1970 El Camino instrument panel lighting
 

This year I would like to take care of the problem of dimness with my lighting in the dash.Stock 194 bulbs don't seem to be bright enough.I have the original headlight switch and the rheostat seems to operating correctly meaning that I can rotate the knob and it will get dimmer.Rotation the opposite way brightens also.Whether or not it is just worn out or weak is one question.My other question regards to LED bulbs to replace the 194's.With all the choices there are,what color and how bright?What's too bright and what's not bright enough.If all of us have similar cars,some older and newer,I can't be the only person here to have this issue.Any input will greatly appreciated.

Bob

My 72 El Camino SS has the same problem but mine is probably just a few bad bulbs but I hear they are a pain to change .If I ever do mine Im probably going to put LED'S IN.

Bob go to
www.superbrightleds.com

Under "Car Bulbs" they have a "Vehicle bulb finder".
Select your year, make & model of car and they will show you
every bulb # in your car & several LED replacement options for each old bulb.
Its a great site.

Thanks for the Link Ray ,I need to order LED's for my truck and they are easy to change ,I have the new gauge cluster in the house .

After some more research,yes there's a bunch of us that have this problem.Most seem to say that it's dash grounding problem.There should be 3-4 factory grounds.I'm going to try it with a separate new grnd in a couple of places.If a bulb or even some of the cluster gets brighter,that's probably it. There's also a chance it could be the headlight switch.I'm going to try my multimeter checking the resistance.There's mixed ideas on these LED's.4SMD or 5SMD.Straight illumination or 180 deg. illumination.When my El Camino comes out of storage in 45 days,I'm going to start with testing the grnd first.Then I'll think about the LED's.Tell me what all of you choose for LED's that work for you.Look on Ebay,there's so damn many.I know I'm confused.

Bob

This is my dash lights after I installed it using stock 194 bulbs.
http://i777.photobucket.com/albums/y...DashLights.jpg

WOW ,if mine were that bright I would be happy ,some of mine are completely burned out I think.

Shadow,looking at yours is why I'm thinking that maybe I just have some simple issues that need to be taken care of.Maybe 18 yrs. ago when I got this vehicle the dash lights might have been that bright.If I could bring them to what you have now,I'd be fine with that. That pic with the 194's is a confidence builder.

Your ElCamino looks alot like the color of my 70 ElCamino I had when I got married 35 years ago. Took it on our honeymoon.