My custom LED taillights

Urbanconcept · Post by **Urbanconcept** » August 13th, 2007, 5:59 pm

So this has been a project that I started a really long time ago. I finally decided to have my car painted, so I finished the tails too. Here are some initial pics I took of the tails, and the last one is of the finished product mounted on the car. I changed the initial design as well. I no longer have a reverse light in the housing, and those nipple looking things are now LED lights instead. I will take some night pics later tonight for all to see.

Urbanconcept · Post by **Urbanconcept** » August 13th, 2007, 6:01 pm

Here is another shot of the rear while we were driving up to the MOTM in Cayuga.

steckino · Post by **steckino** » August 13th, 2007, 6:07 pm

That is really awesome, So how did you make the casing on them? because those are just totally different and sick. Good Job!

Urbanconcept · Post by **Urbanconcept** » August 13th, 2007, 7:18 pm

I used a stock taillight (to preserve the stock mounting points), cut out most of it, then stretched material over the housing. I then cut out the shapes i wanted out of lexan and then screwed them over top of the stretched fabric to what was left of the stock housing. I then used fiberglass resin to solidify the shape. I then reinforced the back of the housing with more fiberglass matte and resin. Then the exterior of the housing was sanded and covered in bondo. I spend tons of time sanding, adding bondo, then sanding again. That process was repeated over and over. It almost drove me insane. My buddy who painted my car did the final sanding and paint. All in all it was some serious work. I had never used fiberglass before, so this project was quite the task lol. I'm really satisfied with the result. I have another idea for custom tails, but after spending so much time on these I really don't have the patience now lol.

Thanks for the positive feed back!

Post by **Mooneggs** » August 13th, 2007, 7:19 pm

wow those turned out totally different than I imagined... do you have any light up shots? which light is the blinker? I want to see more pics!

nice job overall!

Urbanconcept · Post by **Urbanconcept** » August 13th, 2007, 7:22 pm

Outer red light is the turn signal. The clear oval one is the brake/running light and the inner round LED is another running light. I will take night pics tonight as the battery in my camera died.

Infinity · Post by **Infinity** » August 13th, 2007, 7:36 pm

you should take pics from the side and front too just so i can see your car cuz it looks sweet

Urbanconcept · Post by **Urbanconcept** » August 15th, 2007, 8:37 pm

Finally got to take some night pics. So, as promised here they are. These pics really don't show the nice dark red colour these lights actually output.

steckino · Post by **steckino** » August 15th, 2007, 8:39 pm

Wow... better then I expected. Good work!

Tunes67 · Post by **Tunes67** » August 15th, 2007, 8:40 pm

Heh.. you should replace your 3rd brake light with a LED strip.. and have it pulsate back and forth like Kit (Knight Rider) or a Cylons eye until the brake pedal is pushed and then have it come on solid. LOL

Tunes67

Urbanconcept · Post by **Urbanconcept** » August 15th, 2007, 9:06 pm

Tunes67 wrote:Heh.. you should replace your 3rd brake light with a LED strip.. and have it pulsate back and forth like Kit (Knight Rider) or a Cylons eye until the brake pedal is pushed and then have it come on solid. LOL

I had thought about replacing it, but it's just too much work to be honest. My next big thing will be to tackle the headlights and mount projectors into a stock housing. Though I do have to say that the light output with re-cleared headlights is wayyyyyyyyyyy better. It's sufficient for now, and part of me just doesn't want to take everything apart again.

Tropical Emerald 1993 · August 16th, 2007, 6:11 am

I actually like more the yellow painted mx3 than any of the mods.

PatMX3 · Post by **PatMX3** » August 31st, 2007, 1:42 am

Coolness!! Your project's time payed off ma man* Looks new n fresh..
Don't forget n follow up on your headlight projectors too!. All us MX'rs are always salivating for new mods on em'

Urbanconcept · Post by **Urbanconcept** » September 11th, 2007, 7:22 pm

PatMX3 wrote:Coolness!! Your project's time payed off ma man* Looks new n fresh..
Don't forget n follow up on your headlight projectors too!. All us MX'rs are always salivating for new mods on em'

I'm picking up a set of Nissan headlights tonight. Sadly though, I don't know when I will get around to retro fitting another set of headlights.

mazdags94 · Post by **mazdags94** » September 12th, 2007, 1:48 pm

That is a very nice set of tail lights. Much time and effort put into it, anyone can see that! I hear ya on the fiberglass as I recently started a project using fiberglass for the first time and I apparently didnt use the right mask! lol, I saw pink elephants and one of them must have stepped on my head cuz I had a killer headache later that day.

MX-3.com

My custom LED taillights

My custom LED taillights

Night pics