I finally ordered more led lights for my truck. I have this dumb obsession with them now.

I already replaced the brake bulbs, reverse bulbs, license plate bulbs, and entire 3rd brake light assembly with L.E.D's.

I just ordered up 3457 Super Amber's for the front turn signal bulbs and 194 marker bulbs.

Ordered up some 2721 for the HVAC panel. I'm starting there for my interior since it's an easy thing to replace if I screw it up. I'll be sanding and painting the overlay once I find the right paint. And also I'll be painting the ****'s lighted area.

Anyone know where to get the "glass" paint at? It just needs to be translucent blue. Would Micheal's have it? Hobby Lobby?

EDIT: Pictures added of the rear. Front to come when I get them in the mail.

Third brake light from Ebay



All lights on with flash



All lights without flash



Light housing illumination


In the video you can see the noticeable delay between the front indicators and the rear. Keep in mind the front is still a filament type bulb for now.

 

i know theres a hobby shop up near homedepot area...cant think of the name of it. that will look sweet tho dude

 

From a hint given me by Shane and Trevor last time we were over at Shane's place... if your going to use a color.. try to find a colored film tape of that same color led your using and use tape to go over.. not glass paint.

In reference: I am going to be re-doing my interior with red LED's.. I will be using some red brake light repair tape inside each of the areas I plan on making red.. as it will 'evenly' displace all the light where its needed with a minumum of hotspots.

 

Colored film tape, eh? If you can tell me where to find blue I would greatly appreciate it. I haven't had any luck so far.

I'm still going to try Hobbytown USA, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's. I'll be following this tutorial once I find that darn paint.

 

I found my Transparent Blue spray enamel at Michaels.

 

pics of the amber in the front please...





If you can get away with it with the color your going to use, go with some sort of transparent tape. Similar to taillamp fix-it tape stuff. But since there isn't a blue for that, you're going to have to settle with the transparent glass paint(rattle can or brush on). I got mine at a craft store that my mom frequents. lol. Mine is brushed on.

For your HVAC, before painting anything, just put hte bulbs in and take the color film piece out of the faceplate...that way you can determine if you want to paint it. My first LED HVAC was soldered on Inverted 194 blue LEDS w/o the color film w/o paint and it lit up very nicely. I'd even say it lit up better than my current 9- 5mm led's in there.



Take a look at JP7's many many threads on LEDs...i'm 125% positive he'll pop up in this thread.

 

no kidding lol... where is he.....

 

I plan on taking out that film to see how it'll light up. The blue LEDs I bought are concave ones so hopefully they'll reflect well. I'll find some glass paint soon. Michaels is only 20 minutes away.

I was hoping jp7 would pop up here.

 

I think it was Michaels is where i went. idk though..all those places smell weird and look the same. lol.

 

Updated. I added pictures of the rear setup and the third brake light.

Still waiting for the others to arrive.

Also waiting for Jp7 to come in here and give me some advice on the overlays and led conversion. I read through all his threads about the stuff already.

 

LEDs look pretty good man, I wanna see a vid of them during the day... after all of them are replaced...

 

I will definitely do that. I'm pretty sure the running lights can hardly be seen from the rear but the brake lights are still pretty bright. I've considered doing the taillight mod that Jp7 did with the factory LEDs.

 

Have you seen this? The build up of my cluster... https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...&highlight=led



I'd also like to add my vid to this thread involving LED vs Incandescant full illumination times...

 

Wow, I didn't think it was quite that bad as far as illumination time.

I did read your gauge cluster thread through and through. I think I posted earlier today on it.

I'm also wondering about the factory LED in the taillight housing. I might consider doing it because it's so bright.

 

I like it because it looks factory. it doesn't look like it's an led in there. And my third is the stock third housing with a 5w 14 or 24(don't remember) msmt plug in 906 LED, looks factory. Trepaul86 has my same tails with your style leds....and personally, no offense, but ive always though those were ugly. I'll have to see a side by side of my truck and his to compare the brightness. I do know that my L1224R's way better use the reflector compared to his and your style plug in leds....all you see lighted up is exactly as factory, rather than having a 'dead' zone around the plug in.

