Actually I don't even decorate. I really only put time and money into things that are important to me (my car/trucks).

 

LMAO!!!!!!

well if you ever notice most auto body men drive a beat up hoopty, and most construction people live in a need work house, so on and so fourth...lol!!!

 

these look awesome man, cant wait to see them all done.

keep up the good work!

 

I was trying to cram as many Superfluxes in myself using a a premade board from radio shack(biggest one they have) cut to size for each light of the cargo version using a rotary tool. I also painted the front sides black. I think a cust made PCB would be much better as you could then use Surface mount resistors as well. I wound up having to cram traditional hole mounts onto the back.

Part of my problem due to size constraints is I was only able to get about 3 LEDs in series which posed a big problem because that left a lot of extra power left over to get rid of in the form of heat. The reds are 2.0v per chip which came to 6v total. Then whites used for the cargos were 3.5v at a slightly better 10.5v total.

Another problem is the variation from 12-14.5v. I wanted to make sure the lights worked both with the truck off and on as well. Of course when its on the voltage output is higher thus more heat to disperse. So i wound up going to massively sized 1w resistors on the backside and even that wasn't good enough.

here are pictures to show what I'm talking about:





I thought about placing the LEDs in a horizontal pattern instead of vertical but that didn't work so well either. I wound up having to reduce the number of LEDs with empty spaces in the middle of the board or run 5 or more in series(thus they would not light up during lower voltage situations like when the truck is off) The empty holes in the board around the edge are required as well on the frontside in order to fit inside the fixture.

Yeah I'm running VVME HIDs in aftermarket housing with projectors.
My truck uses the older style separate corner housing from the headlamps with 4 bulbs for the turn signals(2000).
So I'm thinking either somehow moisture got into the lower corners or more likely I just got two bad sets. Whats strange is the running light ones in the upper part of the corner are still working perfectly fine while all four in the lower part went bad. They lasted about 4 months and probably about 3,000 miles at the most. They died a slow process of individual SMDs on each bulb going too.

 

Those are not superflux lumileds. Lumileds are not available with the big dome like that.

 

Installed the HIDs tonight into the truck just to verify the aim, before I screw them down for the final mount.



Lenses were not mounted on the lights, just the projectors mounted in the housings.

Checking the aim

 

cant wait to see them all buttoned up!! dunno if i like the two different shades of white but i am a very particular picky person when it come to that too..lol!! Lookin good so far and nice lighting!!

 

I bought the truck used and the paint that is on the truck is NOT the factory paint. It's been banged up and painted a few times, by people who didn't know what they were doing. It will be getting repainted with the factory white as I clean it up more and more.

 

well i hope you know im not doggin it!! lol looks good!! it will look better when it all matches!!

 

Yeah this truck is something I can park without really having to worry about it. My 2004 has Tons of work and is absolutely mint, and the IX is a full-fledged race car. I don't like to take either of those out just for daily driving usually. Neither see rain, snow or salt and neither get dirty.

 

the old fits were matched, its popular to swap nighthawk lights onto taffeta's. but they didnt make many taffetas before they discontinued the color in the body style so it seems anti jdm to take the rarer lights off.





personally a fan of body matched lights over black or chrome

leds are lookin baller aswell

 

hrm your right I just noticed the difference myself. I'm not sure what they are as I cant remember now haha. I know they were a 4-chip 80ma design though so they probably came from either from Oznium or BHK.

I could have sworn Digikey sold Lumileds but I cant seem to find them on there. What source are you using to get yours? If I were to do it now I would have used Lumileds or Crees.

 

where did you get those shrouds? they look perfect

 

Shrouds came with morimotos

 

You make no sense to me at all. First you bought a beater Ranger to daily, and then you bought ANOTHER beater so that your other beater Ranger doesn't have to endure everyday driving. THEN you proceed to put nine grand and four months of work into the headlights of your beaters beater. Just when I thought you were full retard now you're saying you want paint the truck too? Are you aware what a beater is exactly? Do you realize it would not only look better, but be thousands of dollars cheaper to either A: put these lights on the original beater Ranger and paint them to match its paint since it will match, or B: paint these headlights all black inside instead of white.

Common sense is something you seem to be lacking...

 

Even Einstein had his short falls. lol.

I put it this way. People with book sense usually lack in common sense. Those with lots of common sense lack some book sense. take your pick.

 

ill take common sense please!

 

and god i hope he didnt really put 9 grand in a beater ranger

 

Please...

I don't want to do my first retrofit on my good truck. I want to practice on something that doesn't need to be absolutely perfect. Money to do the mods is so not a problem for me. I can do them twice, besides I just enjoy learning and doing this stuff. Keep in mind even know my white truck is a "beater" I still take 10X better care of it than most people do with their vehicles. Besides everything I buy ends up getting worked on and by time I get rid of it its 10X what it was when I first bought it.

Lastly, I want to paint the truck - because it needs paint. The last paintjob was a maaco runthrough (just guessing). I want this to last a while and keep me happy.

 

9 Grand? No more like 900.

I spend alot (which still leaves plenty) working on my vehicles (All 3) - why? Because I can.

If I had more garage space I'd have even more cars/trucks. My next place will be an old shop garage or gas station that I'll turn into a place to live. One small area to live at night and a huge garage with lifts to do whatever I need.

 

Better to drive a polished turd than a P.O.S.

 

I think JP7 has the modders itch

Hell its fun to work on vehicles. You get done with one thing then you go what can I do next? eventual you run out of ideas and its time for a new vehicle


Anyways I've been keeping an eye on this thread and the one over at HiDPlanet and see its coming along nicely. I cant wait to see the end result :)

It almost makes me feel inspired to want to mod my front corners using a PCB and tons of LED chips lol.
Unfortunately I don't have the money to do so.

Imagine having superflux lumileds in these
Its twice the size of the signals on newer rangers. Or hell even hundreds of smaller leds like I have seen on some mid 2000 era cadys poss the CTS.

 

Very nice Jp7...when is the custom line of lights coming out? :)

 

Your headlights design is better than mine for LED retrofit due to the fact that you don't have to worry about heat exposure from the main lamps because they are in separate housings.

 

looking awesome, want to let me barrow that ff7 strategy guide?