you can do it yourself.. all it takes is some confidence. it's not difficult at all. then you can say... "Yeah, I did that myself. I'll charge you suckers $100 to install them in yours."

getting familiar with the soldering gun is the hardest part... and that's not hard. just practice on some wires or whatnot. solding is probably the easiest thing you can learn, and you'll find that you use it alot more than you think.

 

^ definitely an invaluable skill. just make sure you're practicing on cheap, relatively insensitive circuits. I can solder pretty well, but some stuff is just too small or too delicate for me to even attempt.

 

OMG!! DON'T use a soldering GUN!! ....
soldering iron... with fine tip..

 

Yeah, I would definitely never use a gun... For anything.

Personally, I have a nice temperature adjustable Pace iron that I use at work with a fine tip (should've used slightly larger). I usually keep it set between 650 or 700F for this kinda thing. And I personally rather a solder sucker over solder wick.

It took me about an hour for the gauges, and about 3-4 for the hvac. Time taken from the workday, and well worth it.

All in all, its really not hard. You just need a little confidence. To be honest. The hardest part for me was cutting the hvac unit buttons so that they would work.

 

wait, what do you have to cut?

 

If you're using enginfeer's HVAC fix. You have to trim back the button housing to allow the buttons to press over the wires/resistors. It's not hard. Just a hassle trying to get them trimmed enough in the right places to press.

I did Mine in blue, so I had to use his method to have them bright enough.

Also, I could actually do these for people in va. If you cant find anyone closer.