First off let me say I, in no way, am claiming this as my idea. I got the idea here.

Yesterday I set about taking off the lenses. I put them in the oven at 275 degrees, for 3-5 min at a time. The first one came off without a hitch. But the second one put up more of a fight and I took some chips out. I am going to epoxy them back on and they will also get some silicon adhesive on them when I put the lenses back on so I am not worried about it.





Mine had two small screws under some putty on the sides of the housing holding the red bulb cover in place. They didn't have a screw head, but I just grabed a pair of pliers and twisted. They weren't on very tight and it was pretty easy to get them out. Sorry but it is all too small to take a picture.


The LED's are half a milimeter to a milimeter to large, up and down if the lights were on the car. Tomorrow after work I am going to dremel the sides in an attempt to make them fit. Here are some pictures of the LED's just sitting on the housing.






However, I am worried about the lense even fitting over the peterson LED's. I am pretty sure they won't fit without major changes to the light housing, so I am considering leaving the lenses/covers off the lights. I don't see any problems with this since the LED's are sealed and weather proof. And I would seal the backs with the weather stripping around the back like the other thread did, so weather getting into the trunk is not a concern for me either.

Thanks for looking and your input. I will update as things progress.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

if it doesnt fit right.....dont use it. The LED might be waterproof, but water will get past the unit into your trunk.

I would consider getting a smaller LED brick, and putting it back under the red lens, especially if you get one with more leds.

Not to mention you cut out what little side marker light that the tails give you.




Dont get me wrong, Im just giving you some suggestions to make this idea better.

I dont think a lens-less outer tail would look all that good anyways.

There is only one size, 4", available to me. They are semi trailer lights and they are DOT approved so I am going to use them. I liked the 10 diode one the best and I am going to use both truck canopy weather stripping and black silicone adhesive around the LED's so it won't leak into the trunk.

I am on the fence about going with no lenses. I think it would look nice on its own, but would look tacky / unfinished with the inner tails still having a lens. Tomorrow I am going to look and see if I can get a shallower LED in the hopes of getting the lens back on.

I don't think I am going to make much progress on this until the weekend.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

The light you were asking about was a Peterson Manufacturing (PM) p/n M417R. Thats teh 39 LED unit I used on my Sunfire lights, more lights better, fuller looking lamp.

Do you have a side profile of your LED's?

PSN ID: Phatchance249

This is with the weather strip installed but you get the thickness of it shown, the only place I know to get the lenses is www.izntrbl.com, but the some big stink going on about him right now. Seems to me I saw another guy selling them on ebay but i counldnt find them.

I can definitely make new clear lenses for you, but I also have some advise........LEDs are very directional with their light output intensity. For instance.....if the LED discs are not facing straight back from the car or if there is even a slight difference from one tail to the other in the angle that they are mounted, you will see a slight difference in the brightness from one side to the other or all together.
I would have to agree with John, it looks like that size doesn't fit right and if you can't find the right size (many sizes available depending on where you look and how much you want to spend), then maybe DON'T USE IT.

Brian
highvoltage420@comcast.net

Thanks for the advice guys. I think they would mount better if mine were smaller like the ones spencer posted. But I searced PM's website and our store's catalog and I think I got the same LED's, just 10 diodes, PN M417R2. It's weird because the picture on their site looks like spencer's, which is not what I got. I haven't found any smaller LED's that are Stop, Turn and Park lights that are DOT approved. If someone has a source please let me know because I really want to do this.

I ground one of the housings down and the LED's now fit in the way I was planning and I am going to put it on the car this weekend to see how it looks. I can see it would be a huge pain to get both of them looking the same, if they are as directional as you make it seem because of the way I have to grind the housing. I know LED's are more directional then incandecant, but I was hoping because the LED's are made for what I am using them for it wouldn't be as directonal. Thankfully I haven't done anything that will pohibit me from returning them to origional.

Brian, do you know picing? Have you done it before? I will definately keep you in mind if I decide to abandon this project.

