Zenxia06

Hey everyone.

I wanted to share my idea for an LED mod, to replace that completely useless reflector on the door panels of our beautiful Z's.
Now to give my Z an extra special touch, I decided to go with UV LED's for my accent lighting color. So far, I have replaced the map light's and trunk light with OE replacement UV LED bulbs, I will be adding a UV LED Underglow kit very soon, as well as some UV LED strips for some under dash and behind the seats accent / mood lighting.

As for this mod, I purchased the UV LED pod from superbrightleds.com for around $8 for the pair, and I used 1/8" smoke plexi-glass as the piece to cover where the reflector went. Now to get the plexi glass to be the right size to fit, I took the reflector and stuck the tabs of the reflector through a piece of paper and traced around it. I then used the piece of paper as a template for the plexi glass. I then centered the LED pod on the plexi and marked the 2 screw holes, and used a very small drill bit to carefully drill them out. Next I screwed the pod down to the plexi, and used a file to give the wires a small notch to run through without getting damaged.

Here is the LED pod mounted to the plexi-glass.

If you look where the reflector sat in the door panel, there is a nice lip for the piece of plexi to rest on. I test fitted the plexi-pod to the door panel and marked where the wires for LED met the door panel, and drilled a small hole in the panel to route the wires through.


Reflector removed, and spot where I drilled the hole for LED wires.

I chose to wait on glueing the plexi-pod down until after I got the wires connected on the inside of the panel. In case anyone is needing to know the Red wire is Positive & Green is Negative... Could not find a wiring diagram for the cup holder light that told you which was which...lol


Cup holder wires.



Also, I didn't fully snip the wires for the cup holder light, just cut deep enough to slide the wire coating apart to wrap the LED wires onto them. used a small piece of electrical tape on each connection to keep them seperated, and then wrapped the bundle with a couple more pieces for added protection.


Wires connected and protected.

Now the last thing I had to do was glue the plexi-pod to the lip on the front side. I did this with a tube of "Seal-All" Adhesive & Sealant, and leftt the finished panels sit for a couple hours for the sealant to dry.


All glued down and connected.

The last thing to do was put the door panels back on, and double check to make sure everything was good.

Now the only time these LED's will light up is when you have the parking lights / headlights on. If you wanted to connect them to a toggle, you'd just have to run the extra wires, and connect to a different power wire. I just wanted to share this with everyone, because I feel it's better looking than that ugly bicycle tire reflector that served no purpose...lol
I know the G35 has a light in the door stock for "added safety" at night, guess Nissan figured us Z owner's didn't need that little extra safety feature...rofl I will uplaod a pic of in the car and turned on once it gets dark.

Let me know what you guys think, and look forward to reading about some other mod ideas.

mr. sparco

iTrader: (13)

Cool beans on the idea, execution is pretty bad, looks ghetto-tacky. I would rather have the "angel wings" door light that can found on ebay for a few bucks. Or at least drill a hole into the stock reflector and hide the LED behind the reflector lens.

achampagne

I think its awesome, just needs a little refining. Might do this to my car myself.

Zenxia06

Thanks for the compliment and the insult...lol
You can call it ghetto-tacky or what ever you'd like. Haven't found to many upgrade options for that compnent, especially in UV Purple LED.
So I came up with a random idea, and spent a total of $8, so yeah it's not store bought custom, but if it was... I would have the same thing as everyone else...*boring*
The angel wings look ok, but I highly doubt they are offered in UV Purple... Plus they would only be seen when you open the door...mine turn on when parking lights are on.
if Nissan offered a clear lens w/ light setup like in the G35 Coupe, then I would have went hat route and just upgraded the factory bulb...lol
Once the door panel is in the car you dont really notice it's there anyways.

Zenxia06

Thanks bro.
Yeah...I agree it could use some refinement, but doesn't look bad once installed.
I will make my own led pod, once I find a clear lens that is the same dimensions as the stock one.
Would like to know why the G35 coupe got a door light and the 350z didn't, but don't think the dealer would much help...lol

mr. sparco

iTrader: (13)

You asked for an opinion, it wasn't an insult. No offense to you personally, I just don't like the execution of the part. I wouldn't, can't call that an upgrade the way it looks. Members who know me know I'm all for diy parts as I make my own custom parts all the time but once again with the wires showing, use of cheap leds, poorly cut shape and edges, it looks horrible.

Its a critique on an item to help you improve on it not a personal attack which many people on here seem to confuse. The way I would have done it is buy high quality leds from ledsupply. Find a side marker that is similar in shape and size to house the leds. It would be aesthetically pleasing as well as highly functional. You're not the first to do this, its been done, this car has been out since 02.