cs2000 Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 (edited) Hey all, was going to post this in Electronics and I.C.E, but then also fits in Styling, so put in out here instead! Inspired by some other builds I took this on with a little advice from a few other members. My silver Zed originally came with some plastic, carbon looking LED's in the original reflector holes. I never likes these, I simply don't think a big black strip looks right on a silver car. So, off to eBay to buy some silver reflectors. these are available, genuine Nissan, for around £50, but seeing as I was going to butcher them I didn't want to waste that amount of cash, so I plumped for these eBay Reflectors. They arrived within a week which wasn't bad from America! My original idea was for 6 LED's, seemingly what most people go for. I started out by finding the mid point of the reflectors and drawing a line on the rear so I knew where to drill. The reflectors have a small, 3-4mm gap between the silver rear surface and the clear front, you need to drill carefully to avoid touching the clear front with the drill! The first time I did this I realised I had drilled 1 LED too high on each set, so, straight in the bin they went 7 days later I started again, took more care this time with my mid-point calculations, I then started drilling. Before I knew it I had 7 holes and not 6...somehow...but I decided this was fine and continued. This, was my original wiring plan. 7 LED's wired in in series. Joined together by soldering the legs. So (having not soldered for a while and being a little rusty) I spent 30 mins orso soldering this up on each reflector, whacked a 12v car battery onto them and ..... no light. Crap. I then slid the negative wire down the set of LED's, when I got to the last set of 3 they lit up , I assumed I may have wired the 4th LED in backwards, so proceeded to de-solder this one, check the two sets of 3 and solder in another led, finally....no light After 45 mins orso of swearing and wonder WTF was going on I figured it out. Resistance. The LED's ONLY worked if you had 1, 2 or 3. As soon as you attached 4, nothing. So, this was my solution. I later on dug the silicone out of the middle hole and wired in a single LED as I didn't like the gap! So, next was to seal everything, here is the start of the siliconing, I carried on filling this up totally with silicone and flattened it out as best I could. Basically I was just trying to stop water getting into the actual reflector lens, or touching the electronics. From here I left the silicone to dry for 48 hrs and then hooked these up to a battery, firstly to test they still worked, and secondly to burn test them. I left them lit up for 24 hours solid and then (using the little in-line controller seen in the bottom right of the photo) set them rapidly flashing for 24 hrs. The last thing I wanted was to have these things die after a few days on the car! So, then they sat like this for a few weeks. Eventually I worked out a way in my head I was happy to wire them in and a few days ago I fitted them. Photos are below. In the day they just look like normal reflectors, which I like Edited April 24, 2013 by cs2000 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Pictures deleted from photobucket Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted April 24, 2013 Author Share Posted April 24, 2013 (edited) FML, haha I was moving them in my libraries, 5 mins EDIT: Fixed, sorry! Edited April 24, 2013 by cs2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flex Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Totally radical! Fantastic job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidan Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 (edited) Looks good cs2000 Agree the darker ones would like kind of funny against the silver car. Hopefully the dark ones I got from you will be okay against azure...my current reflectors are dark. If not, I'll follow your link and have a go at making them. Cheers Edited April 24, 2013 by aidan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted April 24, 2013 Author Share Posted April 24, 2013 As I said in my for sale post, against a darker colour my old ones would look great. Just didn't look right on my silver Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 These look really good!! I have been toying with creating some DRL's of my own, these look great. For the price I might order a set of the reflectors and see what happens! Can I ask what LED's you used for this? power, shape etc. Thanks, Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUG Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Nice I was looking at those American reflectors , are they a good fit? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 they look really good, if i wasn't about to be hit by OFSTED tomorrow i'd have come over and had a look. they are far better than alot fo others, yours blend better in to a more solid beam of light compared to others where you can see the individual LEDS more prounounced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Looking good man, cracking job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dErZ Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Good work mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 (edited) @ Mattross - These are the ones I used.eBay link They come with resistors but if youre using just 1 LED, these are needed, as I found out, if you using 3 in series the LED's themselves create enough resistance. They are 12v 5MM diodes. @FUG - The fitment on these is perfect. Aside from the markings on the back that say made in Taiwan, if I had bought the car from new with these fitted I would have assumed they were genuine Nissan. @rtbiscuit - Cheers I cant remember now (im not driving to work this week, car sharing with a colleague) but I think you can still kind of see the LED's themselves, but the uneven reflector surface does help to break up the lights so it does spread out. Glad everybody likes them anyway. The original plan was to make and sell these, but its a good 10 hours work at least in each one set and £25-30 in materials, too much time! In all honestly, I suspect 99% of people can make these, the soldering stuff is fairly easy, just takes a lot of measurements to make sure your mid line and drill holes are perfect, a very small difference is glaringly obvious once the LED's are illuminated. Edited April 25, 2013 by cs2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seabee Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I want :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 Build them them. The most complex tool I needed was a soldering iron. Entire thing only took: 1x Screwdriver 1x Soldering iron 14x 30,000MCD 5mm LED's 2x Clear reflectors 1x Tube of clear Silicone 2-3x Metres of wire pretty simple really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seabee Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 I'm on eBay looking for a set as we speak lol, I got a gas soldering iron about time I used it lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 best of luck, ask if you have any questions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Thanks for the eBay link CS. I have just ordered a set of 20, I ordered the reflectors the reflectors this morning too from the US of A. This will keep me busy for a few evenings in the garage Would you recommend 7 in each or would there be room to get a few more in? I dont want over load it though. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Thanks for the eBay link CS. I have just ordered a set of 20, I ordered the reflectors the reflectors this morning too from the US of A. This will keep me busy for a few evenings in the garage Would you recommend 7 in each or would there be room to get a few more in? I dont want over load it though. Matt If you bring them down here we can melt them in the furnace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Haha!! I think I'll leave these ones intact after our efforts last time haha!! Will be getting some regular LED ones in time for the Euro trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtbiscuit Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 just remember to run them in parallel and not in series Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dblock Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 Surely if you have done once it will take 1/10th of the time to make? Good job though. I want some Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattross1313 Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 just remember to run them in parallel and not in series Can't see a huge amount from the pics in the first post but they look to be done in series? (but I'm no expect....by any stretch). Whats the benefits? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cs2000 Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 Yes mattross1313 , don't do what I did and waste a million hours of your life figuring wtf is going on. You could add more LED's in, but as I say, I was aiming for 6 and got 7 and was happy with that, id say you would struggle to get more then 12 in, and then bear in mind the extra wires you and up soldering! I someone wants a set or two built I don't mind doing a few, id advise however going without the LED controller, just complicated things in terms of wiring and adds more complexity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aidan Posted April 25, 2013 Share Posted April 25, 2013 cs2000......does the additional led (7 instead of 6) make much difference light wise than the ones you had on before, what with the lenses fitted over the new ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.