2 minute light mod job !

[mattp]

How hard was it put to the LED's in for the electric window lights HLC? One of my bulbs for the back left window has gone in the driver's master control, and if it's easy I might as well LED the lot of them! Otherwise, I guess the wrecker's for bulbs? Or does Ford have them?

[HLC]

Originally Posted by mattp

How hard was it put to the LED's in for the electric window lights HLC? One of my bulbs for the back left window has gone in the driver's master control, and if it's easy I might as well LED the lot of them! Otherwise, I guess the wrecker's for bulbs? Or does Ford have them?

ford has them, but i beleive they only sell them as a button unit, which probably is now obsolete... i followed the instructions on here, but i had to change the LED loom or globe setup, whatever you want to call it, because the instructions werent clear or didnt seem right or didnt work at all. mainly because i had to figure out which was positive and negative on the LED, which way the resistor went etc, so i developed my own little way.... once i did the first couple, ala, just made (no soldering or anything) , i was going pretty quick. then i went and tested them, then soldered them and trimmed em up and put em in! i think the only hard part it fiddling with the original globe holder because its small and rubber, and that makes it a pain in the ar5e

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Good and bad news ! .... my batterys are flat in my camera , ill get some new 1's tonight , went to take some pics lastnight only to find out then. The good news though is that i also did the dash lights blue aswell , came up excellent .... only problem being though is that i removed both the lcd globes too and accidentlly dropped 1 and it went bouncing across the kitchen floor and broke it , but i did the other globe and half the lcd lights up blue ..lol , off to ford in a few minutes to get a new globe for the lcd , might get a spare while im at it if they are cheap , fragile little things .

[Dauphin]

My ceiling light gets incredibly hot - are you sure you can colour it with a marker? I can't even touch it for long to get it out.

[phildee]

Originally Posted by mattp

How hard was it put to the LED's in for the electric window lights HLC? One of my bulbs for the back left window has gone in the driver's master control, and if it's easy I might as well LED the lot of them! Otherwise, I guess the wrecker's for bulbs? Or does Ford have them?

I did blue leds in the power window switches ages ago, I just ended up soldering the leds/resistors to the terminals under the buttons, was easier than fiddling with the globe holders, and they shouldnt ever need replacing anyway, if they do I guess ill just solder a new one in

Originally Posted by HLC

also wanna do Blue LEDs behind the climate control/trip computer, and the door lock/traction control/demister/other button..... and when i the 6 stacker off, get a HU with blue lights...

If you manage to get blue leds in the t/c, demister buttons etc let me know, I had a look but there was virtually no room in there, id love to do them, and wouldnt mind doing the climate control part as well.

[phildee]

Originally Posted by XR6-VCT-2000

Good and bad news ! .... my batterys are flat in my camera , ill get some new 1's tonight , went to take some pics lastnight only to find out then. The good news though is that i also did the dash lights blue aswell , came up excellent .... only problem being though is that i removed both the lcd globes too and accidentlly dropped 1 and it went bouncing across the kitchen floor and broke it , but i did the other globe and half the lcd lights up blue ..lol , off to ford in a few minutes to get a new globe for the lcd , might get a spare while im at it if they are cheap , fragile little things .

Do the red needles still light up ok?

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by Dauphin

My ceiling light gets incredibly hot - are you sure you can colour it with a marker? I can't even touch it for long to get it out.

Im sure , you sure yor globe hasn;t been changed before and changed with a wrong rating globe ? .
I haven't tested it for like half hour or so ( as i dont have the interior light on that long ) , but when i coloured it in i ran it for a good 5 mins at least and it only got so warm , then got no warmer .

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by phildee

Do the red needles still light up ok?

Yeah they seem to lighting up fine , and i have the red needles .

Probably due to though that i actually used more of a purple'ish blue marker / i didnt want just blue like everyone else , after colouring the globes dark and evenlly , i sorta get a nice bright almost fluro pinkish/bluey/purple , sorta like a fishtank light , between the pink and blue fluro's u get , nice , i like it .

allthough If you wanted exact same color as the marker you would have to use a slightlly darker marker .

