What to do with the DCC.....

Alright gents, I'm finishing up the dash swap/paint/overhaul project, and before I install the A pillars and the DCC, I want to refresh the DCC by painting it and change the lighting to 6000K LEDs. Which brings me to my problem- what else can/should I do with it? I'd like to do something unique/uncommon with it, but I'm not sure what I can do, or what I even COULD do to it. Not much room for alterations, save using a completely different display unit, which I don't want to do. What do you guys think I should do with it? Ay ideas or suggesions? I've attached pics of the finished interior below (the speedo cluster is NOT finished, I haven't replaced the bezel faces yet), to provide an idea of the style I'm going for. The coloring is the first gen "tan" with matte black accents and 6000K white lights. Thanks for the advice!

http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...age.jpg2_1.jpg
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...age.jpg1_2.jpg
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...age.jpg3_1.jpg
http://i881.photobucket.com/albums/a...age.jpg1_1.jpg

The DCC is hard to change the lighting on as it is just two small bulbs and all of the buttons are lit up using a clear deflector. Using LED's doesn't really work as they don't really have a full viewing angle needed to light the deflector for the buttons. Even the wide angle LED's I used make the DCC buttons very dim. So unless you are going to completely mod the display it may be best to try to find some super white bulbs "If they even exist" to replace the stock ones. When I moved to the Diamante DCC it already came blue so I didn't need to change anything out.

Another thing is the display screen has a plastic piece that is dyed purple. Swapping that out with a piece of clear thin plexi that is tinted lightly makes the display much clearer and brighter.

Also be careful when you go to paint the DCC. When removing the button the little hinge piece they rock on is very fragile and I broke a lot of them on mine. Luckily I had spares

I'm glad to hear I was right. I anticipated that lighting issue, and I'm planning on grinding out some shallow graves in which to bury the SMD's in the clear plastic diffuser. I also have a set of mint condition buttons standing by for use! I was thinking the purple window as well, but I'm not sure what to replace it with. I feel like there's something more that can be done with that display area, but I'm not sure what. Maybe some ambient lighting?

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Originally Posted by GRSHOPR

I'm glad to hear I was right. I anticipated that lighting issue, and I'm planning on grinding out some shallow graves in which to bury the SMD's in the clear plastic diffuser. I also have a set of mint condition buttons standing by for use! I was thinking the purple window as well, but I'm not sure what to replace it with. I feel like there's something more that can be done with that display area, but I'm not sure what. Maybe some ambient lighting?

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I don't know if there will be much you can do. the display is a glass vacuum fluorescent display so any ambient light will most likely interfere with the view as those displays are not backlit, so you would get glare off of the glass.

The tinted plexi piece is the best I have ever seen. I may still have one from my old unit. I'll need to check to see when I get home tonight as I am trashing a bunch of old stuff including some DCC parts I no longer need/use.

If you find anything, please let me know, and we can make a deal. That would be fantastic, I much appreciate it

I'm fresh out of ideas then, for what to do with it then. Should I paint the body the same tan as the rest, or leave the whole assembly black>

On the DCC units where I have performed led conversions on the buttons, I disassembled the DCC to install leds inside the unit rather than just replace the bulb. I completely remove the plastic light diffusers and replace them with pcbs cut to match the outline of the diffusers. To prevent bright spots I use one led per symbol, so six leds per side of the display. I even drill a hole in the pcb's and mount them with the screws that normally secure the light diffusers in place.

I used 3mm wide angle leds for my conversions but I would think that wide angle smd's would also work well.

Thanks for the heads up! Where did you get your PCBs at? I was thinking of using three wide angles per side- between each horizontal pairs. I'm going to see how well the light diffuses, before I permanently install them.

The pcb's were just generic ones from radio shack. I needed a sturdy thin surface with through holes more than anything. I had to cut them to size and shape with dremel tool.

Perfect. That would provide a FAR cleaner design and execution than mounting them individually. Thanks! I'll check it out.