My initial reason for wanting to develop an EL kit was cost. Speedhut's kits were originally $120, with prices stated as going up after the initial group buy. Then, without warning (at least to me), prices dropped. The lower price is very reasonable as it's only $19 more than the best price I've been able to obtain for just an lamp and driver. The kit I ordered does not appear in their drop-down lists, but was built without any extra cost. I requested and received a kit with midnight-blue background (unlit) and blue text (white during day, lit blue at night). I definately prefer lit text and markings as a lit background overpowers your vision under most driving conditions, and I drive mostly at night. The midnight blue gauges look great during the day. The blue is well contrasted next to the black gaugle overlay, but still very dark.

Quality of the gauges has been questioned by some list members. While I feel that Speedhut could have applied the vinyl overlay to the EL lamps better (spec of dirt under vinyl, slightly out-of-align with speedometer mileage openings), the issues with the overlay were moot. Yes, they use a vinyl that they cut, then lay over the EL lamp. Yes, it is cheaper than the embedded plastic that oem mfg's use. No, you won't notice the difference once you get the kits in place. I can't make out the spot where the dust is stuck under the vinyl, either. As for the lamps themselves, they are of very good quality. The lamps are custom, and built to the exact application. Instead of cutting regular sheet EL, the lamps are made for the application, with the border contact circling the panel for good current flow. As the kits age, there should be no issues with darkening areas due to over-current or humidity ingress. I've found that many people do not know that EL lamps (sheets) are sensitive to water, and that absorbed humidity will damage them over time. Many of the cheap kits I've seen on eBay are made from regular laminated sheets that are cut, which breaks the seal from the environment. Speedhut's panels are laminated after they are cut. I figure these lamps will have a half-life of 32 years (average continual daily use of 10 minutes).

The install took some serious time to get right. The vinyl on the edge of one panel had to be trimmed. I drilled a small hole in the top left of the gauge cluster housing to admit the wires for the EL lamps. I used some "Cord Clips" sold under the 3M Command Adhesive line to secure the wires to the housing. I painted the speedometer needle. I also converted the redundant radio control housing to hold speedhut's color and intensity controls. I will include images of the work I did soon.

This first image is of the gauge kit installed in the car. The camera is a really cheap digital, so please bear with me! As you can see, I replaced the white bulbs behind the gauges with red ones for cheap conversion to red needles. You do NOT want to paint the back of your needles red! You will not be able to see them at night if you do. The back of the needle must remain a light color, light white, yellow, silver, etc. Dark paints do not reflect much light of ANY color.

This second image is just to illustrate the difference in the blue and green setting of the controls.

This following three images are the best close-ups I could get of each gauge. The text and markings can be set very bright, and they are well-defined for easy reading and quick recognition at most any brightness. With red bulbs, the needles are very visible, but my camera underdevelops reds to a horrible extent, so you can barely see them in these images. The needles are not as bright at the EL, but they are plenty bright, and I have the EL turned down to match them anyway. These images were taken with the EL at "full blast".

This last image shows the difference between my VDO gauges and the Speedhut™ lamps. The VDO's are brighter than the oem gauges, and closer than the EL lamps, but are obviously not even close to the EL lamps in brightness. Compared to EL, the oem dash gauge system is insuffereable!