lonnie
04-20-2009, 07:32 PM
First this is the step by step process for those wanting to make my style of LED brake light.
Materials:
Soldering Iron
Solder
22gauge wire..I used solid conductor...but think twisted would have been better. I used green and black!
Super glue
Silicone
Electrical tape.
Third Brake light assemble
Hard-Thin Flexible material - I used the cardboard from a shoe box, but you could use plexi, lexan...etc just as long as it can fit on the inside of the lense.
Led strips - link below
Step One:
First you are going to need this style of Led strip. I ordered this one from oznium.com in cool white for 12.99 a ft. Once you get them you are going to want to keep one long, and the other you will cut in the middle
http://www.oznium.com/led-ribbon
Step Two:
Your going to want to take your Third Brake light assembly apart, and while you have it apart go ahead and get it cleaned up if it needs to be.
6418
Step Three:
This is a good time to go ahead cut your card board to fit with in the inside of the Red lense. When you are done it should be snug all the way around, and you want to make sure to have enough material to glue\silicone down.
6419
Step Four:
Next you are going to want to mark the material the leds will stick to with top and bottom of the lense so that it is easier to keep up with. Then you are going to mark from the bottom edge of the cardboard up far enough from the bottom and top to fit the LEDs in so that they show in the red lense..Once you are done it should look like this. The Brake LED should be on the line, this will be right on the bottom edge of the lense. Next you will mount the signal Leds on the top flush against the brake light led strip. This will form two lines. Another way to do this is to keep both strips together and stick them to your cardboard or whatever and then cut the one that you want to make as the signal lights. Make sure you center the strips so that equal LEds are visible in the lense. This by far will be the most difficult part but you can figure this out just like I did.
6420
Step Five:
After you have finished the step above you can solder the wires to the led strips.
6421
Now you have a decision either you are going to use the factory harness or solder the wires directly to the factory wires, either way you will need long wires to reach the signal wires on the rear lights. For this write up I will explain what I did.
First I marked which trace on the factory mount was power and which was ground the plug is marked with A and B...A being the power, and B being the ground (that is for a 2000) After that I soldered the brake led lead to the power trace and then I soldered all the grounds to the ground Led. Should look like the pic below.
6422
Step Six:
Assemble the pieces, after all soldering is done, its time to silicone/glue the led strips into the lense. For this I dabbed super glue around the inside edges of the lense, and held it until it held then I ran silicone around the inside on any exposed wire..etc...it should look like this now.
6423
Now it is time to run attach the lense to the reflector housing. At this point the only wires you should have are the two power wires for the trun signals, and they should be rather long. Run those power leads out of one of the holes that the bulbs use to go through. I ran a little silicone on the tabs just to lock them in alittle.
6424
Step Seven:
Now installation...real easy..if you have followed what I did all that is need to do is take out the existing Third brake light that you have been working on a spare. Next mount the LED third brake light, run the turn signal leads down the trunk lid hinges to the tail lights on either side. Locate the LT Blu\Blk wire on the left turn signal, and the Dk blu wire on the right side. These will be where the turn signal wires attach to. Strip alittle of the insulation without cutting the wire and wrap the lead around the signal wire...then solder, and wrap with electrical tape..It should look like below.
6425
Step Eight:
Enjoy
6426
6427
I hope this helps those wanting to do this, and I can answer any question through PM. I'm not the best at explaining stuff so if you have a question dont hesitate.
Materials:
Soldering Iron
Solder
22gauge wire..I used solid conductor...but think twisted would have been better. I used green and black!
Super glue
Silicone
Electrical tape.
Third Brake light assemble
Hard-Thin Flexible material - I used the cardboard from a shoe box, but you could use plexi, lexan...etc just as long as it can fit on the inside of the lense.
Led strips - link below
Step One:
First you are going to need this style of Led strip. I ordered this one from oznium.com in cool white for 12.99 a ft. Once you get them you are going to want to keep one long, and the other you will cut in the middle
http://www.oznium.com/led-ribbon
Step Two:
Your going to want to take your Third Brake light assembly apart, and while you have it apart go ahead and get it cleaned up if it needs to be.
6418
Step Three:
This is a good time to go ahead cut your card board to fit with in the inside of the Red lense. When you are done it should be snug all the way around, and you want to make sure to have enough material to glue\silicone down.
6419
Step Four:
Next you are going to want to mark the material the leds will stick to with top and bottom of the lense so that it is easier to keep up with. Then you are going to mark from the bottom edge of the cardboard up far enough from the bottom and top to fit the LEDs in so that they show in the red lense..Once you are done it should look like this. The Brake LED should be on the line, this will be right on the bottom edge of the lense. Next you will mount the signal Leds on the top flush against the brake light led strip. This will form two lines. Another way to do this is to keep both strips together and stick them to your cardboard or whatever and then cut the one that you want to make as the signal lights. Make sure you center the strips so that equal LEds are visible in the lense. This by far will be the most difficult part but you can figure this out just like I did.
6420
Step Five:
After you have finished the step above you can solder the wires to the led strips.
6421
Now you have a decision either you are going to use the factory harness or solder the wires directly to the factory wires, either way you will need long wires to reach the signal wires on the rear lights. For this write up I will explain what I did.
First I marked which trace on the factory mount was power and which was ground the plug is marked with A and B...A being the power, and B being the ground (that is for a 2000) After that I soldered the brake led lead to the power trace and then I soldered all the grounds to the ground Led. Should look like the pic below.
6422
Step Six:
Assemble the pieces, after all soldering is done, its time to silicone/glue the led strips into the lense. For this I dabbed super glue around the inside edges of the lense, and held it until it held then I ran silicone around the inside on any exposed wire..etc...it should look like this now.
6423
Now it is time to run attach the lense to the reflector housing. At this point the only wires you should have are the two power wires for the trun signals, and they should be rather long. Run those power leads out of one of the holes that the bulbs use to go through. I ran a little silicone on the tabs just to lock them in alittle.
6424
Step Seven:
Now installation...real easy..if you have followed what I did all that is need to do is take out the existing Third brake light that you have been working on a spare. Next mount the LED third brake light, run the turn signal leads down the trunk lid hinges to the tail lights on either side. Locate the LT Blu\Blk wire on the left turn signal, and the Dk blu wire on the right side. These will be where the turn signal wires attach to. Strip alittle of the insulation without cutting the wire and wrap the lead around the signal wire...then solder, and wrap with electrical tape..It should look like below.
6425
Step Eight:
Enjoy
6426
6427
I hope this helps those wanting to do this, and I can answer any question through PM. I'm not the best at explaining stuff so if you have a question dont hesitate.