Thanks for your help.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

Here are just a couple of random sites that might put you in the right direction......

http://www.uatparts.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=uatparts&Category_Code=LEDLIGHT

This company will build custom round LED clusters per order even integrated (color changing) for many applications......

http://www.customled.com/PRODUCTS/ROUND_LED_CLUSTERS/round_led_clusters.htm

If this doesn't help, you may contact me with exact specs and price range and I might be able to find you something.
Let me know how it goes.

Happy to help,
Brian

Mine arent small, they are the 4" ones. My part number m417r, there isnt a 2 behind it. That second link looks very cool, make me wanna redo mine with the color change turn signals.

Spencer, the 2 in the partnumber means it has a plug built in. Online it says the dimentions don't change with or without the plug adapter so I don't know what happened. I might order the lights without the plug adapter at work monday to just make sure, but I don't think I will be able to get the lenses on even with the shorter lights like spencer's.

Brian thanks for the links, the second one looks really good but I wish they came bigger then 1.5" and 1.85". I am really considering doing the 1.85" I just wish they came with amber secondaries instead of yellow. Might just do all red. Now I really have some decisions to make.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

Glad to see that you are finding some options that WILL work correctly for you, and you arent just giving up and using something close.

I think the end result will be a much better product.

i have a idea to make them fit heat up the palstic witha good heat gun and stretch whe lens to fit i did this to my honda when i had it years ago

Thanks for the idea Ian but I already returned the LED's. I am waiting on a few personal things until I get those custom LED's. I hope to get them soon, I hate having miss matched tail lights.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

this is just gay all together

Working on obtainting an M-Class license... ?? Hint: 2 wheels.

Hey I was just at radio shack and they have smaller round circuit boards that might be able to be used to fab your own LED panels out of. Might be worth checking out.

Today I ordered the LED's! I got the 1.85" red and red round clusters from here

The only concern I have is its size. I wish it was a little bigger but their site says the LED's are really bright so I hope it works out. I hope to have them installed by the weekend.

I am trying to decide if I should keep the red light cover or just mount them in the reflector and leave them like that?

PSN ID: Phatchance249

Thanks for the input guys...
I think I have decided on painting the reflector black and not using the red covers.

I got the LED's today and I think I have everything to get this done. Tonight is fixing the clear lens, painting, preparing the wires. Pictures later

PSN ID: Phatchance249

For some scale

Up close

Here I cut a 3 wire trailer plug. I am putting one end on the LED's and the other on the body wireing. This way I can still remove the tail lights without cutting the wires.

The LED's in the housing




I am still on the fence about the reflector area. I am torn between painting the whole thing black, painting it black but leaving about a 1/4 of an inch around the LED reflective, or just leaving it like it is. I just think if I paint it all black the white LED board will stand out really bad in the day. Maybe I am just over thinking this. Its dark outside so I can't go check out how it will look.
Anyone have any comments? And yes, the LED's will light up red.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

For some scale

Up close

Here I cut a 3 wire trailer plug. I am putting one end on the LED's and the other on the body wiring. This way I can still remove the tail lights without cutting the wires.

The LED's in the housing




I am still on the fence about the reflector area. I am torn between painting the whole thing black, painting it black but leaving about a 1/4 of an inch around the LED reflective, or just leaving it like it is. I just think if I paint it all black the white LED board will stand out really bad in the day. Maybe I am just over thinking this. Its dark outside so I can't go check out how it will look.
Anyone have any comments? And yes, the LED's will light up red.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

....or you could buy the new ones that just came out.......





Member of JBO - 9 Years & Counting...

^^^ could you explain?

I will be finishing tomorrow morning. Letting the silicone sealant dry over night before I hook them up.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

Shawn McKenzie wrote:^^^ could you explain?

I will be finishing tomorrow morning. Letting the silicone sealant dry over night before I hook them up.

He was referring to these ones I am pretty sure
http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=7&i=371063&t=371063

I didn't know about those when I started this.

I finished them today, waiting for it to get dark to get some good pics.

I feel really silly but where is the flasher located? The only two fuse locations I know of are under the hood and the in the door jam on the drivers side. I couldn't find the flasher in either of those locations.

PSN ID: Phatchance249

You get some pics, I wanna see them. I about to take mine apart again to paint the inside body color.