Thread: Stop/tail "D" Light mods.

Originally Posted by zulu Delta 534

I am thinking of fitting and experimenting with some LED strip light sections (I have an approx 1/2 metre strip that can be cut into sections - designed for camping and available from Auto shops) instead of bulbs in my D lights.
I am having a bit of trouble finding bulbs that will fit in the existing hinged light housing (top brake light) as the modern bulbs have a much larger and longer profile than the oldies and catch when the fitting is opened and closed. With the limited life of incandescent bulbs I reckon LED must be the way to go.
A strip of three LEDs (about 1.5 - 2 inches or so)will fit nicely in the bottom section of the light (tail/number plate) and I reckon 2 strips containing 6 LEDs should be bright enough for the brake light. I am blanking the number plate illumination section off as a Qld numberplate will not fit in the prescribed spot, so instead I have manufactured a centre tailgate swinging affair similar to those on S2s etc.
Anyone got any constructive comments to make before I do the deed?
Regards
Glen

so I assume that youll wrap the 6 around the base and sides to give more even light?

will these work OK without something in line to give it some resistance??

of course you will do a step by step for us??

cheers

What I ended up doing was first off stripping the bulb holders out of the existing "D" light housings, leaving the outer case as a flat plate with a perpendicular "separator" plate that isolates the stop light from the tail light. When you remove the bulb holders this separator plate has a largish hole in it that will bleed the two halves of the light together unless attended to.
I cleaned the remaining innards and painted it all silver. (I do this to the inside of all my tail light assemblies to assist in light reflection.) These bulb holders/ earth points etc are spot welded in, so they ground out with an angle grinder, and the pressed in reflector and bulb holder for the tail/number plate light was cut off carefully with a hacksaw.

I then cut two (per light) short lengths of right angle aluminium that I just happened to have lying about, and riveted these either side of the separating plate.
This did two things, firstly offered a suitable surface to mount the LED strips and secondly effectively blocked off the gaping hole that was left where the tail light bulb holder fitted.
To these angle pieces I simply "stuck" my LED strips using double sided adhesive tape (two 3LED strips, one above the other for brake lights and one 3 LED strip for a tail light.)


The LEDs themselves are an item that I have had lying around for a little while now, originally bought with the intention of using them on the camping trailer for lights but set aside because of a lack of lighting practicality. They are readily available at camping and automotive shops and come in a length of around a metre or so. Not too sure of the price nowadays though.


This particular LED strip is quite interesting in that it is designed especially to be cut up by people like you and me and joined, extended, shortened or whatever quite easily by simply cutting where the "scissors" icon is shown (allowing varying lengths consisting of a multiple of three LEDs), scrape back the silicone-ish cover strip to expose the soldering points, then solder them together in parallel using some suitable wires. Positive and negative poles are marked at each cutting point.




Bob's your uncle!!


The red gooey stuff is a liquid insulator that comes in a tube and is readily available from Jaycar stores or other computer/electrical parts stores!
The only problem I can foresee is me remembering which wire to join to the service wire in the car itself as LEDs only work one way and with the positive earth set up of a S1 it is bound to be the opposite of whatever I do originally.
We'll see.
A pretty simple job, even with my "splaw footed" soldering skills it didn't take that long, still looks original from the outside and is much more effective than the old 6watt bulb system.
Should keep the rivet counters on their toes!
Regards
Glen