HAZARD SWITCH/DASH CLOCK MOD (Removing amber color)

I scoured the net forever looking to see if anyone had done this mod with no luck. Found one guy who had put together something like mine but I took his idea and ran with it. Looked at buying a replacement too but at $180-200 just for a replacement was just criminal. Hope this step by step will help cleanse the truck of the evil amber clock display on the dash clock. Only took me an hour from start to finish and used simple tools found around the house.

For tools you will need:

1) 10mm socket wrench
2) putty knife
3) a sheet of clear polycarbonate .093mm thick
4) "peel & cling" window tint
5) super glue
6) box cutter
7) straight edge
8) files
9) electric drill

*Note: Both 3 and 4 can be found at home depot

To start I took a putty knife and slipped it under the A/C controls till it popped out and removed the back wire harness.



Inside here you will need the 10mm socket wrench with an extender attached. There will be 4
bolts to remove (shown below), be careful not to drop them as they may be lost in the void.



Once you remove the bolts you should be able to pull the whole radio unit out enough to be able to remove the hazard switch/dash clock assembly. It will take a bit of prying but take you time as to not brake it. Don't forget to unplug the wire harness from the hazard switch before removing the unit from the radio.

You have removed it unit take the edge of your box cutter and pry up on the plastic covering. Again go slow as to not break the cover, you can also het it up a little with a blow dryer to loosen the adhesive on the back before prying it up. Once it is pried up set it aside as you will need it soon.

After the cover has been removed you can attempt to scrape the "amber film" on the back side of the clock to reveal the true bluish/green color of the clock, a word to the wise it will scratch really easily If you have a steady hand your welcome to try this. I attempted to do this at first
but as you can see I destroyed mine.


Take and place the old face on the polycarbonate, using the straight edge and with the box cutter cut an outline. It will take several passes with the box cutter, if you cut deep enough you can bend and snap the piece off and file the edges to make them smooth. the dimensions of the new face plate should be 6.040"W x 1.030"H x 0.093mm thick

After it's looking clean place the old cover on top of the new one that you have made and use 2 clamps to hold them in place and take your drill to make two holes for the hour and minute buttons on the new face. You will need to file the hole out to make the accommodate the buttons.
Take the window film and cut a piece to fit and adhere it to your new face on the front side that will face out (I know it seems backwards but bare with me). After its adhered use the box cutter to cut out the holes for the hour and minute buttons.


Old vs New.

This is where I got lazy. I didn't leave the passenger airbag light, seatbelt and alarm light on mine. I could not get a template to duplicate them onto my new one so I blacked it out. If you know how to get a template to do this go for it but it will require more work of soldering new lights onto the back board. Was going to be to much work so I took the easy way out.

To the right of the clock controls one piece of film was not enough to do the trick. I used four pieces of film cut to fit and placed those on the back side of the new face to shield any light from coming through. I also added a sticker to the front side to fill the void and now my Taco runs faster too. After adhering all the film I put a couple drops of super glue to hold the face plate on.

Popped it back into the head unit reattached the wire harness. Screwed everything back into place and BOOM looks like a brand new unit.

Now it she looks good cleansed of the amber. Hope this helps anyone else who has been struggling with this mod.

 

Finally! I've been looking for info on this for a while, hope I can make it look as good
Now I need a better option for the climate control light color. I need them to match the blue and white on the rest of my radio/ cluster

 

Is the amber tint that covers the clock on the front or back of the cover?

 

@taco bean
Alright I'm really thankful I found your right up, and with all due respect, I modified your method just a bit.

Once I got the plastic off I didn't want to replace the whole piece. I used 50grit sand paper to remove all of the orange tint. I buffed it with 100 and 220 grit after and it left the plastic extremely scratched, clear, but hard to see through.
My brother had some scratch remover though.



It took about a dozen applications of the #2 fine scratch remover to get it looking good.


I simply used a few drops off gorilla super glue to put the plastic back on and viola!


Next up is the climate controls and my dash will be amber freee!!!

Thanks @taco bean i couldn't have done it without your pioneering!

 

Templates can be made easily by simply photocopying the piece you need a template. Easiest for flat pieces, but you can adjust a bit.

 

How could i go about making it white? Im doing white and blue inside, and want it to be white..... options?

 

Great ideas. I used 3000 grit sandpaper and had few scratches to get out.
Thanks guys

 

is the amber color on top or inside?

 

Inside. Finished product is easily visible in any light. Good luck.

 

So all you had to do was remove the amber tint & nothing else?

 

Just a little tip for people doing this in the future, the amber on mine wiped off easily with a bit of lacquer thinner on a rag. No need for knives and scratches. Just a little solvent and the color came right off.