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Couple Of Little Interior Mods, Radio Surround And Switch Panel Led's


troy45
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Took the plunge with a couple of jobs for the dash & radio surround with my ST.

First off, to match the aftermarket DVD/Sat Nav unit I'd wrapped top section of radio surround in satin black vinyl - this hadn't gone too bad but had been difficult getting the edges looking good where the vinyl material wrapped round. So the cans of Halfords Satin Black paint came out again.

IMG_2995a.jpg

Then I wanted to change the colour of the heated screen buttons to match the satin black theme. Bought a spare set of dark grey ones off eBay so the base colour was nearer to black even without adding vinyl. Only problem with these was the green LED backlighting so used the guide off here to change the SMD's to red. Also did a little bit of surgery on the ESP button to allow the 'ESP' writing to actually light up, and changed the colour of the 'OFF' to green so it stood out some more.

IMG_2999a.jpg

While I was on a roll I also attacked the heated seat roller switches - I'd never liked the fact that no specific lighting came on when the heated seats were switched on and it was possible to miss noticing that a passenger had turned it on and left it that way. Didn't quite get the backlighting for the roller to only switch on once positions 1-5 were selected, but changed the back-lighting LED to yellow (looks orangey), blanked out the '0' position inside the thumbwheel and rewired back of switch so that this is backlit whenever ignition is on and not just linked to the headlights being on etc. So it appears to only light up once it's on position 1 or higher as the 0 figure is blanked off from the LED now.

Not quite finished yet and forgot to take a photo showing the buttons in satin black :rolleyes: also getting some light bleed through to the heated seat roller wheel and seat symbol but shouldn't be too hard to sort.

Got photos of where I modded the ESP button and what the heated seat switches look like inside, just not uploaded to photobucket yet.

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Cracking effort.

I bet the whole effect at night is quite smart.

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Looks nice.

Next step - interior ambient lighting - if you haven't got it already! :)

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Looks nice.

Next step - interior ambient lighting - if you haven't got it already! :)

By ambient lighting do you mean single colour or being able to select different colours, adjust brightness and so on?

Looked into this briefly but don't want to be wiring in loads more LED's and wiring, however I've got a few ideas for lighting up a few more things in the cabin ;)

Cracking effort.

I bet the whole effect at night is quite smart.

Thanks Clive - does look good now i've done a night drive with it all fitted.

Fitted parts look like this now

photo%205.jpg

Only small niggle so far is that I fitted red smd's into a pre-facelift set of grey buttons instead of using the silver ones from mine (not as obvious to see where I've left the symbols clear of black vinyl) and these are pretty bright so at night I'm getting reflections off the lower edge of the gloss silver radio surround. Going to try some black vinyl down there to see if it helps.

Watch this space :)

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In regards to ambient lighting - however far you want to take it - whether that's single colour led's lighting up foot wells/door panels or whether they are adjustable multicolour.

Centre console looks pretty nice. Are you going to make it all black? Will look much better that way IMO, but its up to you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've left the console silver/black for now - took me ages to get it all matching with the silver Focus CC parts off my pre-facelift ST and some of the highlights in black seem to stand out better against the silver. Have put some more black on the switch panel but you can't actually see it once it's in place ::)

Another update - have done the passenger side door release handle bezel now with red LED strip, and had a dabble with improving the lighting around the gearshift. It's not ideal as I've had to squeeze an LED strip along the top of the ashtray compartment and the 'garage door' does get in the way slightly. Found a technique for helping to diffuse the light from the LED strip which seems to help the effect.

photo%207.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

Latest update with this - now moved onto the door release handle, and the door pocket too with LED strips.

Works ok, you don't get the whole effect from the photos

photo%2011.jpg

Just not looking forward to yanking the drivers side doorpad off to do the same mods.

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I'm liking the centre console light up - how are the lights connected up and which lights did you use?

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photo%207.jpg

LED's in the vents look awesome I like that.

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Wow brilliant job!! The ambient lighting near the gearstick, and storage bins looks amazing. very nice.

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Thanks for the comments, the photos really don't give the whole picture but it's turned out well so far :)

I'm liking the centre console light up - how are the lights connected up and which lights did you use?

The centre console is lit with a section of LED strip, maybe 9 in total tho I can't remember for certain.

When I put in the lighting for the vents I piggy-backed the power feed off the illumination feed where it went into the 12V power socket in the ashtray compartment, used the earth from here too. That way the illumination increases or dims in line with the rest of the back-lighting.

LED strip is squeezed in just behind the lower edge of the fascia and above the garage door - there's a flat section of the dash housing there, think I put a small hole into the side of the housing as well to allow the cables through to where the main feed was running - trying to route a cable down and through the holes for the power socket etc was way too fiddly.

Clearance for the garage door opening is tight but it does just miss the LED strip - I had it wired in but held in place with some PVC tape initially to check it was all ok. Also rubbed down the surface of the strip giving a rough texture to help diffuse the light better.

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