Is there any way...
 

...to prevent getting tasered in the eyes by the blue LED for the brights? I mean I love the brights on country roads but tonight my eyes were practically bleeding from that stupid blue LED in the dash. It's ridiculously bright and the dash brightness controls didn't affect it. I ended up having to drive with one hand at 12 on the wheel just so my arm would block out the light. Crimeny....

LOL, i HATE that light! with that amount of light in the car it makes it harder to see outside.

I may just put a piece of tint over it.

Agreed.

You'll have to take it apart, pull the needle, and pull the face. Then you can add some vinyl tint to the gauge face to diminish the LED brightness. Refer to my DIY thread:

http://www.the370z.com/933463-post54.html

How difficult is that for someone who hasn't opened any panels yet?

dont do it. the needles will get out of calibration (most likely) and can potentially end up with step clicks. unles you can slide a film between the plastic housing and the front template just abort the project. it's like opening up a can of worms.

I don't find it that bad, but opening the gauge cluster to dim the high beam indicator is far more trouble than it is worth.

I'm thinking i'll just get a little circle of film cut and put it on top, once the face is off, with out removing the needle.

Another option would be to installed a resistor on the wire for the LED. The difficulty would be about the same. The difference is that now you're actually reducing the brightness of the LED, instead of tinting it to block the light.

Haha I know what you mean by blinding blue LEDs. The blue lighting in the new Sonata drives me crazy at night.

There's no problem removing the needle. As for calibration, the motor is like a stepper motor, and it is simple in construction. I manage to reassemble the gear assembly for the tach when the shaft slipped out. Just keep the gears clean because there's thin lubricant on the gears. The gears have an internal stopper that keeps the needle from going 360 deg.

When putting the needle back in, just push it back in and turn it counter clockwise. The resistance is felt when hitting the stopper in the gear, so give it enough force to nudge the needle towards the 0 mark. There's no need to pull the needle back out if you miss the 0 mark, simply turn it towards the 0 mark again.

There's no need to drive or recalibrate it as long as your 0 mark placement is good.

+1

OP this might help

Your question is understood. Though it may sound trivial, it is not impossible. There a bunch of things you can do once you take apart the gauge cluster. I'd rather see the shift light be brighter than the blue LED used for the high beam indicator. In the 350Z, the red LED for the shift indicator was replaced with a white LED. It looks a bit nicer and alerts me well without resorting to aftermarket mods.