[Turbo6ta]

Hello everybody. This is my first post.

I will start off saying that I am a member of the Corvette Forum, and I don't own a Solstice ... So why am I posting here?

Well, my neighbor's wife owns a very nice Solstice (I think it's a 2007 or 2008). The problem is ... her husband really can't drive the car at night because he is colorblind and can't see the instrument cluster and speedo because it is lit with red lighting, so he can't see how fast he's going.

He really needs the speedo to have either blue or white lighting.

My question is: Is there anyway the instrument cluster can be removed and the lighting changed from red to another color? Maybe somebody makes an aftermarket kit for this?

We don't know if the instrument cluster has regular red light bulbs or has red LEDs (or something else). Don't even know how hard the speedo cluster is to remove.

He plans to take the Solstice to a local Chevrolet dealership and see what they can do ... but I am thinking he might really get raped on the labor if he takes it to the dealership.

Can anyone here help us with this?

Thanks a bunch,
Ron
Cape Coral, FL

 

[TomatoSoup]

Yes, you can change them - many of us have!

The backlights are soldered-in incandescent bulbs with little red condoms on them. You could just take the red caps off, but the bulbs are yellowish and might not get you as far as you want.

If you can solder, you can get an LED kit in white from blackcatcustoms.com, and a higher-contrast gauge face at the same time. http://www.blackcatcustom.com/Pontiac Solstice.htm

I did the exact same thing, but will have to search for the thread.

UPDATE: Here's my post: http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f62/new-gauge-faces-corrected-trunk-open-icon-60545/

 

[Turbo6ta]

TomatoSoup ...

Thanks for the info.

Is it a very big job to remove the gauge cluster and pull those red caps off the lights?

I guess once the gauge cluster is removed, it more than likely is not that much more work to just solder in the colored LED kit ... I am thinking blue LEDs might be the way to go for someone colorblind that can't see red instead of just pulling off the red caps on the bulbs.

Ron,
.

 

[Bazzy]

I didn't think that being colorblind makes light actually disappear. I thought it was more of a substitution kind of thing for the most part:

The colors through the eyes a color blind person (12 pics) - Izismile.com

Wouldn't he just see yellow gauges..?

 

[Turbo6ta]

Bazzy ... I have no idea. All I know is my neighbor said he had a very hard time seeing the speedo at night with the red colored light.

But, I see your point. I am going to find out more about what he is seeing and what he's not seeing in the morning.

 

[TomatoSoup]

Hah! I knew this existed, but couldn't find it.

Here's a full how-to on what you'd need to do by DeepBlueGXP. It's all pretty easy in fact, but yet very involved and not a quick job to do...
http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f62/how-custom-guage-cluster-42671/

 

[juspimpin]

Very interesting conversation...

I too am color blind; red/green color blind to be exact, which is the most common for men. I also understand that there are differing levels of said color blindness. I have more issue seeing the speedo in the day than at night. At night I have no issues. I cannot say if I see red as you see it, but I do know a red light by position and possibly color. Maybe my "red" is your blue but I do not care....I do know that just yesterday, I put on a new shirt with old shorts and my wife said I could wear either the shirt or the shorts, not both. She has learned to be nice about telling me what to do, or what not to do.

Maybe the issue is brightness AND color...check to make sure the brightness is maxed out. Then try to remove the condoms. The dash pops apart easily starting with the chrome around the speedo (pulls off) and the chrome around the tranny (lifts off, starting closest to radio or sides, bottom has longest tab)....then the rest just pops apart. Removing is more involved, but loosening all the snaps and then using a wire or tie to hold the tranny surround area to the rearview mirror or something to hold it up while removing the rest. First time may take an hour to get to the speedo, but next time would be 15 mins.
Good luck. searching the radio removal thread will show pics of removing what you need and also the tie portion I referred to.

 

[2KWK4U]

This thread (from another board) may be helpful as well.

 

[chickenwire]

I knew soup would be on this!

 

[rob the elder]

I had Blackcat custom make a high visibility cluster for the wife. Big white numbers.

 

[Turbo6ta]

Thank you everyone for the info you have provided. It sure helps a lot.

Here is my sweetheart

 

[1 LIL NDN]

Turbo6TA : You should check out our Classified section theres a LS Solstice in there for sale . Rob also has an LS in his .

 

[The Shadow]

I had Blackcat custom make a high visibility cluster for the wife. Big white numbers.

Rob: I have a Canadian car with kilometres on the outside ring of the speedo dial and miles on the inner ring. The problem is when we are in the US, we were in Flagstaff, I can't see the the itsy bitty numbers for mph and have to try and convert mph into kph, way too much mental fatigue. I did look at your car but did not notice your Blackcat high visibility dials. Could you please post a picture of your dials for me?

Thanks, Don