944 dim dash lights instrument cluster refurb

Just got around to pulling the instrument cluster out to clean up the reflectors and add reflective tape around the globes and plastic prism to try and fix the dim instrument lights. When looking closely at the clear face of the instrument cluster there is a curved plastic (perspex???) over the instruments. Being almost 30 years old there is some scratches in it from cleaning & dusting. Has anyone tried buffing or polishing these scratches out? It would be a lot easier to do before I re install it back in the car.

Hey Brian, I've read in other posts on the net that if you put aluminum foil (shiny side down), that is enough to reflect the light into the instrument cluster ... just be sure to clean the plastic prism with nail polish remover first to remove the old reflective paint ... also, if you put in new globes that also helps ... they tend to dim somewhat over the years ... Sorry but not sure on the plastic instrument cover ....

Brian i have done this fix for the dim lights, clean off the old reflective paint with non acetone nail polish remover, find some reflective tape and replace that over the now clear plastic, easy peasy. Try some plastic polish for the cover maybe?

I would think a random orbital machine with a small pad and light cut compound could sort the plastic face. It shouldn't be much different to polishing plastic headlights. You didn't happen to get a before photo so you can compare the difference after the reflective tape/aluminium did you Brian? Are you looking to stay with the standard halogen bulbs or upgrade to brighter LEDs?

Everyone keeps talking about LED's for the 944 cluster, honestly they are not needed when you do the fix.

Sorry OzJustin no before photos, there seems to be lots on the net. This project is one of the very few that could be completed in one weekend. But I won't. A while back I picked up some chrome self adhesive material from a sign making shop. A free bee as it was a small piece of scrap. I have enough to do 5 more cars instrument clusters. As per Clarks Garage my existing bulbs are only 2 watts. Clarks recommended replacement bulb is the sylvania 194 which is 3.78 watts. Any more wattage will cause other issues. I'll see what replacement globes are available tomorrow locally, if not I'll order some 194. But not wanting to finish one job in one weekend I'm going to strip off my cracked dashcovering  in preparation for re surfacing the dash. I've seen the video, what could go wrong??? Has anyone attempted this themselves? In regards to using an orbital polisher to remove some scratches on the clear, curved plastic (perspex) instrument cluster. I'm not sure, as the polishing surface is concave not convex like a headlamp. Mr google recommends wet & dry 800 grit & going to 1200 by hand in circular motions. I'm worried about getting the wet behind into the blacked out portion surround. The glue has half let go which adheres the clear curved plastic from the blacked out cluster surround. The blacked out finish is very sensitive to any touching, I found, when removing dust. Its says use Brasso to bring back the gloss surface finish to the clear plastic.

Rub the clear plastic with toothpaste...

Forty years ago I did perspex fabrication in high school. The finish was 1200 wet then 2000 wet then brasso using the cloth backing on vinyl fabric. Literally old school. ? Oh, add liquid soap to the sandpaper instead of water. You may need a drop or two of water to lube though.

found this on re doing the dashboard vinyl http://www.944online.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1393556446 I'll check next week on the recommended adhesive for the vinyl to foam backing at the vinyl suppler shop. Also I need to find the padded dash filler.

Brian, not sure I'm up to the task of fully refurbishing the dash pad like your proposing but if there are any photos of your progress it would be great. I think I'll take the easy way out and get someone like the Dash Doctor to perform the task. Dash lights are also on my list. Currently, they do not work at all. Might be the dimmer but being able to see the dash at night is helpful, especially water, fuel and oil. Good luck

as per Clarkes garage recommendations the Slyvania 194 at 3.78 watts is the choice replacement for the 3 instrument cluster globes. They are analogue globes for an analogue car: incandescent. Has anyone been able to source these?

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No...

they do exist... https://imgur.com/gallery/P1LIs in 2 versions, ignore the LEDs

These guys sell them in packs of 10 so they do exist .... Unfortunately they don't ship to Australia but there must be guys that will ... https://www.amazon.com/SYLVANIA-Long-Miniature-Contains-Bulbs/dp/B00BJEZEL6?th=1&psc=1

I ordered some but I will be paying shipping twice as they are going through an intermediary. I may have a few extras, if anyone is interested.

