Gah! I wanted to copy some stuff and reply, but you beat me to it.
Changing the night color is pretty easy. Here's an example of a typical "red night light" entry:
[Color]
Day=255,255,255
Night=
120,
4,
4
Luminous=202,220,147
Obviously, the three numbers on each line refer to an RGB color.
The "day" color is blank or "none".
The "night" color is heavily based on Red with some slight blue and green "tint" so none of the panel BMP colors disappear.
The "luminous" line (to me, anyway) is used to light the 2D gauges at night.
You can match your 2D night panel to the VC cockpit light pretty easily.
Just use notepad to open the VC light fx file. You'll see the RGB values.
You can use this info in both directions, using the fx RGB values in the 2D panel or using the panel's RGB values to create a new VC light.