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I have kicked around the idea of using ultra-violet lightbulbs in an instrument cluster to get the orange needles and the white numbers to fluoresce.
Won't happen efficiently enough to make for a readable gauge unless you repaint the needles (easy) and the numbers (very hard) with fluoro paint. Also keep in mind that white will fluoresce blue under UV light. Blue is not a good colour for information you need to read in a hurry with a quick glance at night; it is the hardest colour for the human visual system to focus on and process. Prove it to yourself: find a shopping centre with a dark blue sign lit from within at night. Notice how the edges of the letters are blurry as you drive by at night…but the red, green, yellow, orange, etc signs aren't? Or take note next time you're on a plane landing at night. Look out the window at the runway lights. The greens, reds, yellows, ambers, and whites are all in sharp focus; the blues are fuzzy-edged. Quote:
The needles are completely faded
Slip an index card or Post-Itâ„¢ note between the needle and the gauge face. Put pieces of scotch tape on the disc on either side of the speedo needle hub. Use a small brush to apply a couple of coats of fluorescent red-orange paint readily available at any hobby store. Remove index card and scotch tape. Done. Or you can use fluorescent yellow, or fluorescent green, or white, whatever you like. I used fluoro yellow when I did the needles on my truck:
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and the illumination lamps currently don't work (I think that is just burnt out bulbs, though
There are even more options now than there were a month ago in what to use for upgraded dash illumination. Numerous different incandescent bulbs depending on how bright and what colour you want them, and now there are finally(!) some(!) legitimate and good-quality LED retrofits: these (2-pack) and these (1-pack). Unlike with a UV LED, they'll actually light up the gauges. Their spectral output is much higher in the blue-to-violet (compared to an incandescent bulb) and will make fluoro-painted needles "pop" very visibly for you, and their spherical light output will mean the whole gauge is lit up as it was with the incandescent bulbs (most LEDs don't do this). Quote:
Should I coat the inside of the cluster with tinfoil to block the UV rays from baking the plastic housing?
Naw...just acknowledge that the wheel's already been invented, put in the white LEDs linked above, optionally remove the blue plastic bubbles over the bulbs if your dash cluster has them, and smile because you never ever have to think about your dash lights again. 