I have several sets of 95-02 APC Sunfire tail lights in black, carbon fiber and chrome. The work of Shawn McKenzie and Mike Thompson in adapting LED's to existing tail lights elsewhere in this forum interested me.

Based on Shawn's experience, I purchased a pair Peterson Manufacturing 4" 39 LED truck lights (p/n M417R) from O'Reilly Auto Parts. In fact, the lenses measure 4 1/4 inches as received.

My APC tails have 4 1/2" round protruding lenses that have no cover. They have painted trim rings around the lenses in either silver or black. I used a 4 1/4" hole saw to remove the lenses, avoiding the trim rings, with a drill press set at 300 rpm to reduce excess heat. Using a die grinder to clean up the cut, I was able to insert the LED tail lights with a snug fit. The whole process took about an hour.

A coating of weatherstrip adhesive wiil cure water leaks and the exact lens replacement will eliminate LED directional issues.

The APC tails have never been a big favorite but they do offer an alternative to the stock lenses. I swap mine around with the stockers to change the look. of my car. I now have another set to add to the mix.

This swap has the additional advantage that the LED's are DOT approved. One reason for the demise of APC, and the reason that their Sunfire lenses are so difficult to get, is the fact that they mislabeled their products.

Sorry, no pics.

Jack

although it sounds like the work done is decent, the DOT approved LED round lights being smacked into stock tails does not make your non-dot approved lights DOT approved. APC's lights lack a sufficient corner marker light, which is what a lot of them were not DOT approved for.

Throw up some pics though, i would like to see them.

The side markers in teh stock bumpers would take care of the legality of them, as long as they still have the reflectors. You might be thinking of my thread with the 4" peterson lights. Atho I used the 03 Sunfire TYC lights.