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Finally a legitimate mod to my car - and NO ONE else has it.


boingo82
09-29-2003, 09:24 PM
Here's a pic of my brand new LED taillights which my brother fabricated for me - and I've also included a "progress pic" so you can see them before they were totally assembled.
1st pic is half LED, half stock - makes the stock lights look crappy, I think.
Second pic is LED tails with turn signals lit.
Third pic is LED taillights and turn signals and reverse lights. For some reason I didn't get a shot w/ the brake lights on - but you can see that in the progress pic.
Let me know what you think everyone. Esp. Mr. T who informed me that putting new, uncracked tires on a car is not a "mod". :rolleyes:

JeffForSale!
09-29-2003, 09:27 PM
I saw the first one and i didnt think it would look really nice, but i like it :p

Hobbes
09-29-2003, 09:29 PM
Well, you're right about no one else having those on that type of car. I like it. A little weird, but nice. I like how the turn signals are made too. :thumbsup:

2strokebloke
09-29-2003, 09:42 PM
Reminds me of the circus, but from a parctical standpoint, it's incredibly cool.

boingo82
09-29-2003, 10:02 PM
Oh, the trunk is not closed in the pic, so in real life w/ a closed trunk the lights are aligned. Plus they look much better in real life because those pics were taken with a 6 year old digi cam w/ 640x480 res - not the best equipment out there.
Circus. :screwy:

dayna240sx
09-29-2003, 10:23 PM
Sorry but I dont really like them...

HogieGT-R
09-30-2003, 12:05 AM
sweet now lets make some for my Corolla i'm feelin that look :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

Gafoto
09-30-2003, 12:25 PM
Absolutely. Very nice and definetly an original design. I'm not really thrilled about them bt they look decent and NOBODY has them which is cool. Its nice to be able to drive around with a totally unique car.

Suislide
09-30-2003, 03:50 PM
WAY WAY better then Altezza's, that's for sure. :thumbsup:

boingo82
09-30-2003, 06:42 PM
sweet now lets make some for my Corolla i'm feelin that look :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

We figured the BIG BUCKS are in mass-producing these for Civics and Integras. :D It actually took $84 in LEDS, some PCBs, some smoke plexiglass and a bit of time. My brother made them as an x-mas present for me, and it took a long time as the 1st pair but he figures he could easily do a set a week now that he knows what he's doing.

integra818
09-30-2003, 06:45 PM
Lookin great! Maybe you should mass produce them and start selling them, would'nt you rather have ALOT of money rather than bieng 'individual'? ;)

ci5ic
09-30-2003, 07:27 PM
That's pretty damn cool... I've thought about doing something similar with my car, but wanted to get an extra set of tails to work on instead of destroying the ones I've got if I mess up...

That's alot of soldering looks like... I might have to give that a try afterall...

boingo82
09-30-2003, 08:54 PM
That's pretty damn cool... I've thought about doing something similar with my car, but wanted to get an extra set of tails to work on instead of destroying the ones I've got if I mess up...

That's alot of soldering looks like... I might have to give that a try afterall...

Thanks. I bought a complete spare set of tails from another G20 owner (who had molded corvette tails into his G20) for $95. That was a good decision since these have been kinda-in-progress since April. Now I have my stock tails sitting around Just In Case because my new tails technically aren't DOT-approved and I have to pass inspection again in 6 mo's. I was looking on eBay the other day to see if anyone else was making these for Civics and it looks like you can get a spare set for your car MUCH cheaper than I did - I guess because so many Civic owners swap on Altezzas and then sell off their stocks there are more stock lights around.

With the soldering, yes my brother did a ton of work on these, but we were actually really lucky because I wanted the angle of the LED lines to echo the shape of the taillights, and it just so happened that the PCBs had holes already spaced exactly right. So the LEDs are flush against the PCBs and the leads did not have to be bent to fit in the PCB holes.

We separated the lenses from the housing by baking the taillights at 350º (I think) and checking them every few minutes. The problem with this method is the mozzarella-cheese glue that seals the taillights melts at almost the same temperature as the lenses...so one of my lenses bent a teeny bit but we were able to bend it back. You can't notice it now unless you're at the exact right angle and someone points it out.
I have heard since that a better way to do this is to soak the tails in a bathtub in the hottest water you've got. Supposedly that softens the glue too.

The worst part was scraping the mozzarella-cheese glue out of the grooves where it seals the lights together. When we were finished we re-sealed them with silicone.

Sean
09-30-2003, 09:45 PM
Looks real nice. The turn signals rock!
LOL, mozzerella cheese glue...


WAY WAY better then Altezza's, that's for sure. :thumbsup:

:ylsuper: You said it.

TheNotoriousMogg
09-30-2003, 11:36 PM
wow those are pretty interesting and original :biggrin:

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