Glass Stain to color Instrument Bulbs

[rkildu]

Hey all,

I just added a VDO voltmeter to slightly modified K1100LT. The light bulb that comes with it is clear, of course. I wanted green. I went to all the local auto parts stores looking for those little balloon like slip on things or green bulbs, or whatever. No luck. One guy at Radio Shack suggested Hobby Lobby for some green celephane stick on stuff. He was thinking of hobbiest types making railroad layouts with colored lights. He also showed me a web site for LED replacements in colors, but I'm ready to do that.

I couldn't find anything. Then my wife came up with the idea of checking for stained glass dye. They have these little fake stained glass project kits that used colored dyes.

PERFECT!

At a cost of about $1.50 for a single color or about $1.75 for a kit of smaller bottles in assorted colors, I can now color any bulb any color in the selection. I just got the green. Of course I have enough to color every instrument bulb on every bike on the forum, but for a buck fifty I can deal with it. I'm now set for for a long time.

Rod

[bmdubyou]

Cool deal! I 've never used that junk before but I have seen the end results...for a short time, our family rented out our 100 year old farmhouse with beautiful leaded windows. Well, the renters decided that the plain ol' leaded windows weren't enough so they used that "fake stain glass" dye on them. When we got the house back, we wanted the original look and cleaned them...what a mess and a pain...we scraped and cleaned for hours. it was not fun. THere is still one we havent got to yet. Anyway, it should work great on the bike!

[rkildu]

The stuff I got cleans up with water. I discovered I had laid it on too heavy, three coats, and had a very dim light. I just washed, and scrapped a little, to get it off of the bulb and started over with a lighter coat. I'm still experimenting with how much to use for the best results.

Your farmhouse windows have probably aged a bit, so I guess it's pretty tough once it really sets up. My sister-in-law made some transom glass for us using this stuff. We get lots of compliments on them. My house is over 100 too.

[bmdubyou]

Yeah...it had been on for a few yrs. we tried washing them & windex etc...had to resort to scraping them with razors. what a job...the glass is beveled! :nono It would be cool to have a REAL stained glass window though!

[The_Veg]

My '95 R100R has no colour in it's instrument lights. I'd like them to be less bright at night. This dye-stuff sounds good, although I thought I'd just go over the bulbs with a magic marker. Might have to try one method on the speedometer's lamp and the other on the tach's lamp.