[phildee]

Originally Posted by XR6-VCT-2000

Yeah they seem to lighting up fine , and i have the red needles .

Probably due to though that i actually used more of a purple'ish blue marker / i didnt want just blue like everyone else , after colouring the globes dark and evenlly , i sorta get a nice bright almost fluro pinkish/bluey/purple , sorta like a fishtank light , between the pink and blue fluro's u get , nice , i like it .

allthough If you wanted exact same color as the marker you would have to use a slightlly darker marker .

Cool, think ill have to give it a shot, Next 'mod' shopping list... a blue texta

[XR6-VCT-2000]

I think from the way this has turned out so far ( excellent imo ) , i'll be doing all the interior lights this way , easier than changing everything to l.e.d's , seems to be nice and bright still too , the dash only took about 10 mins to do , inclusing removing it , coloring all the dash globes only ( not indicator globes etc etc ) , then install again , easy job ;) .

[phildee]

I might try it tonight, thanks to the stationary cupboard at work its a free mod now too, :

[HLC]

Originally Posted by phildee

I did blue leds in the power window switches ages ago, I just ended up soldering the leds/resistors to the terminals under the buttons, was easier than fiddling with the globe holders, and they shouldnt ever need replacing anyway, if they do I guess ill just solder a new one in



If you manage to get blue leds in the t/c, demister buttons etc let me know, I had a look but there was virtually no room in there, id love to do them, and wouldnt mind doing the climate control part as well.

yeah i have to inspect the globe holder a bit more... but it shouldnt be too hard to leave long legs on the LED. but like i said, ill have to have another look.

what i really want to do is run LED's in the door handles. but ive no idea as to where i can hook them up to power.

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by HLC

what i really want to do is run LED's in the door handles. but ive no idea as to where i can hook them up to power.

You want led's in the doors handles ?? . As far as powering extra led's in the doors , you could just power them off the electric window lights , providing you want them to come on and off with the rest of the dash/interior/t-bar lighting.

Also , if you do choose to go with replacing all lights with led's , in areas where there isnt room for the led and a resistor , you can just put the resistor mid way into the wiring a bit futher down the line form the led's. The resistor doesn't have to be directly connected straight to the led , you can have large lengths of wire off both the led's legs and put a resistor in the 1 line futher down the wiring. ;)

[HLC]

Originally Posted by XR6-VCT-2000

You want led's in the doors handles ?? . As far as powering extra led's in the doors , you could just power them off the electric window lights , providing you want them to come on and off with the rest of the dash/interior/t-bar lighting.

Also , if you do choose to go with replacing all lights with led's , in areas where there isnt room for the led and a resistor , you can just put the resistor mid way into the wiring a bit futher down the line form the led's. The resistor doesn't have to be directly connected straight to the led , you can have large lengths of wire off both the led's legs and put a resistor in the 1 line futher down the wiring. ;)

my only worry, is choosing the correct wire in the power windoe looms, to power the LED's in the handles... ive got some more thinking to do before i go ahead with that anyway

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Ok , i took some pictures just before , allthough i dunno why i bothered with my rubbish webcam/camera / has no flash / blury :( . ... sorta made my bluey/purple look almost white in the photo's too ! , seriously doesn't do it any justice.

Anyway not much to go off , in person it looks great , nice and blue and even color/shade all over , all needles fully visible and also the lcd is blue now too , but only half of it as i broke the other bulb earlier :( - off to get another 1 tomorrow , didn't have enough time to drop into ford today.

next will be the t-bar light , the electric window switch lights , the stereo ( all buttons and the lcd ) , the backlight for the clock and the rest off the dash/contols lights .

[clontarf_x]

Ok... *posts his camera over*

Those are shocking :P Thanks anyway but yeah, looks white to me

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by clontarf_x

Ok... *posts his camera over*

Those are shocking :P Thanks anyway but yeah, looks white to me

lol , yeah , time for that camera to go in the bin i think , has been a long time coming , not only is it a cheapo but i think its knackered too, the colors seem to be up sht creek with it, and now the focus too .

