[OklaHemi]

Dome Light
This part is simple Plug and Play. It uses the same bulb as the map lights. No resistor is needed because there is no manual switch to press. Polarity doesn’t matter with these HP6 style bulbs.


Radio

First of all, this is way too much work to put into a stock radio. It’s probably easier to just replace the radio with one that already has blue LED lighting. It did however make a good project for me, and turned out very nice. If you do want to go ahead though, here’s the process.
First, remove the screws that hold in the radio. You will see 4 additional gold colored T10 torx screws. Remove these. Slide the radio a bit forward and you’ll see tabs on the top and bottom of the radio face. Gently pry these tabs and the radio face will pop off. There will be a gray ribbon cable attaching the face to the main body of the radio. Pull this ribbon from the main unit and the face will be free. Pull off the knobs. There will be seven T9 torx screws that fasten the board to the housing. Remove these and separate the parts.
Now prep your new LEDs. You’re going to use the 3mm LEDs for this. I originally started with a different LED and method, but on a second attempt, I redid it with these, and it worked much better. You’ll need 10 LEDs and 10 470Ω 1/8w resistors. It’s important to know that there is very little room to work inside of the radio face. You’re going to need to do all of this as small as possible.
I took an extra step a bit later in the process when I did it, but it’s best to do it at this point if you’re going to do it. In order to get the LED to light the face more evenly, I sanded down the top of the LED so that it’s flat. Using a piece of 400 grit sandpaper, rub the led so that you flatten the top. Don’t go too far, just take off the dome.
Cut the short lead of each LED to about 1/8” long. Cut one leg of each resistor the same length. Solder the short leg of the resistor to the short leg of the LED. Once it cools, it’s time for some creative bending.
Bend the lead with the resistor 90° outward. Now bend the long end of the resistor down and back under itself. It should be going back toward the LED, and cross the other LED lead. Now trim this bent leg of the resistor so that it stops where the lead comes out of the LED.
Take the other lead of the LED, and make a bend 90° away from the resistor in such a fashion that it makes a foot facing away from the resistor. Trim this to 1/8” after the bend.
It should look something like this:
___
|LED|
|___|
| |_w_
_| ____|

On the radio board you’ll see 10 SMT bulbs with blue condoms on the board. It’s these that’ll get replaced with LEDs. Before removing these, you’ll want to mark the polarity of each one. You’ll need to do this live. Plug the ribbon cable back into the radio, turn on the truck, and turn on the headlights. Take a spare LED and use it like a pair of tweezers to touch the contacts on both sides of each bulb. When the LED lights up, the negative side of the bulb is side that touches the short leg of the LED. Use a sharpie and make a mark on the board for the negative side.
After the polarity is marked, it’s time to remove the old bulbs. Using a similar technique to the headlight switch, grab the base of each bulb, and rock it until it breaks free from the board. You can now begin to solder on the new LED assemblies you made. The resistor side of the LED goes to the contact with the negative mark you made earlier. Be sparing with the solder, but do make sure to get a good solid joint. It’s ok to solder the led a bit crooked onto the pads. After the solder cools, you can bend them straight up. Try to get the resistor as flat to the board as possible. Make sure the LEDs are centered over the solder pads.
To make the VFD blue on the radio, it’ll take a bit more work than on the other parts. The smoked plastic window is darker than the other parts. If you just tape the film on like we did on the overhead, you won’t be able to see it in the daylight. I learned this the hard way. To overcome this, I had to replace the window. The stock window is sonic welded into place. I removed the old one with an electric hot-knife from the inside of the radio face. This is tricky, there’s not much room to work. Smooth down the weld area on the inside of the radio face so that it’s flat. Using the old window as a template, cut a new one out of 1/16” clear polycarbonate (Lexan) sheet. Make sure it fits in the opening. Cut out a piece of the blue RoscoLux gel the size of the new window. Thoroughly clean the gel and the new window. Use clear spray adhesive designed for mounting photos to attach the gel to the window. Give it some time to dry. Attach the new window in the radio face with the gel on the inside of the radio. Affix it with a small dab of hot glue in each of the 4 corners being careful to not get any in the visible area.
After all this is done, you can reassemble your radio face. Be careful to make sure all of the LEDs line up with their proper holes in the rest of the assembly. Put in the T9 screws. Test the buttons to make sure they still work. They should have that familiar click type of feel. If they don’t feel right, they won’t work when it’s all back together. It took me two or 3 times putting it together and taking it apart before I got it right. Plug in the face to the radio main unit and test every button, and make sure all the lights work. If they don’t, now’s the time to go a few steps back and adjust.


Conclusion
Now that you’ve gone through all of that, you have a truck with a beautiful blue LED dashboard. Enjoy it. I hope you’ve learned a thing or two along the way, I sure know I did.