ian65

I've come to a bit of a stop on my turbo conversion at the moment as I'm waiting for parts to arrive so thought I'd sand down my Elford rear spoiler to get it ready for paint.

I'm thinking of cutting a slot in the back of it and setting in a LED strip brake light as standard equipment these days on many modern cars.
I thought in this postion...





unsure about the width yet but thought around 24", flush fitting...

The underside of the fibreglass spoiler is hollow so should accomodate a light easily enough...





this gives a rough idea of how it will look but a lot lower as this is sitting on top of the factory rubber spoiler at the moment and will be painted metallic black to match the car...



I'm undecided at present. Will it be a worthwhile safety feature and update the look of the rear of the car.... or will it just look naff and should I leave it alone.
Obviously, these things weren't available back in the day so weren't fitted but is it a good idea to put one in now or not? and will it suit this spoiler?
What do you reckon?

patmac6075

iTrader: (26)

I'm one for keeping the car stock....but when mods are done tastefully (such as yours), it can enhance the look...
I say do it!

Man_in_black49464

iTrader: (1)

i agree it would look nice if you get rid of the light next to the tailpipe

KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

I'd make the LED strip the same length and position as the license plate.

ian65

yeah, that's a good call, I think you're right.

Also, the fog light was fitted by Mazda GB when they imported the car to comply with UK regs but always looked like a cheap add-on. I'm going to lose that and convert one of the reversing lights into a fog light.

Man_in_black49464

iTrader: (1)

get rid of it, if you need reverse lights there is a good way to tuck a light under the bumper and have it project
i have seen guys reem out there reverse lights to fit a H4 headlight so when they reverse its a freaking spot light. it not that hard ill see if i have a spare tailight and do a tread for you.

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

Absolutely go for it! I even started a thread about it a few weeks back.
https://www.rx7club.com/1st-generation-specific-1979-1985-18/third-brake-light-923156/

I had done something very similar back in the 90's.
I mounted it in a Mazda 3 Piece factory duck tail though.
I used the LED strip from an 89 300ZX.

This time I was thinking of putting the LED strip on the top of the rear
window though, as cars are alot taller now than back then.

I am trying to picture this, and I am having a hard time. Can you show
what you mean?

ian65

I picked up your thread when I did the usual searches and saw you were thinking of going high level this time. Have you got any pictures of your old car with the light in the spoiler??

Box_Man

How are you securing your spoiler to the back of your car? Blind blind nuts on top of the fiberglass and a bold through from inside the car? I'm toying around with the idea of making a mold from a busted up 3 piece spoiler and making my own spoiler but I'm torn between a few different methods of attaching it to the body.

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

I wish. . This was over almost 20 years ago.
Well before digital cameras made taking pictures cheap and easy.

Ferrariferg

iTrader: (3)

Go for it. I think it would update the looks and it also serves a function. If I had a spoiler on mine I would probably try to fit one in it.

bshusted

iTrader: (1)

@Man_in_black, the read light on next to the exhaust is a rear fog light, not a reverse light. It is turned on separately via a switch on the dash if visibility on the road is limited to 50m or less. It provides a brighter light than the running lights to spot cars ahead of you in the fog. I believe this is required for all vehicles in Europe.

I agree that the Mazda dealer did a terrible job of bodging one in. I think I would just splice into the power for the nearside taillight and use that as your rear fog, though I'm not sure how the MOT shop would feel about that.

The idea for the added 3rd brake light in the spoiler sounds fantastic. Be sure to post some pictures of the finished product.

blackdeath647

iTrader: (2)

figured i'd post here to avoid a new thread and its probably a simple answer....i'm trying to wire in a third brake light but don't know the actual wiring part of it. i know if i tap into the brake lights themselves the "3rd" brake light will come on when i turn the lights on and don't know if it will have the ability to get brighter once i step on the brakes...so what would be the proper wiring for this? if anyone has a diagram please let me know

LizardFC

iTrader: (1)

I don't have a wiring diagram but look at how stock brake lights function. There are two filaments in each brake light bulb. One burns when the lights are on, and the brighter one burns when you hit the brakes. There are three wires for each bulb, one for each filament (red and green) and a ground (black.) Hope that helps.

blackdeath647

iTrader: (2)

yes sir, thank you!

