50 ford dashlights

L

len

Member
I have a 50 ford when the dash lights are on you can not see them even though the bulbs are lit. Are there some filters inside the the unit that restricts the light. If so can they be acssesed by removing the speedo or does the whle unit have to come out.
 
Old Fords are notorious for having poor dash lights. Mine are real good on one side but almost non existent on the other. (35 PU) Go figure.
 
the 49/50 dashes a back lit and the gauge face is painted with a glow in the dark style paint...it was meant to GLOW at night, sadly the paint glow part fades over the years.
 
Yes, there are 4 filters. Originally they "excited" the luminous material on the gauges, speedo, but through time have darkened and give you dim dashlights. The solution is to remove the filters and insert colored bulbs in place of the original clear ones. You can do this by removing the speedo but I've found it works better removing the whole gauge cluster. You can then disassemble the cluster and remove the filters. This will cause light to bleed over into the directional light arrows. To cure this I formed a baffle out of light gauge sheet metal and pop riveted it in place. To complete the package swap out your headlight switch for a 51-54 (Faa-11654-A) which has a rheostat. It's a bit of work but a great winter project and you will have great dashlights. I use a light bulb spray paint to tint the bulbs green. This topic can also be found on the shoebox.com web site. Hope that helps!. . . Chuck
 
I did the same thing. I removed the filters, and painted the bulbs green with model enamal. They look great!!
 
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