I recommend doing the white paint step while you've got the dash apart. I tried it both ways and painting both the housing and backing really made everything pop to life. I replaced the diffusers as well and the dash lighting has never looked so good, likely better than it was from the showroom. LED's are of course not "original" but who cares when it looks this good! Only caution is to be careful when removing the wiring harness. I accidentally caused an internal "break" of the temp and fuel gauge power wire. I opted to just replace the harness over repairing the original.