Light the way ! - NJFBOA - Home of New Jersey's Camaros and Firebirds

LS1ow · 03-30-2018, 01:26 PM

Carrying on my favorite past time of not concentrating on parts of the build and doing other little mods, i decided it was time for some lighting changes. In an effort to bring the 20 year old car into present day, it was time for some Projector headlights and LED switchback DRL/Turn Signals.

For the headlights i used DEPO housings, baked them apart and sprayed the entire housing satin black for the full black out look. Then retrofitted some projector lenses w. "Gatling gun" shrouds. Originally wanted to go with the full black out and spray the shrouds black, but decided to keep the theme of the car going in the lights. Stripped the chrome off the shrouds with oven cleaner, primed, and then layed down some red white and blue !

Results:
*sorry for the crap pics, its hard to get good pics with an iphone with the lighting.

LS1ow · 03-30-2018, 01:26 PM

Now for the turn signals, i wanted something more than just tinted lenses or clear corners. Ended up picking up some LED tube lighting from Oracle, ya know, the same stuff they use on the Stance'd Diesel trucks. Ive had them on my jeep for over a year now, and its been smashed threw woods, water, mud and snow and they have not even flickered. Was tossing around a few ideas of how to lay out the light, but decided plain jane straight was the best way to go about it. I wasnt really sure how it was going to look in the first place, so i opted for the most simple lay out.

I made my first set of these a while back, but was not happy with the quality of them. I used the bracket/clips that come with them to keep them in place in the housing, but that resulted it a very "notchy" and not quiet as flowing as id like.

Ended up spending a saturday at work redoing them with some tips from the lighting god(BLS) and they came out much better.

DRLs will be on whenever the key has power. They switch to amber when turn signals/hazards are applied. im sure they arent eveyones cup of tea. Actually, im not even sure if i like em that much. But hey, its something different!

Off

Amber for turn signal/Hazard

DRL only

DRL only light output

DRL + Headlights

special thanks to BLS for dealing with my dumb questions

Blackbirdws6 · 03-30-2018, 01:37 PM

So much Murica. You are missing a few pics

.

LTb1ow · 03-30-2018, 01:41 PM

Can we get more details on the lift strap?

LS1ow · 03-30-2018, 01:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbirdws6

So much Murica. You are missing a few pics

.

Ran out of time on break !

Quote:

Originally Posted by LTb1ow

Can we get more details on the lift strap?

You expect this thing to never have to be dragged onto a flatbed?

unstable bob gable · 03-30-2018, 02:31 PM

I'm pretty lit right now.

wretched73 · 03-30-2018, 02:39 PM

I like it. Carry on.

LS1ow · 03-30-2018, 03:24 PM

Will update second post with pics of second part of project tmmr when I have time

IROCZBeast · 03-30-2018, 04:25 PM

Looks good

MDSheds_SS · 03-30-2018, 06:47 PM

Lookin good. DRs + 10 bolt = tow strap

LS1ow · 03-31-2018, 10:02 AM

second post pics added

ThoR294 · 03-31-2018, 12:59 PM

Like the LED strips. My wife's 2013 Benz c300 has them and I really like them.

Brian... Make one for us haha!

sweetbmxrider · 04-01-2018, 10:08 AM

Them suckers are bright as ****

LTb1ow · 04-01-2018, 07:24 PM

Beggz, you are doing a solid job on all this.

ar0ck · 04-02-2018, 02:16 PM

If you don't keep those directional lights, I'll gladly take them off your hands!

LS1ow · 04-02-2018, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LTb1ow

Beggz, you are doing a solid job on all this.

You've been to kind to me lately, something is up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ar0ck

If you don't keep those directional lights, I'll gladly take them off your hands!

If you really want some, i can always whip up another set.

The_Bishop · 04-02-2018, 03:24 PM

Sharp looking setup you have there.

Blackbirdws6 · 04-02-2018, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThoR294

Like the LED strips. My wife's 2013 Benz c300 has them and I really like them.

Brian... Make one for us haha!

His came out really good so I'm considering it.... I will have to see how they look with the front end a couple feet in the air and the rear tires wrinkled.

ThoR294 · 04-02-2018, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blackbirdws6

His came out really good so I'm considering it.... I will have to see how they look with the front end a couple feet in the air and the rear tires wrinkled.

much better than our doinkey lights

The_Bishop · 04-03-2018, 07:26 AM

Is there a 'How To' coming for these marker lights? Or do we have to guess?

sweetbmxrider · 04-03-2018, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThoR294

Brian... Make one for us haha!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThoR294

much better than our doinkey lights

Wtf are you guys married or something?

ThoR294 · 04-03-2018, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

Wtf are you guys married or something?

don't be jelly

Blackbirdws6 · 04-03-2018, 02:57 PM

I may or may not be purchasing a set of new corner housings for my car.

LS1ow · 04-03-2018, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_Bishop

Is there a 'How To' coming for these marker lights? Or do we have to guess?

Theyre super simple. Only hard part is getting the tube to sit in the housing nice.

-Baked the housings in the oven to pull them apart, i think i did 220 for 10 mins each? i dont really remember.

-Next you have to remove some plastic from the housing allowing a path for the tube to sit. Im not sure if every housing is like this, but the ones i picked up were(think they were $25 on amazon) I used a dremel tool. Heres a before and after pic

Before:

After:

-Now see how you want the light tube to run. I believe cut them to 11.5" each(tubes come in 24") I pulled the LEDs themselves out of the tubes and test fit with just the tubes. Then Cut to length. The LEDs are trim-able to, snip those in 3 LED increments for both white & amber. Slide the LEDs back in(pain in the ass) and then put the rubber cap back on the end of the tube.

-Now your ready to mount the lights. The pic below is from the original set i tried a few weeks ago. Mounted the light tubes using the plastic clips they came with. But i did not like it to well. It doesnt look that that bad in pics, but it looked on when it was lit(much like myself)

-Seal em up and let em sit. I used some silicon, theres a few ways to do it. I also cut some ABS plastic and secured with silicon to cover up the 2 factory bulb locations.

Wiring

The LEDs come with a control unit i guess you can call it. Has a black, red and yellow wire coming from it. Black ground, Red is the white LED power, yellow is the amber power. I completely cut out the stock turn signal bulb holder so i was left with a brown wire, black wire, and a blue wire. (light blue on DS, dark blue on PS)

Black to Black
Yellow to Blue

I wanted the DRLs to be on whenever the key has power, so instead of just while the car is on and headlights on, so i used a T tap to tap into a 12v key hot power wiring under the fuse box. And sent the power to each of the red power.

Blackbirdws6 · 04-03-2018, 04:27 PM

It's nice the Camaro lenses are totally clear. I think it will look muddy on the 93-97 Birds sadly(Brandon) as they have a prismatic molding in one area.