In the door on each side is a red reflector that for all the world looks like it was designed to light up. The light would help the person see the side of the car a bit better but mostly let on coming traffic know that the door was open.

Here's the final result - note that the door liner is sitting on my garage floor and that my car isn't lowered THAT much.



After pulling the door liner off I popped out the reflector lens and gathered my materials. I went with five red LED's from www.superbrightleds.com which were like $1.59 each. Since the lens is red the red LED will light up the brightest though the lens.

I used a bit of lexan I had laying around and cut it to fit just inside the rim of the red reflector. Nothing has to be too neat it just has to be smaller than the rim but bigger than the hole in the door. The resistors were $0.99 for five at Radio Shack.



I drilled five holes 5 mm in diameter - OK, a bit smaller than 5 mm and reamed them open with a hand reamer - and then dropped a drop of crazy glue and an LED into each hole. One lead of the LED is longer than the other - these all have to go to the same side as LED's are polarized - they work with electricity applied only in one direction. There is also a notch cut into the base of each LED and they too line up. Either way you'll get all the (+) leads to connect to the (-) leads end-to-end (like a line of batteries in a flash light).



I then soldiered the leads to each other in the daisy chain. I used the alligator clips from my volt meter as a heat sink and used a low wattaged soldier pencil for no more than two seconds per joint. LED's will melt if you get them too hot. The alligator clip goes between the intended location of the solider joint and the base of the LED.

The 150 ohm resistor was solidered to the (+) lead just to help me keep track of where the wires go later.



I put some heat shrink over the resistor and then used a drop of glue to hold it to the board. Later I used two very small plastic tie wraps to hold the resistor along side the soldiered leads. The LED's appear white but glow red under voltage.





The board sits inside the reflector and over the top of the door skin. As the two legs of the reflector grip the door they hold the LED board down in place trapped between the reflector and the door skin.



And finally a close up installed.



I'll run the wires from each door down though the center of the console to my diode steering circuit I built to light my foot well cold cathode tubes up as the doors open and close.

I've got some more work to do this weekend as my KP technologies window roll up module and my back up camera arrived just as I was finishing the LED board assemblies so I haven't put the door skins back on yet. I'm also putting three white LED's in the my corner reflectors and would be done with that except for a bit of a tiny mistake last night that cost one of my LED's it's life.

On Paul's scale of one to five Z's I rate this one a three as there's some small scale solidering going on and you've got to watch the polarity and the heat. Anyone with some solidering skills can knock these things out in 15 minutes each not including the time to run the wires afterwards.

---ZZZ ---

 

Cool "How To", this is something I have ben interested in doing for a while now.

Chris

 

very nice mod man. i like it.

 

yeah, that thing should have come from the factory as a real light.....funny how it's only a reflector in the Z and it's actually a light in the maxima

 

I like it!...Thanks for sharing!

 

cool mod and well pulled off

post some pics when the trim is on the car

 

smart aaaaaaaaasssssssss...lol

 

In the garage ...


Got some blue foot well lighting going on:


And a comparison with the stock parking lights (not brake):

They look about as bright as the stock brake lights only smaller

 

While I was in the driver's door I installed the KP technologies window roll up module. The directions were really clear and accurate. I would only add that all the module's wires go to the plug that plugs into the back of the power window panel (duhh).

You tap in the +12VDC battery, ignition, ground, and the window and power lock wires. The power lock wire is a bit of work as it's inside the door behind the speaker.

Really easy install over all - just a handful of 3M electrical taps and you're done. All the wires are just under the plastic door skin just by the control panel.

The module allows you to roll the windows up by remote control by double taping the lock button. An added bonus is that it automatically locks the doors six seconds after turning the ignition key. I'm always forgeting to lock the doors and this is a nice addition.

$59 http://www.kptechnologies.net/

 

thats just sold me!

how exactly does it work though, do u actually see the door lock on the inside door handle move to the lock position?

 

Yes - the door "lever" flips to the locked position.

Normally you open the door, sit down, close the door, and then start the car - then the lock it going to lock shortly afterwards. With the cars with this ability built-in from the factory the car waits until you put it in gear before the locks snap locked. This system will not do that as there's no wire to sense the gear.

Normally the lock wire is sensing the double tap on the lock button of the remote and then triggering the window roll up wire with +12VDC. In the automatic locking mode the KP computer sends a +12VDC signal to that lock wire causing the solanoids to fire locking the doors.

The auto-locking ability is default on but it can be shut off with a key press combination if you want to keep your doors unlocked.

 

Bump for the LED fans.

 

nice

 

How to wire these guys.

First this post shows you how to run the wire though the gasket near the door hinge: How-to

You can just wire the positive to the battery and then run the negative to the pin switch just behind the nearest door. When the door opens the pin switch closes connecting ground to the LED's and causing them to light. When the driver's door opens the driver's light glows, when the passenger's door opens her's glows.

 

awesome work Paul. You should start marketing these.

 

Looks neat! I have been planning on doing this when my door liners are off for speaker install.

 

It's ALIVE .... this thread has come back to life.

Hey Paul, have you upgraded to the LED Taillights as well?

 

Mod. should add this to the DIY how-to section It is a great write up.

 

Paul, I have a question. Since most LEDs are 3-3.3v, most people prefer connecting them in series of 4 so as to avoid needing a resistor since the combined voltage needed equals the voltage provided by the battery. You still used one, though. Why? I am confused.

 

Jesus that's a lotta work for the results. Does look great though Paul. Nice work as always.