VGM. How did you get your lights to show evenly thru the translucent plastic? I don't see your lights, shining thru where the other pictures of the made up ones (aftermarket type) show the straight line where the light is attached. This is what I didn't like when attaching mine. I ordered some reflective tape in white, and that should help even out the light displacement. I'm also going to put my led's on the insert panel instead of the main body. This way, the light is shown directly on the reflective tape, and will reflect back as an even light. Much like headlights against the reflector then to the big round body, then outwards the light is thrown. We'll surely find out when the tape and 6 watt lights get here. I was trying some 2 watt lights, but they were not bright enough for an even light to be seen. It was bright on one, and weak on the other. Thus the idea of the reflective tape.

I made a tube one time, that put the white reflective tape on one part and a rope led showing against it. It was like having a 1M cp light. The light reflected back so cleanly, that it was like have a portable sun, with just little a little section of rope leds. I hope this works with the same principle and turns out like I hope it does. Time will tell. Sorry for the delay.

NOTE: If you decide the do the baking trick, when you go the remove the lense, start with the sharp corner that sits next to the upper grille. These lights have a groove in the lense that when they are assembled, it is easier to remove this way. If you try the opposite way, you may break the lense because of the reverse lip that can be broken.

 

I'm sorry Bill. I don't visit here often anymore.

First off thank you for your kind words. You always have something nice to say. So thanks again.

My glow out put is pretty sweet huh! Haha.

Second your efforts are pretty good but what I did was different. I saw other do what you did but i really hated that textured plastic.

Since you will show everyone how to do this I'll just tell you here.
I used white plexiglass. Then i traced each hole onto the plexiglass and cut them out with my dremel tool.
Then I glued each piece to the back of the hole using Gorrila 2 part poxy glue.
IMPORTANT When you cut out each piece make sure you leave a lip around the piece so it can fit snuggly in the hole. Otherwise when gluing it will fall right through.

For the lighting i didn't use normal LEDs. I used COB lighting strips. Be careful though. When you buy a set (from china) the light output on each might be different. I had to by like 5 or 6 sets to get matching white color output. It was very frustrating.
I bought 2 kinds 14cm for the back hole and 17cm for the front hole.
wired them up together and voila.

I'll post some more shots once I find them.

 

Double posting because I can....

Bill will reheating the plastic to reinsert the lens work?
I ask because what I did was remove all that rubber and put down fresh one. Its been recommend by everyone who open up headlights to do custom work.
I also did what you did and soldered both COB lights together so that only one wire is coming out the back.

Here are more shots.
Side note: I thought of doing what you did and just place the plastic on the back and gluing it there, but that left holes or gaps between the plastic and the hole. Also note that the bottom of the hole curves slightly. So if you want a tight fit, you'll have to bend the plastic a little. Using a heat gun is the easiest way of doing this.

First pic is the thickness of plexiglass I used. Its the smallest thickness.
Second pic the trace outline with added extra lip.
Third pic the added lip to the plexiglass so it can fit properly in the hole.
Forth pic the added curve.
Fifth pic how it fits from behind.
Sixth what it looks like from the front.

Any questions? If I dont reply in a while Bill, shoot me an email to come here and answer any questions.

Hope this helps you.

 

Thanks for the how to VGM.

Another cool mod.

 

You guys didn't make your clear plastic flush to the outside, though. I was wondering how come?

Cheers

 

Thanks Jim.
To answer your question.
2 reasons.
1 I don't think it looks good.
2 if you look at the 2015 headlights they are not flush. They sink in a little.

 

At least this thread is getting a bit of traction and looks. That's a good thing.

As far as to why I did the way I did mine. First off, I couldn't get any plastic thick enough, so I got the lighting panel and tired that. I added a piece of fiberglass material to give it a diffuser panel, and that softened the glare from the COB lights.

As far as Jim's question about why I didn't go to the edge, was that I bent it with the heat. There is only so much room, and I wanted to keep it with enough room. Everything is hidden anyways, so what the underside looks like is actually unimportant.

VGM, where and the hell do you get your patience to dremil it out and then do a second cut? On 4 pieces even? I bow to you sir. I ran into the same problem you did with the lights being bright or dim or both. I hope the ones I just bought will do the trick. Did you notice on your COB light that some are 24 volt, and those get sent by mistake a lot. I have 2 sets already. lol.

VGM, I've run into the same problems as you've experienced here, on the F150 site I'm a regular on. I've posted over 1600 times there, and now, I've decided to say $&*# it. I had been thinking about doing that here, but you and Jim have kept me sane, for the most part. lol

Thanks for posting what you did. Between different ideas, maybe the S197 owners will try and do this. It might actually catch on. lol.

 

Ha ha ha. Thanks AK. Being a perfectionist you need a hell of a lot of patience. And when it comes to things like this I don't rush anything. I've always been like this.

The COB light bars I bought were all 12v but the colors were different. Some where more yellow then others and I was looking for white output. So i ended up with like 6 sets. Lol. They are cheap but the wait time is ridiculous. I found that the COB light cased in black are more yellow than the ones cased in silver. Those are more white.

Personally I hope it DOESN'T catch on, I like my car to be unique. Lol

and yes I agree, you, jim and data are the main reasons why i stay. You are all a good bunch of guys.

cheers

 

This is the light I am going to try and insert into these headlights. They are 2.25x7 inches, and will fit behind the headlight insert with a little left over (at least that is my intention). I will use the double stick tape that comes with it and mount it to the insert, pointing away from the opening. This way the reflective tape, mounted where the lights would normally go, will do it's job and hopefully give an even amount of light. I'll tape the center section black so it doesn't give too much on one end, and that should suffice for the ighting requirements. At least I hope. They sell for about 12-18 per set, so it isn't out of price range. If they don't work for this, I'm sure I can find another use for them. lol.

