O boy, where do I begin..
Needles
The white paint is there to help disperse the light throughout the whole needle tip. Remove it and (without cramming an absurd amount of LEDs) they'll be useless.
Factory/Aftermarket lighting
The cluster does not have provisions for lighting the needles only. Only for lighting up the face/indicators.
Lighting JUST the needles
Can it be done? Hell yeah
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Ok, but do they dim? Or do I have to wear my Rayban's at night? It's an option, 5 level brightness settings via touch-screen Pulse Width Modulation.
It laterally strobes the light thousands of times per second, giving the effect of being dimmer (human eye cannot perceive)
No matter what bulb (incandescent OR led) will never light that needle enough to compare to a retrofit.
-Truckin-