I've learned a few things that hopefully will save others some time down the road when using LED lights.
2 years ago I did the florescent red paint trick for my gauge clusters. When I did it I used regular bulbs. It did an ok job of lighting up the gauge clusters red but it was not very bright.
I then purchased LED bulbs, both red and white to do some testing. Florescent red paint did not seem to reflect the red LEDs very well so I went with the white LED bulbs which fared slightly better against the florescent red.
I also tested an untouched gauge cluster. The red LEDs hardly reflect on the factory light blue, it's pointless to use colored LEDs if you leave the clusters to their factory light blue. White LEDs reflected better than regular bulbs.
This past week I did some googling to see what others use for LED bulbs and found a few forums that all point to the same results: with LEDs the paint color needs to be as close as possible to the LED color and as glossy as possible.
This weekend I took my gauge clusters apart, repainted them with a gloss white and went with white LEDs. I'm happy to report my gauge cluster is now brighter than ever before!
Here's my advice from what I learned:
If you want red light gauges use regular bulbs and red florescent paint.
If you want to go with LED lights, use white LEDs (best color to reflect within the baby blue gauge clusters).
If you can/want to paint the inside of your clusters, use gloss white for white LEDs (or gloss color that corresponds with your colored LEDs), it will give you the best reflection on the gauges.