SYLVANIA 194 looks like a T10 wedge base, which Narva have available in 3W (47504) and 5W (47501) should be pretty easy to find just about anywhere.... http://www.narva.com.au/products/browse/wedge-globes Also note that the 3.78 watts is rated at 14 volts, so the Narva 3 watt may be the same or very close...??

Has anyone actually tried Porsche or Autohaus?

Digging up an old thread here. Has anyone had success sourcing the instrument cluster bulbs (either halogen or LED) in Australia? I see 944online sell a kit but it ‘s pricey for a couple of bulbs when you factor in currency and shipping. https://944online.com/index.php/led-dash-reflector-bulbs-kit.html https://944online.com/index.php/complete-led-instrument-light-kit.html

Here you go --> https://www.jaycar.com.au/search?text=t10+wedge&CSRFToken=ac3f5fe7-4a54-479c-95d1-0e6000d0568f

I bought the standard globes and holders (the 928s are an integral part...) to suit my 928, not sure how they compare to 944, from Autohaus

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Thanks for the link. For those who have changed their bulbs, can you confirm which style of T10 wedge globes are best i.e. I assume we want an even, wide light output into the reflector housing rather than one or more LEDs that are directional/pointed forward away from the ballast? This one is supposed to be an even '3D' beam: https://www.jaycar.com.au/led-t10-3d-wedge-globe/p/ZD0760 This one is a quad LED that seems to point more forward than up: https://www.jaycar.com.au/t10-wedge-replacement-led-quad-globe-white/p/ZD0394

Another way to fix this issue is to remove the reflective coating all together by rubbing it off with paint thinner. This leaves 3 windows which you can then stick an LED strip over to shine directly at the dials. The LED strip is spliced to the wires for a nearby bulb that lights up the dash vent slider label. Works with the dimmer and everything. I used a strip like this https://www.supercheapauto.com.au/p/sca-sca-strip-light---led-12v-30cm-flexible-black/386326.html Dim: Bright:

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Timm - we'll need to talk about this soon.  One of the jobs on my list.

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That's a great idea Timm! I did read some people have tried LED strips but I didn't see any evidence that the dimmer would still function. In most cases they were suggesting the dimmer wouldn't work with LEDs due to the reduced voltage. How long have you had your LED strip installed? So the strip doesn't rely on the reflective coating at all and sits on the outside of the window/tunnel? I'm sure this will make more sense once I've pulled out my cluster. @Jason E - We can have a crack together if you like. What's the worst that could happen...huge fire and it goes up in flames! As an aside, thought I would post up this very handy tutorial for those who might go one step further from the cluster and pull the whole dash out for recovering. @brian in buddina How is your project coming along? http://www.klaindustries.net/technical/porsche944dashremovalinstallation.pdf

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Justin, I've recently purchased a spare instrument cluster to practice this & a few other little jobs on before addressing mine.

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Yep that's it. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics during the installation, but here's a pic off google showing were to place the LED strip. You can see that the two mirrors on the right have already been rubbed off leaving clear windows which the LED stip gets stuck over. I did this mod back in 2015 and have had no issues whatsoever with it since. The only notes I have is that the LEDS are very white, so don't match the rest of the incandescent bulbs in the rest of the interior. If I did it again I'd try to find a warmer colour if possible, or perhaps put a translucent yellowish film over the windows under the LED strip. @OzJustin and @Jason E happy to show you boys mine first if you wanna see how it looks in person.

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Good plan. What else do you have in store for your cluster? Integrated Racepak dash... 😜

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Haha, maybe one day I have been tempted to set up a double din head unit with VEMS display, but I already have an analog oil temp and boost gauge down there so no real need.

Digging up this thread as I’m in the middle of refurbishing my dash cluster. What silver paint or aluminium foil tape is everyone using for the three prisms that reflect the light onto the dash? i have aluminium foil tape for foil insulation but it is only single sided so will be upside down/not shiny if sticking to the back of the prisms.. I wonder if kitchen al foil stuck down with electrical tape would hold?

