I have a junkyard taillight coming my way. I am thinking about doing an experiment that if it works like I think, I will end up getting a second taillight (for the other side) and doing that one too.

What I am envisioning is taking the factory tail light, removing the entire reflector area. This should leave me with essentially a solid red piece and a clear opening on the side. There will then be a light coat of window tint paint applied to the inside of the lens to darken it up a little bit. I will then recreate the reflector using some black acrylic sheeting. This should make the light pretty much jet black with maybe a slight red cast to it due to the red plastic being on the outside. From there, I plan on using a bunch of 10MM white LEDs to make the brake lights (thinking fourteen 285K MCD LEDs should work for the stop lights) along with another twenty eight 50K MCD 5MM LEDs for the running lights. From there, I will use another fifteen 10MM 285K MCD white LEDs for the backup lights and ten 10MM 285K MCD yellow LEDs for the turn signals.

The idea that I have right now is running a six rows of LEDs on the inside half of the taillight. It would consist of a row of 5mm leds, a row of 10mm LEDS, two rows of 5MM LEDs, a row of 10MM LEDs, and finally a single row of 5MM LEDs. These would all be running up and down following the inside contour of the taillight. Then the reverse lights and turn signals would be each 2 rows of LEDs running left to right, stacked like the factory lights are.

What you think? I think it would atleast be really interesting.

 

I think that would look cool.

If I could get my electrical straightened out I was going to look at running a row of LEDs under the headlights ala Audi just for giggles. I was going to pull the bumper cover off to do the grill anyway.

But the car is making me insane so......

 

Yes. You won't know unless you try.

 

Sounds like it could update the jag in a good way.

I know ya been toying around with the idea for a while now.

If ya wouldn't mind a few pics of the process would be awesome.

Good Luck Chris

 

I'd like to see some pics when you're done...sounds like it would be a cool mod.

 

I'd love to see this as well. I've been thinking about doing an LED conversion but can't commit the time at the moment

 

Sweet, when you done yours i'll post you my addy so you can send me my set

 

The white LED's won't properly show a red color through a red lens. Better to use red LED's for brake lights.

 

sounds cool cant wait to see it. ive been trying to think of a way to do white LEDs in one of the headlights for a while now myself

 

Gragner, the big problem I have with LEDs is that they don't work too well for projecting light. They can be seen for a long distance, but they just don't light up things like a standard halogen or HID bulb does. LEDs are good for close up (foot or so), but beyond that and they seem to fall short. We'll see what happens with this project and go from there.

 

Im actually looking for the Halo or Angel Eyes ring to go around 1 of the lights. perferably the high beam light. but i hear its some work to get the lights unsealed

 

BTW. have you seen the episode of amreican chopper where they do a caddy bike. caddy cts-v has a fiber optic brake light if that might work. from what i could see its regular wiring with the optics in a tube. not sure of cost im sure its expensive

 

gragner, I have done a project similar to this for my truck. So, I have a little bit of experience with this sort of thing. We'll see how it comes out. As for the fiber optics, that is probably further than what I am wanting to go.

As for getting the tail light housing apart, the big thing is taking your time. I don't see that being a big issue. I will make that part of my write up so in case others want to do something like this.

 

I have seen and performed many mods like this and I'll be the first to say that I doubt it will look good. The red will still be red and tint needs to be applied to the outside of the light. You'll see once you get into the project.