Today we finished repairing and upgrading the gauge cluster. After searching the forum I found a reasonable LED backlight kit and replacement needle backboards from taninauto.com. The process was involved but very doable. Had a bit of trouble with the polarity of the LEDS but found a helpful post here for a different model that was close enough. The whole deal was about $100 and looks great, no hot spots, the needles look a bit different then stock but I can see them and that's what we were after. I know this issue is covered extensively on here but I wanted to share out results.
Some key points
Mind the screw location 2 types and they all must be used.
The backlight LEDs have to be installed with polarity in mind, may take some trial and error.
A sharp straight cutter and some careful trimming of the needles.
I had to drop the column because I haven't sorted the tilt telescope yet
taninauto.com has a good video that I found helpful.

Here's the gauge before the upgrade

This is the daylight result

 

Looks absolutely killer - nice work!

 

Thanks, had it in and out so many times I thought I'd loos my mind lol.