You are right that cleaning the sockets and bending the contacts as well as cleaning and painting the prisms will improve the lighting. I did this, but there is still not enough light to see the gauges or read the odometer easily.

This company has 12 v LED's, which normally are much cooler than the standard incandescent bulbs, and there sems to be quite a variety of different sockets, if you scroll down the page.

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=CAR

Hope this helps.

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Semibodacious Transmogrifications a Specialty

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo sedan 171K (Rudolf)
1985 300D Turbo TD Wagon 219K (Remuda)

"Time flies like and arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana"
---Marx (Groucho)