto! But it says it's for domestic stereos specifically, and is just the blue among the five colors pictured. :/
I've never heard the peanut bulb term...
@TaninAuto , I would go that route if I had more worth ordering from you, but it seems like too small of a task otherwise.
I see some of your other eBay listings appear to be customizable, so maybe I can put in a request for a variety pack to figure out what color combines best?
@O. L. T. , if it weren't for 1997Soarer's find, your experience there would have me convinced they no longer exist.
There will always be obscure and overstock, but finding anything “bulb” these days is a challenge. We arent too far out of the woods that there isnt still a good demand for older vehicles, but they dont take the forefront anymore so it takes a bit more effort. Eventually we will be shipping from overseas as the only demand for older parts will be less developed areas reusing older vehicles.
We have your dim LED/light + socket. It's about 75% dimmer than the OEM warning bulb, compared to the oil light in the photo. If you want it even dimmer than that I think we can tone it down more. Just shoot us like $10 to cover it and shipping and we can get it sent out.
01-07-24, 04:44 PM
