I'm going to make LED Tail lights. Yuhp.

[TTkickedin]

I was fascinated by a post i saw earlier regarding custom led tail lights. Now, i think it would be way too hard to get the whole 'skyline big circle, smaller circle, with a full circle reverse light' type of deal right the first time messing with led's, so I'm going to be turning my spare OEM USDM tail lights, (or another set of those red/clear cheapo tail lights from SPEC D,) into Red/White led tail lights.

I've got money to blow and I really want led tail lights. So I will do it myself

I'm assuming this project will not cost more than 200 bucks buying LED's off the internets in bulk. I should be using about 180-200 led's per tail light, so 90-100 led's per tail light section. i'll buy 500 anyway, 250 red, 250 clear.

I have no idea what i'm doing, (lol okay maybe a little,) but this is solely for your entertainment, as well as being a learning experience for myself.

This should be an interesting read so please subscribe and DO provide feedback, as well as sources that might assist me in this project. Another reason for me to visit Nico more often as well!


Much appreciated. k thx bye.


(In researching, i saw that Phillips manufactures OLED panels, lumiblade i think, that could potentially be used in tail lights. they're a bit expensive but definitely something that could be worked with. maybe when they get cheaper, i'll look into making tail lights out of these too.)

[300ZXttZMAN]

Hmm interesting. Should be decent if you can make it look right/legit/factory.

[TTkickedin]

actually, this would suck for the fate of this thread, but i might not have to make my rear tail lights...i think i can already buy them for 200 bucks! http://www.zshop.ca/

[300ZXttZMAN]

Fail lol

[TTkickedin]

disregard, they don't have tail lights nevermind. Might get their exterior kit as well though. those reverse lights look so legit.

[Ziggy1621]

oh c'mon. build them... will ya. will ya? I think creativity always thwarts buying. One of a kind

[TTkickedin]

^ okay.

It's just that it's gonna be so hard to figure out 100%, like for example, the OEM 300zx tail light uses 3 lights, 1 parking brake, 1 brake lgiht, 1 turn signal light.

Here's the research i've done:

I will have to first figure out which of the MANY LED types to use, (superflux and Piranha being two of the best but more expensive options right now. i'll be using 156 LED's per tail light section, and each tail light has two sections, so that's 624 individual LED's, 312 red and 312 either white or amber.)

Then, i have to find out how many resistors i'll need, (1 resistor per ROW in each tail light section, possibly 39 resistor's per tail light section if I do rows of four up to 156 per section.)

After that, I have to figure out what resistance to use, and what type of diodes i'll need. I think I need six 3amp diodes if i'm using 220 ohm resistors.

If i ran the LED's up according to oem wiring of the tail lights, only part of the tail light will be illuminated with the running lights, and when I press the brake, the rest of the led's will light up. This could mean that half of the resistors i'll use will have to be of either a higher or lower ohm rating for brighter or less bright lights on the running light side, or i'll have to figure out a way to make all of the led's illuminate, but with a less-bright light than if i pressed the brake. I think it would be easier if our tail lights were dual-filament but they're not.

Then the next problem is, were the hell i'm gonna find white tail light reflector material to replace the stock amber with.


These are my current issues. :/ i was going to just order the led's and everything over the weekend, but i wanted to see an applicable writeup first on a car without dual filament bulbs, but in one housing, like our z32's.

[TTkickedin]

I've been doing some research. I can have the middle row of the brake lights be illuminated for the running lights, and the top and bottom rows illuminate when the brake pedal is pressed.

But, this is the least of my worries right now, still have to get it running.

Will update, soon. don't think i abandoned the idea.

[DankZX]

http://www.clearcorners.com/products/ni ... 2/r_full1/

These are the only full LED tailights that I know of for our cars, but they are by no means cheap...$1900. So if you could do this and do a write up that would be sweet!! I may try this as well if I ever get a spare set of tail lights and some extra time.

[aroche25]

Check this link out they have tons of info on leds and wiring them http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/forumdi ... p?13-LED-s

[nix300zx]

I have been looking into doing somthing similar myself. My initial thoughts were to take apart my oem set (convert to red and clear like jdm) and to use led strips. Maybe 2-3 strips per light. So maybe 12 strips in all. Superbrightleds has strips at a decent cost, and the already have resistors. I was going to use the two bulb openings already built into the housing for a positive in and negative out. Might have to build a plate to hold them in place. Havnt thought too hard about it, just somthing I am considering as I just finished converting all my interior lights to led.

[BlackWidowZ]

looking forward to seeing how this comes out.

[Zleepin]

Very interested to see the outcome ! Good luck !