VGM is using the COB 14 and 17 cm lights on his. Anyone else have any ideas for what they might use?

It took me 5 1/2 years, but I finally reached that 300 post threshold. I guess I haven't had much to say. lol

 

Those are rather cool AK. Wow. Looking forward to the outcome.

Oh and you may only have 300 posts but the quality of your posts are top notch.

 

This is what they look like when lit. Notice, the LED's don't show, per se, and give off an even light. This is what I'm hoping for.

 

Those are neat! So if I understand correctly, one will end up covering 2 gills, or 1 per gill?

Wish I could comment on what lights to use, but I have no idea.

 

Jim. One side of each light will go on each gill on the back. One complete light per headlight only. We'll see if they work or fit like I want.

Here is the light info. Voltage: DC 12V
Color: white 6000K
Material: COB LED chip + aluminum housing
Size: 15*5.6*0.5cm (6 in x 2.2 in x 1/4 in thick)
Weight:adout 88g
Lifespan: 50,000 h

The photo shows where I'm going to black it out. Maybe this will help clear up my description.

 

I'm still waiting for the lights to come in, so stay tuned. I'm not stopping until I get this done. Also, after looking at VGM's lenses closer, a piece of the white cutting board, ought to work well also. I was trying to come up with something here in AK that would work, but just came up with that. I could cut the second cut, as did VGM, to give the light a backing mount.

I am also starting a thread about installing a home computer with 9 inch touch screen for my Mustang. I'll have navigation, Pandora, Video available, a TB of remote memory, so I can run about anything and any program. I'll use a start up boot card, and let it use the remote for everything. I've had this working on the bench, so I can see it working in the Mustang. I've still got to solder some wires and put things into protective boxes, but all in all, it should make for a nice indash computer, running Windows or Linux. I am having some difficulty finding the right antenna system, but I think I have that worked out now also. Once I get it set, I'll post more pictures and show how the build goes.

 

The lights came in today, and talk about night and day difference from the COB lights I originally tried. These things have a heck of a lot light output and are not cheap like the bar ones. These have one problem when trying to use them for the gills, they are about 2-3 mm too thick to fit well. TO use these, I'm going to have to maybe make the lenses like VGM did. Hmmm. I was just looking at my LED assortment, and I have some shorter bars, that come with 6 in a pack. I may try those tomorrow and see if that will work any better. Nothing will work right, until I get the reflective tape, which should be here on Tuesday. These smaller lights put out a lot of light and if they don't look out of place like the COBs did, then I might just use these instead of the U lights. Those would make a heck of a driving light, which is what they are originallly designed to do. I'll keep you posted on these and the tape next week.

 

Mine are pretty bright. Blinding in fact. How much more out put do these have?

 

Hey there VGM. I don't know if they have more light, but when you put them side by side, the newer lights are brighter to me. It is made a bit different than the flat COBs. It seems molded over the lights, the lense that is, and is made so much better quality than the flat COBs. I just ordered 3 days ago another style light that I want to try. What the heck. you can never have too many lights laying around in boxes, right? lol
Here is a picture of the new lights I just ordered. Look closely at the way the bulb(s) are layed out if possible. Very neat arrangement that should produce an even light. These may not be a bad replacement. We can see when they arrive. I've got all winter to do this. lol Here is the link also.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/201408053466?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Ok, as I was watching the Talledega race, I was fiddling with these lights. I went back to use the original COB lights, like VGM used and decided they would be the best overall for size and thickness, as well as the light output. I still didn't like how the light was centered and looked like a straight line inside the housing, instead of being an even light. It just didn't look right.

I had a brainstorm. As I looked at the above light and still waiting for it's delivery, I thought, what would happen if I took the plastic off the sides of the COB light? I thought it would like similar to the above, so I decided to try that, and behold, an even displacement of light. The edge plastic holds the light to a single reflection, straight ahead. By removing the side plastic, the light is placed outwards, to the side, not just straight ahead. I figured this would give me the light I wanted.

I used 2 pieces of 2 inch wide white reflective tape and mounted that where the lights would go behind the inner panel. I then attach the two COB lights over them, and the light is now diffused to the sides better and it works much better than before I removed the trim. I think that this is how I'm going to put it together. Tomorrow I'll reheat the light and put it back together fully. I'll post up some pictures tomorrow of the finalized results for the first side. If it comes out sealed correctly and looks good, I'll do the other side. It's a easy chore, once you do the first side, the other should be a piece of cake. lol

I signed up to go to a laser cutting demonstration tomorrow night, so I'm going to take my headlight inner panel and a new white cutting board (1/4 inches thick) and will see if they can cut out some of these for me during their demonstration. Who knows, maybe we can get a templete with cutting instruction set up for people to take to a plastic cutting place for a simple install. Hmm, might be worth looking into.

 

I didn't go to the laser cutting demo on Monday, but I did manage to get the first light in a usable condition. I used my power supply to see how the light work and found they come on at 10 volts and over power and shut off at 14.7 volts. I ended up using 3 of the COB lights to fill in with. It is more light than necessary, but it does give a little bit better light disapation. Here are a couple pics of the one headlight reassembled, I'll post other pics of the inside tomorrow. If you look at the last picture, that is the output of light at 12.1 volts and only .6 amps, so guess I will add a resistor inline to cut down the power a bit. At .2 amps it is quite a bit better. These numbers are what's needed the power is at the parklights, so that is what I used to test them at.