I just saw your post on that thread, my bad. lol. posted.

 

i see u changed ur cb mount, looks good

 

Finally found that darn glass paint. Delta PermEnamel Air-Dry Glass Paint. At $4 for a set of six colors, the base coat and clear I couldn't complain. Actually bought two kits. Bought a cheap set of brushes to help out and use in my art class when I'm finished.

Just started on the HVAC ***** and will do the hvac panel once the LED's show up.

Update: Apparently the paint I got sucks. It's extremely thick and well, doesn't seem so transparent/translucent. Maybe it'll be that way once it dried but I doubt it. What colors did you all use?

Update #2: I bought the wrong paint. Or at least I'm pretty sure I did. Looks like I'll be taking the unopened package back and getting the right stuff. Ugh. These are the times I feel like an idiot.

 

i am inte4rested in this led conversion stuff, i myself would like to knwo where i can order the brake lights, turn signals (front and rear) and reverse lights from, also for the interior map lamp (bright as possible) and how to get the speedodemer blue like i saw someone's on here a while back, i hate the green and was lookin to paint it blue and what paint do i need to do so, and if i leave the stock bulbs in now will it shine blue, or do i need blue leds,and are the leds plug in play, if so where so i order them?

 

Did you try searching for any of that?

 

Josh...the link i posted in this thread covers almost all your inquiries. A link to john grigg's(n3elz) cardomain is what spawned my LED conversion 4 years ago. John's How-to's on his cardomain page is very very very informative and will answer any question to changing your dash color. I took his cluster color mod one step further my using 5mm leds.







Tyler...

THAT SUCKS!! I hope you just did the ***** and didn't get too far in the disassembly/modding before you found out. I'll take a pic of the product that's on mine...i too bought two packages.

OH!....and I forgot to mention that mid 90's ford's came with blue lensed hvac *****...I'm 87% positive i've got like 6 of those in my shop, if i can find 'em, do you want a set?

 

Sorry guys, I have been more worried about changing my front end to be the first person with a Ranger STedge.

First off - Nothing compares to L1224R's for the rear end of the truck. I have some extra right now, you WONT be dissapointed. (Did I mention cheaper and better than the best plugin's money can buy?)

Components work Much better for interior lighting. Take the time, use resistors and do it right. The plugin's are easy but you lack the ability to control the distribution of light.

Get yourself a EP27 Flasher, the VLED's one is different than the autozone one, some (Trev) have reported problems with that one. (this is why I still stand by the vleds.com one.)

You may need to do the "fake-o-bulb" trick if you convert your entire running lights circuit to LED. I discovered this trick, even know it is really only common-sense.

I will be glad to help, and I will subscribe now.

 

still clueless

 

I already bought an electronic flasher and it works great.

As far as the blue hvac panel, maybe I'll go to the junkyard and yank one.

With the paint I only did the ***** so I just resanded them.

Jp7 thatnks for coming in here. I'll pm you for a price on the l1224r bulbs.

 

i dont get it, you sand and paint the back of the speedodemer panel? with what kinda paint, and where can i buy them leds without sodering them

 

I have some LED's you can use without soldering them - PM me if you want them. They will work good enough to give you this result....


I am trying to get rid of them because I went with soldered component LEDs instead. They are brand spankin' new, 0 miles - just hooked them up and took those pics.

As per painting the speedometer, are you trying to do this?


I bought this paint at a carquest - I just gave them my vin number, and they sold me a half pint of the paint that was used at the factory. It matches the body perfect.

If you are going to be painting plastic materials I suggest using a "plastic prep adhesion promoter" - worked like a charm for me.

before the promoter I also used "bon-ami" scouring powder to scuff and clean the parts.

Any airgun and compressor can be used to paint with. - Oh yeah, I also used "select clear" clearcoat to give it the shine.