LED lights added to headlight assembly

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apeas2

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The Halo's look great, I am also planning on those (I might PM you this winter), but was wondering about a small row of LED's in there as an accent like on the Gen IV's or Audi's etc. Seems like it adds a good look
 

spartan

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Are you looking for the individual dots, or the streamlined look of the new audis? The older style uses individual leds. The new style uses 1 single led and a "light diffuser" which is basically a piece of plastic with evenly places scores to diffuse the light efficiently. I will be doing the latter.
 
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apeas2

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I like the idea of the latter and halos all installed at once. Have u made any design ideas yet?
 

spartan

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^yes i have tons of experience. i do so many headlights on the side its ridiculous. i do ccfl rings, led's, led demon eyes, retrofits, etc.
 

PeterMJ

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^yes i have tons of experience. i do so many headlights on the side its ridiculous. i do ccfl rings, led's, led demon eyes, retrofits, etc.
Well, then pop them open and have at it:2tu:
 
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apeas2

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Spartan,
Have u done any Vipers? Would love to see some pics. Thanks.
 

spartan

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i have not done a viper yet, but i have done every single vehicle i owned, as well as many locals/chicago area, etc. it started out as a side hobby, and kinda turned into part of my "salary" lol
 

Green viper 1

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i have not done a viper yet, but i have done every single vehicle i owned, as well as many locals/chicago area, etc. it started out as a side hobby, and kinda turned into part of my "salary" lol

Can you post pics of before and after of some other lights you have done
 

spartan

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absolutely, heres a few i've done. ranging from my very own cars, to customers cars.

heres my k20 turbo'd lotus, i've redid the interior/ custom led taillights in a weekend before a show at world of wheels.
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my built ls1 turbo 350z. blacked out headlights, ccfl iron man ring, demon eye led behind retrofitted sti-r projectors
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my 350z led interior conversion to luxeon white (originally oem orange :( blah)
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my old evo's blacked out lights, jdm orange sidemarkers, and blacked out jdm taillights.
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my old m35x headlights. blacked out w/ upgraded led's
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spartan

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another buddies blacked out 350z headlights, clear sidestrip installed.
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another friends z roadster lights done
<a href="http://s100.photobucket.com/user/z33_drift_king/media/003-12.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m15/z33_drift_king/003-12.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo 003-12.jpg"/></a>

another set of 08 350z lights. ccfl rings, blacked out
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another z setup w/ clear strip
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and another z lol
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g37 blacked out with demon eye
http://s100.photobucket.com/user/z33_drift_king/media/637_zpsf4fdf601.jpg.html
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civic retrofitted with q45 projectors
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370z headlights. blacked out, with color matched shrouds
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ROYMAN

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There is already a kit out for the halos, but I think this is a case-by-case kinda thing... Retrofitting something into the fogs or changing out the bulb/ballast setup for a different look is a lot less dramatic than putting in an LED strip or something in a Viper headlamp. That being said, I'm interested in seeing what you come up with!
Right now, I am putting in 6k LED lights into my fogs, swapping out my low beams with a 6k McCulloch HID kit, and then, pending the back ordering, putting in some 6k/amber V3 Switchbacks into my front turn signals, but I have yet to see anyone actually do a LED strip or halos on a Viper.
 

PeterMJ

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There is already a kit out for the halos, but I think this is a case-by-case kinda thing... Retrofitting something into the fogs or changing out the bulb/ballast setup for a different look is a lot less dramatic than putting in an LED strip or something in a Viper headlamp. That being said, I'm interested in seeing what you come up with!
Right now, I am putting in 6k LED lights into my fogs, swapping out my low beams with a 6k McCulloch HID kit, and then, pending the back ordering, putting in some 6k/amber V3 Switchbacks into my front turn signals, but I have yet to see anyone actually do a LED strip or halos on a Viper.
Did you miss the pics of the green viper up on top of this thread? Someone opened up these headlights and installed the green halos in the headlights already. I am very cautious because if someone messes up, it will be a very expensive mistake due to replacement lenses not being available for viper. Lenses are very easy to crack when you pry them out, meltdowns happen too and resealing the lights afterwards is another matter as well.
 

spartan

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^precisely, not to mention that they need to be perfectly resealed afterwards.

As far as led strips, i think most of them look cheap, and incorrect on majority of platforms out there, but if done correctly can look very oem-esque, which is what im aiming for.
 

PeterMJ

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^precisely, not to mention that they need to be perfectly resealed afterwards.

As far as led strips, i think most of them look cheap, and incorrect on majority of platforms out there, but if done correctly can look very oem-esque, which is what im aiming for.
If you are serious about it, getting a used one, even if it is messed up somehow, practicing on one may be a good way. I personally would be more interested in halo rings and getting rid off or tinting that hideous amber corner piece but this is just me... I agree that LED strips are more like acquired taste, I do not care for them myself, including those in the new Viper and Corvette. If I was doing mine, I would be going with full CF on the inside, clear or tinted markers and halo rings, this would be it:D
 

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Appreciate some may not like the strips, but importing my ACR into the UK meant changing it to conform with the lighting requirement for the UK, The stock sidelight configuration in the indicator is not ok.

This is what I ended up with, its a strip of LED that lights up sideways rather than straight out, these are sandwiched between the headlight housing and the fender. They are practically invisible when not turned on, and quite attention grabbing when used on their own, if the viper doesn't get someone's attention in the mirror the lights certainly do.
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apeas2

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VIPERDAVE,
Looks great. Would you please post close up pics with the hood open and the part number for the LED's that you used. Did you wire these to a HOT wire or to the parking lights?
 

Longhornsmark

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Would love to see a few more photos if you can, I've been on the fence about doing the same thing with mine.
 

ViperDave

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Had a chance to take some more pics. and some of the comments below are from 3yr old memory so apologies if I forgot anything or get it slightly wrong, Disclaimers over lol

There's noting much to see with the hood up, all the wiring is behind the headlight housing. For the UK we can not run the side light combined with the indicator so I cut the side light feed to the OEM lamp and used that as a feed for these led's. I cant recall which wire it was but a few mins with a volt metre and testing the lights and indictors should show up which one it is.

The LED kit I used was brought in the UK and a picture below, not sure if the exact kit will be available in the US, not even sure you can get it here anymore which is why I have a spare. But to be honest its nothing special other than the LED's are side emitting and a quick google of "side emitting LED strip" throws out various vendors of the basic LED tape.

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The LED's themselves are stuck to the underside of the fender where there is an angle that sits against the weather strip on the headlight. To get access I removed a few of the bolts that run up under the bonnet edge, be careful not to lose any spacers that may be present. IIRC there are also some fixing on the outboard side that can be accessed with the light access panel removed.


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The cables are pretty small and soldered on such that the come out the outboard end of the LED, this keeps the area around the hood clean with no wires showing there, and on the outboard side they just tuck back and over the headlight housing to be wired in to the harness and cant be seen from the outside.

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In daylight they don't appear that bright when looking at the car, but because they shine forwards they are fairly bright in the mirror of the car in front, a coupe of other club members have commented on this when I have come up behind them on the freeway. When I put the car in for its government test when I imported it, the guy doing the test thought they were OEM fit and he spends his day testing kit cars and imports so presumably gets to see plenty of ways side lights are implemented and also plenty of ways us private importers bodge something together to pass the test, and personally I like this solution much better than what dodge did on the official gen 3 cars and rather than take off the extra lights once through the test like some do I'm pretty happy with the result and quite often use them on their own during the day.
 
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