[Sallad]

I've had someone ask how I did these, and I can't find the old one I did, so here it is again...

First you'll need to remove the panel that has the vent control.

Then pry off the small gear that turn the flap.

Then pry off the main control.

Now take this son'o'bitch and cut a slit in the control wheel. (you'll see a flat area within the textured area that you'll need to remove. Make the hole as big as you'd like.)

No Toothpick, I don't play Bass... haha

Here is a closeup of how much I took off.

Now for the fun part... make a small "dam" out of some tape to hold the shape on the outside of the dial. Then fill the area with HOT GLUE. The reason for hot glue, is I found it carried the light the best and diffused it nicely as well. Plus it's cheap and easy to work with. If you make mistakes it pulls off and you can try again.

Once it hardens, you can remove the tape and use a knife to shape it perfectly.

Now wire up an LED (red) and a resistor. I used a 330 ohm. It doesn't matter which lead you solder it to. But the LED's themselves are polarity dependent. Make sure you have it correct.

Now drill a small hole to fit the LED and cut a small notch to allow the wires to feed out of the dial.

All powered up and ready to reinstall.

Installed in the car

 

[PettR]

:thumbup: :thumbup:

 

[APURPLEKING]

What did you wire the LED up to? The headlight switch? I'm assuming you have this so that it comes on when the rest of the interior light switches come on. OR do you just have it wired up to work all the time? Either way I think it looks dope :beer:

 

[Sallad]

Thanks guys.

I wired it to the REMOTE wire coming off the deck, so as soon as I put the key in, they all light up. So if I have the deck powered off, they turn off, but I always have the deck on, so they come on as soon as the key is put in.

 

[Keebler64]

Heh, you could wire them up to a simple 8bit micro controller circuit and RGB LEDs to vary the display colors or intensity. (Also controllable by the dimmer switch on the dash). What would be the point? Absolutely nothing but sheer bling factor. Hell, you could even wire it up to an oscillating waveform program to blink the lights to the beat of the music. Highly distracting. But with definite nift.

 

[killercoconuts]

nice goatee. :laugh:

and nice work!:thumbup:

 

[Sallad]

nice goatee. :laugh:

and nice work!:thumbup:

Women love to tug on it during...

Thanks for the comments.

 

[APURPLEKING]

:beer:

 

[ricardo]

nice...what kind of steering wheel is that?

 

[Old Windy]

nice...what kind of steering wheel is that?

X2 What's up with that stering>

 

[Sallad]

nice...what kind of steering wheel is that?

X2 What's up with that stering>

It's just the one that came with the car. Just some '94 OEM plain-jane wheel. I just painted the VW logo.

 

[APURPLEKING]

That's a sweet crack in your windshield. :thumbup:

 

[Sallad]

Heh, you could wire them up to a simple 8bit micro controller circuit and RGB LEDs to vary the display colors or intensity

Interesting idea, but I like simple red. Red is the longest wavelength of light, so it doesn't wreak your night vision. Plus I just like the look of all red. All of my "mods" are done on the VERY VERY cheap, most done for free, just from crap I find laying around the garage.

...I guess I'm an amalgamation of MacGyver and The A-Team.:laugh: Next week is a DIY on sloped armour on the quarter panels.

 

[Keebler64]

Interesting idea, but I like simple red. Red is the longest wavelength of light, so it doesn't wreak your night vision. Plus I just like the look of all red. All of my "mods" are done on the VERY VERY cheap, most done for free, just from crap I find laying around the garage.

...I guess I'm an amalgamation of MacGyver and The A-Team.:laugh: Next week is a DIY on sloped armour on the quarter panels.

Yeah, like I said, pointless idea. I consider myself an amateur computer programmer/design engineer/inventor. Constantly thinking of weird, useless alternatives to our normal mode of operation. A soldering iron is never far away.

I like your approach though. Good write up DIY.

 

[nobody...]

nift!

 

[zeumer]

what's the button to the left of your headlight switch?

 

[Sallad]

It was for some fogs, then took them off, then I had the high speed fans hooked to it for a while... now it's nothing again.

 

[1337cshacker]

Great job bro I hate finding that shi* in the dark. Good contribute :thumbup:

 

[Soren]

Wow, I think I'm more impressed that there's actually some foam left in your vents!

 

[EL CAPO]

REALLY NICE...:thumbup:


THANKS