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What happens after X amount of heat cycles & the tape starts drying out?  Would be a pain to have to do over!  I know @TINGY996 did his at some stage.

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Yeah I wasn’t too keen to go with tape for that reason. Not sure how others are doing it. Clarks Garage seem to be suggesting al foil stuck down with masking tape. http://www.clarks-garage.com/shop-manual/elect-08.htm

@OzJustin I went a sign maker & they gave me some chrome foil scap with self adhesive backing. The backside, under the adhesive was chrome as well. Worked out well & no cost.

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Good idea Brian. I tried a sign shop today but they didn’t have anything suitable. Ended up getting some chrome spray paint similar to what would have been on the cluster when new. Will see how it turns out.

I used aluminium tape, I think it's sold to stop interference in electric guitar pickups

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Where'd you get it from?  Did it perform well?

Quick update to this thread. I ended up going with the Clarks Garage suggestion (al foil and masking tape). It stuck down surprisingly well so only time will tell if it lasts long term. In terms of performance, the al foil made a massive difference to brightness. I could barely see my dash gauges at night before the refurb (not surprising given the heavily worn silver paint on the prisms). Now I can see all my gauges perfectly at night and the dimming control is quite effective. Final point - I discovered I only had 2w bulbs installed when I removed the cluster. I upgraded to 3w Narva bulbs (below the 3.7w max recommended by Clarks Garage) and feel no need to pursue brighter LEDs. The warm white bulbs are a better match for the rest of the stock dash bulbs too. Highly recommended refurb!

Righto mate,  when we get some time we need to do this to my machine.  Sounds great.

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ebay, and yes it worked great,

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Happy to help. It’s a straight-forward job.

This is an easy fix, i used the shiny tape with the original globes and it was amazing. The difference really is night and day, see what i did there

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A note of caution, higher wattage bulbs produce more heat and may melt some plastic. 911/930 in dash heater control panel is a classic example.

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I do remember Bruce Buchanan cautioning against going much higher than standard wattage due to heat/ melt issues.

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This is one advantage of LEDs.

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Good one Tingy My understanding is that the factory spec bulb is actually a 3w so no issue with what I installed (mine were underrated before). People seem to have problems if installing 4-5w bulbs.

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All good, just a general caution. 👍

I did this ages ago. There was a guy selling a kit back then, that had silver mylar for tunnels. While I was waiting for kit to arrive I cleaned up tunnels with acetone, then sprayed them with chrome paint. It worked great. When the kit arrived I took paint off and fitted the mylar mostly because I had paid for the kit and it looked like it would be a permanent fix, which it has been. I'm not a fan of LED as too cold and as mentioned above, it doesn't suit rest of dash. I used toothpaste to polish the perspex and it works great and smells minty fresh lol

I finally got around to pulling my 944 instrument cluster out over the weekend to try and improve the dull lights.  The instructions on Clark's Garage worked a treat, pretty easy job which you just take your time with.  I tried not taking the wheel off at the start but it does need removing to get the cluster out. My three main globes were 2W, looked like they'd been there for 30 years, I replaced with 3W but I understand up to 3.8W is safe without worrying about too much heat. The original paint on my reflectors didn't look too bad but I did end up removing it with non-acetone nail polish remover.  I stuck the shiny side of aluminium foil down and used 50mm blue painters tape to protect the outer surface. A shot of before and after below.  The first shot has a little light coming into the garage as I started just after lunch, the last was pitch black by the time I finished, original and updated globes were warm white. After, you can always use the dimmer now if required but a good improvement, worth giving it a go.

@Stepo does your dashboard dimmer work?

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Yes mate, works a treat, same globes just 1 extra watt

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Good job on this Stepo. I did the same thing on my old 944 and it made a massive difference. I bet you're looking forward to driving it more at night now!

Thanks Justin, yes will be nice to see the gauges better at night, but at the moment given I’m living in Melb I’d be happy to drive any time of the day if I could ☹️ .