LED tail conversion - preliminary discussion and idea thread

[ItsEcko06]

looking real good

and also i would definately not buy tails with anything other than white reverse lights. so i'm sure we should keep them white

[statik83]

Do you have a link to your website so we can view this video. I am curious on how this is going to look. I just bought my LED tails from Ebay.

[gli liphon]

Do you have a link to your website so we can view this video. I am curious on how this is going to look. I just bought my LED tails from Ebay.

I don't have any vids of finished tails yet, I'll be working on that this weekend. I don't want to link the site directly since I know the policies regarding that stuff are pretty strict here. My profile has a link to my site and you can always email me.

[losenone]

Ill have pics up today. Shop is spraying them today, should be done in a few hours.

[gli liphon]

Ill have pics up today. Shop is spraying them today, should be done in a few hours.

Which ones did you get? A pair off ebay or did you have another shop do a custom retrofit for you?

[losenone]

Got em off ebay. Put them on tonight and lemme tell you. WOW what a difference. Ill put up the pics tomorrow.

[losenone]

Just to give you a side by side comparsions of OEM on the left and LED on the right.

[toxik]

nice are those tinted? i cant tell by the pic.

[losenone]

Yep, everything besides the reverse light. Ill put up another pic once the foot of snow subsides a bit lol

[gli liphon]

Those look good losenone.

It looks like replacement coupe tails are starting to show up on ebay. Not much better pricing than the dealership, but I picked up a pair to see how the quality is.

I haven't updated here in a while, so here's a few pics of the led board that goes in the turn signal area and some of just the board for the brake area. This has a two color design that's for the sedans, but you'll get the idea.

14 led board for turn signal area (this is wired with red leds to be used as a red turn or additional brake)

Outer ring brake signal

Outer ring headlight signal

Inner ring turn signal

Inner ring turn with outer ring headlight (brightness comparison)

[gli liphon]

I've got the technique down enough now for opening the tails, I took a crack at opening one of the OEM coupe tails that I have. The results are amazing.

The plastic lenses are still in

Plastic lenses removed, top back on

Although these aren't super detailed pics, you can definitely see that there are no weird melt points or anything like that. Its taken 5 sedan tails to really get the technique down, but its definitely been worth it. These things look perfect even when you are looking at them up close, even if you are an inch away and looking for issues. You can't see a seam at all from the front, so these are going to look oem when they are back on the car.

I also have found a vendor that has replacement coupe tails for VERY reasonable. He's sending me a set that I should get at the beginning of this week to check out. So although this has been sedan focused lately, its definitely all about the coupes again. I can't talk about pricing here, but they are about half the price of retail OEMs and less than one hundred more than the sedan ones. It sucks they cost more, but everything costs more for the coupe, so you're used to it, right?

I'm working on trying to become a vendor on this site as well. I'm set up as a vendor on a few of the other nissan sites and I'd like to be able to offer some promotional pricing and coupons for nicoclub members. Hopefully we can get that figured out.

[sonicbliss]

I gotta say, I am very excited to see where this ends up. Ever since I've started reading this thread, i keep thinking "man, i wish i could do this kinda stuff". I think I would TOTALLY be down to get something like this done, if it were to be offered, that is. keep up the good work man.

[gli liphon]

sorry for the lack of updates. i've been really busy trying to get the first pair of coupe and sedan lights done. i finished the coupe ones today, here's how they look on my coupe. and that ISN'T tint, i repainted the inside of the housing to gloss black with just a little bit of silver.

modded tail and stock tail comparison:

everything off:

headlights on:

closeup with headlights on:

brake on:

the turn signal is the inside ring, i can't really get a good pic of that with the still camera. i'll do a few videos in the next few days. the first sedan pair should be done this week too, it's very similar except the inside ring is amber.

let me know what you think.

[JayStarr]

WOW, it looks amazing.. i want i want i want

[dangeris]

Those look BAD A$$ and that"s what I'm looking for. Not feeling the added triangular 14 LED brake light though.

I like it better with the two circles, outer for brake and inner for turns Also like the black painted housing as well

Gonna shoot you an email, please respond.... But great job on the tails!

[LongBeachCoupe]

Lookin nice!

I also think that the triangle is deceiving... it seems like a turn signal, if its just the inner ring that does the signal, id leave the triangle out...

GLI, shoot me another email and lets talk more about this...

[mikegtr06]

looks amazing, can you get a far away shot with the running lights on and then another with the brakes ?

[psi101101]

BAD A$$!!! like dangeris said, the 14 LED trianle thing is killin the tails..other then that, I WANT IT!!!

could u do something different with the trianle thing??

[toxik]

looks sick, props man

[dangeris]

could u do something different with the trianle thing??

Yeah,..like leave it out.....

[gli liphon]

thanks for the feedback. the smaller board will be optional. the funny thing is i haven't really liked it until i finally saw it on the car. it ties into the lines of the trunk and tail really well. when its sunny and nice here i'll try and do a few videos for everyone.

i'm working with the mods right now to determine the best course of action for getting you availability information and pricing. once we get that figured out i'll get down to the details.

[LongBeachCoupe]

Climbing things up the ladder right now...

[Dest556]

Those look too amazing. Damn you. Now I have to save up some more cash to get some. Damn good work.

[rabbitz]

wow beautiful! are you going to stick with the stock light shapes (two circles and a triangle thing) or will u try other light arrangements? ive always been a fan of the horizontal rectangular brake light as opposed to a single circle

[ursus]

Wow, we got some talented ppl in here.. very nice work guys.

[headhunt3r]

Dayum those are hot!!!!

[LongBeachCoupe]

Im with dangeris on this one...Inner circle should be the turn signal, and id probably just leave out the turning signal area.

Or maybe have the circle as the outer being headlights on, and the inner being brake light... and then the turn signal area replaced with one of those 18+ led bulbs to keep it all clean.

Either way, just the blackish interior of the enclosure is full of win!

[bina12834]

the set-up that im getting is:

- outter ring - running lights at 50% when headlights on and 100% when brakes are on

- inner ring turn signal at 100%

nothin in the turn signal area

[Bostonaholic]

the set-up that im getting is:

- outter ring - running lights at 50% when headlights on and 100% when brakes are on

- inner ring turn signal at 100%

nothin in the turn signal area

I'm thinking of doing the same setup but with the inner ring turn-signal with amber LEDs.

@Bina, have you figured out what you'll do with the empty space where the turn is? Keep the amber plastic in there or what? If we remove it, won't there be a hole where the turn bulb was before? That's the only thing I haven't figured out and if I can't I may just use the amber LEDs in the normal turn location. Let me know what you think.

[bina12834]

well im having my tail light lens tinted red, so having any other color LEDs besides red wont matter too much.

as for the amber turn signal piece, im not sure yet. thats going to be something that i decide on after i see what the whole assembly looks like with the lens tinted red. either way im going to have a "dummy" blub socket in stock turn signal location, just so theres not a random hole there.