I saw this mod mentioned on CorvetteForum.com and it looked like a fun project. I actually had no idea there was an accent LED!  The light is located on the clip that holds in the passenger sun visor (it’s a super dim orange bulb). Taking off the visor clip is cake. Just use a Torx 15 on the screw and carefully pull out the harness.

Now the fun part: Pick out your new accent LED. You’ll need a 5mm sized LED. You can find these at Radio Shack or online from websites like SuperBrightLEDs.com. LED color choices are plentiful and the accent light can be as dim or as bright a you want. Light output is measured in mcd’s (millacandelas). The more mcd’s your LED has the brighter it will be. For reference I used a red 3000mcd LED from Radio Shack. The bulb simply pops right of the plastic harness. Just cut the contacts on your new LED and pop it right in.

The voltage going into the accent LED (from the car) is about 7.6 volts. Depending on what LED you pick you may need to replace the resistor. You can find online calculators (such as www.led.linear1.org/1led.wiz) to help you figure out which resistor to buy. If you decide to use a new resistor simply snip out the old one and solder the new one in its place. I used a 220 Ohm resistor with my LED. One you make the mods just put your LED harness back in and try it out. If it’s too dim or too bright you can try different bulbs until you find just what you’re looking for.

And here is the finished result. My goal was to produce a good amount of red light to illuminate my center console. Overall I’m really pleased. I just put in some Autometer ES series gauges and this is a great way to balance the the red interior lightning. Even though the light is fairly bright it’s not distracting at all. Other people have done blue but I haven’t seen any other pics of red yet. This is the cheapest ($3), fastest (10 min) and proportionally satisfying (9/10) mod yet!

This might be my last post for a bit- we just had a beautiful baby girl and the holidays are coming (I’m in retail and this means way more work). Time will probably be in short supply for the next few months.

Posted by Cam, October 20, 2011

This project was originally suggested by DSteck over at CorvetteForums.com. He posted a great tutorial about how to swap your C6 Corvette accent LED. I used a couple of his pictures here in my blog post (with his permission). The source post has some interesting info that’s not included here so it’s worth a look.

Once you start down the road of car customization there is no end. There’s always one more accessory, another change, and a quick tweak that turns into a major project. “I’m going to replace my gauge pod… and my gauges… and I guess my whole A-pillar trim and hell, I may as well pull the steeling column panels out and rewire everything since it wasn’t quite right before.” So that’s what I did.

I decided I was sick of the incandescent edge lit Autometer Z-series gauges in my car (and even more sick of the fact that they are wired in such a way that they are always lit).  I really liked the look of the red LED backlit Autometer ES series gauges and so I picked up the fuel pressure and boost models. I think the lettering font on the ES gauges looks much better too and I like the fact that the letters are white when they aren’t lit. The ES gauges also go really well with my Innovate AF gauge.

A Few Installation Notes

My gauge pod was in bad shape from being pulled off several times (warping,  misaligned panel fasteners, extra holes) so I decided to get a new one.  I recommend Speedhut for gauge pods for the C6 Corvettes (both 2 and 3 gauge). They pods are inexpensive, good quality and Speedhut offered fast free shipping. No issues. The extra lights and switch on my pod are for the methanol kit, btw.

If you’re putting in your gauges from scratch then there’s a great document from A&A Corvette Performance: C6 boost and fuel gauge installation  on the A-pillar (as a side note: I got my last clutch from A&A Corvette and they were great). I didn’t have to run the wiring for the fuel pressure or boost gauges this time (I used the old wiring harness & tubing), but I did end up taking off the paneling below the steering wheel to tweak the wiring and I have a few things to add to the A&A instructions.

When you pull off the paneling it’s important to note that the bottom panel (below the steeling wheel) actually has a bracket that the dash panel clips into. You need to pull the dash panel out a bit to remove the lower one (left picture). Then just for reference this is what you should see minus the red & purple wires on mine (right picture).

I don’t see a need to remove the ignition button as mentioned in the A&A doc. But you will need to remove the small microphone (left picture).  There’s no harness for this part and the best way I could think to remove it was to use a Torx 10, a socket wrench and and hex head adapter. This will give you the angle you need to unscrews the microphone (you could just prop the panel up on something and not actually take it off but it is more convenient if you remove it).

The dimmer harness is easily accessible from under the dash (it’s right behind the dimmer switch). I don’t think it’s even necessary to pull the harness out. I spliced into the wire and used a T crimp clamp to run power to my gauges (just the power for the backlighting). It is really nice to have the lightning in the gauges functioning with the headlights in the car (I also wired in my wideband gauge to that it dims at night).

Like I said, I didn’t do any of the hard stuff this time around, but I wanted to add a couple of suggestions and pictures from the work that I did do. So there you have it- my pod and gauge swap. And it’s just like the saying goes, “Gauges make the man.” Or something like that.

Posted by Cam Hughes, October 17, 2011

Sticker & Emblem Insanity Post Update