So if we already have a set of genuine 99 spec taillights and wanted to use the LED lights, what kind of modification is going to be required?

 

This isn't a groupbuy thread, so there probably won't be any discussion of price.

 

are you working for anything for the 3rd light? making that a solid light bar instead of 3 bulbs would look awesome to go along with the solid circles.

 

Maaan. I was perfectly happy with my unmodified OEM tails... till now!

 

i will start saving for this

 

awww man come on guys, read the thread. i dont want to answer the same questions 10 times.

 

Hm, I may have to lock this thread as per club rules. Watch it Thomas

 

Down with club rules... we demand PRICES!!!!!





Only kidding

 

hey Tom, working with all these led circles, ever feel like taking one and pretending to be iron man?

 

hahaha i was also thinking that the led ring looked like the iron man power-source thing.

 

Hi,
I have been following your thread from the beginning and think they look amazing so now I want to do my front driving lights with led’s. I want the diffused look like you have rather than the Audi style dots, so I wanted to ask you what surface mount led’s did you use? I have tried some but there not as bright as yours.

Thanks
Ash

 

What about a set for the fc? I would be willing to ship my pair to be the first set. let me know if you would be willing to do a s5 fc setup

 

^^^^^^^ Are you willing to do a set for an FB?

 

THE PARTS HAVE ARRIVED!

group buy will be online by the end of the week.

 

Sweet. You will post up a link once your up and running, correct?

 

mos def.

 

OK I have a screwdriver and box waiting.... need a price and address.
if you want to look at a set of fb taillights just let us know since I dont think you have a FB as a test dummy the only kicker of the fb is the lamp checker needs a certain resistance to function correctly but that can be solved w/ a properly sized resistor once the led load is determined.

 

awesome! and I get paid this week too!

 

yes the FD also needs a certain load otherwise the flashers will fast-flash.

my kit includes a set of Load Resistors that will fix the fast-flash problem.

the group buy should be online by tonight or tomorrow at the latest (hopefully!)

 

Price it right and the world will come aknocking:

It costs me $150 to do all 6 lights (3 per side) using the brightest 3W LEDs. Price it somewhere around this base point, you'll have at least 2500 FD owners (out of say 7500) in this country buying this.

I'm first in line, all you unwashed goodfellas get behind me or I'll sic Goldman Sucks on your hairy @ss.

 

$150 to use use plug & play LED bulbs? Like the kind you get from superbrightleds.com - that sounds about right.

Please remember that this is not a simple bulb swap operation that I'm doing. I am completely disassembling the lights, modifying them, installing hand-made led units, then resealing the lights.

For my conversion, I am doing my best to keep costs down, you need to remember:

1) the hours and hours of development/design time that went into this
2) the sourcing of components, designing, and then having most parts custom made for this specific application
3) additional materials such as adhesives, paints, solder, wires, bulb sockets, load resistors, aluminum mounting hardware, etc.
4) 4-5 hours of labor for converting just one set (opening them, masking, painting, assembling the led units, sleeving/soldering wires, soldering bulb ends, testing, re-sealing the housing, and re-packaging/returning.

Since the group buy is going to be online within the next 8-24 hours, I suppose I can give the price range...

Depending on what lights you have (usdm vs jspec) I'm charging about $400 for the conversion. Based on everything I listed above, and the amount of labor that goes into producing these, that's really the best I can do. If you think about it, a used set of '99 tails is going to set you back more than this, and they're not even LED!

I would also like to announce that this group buy is only happening thanks to SakeBomb Garage, who will be running the group buy and taking care of orders for me.



Since I was unable to finance the costs of producing a large number of these conversions myself, so I approached SakeBomb Garage several weeks ago to see if they were interested, which they were. Since then, I have been working with them to finish the design for this conversion and work out the logistic of doing a group buy. I want to clarify that this is not increasing the cost of the conversion as SakeBomb Garage is making virtually no money on the sale of this product. If you end up ordering one of these conversions, make sure to thank Scrub (Dan) from SakeBomb garage because without his backing this group buy wouldn't be happening!

I can't give any more info at this point, please wait for the group buy for the full info.

 

So you want him to do the conversion for free without getting paid for his time?

 

day and night video of the completed product?

 

Here's a video of the prototype lights on GoodfellaFD3S's car that was shot in the daytime/early-evening. Please note that this is not the final version but the original prototype. In the final version, the outer ring gets brighter when you step on the lights (along w/ the center lighting up also).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_exoJXB4Gmo
I don't have a night video, but as you can see, they look great in the daytime.

The final version uses more LED's per ring compared to the prototype (making the lights brighter), and also adds an extra ring of 24-leds per brake light (96 more in total). If you click back a couple of pages you can see photos of the lights on Rich's car that were shot in broad, direct daylight.

 

I never said that it should be $150. The point was to give him the floor on which he will have to compete against. The ceiling may be $600 for the JDM lights. Now remember that these LEDs (SakeBomb or not) are not OEM level quality and so a buyer will have to balance these factors. If the LEDs are Sylvania/Osram then I'll eat my words.

Having said all that, I'm still first in line.

Now if you guys can get some chinese slave laborers in a chinese prison to do the conversion, we could all get it for less than $150 including overnight airfreight shipping cost.