Time to pop over the oldmans tomorrow and pickup my new camera , its been there waitng for me the last 2 weeks to pick it up...im a slacker ..lol

I can't believe those photo's came out so bad , you'll see tomorrow when i get the better camera that the colors come up just as good as the pic lotus posted earlier . Dam if they actually looked anything like those pics i would of cleaned the bulbs off by now back to original ..lol, Only reason i posted them cos everyone was hasteling em for a pic , didnt realize my camera had crapped it that bad though :yeees:

Until i take another pic tommorow with the new camera , look at lotus's pic for now , looks like what my pic will look like tomorow anyway with a decent camera e

[clontarf_x]

Hahaha, well, i just got my baby back today, so I'ma be testing this blue marker theory
Might utilise some glass dye...

[HLC]

they look whiter than that crappy yellowy brown colour

[XR6-VCT-2000]

wow , definatelly chucking this camera , just looking at those pics they are way off , even at the end of the fuel guages and in the redline where it is actually still red , in my pic it looks the same off white color as the rest of it , allthough they are red and the rest is blue , funny how the other red lights came up red though.

I was originally gonna go the dye to , you can get it from Spotlight / in the craft section , is used for DIY lead lighting dying the glass , or for painting house light bulbs for partys . But turned out that the texta worked fine . You would swear looking at it in person that it came out from factory with the blue dash , im very happy.

With the Dash though it was important to get it nice and dark and thick on the globe to get an even glow over the dash , so there was no light and dark spots , i just did 2 coats on each , let them dry a few mins in between each coat as the ink takes a few mins to dry on the glass, try not to toutch the globe after youve done it either, as it is easy to wipe lnk of glass if rubbed hard enough .

On this toipic of lights , i wanna do the t-bar light next , i looked at the AU falcon website in the tech section about removing the console , it didnt mention removing the top of the t-bar handle before lifting the console though , is this required ? , and once lifted is the light attatched to the t-bar mount under the console, or is it actually attatched to the underneath of the console ? , i just dont wanna go ripping the console out and pulling wires out if it is attatched to the bottom/inner of the console. I remember most old setups the light was mounted to the t-bar mount/steel. ???

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by HLC

they look whiter than that crappy yellowy brown colour

lol , in those pics they do , after seeing the results of that camera im off to get the new 1 tomorrow , then ull see it look like the pic lotus posted ;) . It's definatelly the camera !

[Dauphin]

Originally Posted by XR6-VCT-2000

On this toipic of lights , i wanna do the t-bar light next , i looked at the AU falcon website in the tech section about removing the console , it didnt mention removing the top of the t-bar handle before lifting the console though , is this required ? , and once lifted is the light attatched to the t-bar mount under the console, or is it actually attatched to the underneath of the console ? , i just dont wanna go ripping the console out and pulling wires out if it is attatched to the bottom/inner of the console. I remember most old setups the light was mounted to the t-bar mount/steel. ???

You have to unscrew the screw on the T-bar, remove it off, then undo the bolts of the console under the drink holder, under the mat below the ashtray and at the rear of the console under the rear of the front seats, then lift the console out (watch for the handbrake). The console comes off, no wires attached. Then you have access to twist the light out and get to the globe.

[Orbit]

T-bar?
i'm lost.....

[GK]

Originally Posted by Orbit

T-bar?
i'm lost.....

T Bar = Automatic Gear Selector

Remember the saying, T Bar Auto?

GK

[AUIII XR8 MAN]

I did my dash light with blue glass paint. They all came out drifferent shades of blue so i might give those silicone sleeve a go.

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Originally Posted by Dauphin

You have to unscrew the screw on the T-bar, remove it off, then undo the bolts of the console under the drink holder, under the mat below the ashtray and at the rear of the console under the rear of the front seats, then lift the console out (watch for the handbrake). The console comes off, no wires attached. Then you have access to twist the light out and get to the globe.

Thanks Dauphhin , cheers ;) .

