Dim dash lights

Joeyv

Joeyv

Member
My 41 Mercury is stock, 6 volt positive ground. The dash lights are so dim I can’t read the gauges at night. The dimmer knob on the dash doesn’t work, when the dash lights’ wiring goes through the dimmer the dash lights do not function at all. I have the dimmer switch bypassed, connecting the input wire to the output wire. Does anyone have a suggestion on steps I could take to improve the dash lighting?
 
i've got a '41 ford and put LEDs in the dash. i think there were only about two or three maybe four. it brightened things up quite a bit. and AFAIK just about everyone bypasses the dimmer. their design with its thin wires and massive amount of friction didn't bode well for longevity.

might have bought them here at LedLight.com.

IMO the dash looks cool, but the gauges are pretty much illegible even in bright daylight, at least on the '41 Ford.
 
The plastic lenses darken with age. Replace the lenses with new tinted. You’ll want thin flexible, transparent plastic. Check your local hobby shop.
 
The glass side facing the inner part of the gages is probably foggy from years of being there. What I did to improve my 1946 original cluster was taking it apart, remove the glass a gently clean it with no harsh chemicals as the lettering was painted and if touched it chipped away. Then, I found out the internal housing was painted white , which was yellow due to age. I removed the paint and painted satin white and replaced the light bulbs with LEDs. There are LED that give you the origina incandescent look or the mordern bright white.
 
Thanks all for the suggestions. I did try running a ground wire from the light switch case to a good ground, but that did not help the lights. I will look for a LED lights and clean the lenses, and see how that works. I appreciate the suggestions.
 
I installed led and added 4 or 5 extra led lights to the cluster . I drilled 3/16 “ holes and used the small Christmas size leds . I used hot melt glue to secure the bulbs . Has been bright and working for aprx 2 years now. These leds just have 2 wires out of them . I also used them for turn indicator in the dash , used green for those .
 
I put all 6 volt LED bulbs in my 41 Mercury. Only thing to remember is if you have turn signals on your car and you change everything to LED then you have to change you flasher to LED also.
 
Here are two pictures for I took after I refurbished the cluster and I was testing white LEDs vs incandescent light bulbs. All 6 volts. Always keeping the perspective it’s an 80-year dashboard.
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