KansasCityREPU

iTrader: (9)

If you are concerned that it would not be bright enough with simply tapping in to the brake light wire, use a rely and a power source from the battery. The brake light power source would trigger a rely to put battery power to the 3rd brake light. Very simple.

blackdeath647

iTrader: (2)

thanks for the tip but the LED strip i bought is super bright with just tapping into the signal. which btw for anyone else interested if you look at the harness at the tail light, the Red with Blue Stripe wire is your "running" lights (in case you want it to come on with your lights) the Solid Green wire is your "brake" light, and black is ground.


about got rear ended on some back roads today by a Yukon and it wasn't even fully dark yet! so i decided this was a good time to do this, here's the results:

what i used, only possible problem is the adhesive on the back, i think it may fall off when it gets hot, but i can always put emblem glue on it. other than that it's flexible and it fit my spoiler perfectly!: (got off ebay, 4 strips 12" long each, i only used 1):


this is what it looks like under the light, (it kinda blends in with the spoiler which i like)


and here it is all lit up...i hope this keeps them big things off my pooper



my spoiler btw looks almost exactly as the PO (sorry for thread jack) the dealer/factory option spoiler? i didn't have to cut, just drilled a very tiny hole for the wires to go in and fed the wire through one of the mounting holes, that's all it took.

blackdeath647

iTrader: (2)

sorry for the lack of pics, anyways here they are fixed!

under the light:


and all lit up:

blackdeath647

iTrader: (2)

figured i'd keep all this under 1 thread so i'm gonna keep thread jacking a bit longer here...

So i decided to go ahead and install a relay just because when i had the heater blowing, the e-fan running, the lights on (even after relays on headlights but not on running lights), and the stereo going when i stepped on the brakes it was too much load and my stereo would get some distortion going.

i ran into a problem, i have the relay wired as such: (30) Power from battery, (85) Signal from brake switch, (86) Ground, (87) Signal to brake lights and 3rd brake light. Everything works!!! aside from the relay being loud it's in perfect working condition and no more distortion on stereo, the problem is when i press the brake pedal my "stop lamp" light turns on, and goes off when i let go of the brake,

i know everything's working fine, but is there a way to keep the light from coming on so i don't get confused when a bulb actually does blow...maybe i wired something wrong? i was thinking maybe switch 85 and 86 on relay. or add a second wire from the signal (brake switch) to 87a?

t_g_farrell

iTrader: (1)

Probably need to add a resistor across one of the leads going to the lights. I
know LEDs need this because they don't show enough resistance so the lamp
out light comes on. Do some research on LED conversions, theres some
good discussion on the topic.

blackdeath647

iTrader: (2)

what i did was get the signal before it split for each individual tail light, and the LED is just wired into one of the tail lights from there. this was not happening before i added the relay, it only started after i decided to add one. does that make any sense...

i know i can solve the problem if i add a jumper wire from the signal wire to output wire, but that'll defeat the purpose of having added a relay to begin with lol. so is there a connection on the relay that would allow me to do this?

t_g_farrell

iTrader: (1)

I think if you add a resistor of the right value between 86 and ground that would
work. I think the issue is t he relay looks like a short to ground to the warning light.
You could wire in a bulb just to see if that fixes it and then hunt for a resistor.

You could also wire the brake signal to 30 and 85 together but like you said that
doesn't solve the problem.

blackdeath647

iTrader: (2)

the only thing i haven't done is add a resistor in place, but everything's working fine so i'm not gonna worry too much if i can't get it to go off lol. if anything i may take the relay off the brake lights and leave it only on the LED strip... maybe that'll fix it.