Interior Color Change Tutorial: Radio and HVAC

[Trunk_Monkey]

Radio and HVAC Color Change Tutorial

What you need:

14 (.12) Lamp Covers CLICK ME
4 (.2) Lamp Covers CLICK ME
Long shafted philips screwdriver
Wide blade flathead screwdriver
Thin blade flathead screwdriver
Small Philips screwdriver
Soldering iron
Needle nose pliers
Tweezers
(You will only need 2 (.2) to do the HVAC alone - for you aftermarket stereo guys.)

* Registered users of the site do not see these ads.

[Trunk_Monkey]

Procedure:

Remove the plastic bezel surrounding the radio, pry at the cupholder edge of the bezel, slip your fingers under there and loosen the 6 clips that hold it in place:

Remove the 6 philips screws holding the radio in place, there are two that are far back at the bottom, use the long shafted screwdriver for this:

Slide out the stereo and pull off the black wire on the right side of the stereo, followed by the white harness and then the antenna, this is where the thin philips screwdriver may come in handy to press down the tab holding on the white wiring harness.

Now the radio is out and you got a pretty gaping hole so now you can look towards the HVAC.

This is the hardest part to explain, there are two little bulbs that are screwed in behind the HVAC, just below the AC and defroster buttons, reach your hand behind the unit and unscrew them, righty tighty applies. This is the best way to do it, so try hard; it’s much harder to disconnect the cables and wires leading off the HVAC. Then slip new bulb covers on them and put them back in

This is that the bulbs look like unscrewed with the new covers on:

Now that you've finished the HVAC, back to the radio portion, put it on a nice clean table at home, so you don’t lose any scews. Take off the four screws holding each of the side panels on.

When you have done thas pry off the 8 black tabs holding the stereo face on:

Pinch the volume and skip/search button and pull them off

Now this is the part you should relax and be careful, we're dealing with lots of small electronic circuits so be gentle. Look at the back of the face part of the radio, it should look something like the picture below, there are 6 little red philips screws that hold the board onto the plastic trim, take them off, and lift out the green board.

[Trunk_Monkey]

See all those little red dots on the picture below? They are the original green lamp coveres(will actually be green on a normal radio), take those off and slip one or two lamp covers over each one. You know your a neat freak when your table looks like this:

Now you are going to have to deal with the screen, this is tricky if you don’t know what you are doing, so pay attention. On the back of the board there are 4 little tabs (circled blue) that are bent sideways to hold the screen surround in place, bend them with your fingers or pliers so they look like – and they can slip through the slot in the board. Look carefully at the part that’s circled red, that’s solder, make sure you identify properly before melting it, it should be a little clip coming off of the screen surround that goes through the board. Heat up your soldering iron and hold it to that red circled part, make certain you touch nothing else with the iron, while the solder is liquefied slide the metal screens surround off of the circuit board.

You will see two more lamps under there, pull off the old lamp covers and put on your new ones.

Reheat the solder and slide the screen surround back in place.

Bend back the little tabs (blue circles).

Finish off by re-installing in reverse order.

Note: This may sometimes take more than one bulb cover to get the desired color, on a side note, I tried blue using the lamp cover method, it came out a little too teal for my liking, the red color spectrum works far better.



Modification of your car involves risks and may void your warranty. I can not be held responsible for the modifications you consciously decide to undertake nor the results of doing so.If you believe anything is incoorect in this post or you have something to add please PM me.

[Kontradictions]

already did this one, i want to see a tutorial on how to get the cluster red...

[Trunk_Monkey]

Its on, check out the interior forum

[Trunk_Monkey]

Radio and HVAC: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=690333
Gauge Cluster: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=690378
Key Ring: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=690308
Factory Boost Gauge: Coming soon

[migs76]

you should have all 3 threads stickied.

[Tobey]

if you figure out a way to change the clock color (and make it visible) you will make millions

[Trunk_Monkey]

I got a plan for that too, just gotta try it out

[mrazntre]

nice job Trunk_Monkey

[Mulder]

Nice thread, but this was covered in Electrical a while ago, it's a sticky there-
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=518787

[Trunk_Monkey]

Thats pretty nice, I cant believe I missed that. Nice shots of the back of the HVAC, gotta give the guy some props. Then again I thaught I'd do the whole deal, and maybe encourage some people to be brave enough to do their clusters. I wish I saw that sticky before I did it but I tried...

For the record the color is ALOT more red and darker, crappy camera and daytime pics...

[Max Umbarger]

looks great

[NORCAL STI]

i have a question. for just the hvac its 2 .2 condom covers? and key chain 1 .2 condom cover?

[Trunk_Monkey]

I think I "double bagged" everything (see note at bottom of original post), there are 2 bulbs in the HVAC and 1 for the key ring, both are (.2) Click on the links in the "what you need section" at the top. Remember you need more for the radio and those are (.12)

[WRXerist]

This thread is KOOL so I am going to track it...

[Skell]

thanks for the cool tutorial! very detailed.

[WiCKedReX]

I already have an aftermarket deck, so it should be much easier for me to do just the HAVC. You listed the condoms needed for the head unit and the HAVC. I need to know the condoms for just the HAVC. Thanks...

[Trunk_Monkey]

Sent you PM, edited it into the "parts needed", and I'll tell you here: its 2 (.2), you'll probably just get em as a 10 pack. Im 99% sure on this, its been a while so when you do it get back to me so I can be sure.

Originally Posted by Mulder

Nice thread, but this was covered in Electrical a while ago, it's a sticky there-
http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=518787

Looking again at it, looks like he missed the whole soldering part...

[ksskateboard]

Hey guys
I have a question. When you buy the condoms on the internet, from partsexpress, are the condoms for say a color such as red and blue 10 condoms for 1.70 or is that each? thx

[Trunk_Monkey]

Its for a pack of 10.

[HANZIE]

i just thought of a solution for buying bulb condoms.....pieces of colored balloons, i think it would work perfectly but not sure about heat defense
thought id throw out an idea
HANZIE

[Trunk_Monkey]

Check your PM's ^

[antidote11]

OK, I just recently got a new headunit which is blue, so I want to change the AC controls to blue - my question is, if I JUST want to do the AC colors, what size condom do I get. Do I get the .12 or the .2 and how many?? Thanks a million !!

[Trunk_Monkey]

Its 2 (.2)'s, remember blue condoms come out teal, if you are ok with that go ahead, if not find out some more info on LED's, I have never used them so sorry I cant be of much help.