I've done quite a bite of work with various dash lighting, including uv LEDs and electroluminescent faces. Apart from the various shapes, both external and internal, of the LED "lens" I found a big improvement by applying self adhesive backed silver Mylar film in the places you painted. In the plastic housing.

Btw, the little metal tabs you mention are painted black, at least one side, but they do seem to tarnish or even rust.

Cheers

Alistair 

> On Apr 28, 2015, at 5:58 PM, Nick Feickert <thesuperflydisco@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> So, I ordered the bulb from Van Cafe, hopefully it goes in willingly. I
> did make an interesting discovery on the regular lighting for the main
> gauges, noticeing that that didn't seem to get very bright any more, even
> though I've replaced those bulbs more that once. There is a small piece of
> metal in the white plastic housing that the bulb socket locks into. Those
> two little metal parts are reflectors for the light source and mine were
> tarnished and non-reflective. So I've spray painted both of them with
> silver paint and can only assume that the brightness will improve when I
> put it all back together. So if your instruments (speedo and tach) are
> poorly light, I recommend checking the condition of those reflectors!!