well, I guess since I should clear my other headlight instead of just driving around with the one I did for the DIY. I decided to switch the round driving and turn light over to LEDs. I'll be using 80,000 mcd 12mm LEDs but wanted to make something that I wouldn't need to chop up my headlight wiring. so I started with a normal bulb, and some thermoplastic.








I didn't get out my good camera, so you'll have to deal with camera phone


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Nice work. I'm doing pretty much the same thing to mine. I made two units that I scrapped so far, but I've got a completely new plan. I just need some time to get to work on them. A million things going on lately.
How many LED's are you putting in each light? Those 80,000MCD's are gonna a be hella bright. I made mine with 12,000 amber and 22,000 white, and they were amazingly bright. I put in 9 white in the first one, and 8 amber in the second one.
Post up a pic of your progress with the lights!

I'm going to be doing 3 or 4 for driving, and 9 for the turn, now that you mention it, I might do the driving lights in white, I have some 10mm 160,000 mcd whites


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oops, they're 110,000mcd whites, my red ones are 60,000+mcd :-p


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Damn. 110,000 10mm?

When you say driving lights in white, do you mean driving lights, or the running/parking lights? If you could pull off effective driving lights with LED, that would be very cool.

You have me thinking now. I was going to build a set with Valeo projectors, but LED behind a projector lens could be cool if it projected enough light. 10-12 of those things might do it.

by driving lights I just mean the lights that come on when you turn on your lights but not your head lights. while the LEDs are bright, it is very directional and wouldn't work very well.


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Grimor wrote:...and 9 for the turn, ...

That might be a bit overkill. I used 3 5500mcd Amber LED's for each corner light, and 1 Amber Luxeon Star for each of the bumper lights. It's very visible during the day, and much brighter than stock during the evening/night.
Just trying to help you save some cash

I've got like 15,000 LEDs of various sizes, colors and brightness. I get them for about 17 cents each at the most, so I'm not too worried about using them. I was just going to make the driving light in the center and a ring around it for the turn. I'm not sure how much of the light will be refracted in the clear lens so I might increase or decrease the number. I am going to have to wait till I get the light apart and the new lens made. I might try increasing the curve on this side instead of following the same as the old lens and make this one come out more. if I find a ball about the size of the round hole, I can make it a hemisphere just to see if I like the look. I think I'm going to pain the black piece on this side too.. just to see how it looks..


maybe gold... lol


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Grimor wrote:by driving lights I just mean the lights that come on when you turn on your lights but not your head lights. while the LEDs are bright, it is very directional and wouldn't work very well.

Those would technicly be called your parking lights. sometimes called running lights.

Anyway, driving lights being essentially clear fog lights, I'm seriously considering trying to make a set of these with LED now that I know there are 110,000 MCD LED's out there. this would make a good winter project.

Hell, if this works, I could actually mix in a set of amber LED's on a toggle to switch from driving light mode to foglight mode. I'm going to start doing some planning and maybe actually do this.

wherre are you getting the led's so cheap?

halfJ99 (Nik) wrote:wherre are you getting the led's so cheap?

ebay i got like 100 red ones that where 12,000 MCD's and 50 10,000 MCD's for like $5

www.besthongkong.com aka besthongkong on eBay


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It may be cheap but you still have over $2500 worth of leds, Why?


2012 HD VRSCF
2010 Ford Explorer
2006 Ford Ranger
2004 Chevy Cavalier

Grimor wrote:...I might try increasing the curve on this side instead of following the same as the old lens and make this one come out more. if I find a ball about the size of the round hole, I can make it a hemisphere just to see if I like the look...maybe gold... lol

I think you're talking about a "collinator lens." You can pick them up on http://www.lumileds.com for ~$0.50 each.

Fire Fighter wrote:It may be cheap but you still have over $2500 worth of leds, Why?

I do a lot of things with LEDs. Same reason I have thermo-plastic... you never know when you'll need it. There are so many types of LEDs it's easy to get a lot even if you just buy 250 of each type.


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