CCFL Sidemarkers DONE! Pics inside.
CCFL Sidemarkers DONE! Pics inside.
EDIT: Hi-Res NIGHT TIME SHOTS ADDED ON PAGE 2!!
So after many months of putting this off, it was finally time to follow through on this relatively simple project. The idea was simple: clear corners, a pair of 12" white CCFLs attached to the clears using red-backed double sided 3M tape (the strongest you can buy), and wiring them up to the parking light so that they illuminate when the parking light and/or HIDs are on. It didn't take us too long to do it, about an hour, and we didn't remove the front bumper either. Two sets of hands were more than enough to get around the windshield washer fluid tank, and because the bumper flexes, we had just enough room to squeeze above, below, and to the side of the sidemarker in order to attach the CCFLs onto it.
If anybody would like me to explain and demonstrate where and how we attached these, just ask. These pics are clearly from my cell phone, but I figured it's better than nothing. I'm waiting for the night to come and I will promptly take night shots with an actual camera. But these pics still give you a very good idea of how the result looks like. =)
Shout out goes to: C2 Auto in College Point (many of these guys used to be at Tantrum Auto).
So after many months of putting this off, it was finally time to follow through on this relatively simple project. The idea was simple: clear corners, a pair of 12" white CCFLs attached to the clears using red-backed double sided 3M tape (the strongest you can buy), and wiring them up to the parking light so that they illuminate when the parking light and/or HIDs are on. It didn't take us too long to do it, about an hour, and we didn't remove the front bumper either. Two sets of hands were more than enough to get around the windshield washer fluid tank, and because the bumper flexes, we had just enough room to squeeze above, below, and to the side of the sidemarker in order to attach the CCFLs onto it.
If anybody would like me to explain and demonstrate where and how we attached these, just ask. These pics are clearly from my cell phone, but I figured it's better than nothing. I'm waiting for the night to come and I will promptly take night shots with an actual camera. But these pics still give you a very good idea of how the result looks like. =)
Shout out goes to: C2 Auto in College Point (many of these guys used to be at Tantrum Auto).
Last edited by SniperHunter; Jul 12, 2009 at 10:06 PM.
It's a very, very simple task. We didn't remove the bumper. We simply took off the front wheels, the three bottom plastic panels and that's it.
You buy TWO pairs of 12" CCFLs. They come with inverters and the proper plugs. Connect the CCFL plugs to the inverter by pushing them in. Connect the power and ground wire into the other side of the inverter.
Here's an image that'll help you visualize exactly what I did. I will explain what everything is:
Okay, first off, this is NOT a pic of my bumper. I saved it many months ago as a frame of reference specifically for this project. That said, here's the breakdown:
*The blue rectangle on the sidemarker indicates the mounting location of the CCFL.
**The red lines indicate the red label 3M double sided tape and how you should use it.
***The gray box indicates mounting location of inverter with the red 3M tape.
NOTE: Before mounting inverter on bumper, take a paper towel, a prepping agent (like Prep-All) and rub down the area to ensure a perfect stick. The red 3M tape is very resistant to heat and requires a LOT of muscle to remove, so don't worry about anything falling off.
Then you can use either wire taps (the clicky/teeth type) or you can do a careful quasi-splice by cutting open and exposing the parking light wires a little bit and wrapping the power and ground wires coming from the inverter tightly around the proper wire, then wrapping them back up with electrical tape numerous times. If you don't want to do any wire skinning from fear of accidentally cutting the wire, then you can use taps, which any Home Depot or even AutoZone sells.
NOTE 2: Tape up any hanging wires from the CCFLs to the bumper so that they don't dangle and look cleaner.
You buy TWO pairs of 12" CCFLs. They come with inverters and the proper plugs. Connect the CCFL plugs to the inverter by pushing them in. Connect the power and ground wire into the other side of the inverter.
Here's an image that'll help you visualize exactly what I did. I will explain what everything is:
Okay, first off, this is NOT a pic of my bumper. I saved it many months ago as a frame of reference specifically for this project. That said, here's the breakdown:
*The blue rectangle on the sidemarker indicates the mounting location of the CCFL.
**The red lines indicate the red label 3M double sided tape and how you should use it.
***The gray box indicates mounting location of inverter with the red 3M tape.
NOTE: Before mounting inverter on bumper, take a paper towel, a prepping agent (like Prep-All) and rub down the area to ensure a perfect stick. The red 3M tape is very resistant to heat and requires a LOT of muscle to remove, so don't worry about anything falling off.
Then you can use either wire taps (the clicky/teeth type) or you can do a careful quasi-splice by cutting open and exposing the parking light wires a little bit and wrapping the power and ground wires coming from the inverter tightly around the proper wire, then wrapping them back up with electrical tape numerous times. If you don't want to do any wire skinning from fear of accidentally cutting the wire, then you can use taps, which any Home Depot or even AutoZone sells.
NOTE 2: Tape up any hanging wires from the CCFLs to the bumper so that they don't dangle and look cleaner.
Last edited by SniperHunter; Jul 11, 2009 at 03:03 PM.
Hmmm I might try this once I get my reflectors in that have been back ordered. I have a few sets of CCFL's in the garage from my Acura I had projects like this in.
I would recommend putting some foil behind the lights to keep the light reflected out towards the reflector as well instead of inside the bumper area too. This helped to increase the light more as well.
Here is a old pic of my TL with one I did.
I would recommend putting some foil behind the lights to keep the light reflected out towards the reflector as well instead of inside the bumper area too. This helped to increase the light more as well.
Here is a old pic of my TL with one I did.
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These pics suck. They do NO justice to how f*cking BEAUTIFUL this looks in person. And it started to rain, so I couldn't pull the car out of the garage to take pics further away. I'm definitely going to whip out the Canon SLR for a little photo shoot somewhere.
Sorry for cropping some pics, my garage is cluttered on the sides with paint canisters, detailing products, saws, and other stuff like a 20 inch Heineken bottle (it's 7 years old, unopened).
Sorry for cropping some pics, my garage is cluttered on the sides with paint canisters, detailing products, saws, and other stuff like a 20 inch Heineken bottle (it's 7 years old, unopened).
Yeah, they don't split them up - so they come in pairs. But it's better that way in the end. What I did was tape them up together using electrical tape, wrapping it around the square base of each CCFL. Once you have the CCFLs in your hands, you'll understand what I'm saying.
Looks excellent! But I would remove the parking light bulbs from the headlights; the bright sidemarkers make them obsolete plus their yellow light stands out too much in comparison.