LED Backup Lamps in '03-05 Rear Reflector Lens

[gaterose]

This started a couple weeks ago after I accidentally backed into a friend's car and broke a rear reflector housing. I also had a bunch of small LED bars laying around (who'd-a-thunk it?) so I decided to see if I could merge the two. This is what I came up with...

The first part is light on pictures because it's self explanatory.

After I determined that the light would fit in the spot, first thing (not shown) I did was bake the lens for 10 minutes at 200° then pop the red part out.

Then I laid the front of the light against the lens and traced it with a sharpie and cut that out with a Dremel cutting disc. Because the lens is rounded the light didn't fit perfectly into the hole, but that's okay.

I used a sanding drum on the Dremel to make it wide enough and all the way to the lip on the top & bottom. I wanted to keep the lip to so the lens would be strong and the light just barely squeezes in without going all the way through the lens.

Because I mounted the light in the flattest part of the lens I had to also trim away where the lens would normally bolt on. I used an oscillating multi-tool with a metal cutting blade for that. It would probably work in the rounded part without trimming the hole at all, but this was how I wanted it.

I liked it so this morning I had some free time and went to it removing the other reflector and trimming it. I just basically laid the lenses together and transferred the hole from the first lens onto the 2nd so the lights would be in the same place.

Then I removed the bumper and trimmed the hole the same as I'd done the driver's side.

One more test fit...

Then I primed (etching primer) and painted the lenses semi-flat black so they'd blend with the lamp. In between coats I ran all the wiring and removed my old reflector mod wiring.

Made a ground connection for the lamps here-

And switched the wires on the relay I've had setup since I first got it and installed KC 26 backup lamps.

Ran the power for the lights through the vent hole

By the time I ran to the hardware store to grab a few allen head bolts and SS locknuts for the mount the lenses had dried.

The mounts are just some cheap 3" L brackets bent a little to fit the curves and drilled for the LED mount to line up properly. I bent the brackets during the previous test fit, making small adjustments until it lined up.

 

[gaterose]

The final setup before I painted the bracket and mounted them.

I stuck the setup in the hole in the bumper with all bolts semi tight and aligned it, then marked two holes with a punch and drilled them out (1/4") on each side. No pics of the holes but here's a shot of the lamps final mount.

The only part of the mount visible with the bumper back on

Final product

I ran into a wiring error somewhere and, as you can see, it started raining so I'll have to finish and get output shots tomorrow (hopefully).

 

[LOSTR4]

Damn that looks great. Perhaps you could start selling kits? How well do they work (rhetorically speaking)?

 

[gaterose]

Damn that looks great. Perhaps you could start selling kits? How well do they work (rhetorically speaking)?

Thanks! I think it probably involves too much work on the bumper side for me to make a kit. I could probably trim the lenses and insert the LEDs for people interested but you'd have to do the rest.

I don't know how well they work yet honestly. I think the aim is going to be pretty good, but luckily there is a little room for adjustment.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time (and sunshine) to redo my wiring and get them turned on.

 

[ebg18t]

Nice job. If my light from the BajaRack doesn't work out, I may have to try this.

 

[Titanpat57]

Came out great...nice write up too!

Would be nice to see the obligatory "night" shot..

 

[CXS]

Very cool Matt, I've been thinking about something along this line so will be very interested in the end resuts!

 

[momo.75]

Great job and really nice writeup. I think black was the way to go. Just blends so good.

 

[ARK_SWAMP_RIDER]

Very nice work Matt!! Love the way that turned out, look forward to seeing those output shots.

 

[gaterose]

Thanks guys!

Came out great...nice write up too!

Would be nice to see the obligatory "night" shot..

As I said in the posts above, I ran into a wiring problem and they're not getting power right now. Hopefully I can get it sorted out tomorrow assuming the weather is decent.

 

[gaterose]

Very cool Matt, I've been thinking about something along this line so will be very interested in the end resuts!

Yeah i've been thinking about it since I got the 4R and realized those were useless, just never had a properly sized light to put in there that was bright enough to be worth doing it with or a reason to cut up the reflector. Luckily when it broke I had a perfect reason.

Very nice work Matt!! Love the way that turned out, look forward to seeing those output shots.

Thanks a lot, I'll get some as soon as I can. I hope it get it going tomorrow. What I haven't mentioned is that the wiring problem actually resides under my center console where all of my wiring comes together so I have a lot of work ahead.

Great job and really nice writeup. I think black was the way to go. Just blends so good.

Yeah, with them mounted, from further than a foot or two away, you can't tell it's two separate pieces. Semi-flat was a good match too.

Yeah I figured I wasn't the only one who'd thought of this but didn't have enough info to easily see if it was doable. I also figured if I didn't take a lot of pictures people would ask questions later and I wouldn't wanna pull the bumper, so I just kept the camera handy for important steps.

 

[gaterose]

Boring night, the 'ol lady is watching a chick flick so I decided to just hook up a positive wire and see how the lights look.

Probably would've gotten better results with a darker setting but here ya go -

As always much brighter in person, you could see the light against the neighbor's fence in reality, but it's cold so I didn't feel like fiddling with settings and it's not very visible in the pictures.

edit - as I guessed, the angle of the reflectors is pretty great for the angle I needed. The aim could be fine tuned by someone more picky than myself, but they seem to be even and throw light where I wanted- out to the sides pretty far, just merging in the middle.

 

[jmildoc]

I think it looks great!!!!! Are those floods or spots?

 

[gaterose]

I think it looks great!!!!! Are those floods or spots?

Thanks! Those are the floods

 

[Whitebeauty]

Excellent work Matt, dude those with the reverse and your spot light are gonna make for some great back up driving...I really like what you did there thats some great aZZ work!... Man thats amazing..

 

[Lyric]

Final product

This is really sweet looking and you have inspired me to try this or something along these lines. Great job. Sometimes when you see mods like this it makes you wonder why Toyota would have not done this factory. Awesome work.

 

[Whitebeauty]

Post a pic with all of em on..

 

[gaterose]

Thanks a lot guys! I've been wanting to do this since I've had it, just haven't had a good light to put there.

Post a pic with all of em on..

I plan to if I ever get everything straightened out. I actually spent several hours Sunday and Monday rewiring every accessory in the 4runner due to some electrical gremlins I've been experiencing. I'll post some pics as soon as I can, but I just got the wire re-routed and still have to make connections to the battery before I can post any.

I also have some headlights and a satoshi to finish up before I wrap up the wiring and post final pics. Now that I've gotten rid of the gremlins I need to finish the other projects as there are other people waiting on 'em.

 

[Cory619]

How are these lights working out for you?

 

[gaterose]

How are these lights working out for you?

I still like them a lot, I use them every night

I never posted pictures because I removed the center light and added two extra lights I had to the roof so i couldn't get an accurate picture.