Well i gotta admit , after attempting most of the interior lights now with marker/ink , that first lot i must of 'tin-assed' it and got them spot on first go , a few i had to go over a few times to get the blue even to the rest. I found out to when trying to colour the elec-window switch lights that it was almost impossible to remove them for colouring without breaking the wires on them because of the rubber base and the hair thin wire, broke the wires on the lights on the whole 4 on the drivers side accidentlly ( fiddly little rubber based lights with hair thin wire ! ) . Turned out to be more messin about than what it was worth so i just went down to jaycar lastnight and got me a handfull of blue led's rated at 3.5v 30ma 900mcd and some 330 ohm resistors (350 ohm resistors needed really for these but 330 is the closest and safe).
I did a few lastnight and replaced all the electric windows switches , the 2 rear and centre roof lights with the blue led's. Much easier and didnt take long at all to do .
I thought the marker looked good ! - I must admit the blue led's leave the marker/ink for dead, much brighter light / heaps more blue'y / and even light color all around . Ill probably do the dash again today and do the t-bar today with the led's too.... then the radio lights and the heater control lights etc etc .

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Just thought i would add this too , if you want to make yourself some globes to fit in the rear courtest light , made from led's , all you need is your led , the resistor , some "Selly's kneed-it" and a bit of crafy bending and moulding, each light only takes a few minutes to make . Be sure to check the polarity of you rear courtesy lights before making the led globes , as the very bottom of a normal globe is usually the positive and the sides are negative , in my car it was the opposite , sides are possitive and negative tip , with normal globes it doesn't matter about wich way the + or - is , with the led globe it is important you know wich is + and - , so be sure to check with a multimeter before making your globe and place the resistor on the correct + terminal on your homemade globe.

Pic below ...With a bit of bending to get the length of the wires right ( and not toutching ) , measure against the original globe , although your base will probably end up about 3mm longer which is ok , just try to mould the roundness of it roughlly the same size or a bit smaller , if you make it too big you can toutch it up later ( easy to file kneed-it ) . I put a small bit of kneed-it between the wires first and let it set so they wouldnt toutch when moulding the outher part . let the small bit of kneed-it between the wires set hard ( takes a few mins ) , then with another small mount of kneed-it , wrap the rest of it around the wires to make the shape of the base, leaving just the + and - terminals exposed . after you done clean the tips off of any excess kneed-it and put a tadd of solder to make a small ball on the end pin .

Be sure to wrap a bit of sticky tape or something around the tip of the led before you start to protect it, as the kneed-it is sticky stuff sorta ( you'll have it all over ya fingertips ! ) and will set hard on the globe and ruin the surface if you get any on it . remove the tape after its all set hard .

[XR6-VCT-2000]

Well i just did all the dash lights , just a note to anyone , i read in a thread on the AU falcon website that around 1500 to 2000 mcd lcd's were recomended , after seeing the brightness of all my other lights using only 900mcd in blues ( very bright ! ) , i decided to only use 900mcd'd in the dash lights too , imo lucky i didn't go any higher or you would be seeing bright patches through the face from the led. Allthough i did use 5mm led's , using a 3mm u might need more mcd's , but 900mcd in the blue's in 5mm leds is definately bright enough ;) .

Oh i should mention too , with the depth of the blue , i'm definately gonna need white guages now , can't see them at all hardlly now ! , allthough its bearable ( look for the dark spot to read ya speed ..lol ) , next on the list , white needles ! ..lol , do they just pull of the shaft to be replaced ?

[Mosquitocoil]

Originally Posted by Gubas

My mate showed me a printout from a cop database of car laws / regulations which had the laws on additional coloured lights. But i'll stand corrected if anyone knows for sure

Any idea where I could find that kind of information? I've done a couple of quick searches on the net and still came up empty handed, but that's the sort of thing I've wanted to get my hands on for a while.

Also, first post :

[AU2PWR]

lol , tried this light mod today , Roof Light but Red Perm Texta , Lol Car is like a Kabuki Porno House now , All Dull Red and Stuff

Cheers !

Daniel