Well after a long weekend i finally finished my light up 300ZX center panel! So enjoy!
Modified by Phideaux at 10:45 PM 11/27/2009

sick

"in pursute of red nissan W/ BLUE 300zx emblem"

looks great !

plane16j wrote: "in pursute of red nissan W/ BLUE 300zx emblem"

hahahahaha lol Looks great! How much did you end up spending on it?

i've seen that before, how is it done? do you have to buy the whole thing center panel from somewhere?

Very nice! I'd love to see that in person sometime... I am also in SLC.

looks awesome. I will never do it though from the headache pulling my tail lights apart was. http://www.beingseen.com/

go there u need the el light

Looks sick man, i'd like to do it with white or red LED's

looove ittttttt... wannnttt itttttttttttt

jedijeff123 wrote: hahahahaha lol Looks great! How much did you end up spending on it?

it really was only like $25 (+shipping) haha all i had to buy was an EL panel that was 12" x 1.25", and it came with an inverter worked perfect! and i painted around the Reverse lenses chrome too ($5 can) so really pretty cheap just takes time and you don't wana rush it or you'll break it

Pieceofsand wrote:i've seen that before, how is it done? do you have to buy the whole thing center panel from somewhere?

it's really simple i just followed th write up on Twinturbo.net (http://www.twinturbo.net/nissa....html) it's exactly what you need to do, although the temp on the oven is flexable i only put mine to 350 just to be safe and it worked out fine. no you can just use the one from your car, just make sure you can go without your car for the time you have it out and make sure you don't break it.

A Paratrooper’s 300zx wrote:Very nice! I'd love to see that in person sometime... I am also in SLC.

oh Definately we should hook up some time! and get tommy to come before he sells his Z! haha i think he's in West Valley somewhere.

Vanessalalinda wrote:looove ittttttt... wannnttt itttttttttttt

Well do it then, it's more fun if you do it all yourself it's a good weekend project and pretty inexpensive.

that's a bit scary to do man...lol. >.<

Well the best thing to do would be to probably aquire a spare Center panel just in case something goes wrong haha luckily when i bought my Jspec tail lights it can with a used USDM panel so i had a fail safe. but it really isn't that hard honestly specially if you're not going to paint anything, because that's the only reason it took me more than a day was because i was continually unhappy with my chrome paint. but if you don't feel comfortable doing it then i know someone sells already made ones on ebay for like $150

im scared too...you come do it for me

haha oh totally, i'm getting in my car now. i'll be there right after the straight day and a half of driving!

yayyyyyyy!!!!

i did a quick scanned on the write up link you've post on this project. basically you're taking off your center panel and melting the paint off, and repainting it with a stencil am i'm right?

haha Definately not! what you do is: 1) you take the Panel off your car. 2) you take the light cases off the center panel. 3) heat oven to 350 to 400 deg place the panel on it like it shows in the write up (kind proped there with the door open) 4) CAREFULLY pry apart the front plastic from the back plastic with the lenses in it. 5) you then want to lay down a layer of primer or matte paint because, although it doesn't seem like it, the panel is really almost see through. 6) then you sand away the paint that is on the 300ZX logo, which is raised up from the rest of the panel, until you can clearly see light through all the letters. in the write up it says to surround the letters while sanding with elecrical tape, definately do that! cause you will slip and you don't want do sand away the paint anywhere besides the letter then the rest is pretty clear i think. hope that helps

ummm this will help a lot more if you had pictures. i've read the write up, so you have to heat it up in order for you to take the center panel apart(the clear top)? i'm a bit confused on this one

let's all get together and do it.

the panel i mean

i like them we had A half cut the came with those one time they were nice

I'm not sure i can provide any pictures that are any better than the ones in the write up. They worked great for me. Yes that is correct the panel in made up of two different pieces, one that is the front peice with the 300ZX logo on it, and the other that has the housings for the Reverse light lenses. you can see the seam where these two pieces meet when you remove the panel from your car. you then heat it with the oven to soften the glue that holds the two pieces together.

haha geez we haven't even met yet! haha i would if i didn't live across that country from you both!

Yeah it really makes the rear end stand out alot more from other Z's, esspecially along with the Jspec tails on there with it. Definately unlike any other Z's in my area that i've seen.

okay i'm starting to get it now. the heat softens up the glue, you then take it apart. where does the painting and sanding part comes in? geez, you and vanessa should get a room already...

so once you have it apart, the inside of the front piece with the 300ZX logo on it, the 300ZX logo is raised up from the rest of the panel. You want to tape off your reverse light lenses and then lay down a coat or two of flat black paint or primer. once you let that dry, you sure put electrical tape surrounding the logo just to make sure you don't sand anything besides the raised letters in the logo. you want to get some really fine sand paper and start sanded the raised letters. you want to sand until all the paint is sanded off. like it says in the write up it's a good idea to get a solid color background on your computer screen and put the panel up to it. if you can see clearly through it can don't see any paint spots then you know that you are good to go. once this step is complete you want to tape with electrical tape the EL panel that you purchased on the logo making sure that you cover the whole logo, i bought mine off of Ebay for $25 it was a 12" X 1.25" panel. you then need to drill a hole in the other piece of the panel ( the piece with the reverse lense housings and stuff) so that the wiring from the EL panel can go through. You then want to try and get the two pieces of panel back together the best you can, then repeat the step with the oven again like it says in the write up. and then put it the rest of the way together it may take more than one heating and pushing together cycle. the rest is pretty self explainitory... got it?

absolutely not lol. you heat it up, take it apart. now you have a clear piece and the inside piece which is black. the 300zx is located on the outside clear piece, and it is raised up from the inside. and you want to paint it and sand it? why paint it? does the EL panel stays in between the black(back) panel and the outside(front) panel?

haha yeah that's right, you paint it becuase the front peice is basically see through, so if you didn't paint it the light from the EL panel would shine through the whole thing not just the letters completely ruining the purpose of the project. i've heard that if you have a Jspec Center panel though the painting step is not needed. Yes the light is taped to the back side of the front piece, in the empty space between the two pieces.

took me long enough to understand it lol. i think i will do this after i get my z build early next year. thanks man.hey just another question, where does the EL hook up to in order for it to get its power? after you drill that hole on the back panel for its wires.

Well along with the EL panel you need an inverter that will give the power to the El panel. so you connect that with the connector that's already on the inverter and EL panel, then what i did and is recomended is that you wire the inverter into the License plate light. pretty easy just cut the wires and splice them together and you're good to go, and your logo will light up whenever you license plate lights are on.