Changing Interior Lighting to LED's
I am writing this how-to based off of my 2000 Z28, so if you don't have one, it may vary slightly. I never liked the look of the stock lighting, it was a little dull. I wanted to keep the change subtle though as I am not a big fan of neons and such. I decided I would change over to blue LED's (I have always envied the vee-dubs!).
The main thing that you need to keep in mind is using an appropriate resistor. If you don't use one, the LED will pop quickly. Here's a fun anecdote - swapping LED's was one of the first things I ever did on my old cougar, when I was younger. I thought, well the door's window switch already has a green LED, so I'll just put in a violet one. I went to radioshack and bought one, disregarding any technical information about said LED. I soldered in the violet one, put the switch back together. Plugged it in and marveled at my handywork - it was now violet!! And then it turned orange, because it was on fire. The smell of burning electronics reminded me of my idiocy for a couple weeks.
There are basically two ways to take care of your interior. The easy way, and the harder way. The harder way consists of buying your own LEDs and appropriate resistors, soldering them together, and then soldering them into the bulb holders. If you do this, it would be a pain in the butt to go back to stock lighting (bulbs) if you ever needed to. It's also a very small area to work with and it can be tricky. The easy way is what's best. Check out the website www.superbrightLEDs.com. They make LED bulbs - that is, a LED with a built in resistor that has a bottom shaped like a bulb, so it plugs directly into the socket. They are incredibly affordable (~$1 a piece) and come in many colors.
If you want to make your own things, the best place to buy LEDs is eBay, hands down. Many sellers offer packages that include 100 LEDs with 100 matching resistors for a 12v system - it completely eliminates any guesswork. These auctions start around $10. Now compare that to buying LED's singly from Radioshack, for $3-$4 a piece!! Even if you say to yourself, there is no way I could ever use 100 LEDs, you could always share them with friends, or sell the rest when you are finished.
Now, welcome to LEDs 101. Here is a crude drawing.
It's your regular run of the mill LED. It has a positive lead, the anode, which is the longer one...and also a negative lead, the cathode, which is the shorter one. When you are soldering your resistor in, it needs to be soldered to the anode as to prevent too much current from burning up the LED.
Soldering itself is simple, you can pick up an affordable gun from Sears for less than $10. The more powerful it is, the less time you will spend waiting for it to heat up, and the quicker it will heat the wires for the solder.
I highly recommend getting the LED bulbs from superbrightLEDs.com. If you are going that route, you will need (5) #194 bulbs for the cluster, (2) #74 bulbs for the HVAC, and (2) #74 bulbs for the door panels (the lights that shine onto the switches). If you're doing it the LED way, then obviously you would need 9 LEDs & resistors for this task.
No matter which you decide on, the ASR, foglight switch, and headlight switch will have to be completed by soldering, since the bulbs don't just plug in. The switches and knob take 3 leds all together.
Check out this link for purchasing LEDs
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