04G35S

iTrader: (10)

That looks awesome! I would buy those for sure!

Jose A.

iTrader: (40)

I did the same over a year ago when i did my tails. The divider was buggin me too much lol

DocHoliday89

iTrader: (10)

Why can't you cut out the divider?

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

I already did. I haven't made dividers yet so the leds are bleeding light everywhere and making everything glow. Once the dividers are added all you will see are the lines.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

Made the lines a little thinner. I need to clean the lens in the top right corner there are scratches ruining the output.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

Fixed the scratches looks much better now.



If you guys were wondering your taillights are suppose to be black not purple.

HalifaxFD

iTrader: (18)

Looks good man. All of the hard work is paying off.

airjordan223

iTrader: (8)

Best LED tails I've seen by far.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

Finally finished one lens up.

BlinD26

iTrader: (27)

How'd you go about refinishing the lens back to black?

Prôdigy2nd

iTrader: (3)

x2....


J.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

Five stage sanding and then polishing.

BlinD26

iTrader: (27)

So the outer plastic shell is what "purples" and not the underlying plastics?

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

I'm not actually sure but the inside of the lens is painted black I am assuming that the lens gets oxidized and makes it look purple.

On another note I tracked down the manufacture of the Ford tail light. Dependingoin how expensive the material is I may have a source for the new diffuser.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

^ I've got a sheet of the diffuser material that you reference above showing up later today. PM me for the details if you'd like. They make a sample sheet with a bunch of different LED angles and dispersion patterns on it that cost around $50. That is what I ordered and was going to see how it works. In theory, it is what we all need. I'm not using it for taillights though, I'm still working on a DRL turn signal solution that is OEM bright.

As for the restoring of the taillight lens, the 3M headlight polishing kit is a good way to go if you aren't into multi=stage sanding. It does a nice job of taking out the scratches on the lenses and also restoring it to black. It won't be as permanent as what you've done but it does work well.

t-von

iTrader: (8)

Are we talking color sanding techniques or something a little different? I have some spares that are really purple that I would like to restore.

rx7 SE

iTrader: (5)

+1, mine are slightly discolored as well. You did a great job refurbing them

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

Pretty much the same but you have to start at a much lower grit. I started at 320 then worked my way up.

04G35S

iTrader: (10)

320 on clear plastic and you still got it to buff out?! I wouldnt go any harsher then 800 then work my way up to 3000.

David Hayes

iTrader: (6)

^ The 3M headlight restorer kit comes with 1,000 and 3,000 and it works well on the taillights. You use the 1,000, then the 3,000 and then polishing compound finished with a sealer. I'd give this a try before doing something more harsh.

Worked great for me but my car has lived its life in a garage so not that much purple to the tallights.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

You can use 800 but you will have to sand for hours the 320 cut down the time down a lot. You will need a high speed buffer to take out all the micro scratches.
I hand sand them so it takes a while.

nemix

Don't mean to hijack this but looks like we're on a mission to do something similar, I'll start my own thread if requested.

I thought I was near getting a prototype but just glued and soldered some leds for a test run and got some hotspots through the 5/8" frosted acrylic. I was hoping to stay at this thickness to more easily mount them but I think I'll be trying an inch and modify all the interals....



Room was actually fully lit but I changed the camera settings so you can see the hotspots I'm talking about. I'm using superflux too except red (red-orange are on the way) and with only these 9 it was still extremely bright (I got one of the brighter bins when ordering). I will be using 75 per taillight on the finished project. Get everything cut to 1" tomorrow and I'll give it another go.

turboIIrotary

iTrader: (9)

You don't need to start a new thread all the ideas in one place help. What I have found is frosted acrylic works well but the downfall is the brightness isn't up to spec. I have tried everything from the infused diffraction beads, satin acrylic, and sanding with various grits. I am pretty sure David has gone through many types also. They may look good in a dark room but if using the same LEDs as I am they still won't be bright enough. David and I are on to the same source of actual diffused acrylic for taillights but for a 16x16 sheet is $150 and is out of my range for this project.

I don't think you have been on the forum long enough but brightness of led tails are a huge issue on here. That's why you don't see many people make them.

nemix

I know that's a huge issue, project is based off another and like I said, the camera was set to catch the bleed, the room is actually fully lit. I'll do a side by side next to the actual taillights when I get some time.

nemix

Here are two bars around 3-4" in length each with only 9 red philips superflux LEDS (bin rated at 5+lumens each I believe). The bar on the right has a light coating of clear red lens paint to give it a slightly redder color. Looks on par to me, especially when a full 24" of lights (75 LEDS) is loaded up but you guys be the judge.

Light transmission is key I think, this materials is supposed to have 89% light transmission. As you know it's hard to get good light transmission and good light diffusion which is why I had some hot spots. Going to try the 1 inch thick cut I just got and see how brightness and light output looks.