Exterior Mods
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PIAA Driving Lights
Series 001

More pics of switch install will be added later

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Wheels & Tires

Wheels: American Racing M770 "Teron" 20x8.5
Tires: Hankook Ventus Sport K104 245/35/ZR20
Package is 1/2" smaller in circumfrance than OEM.

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*NEW* 3rd Brake Light Mod

So most of you are familiar with the brake light mod I did on the OEM spare tire cover. Well, I finally made a new brake light for the 20" spare.

I was originally going to cast resin into the spokes and fit LEDs inside of them, but that got to be too much of a hassle, and I don't wanna ruin my discontinued rim. So I opted to make a carrier out of plastic.

There are 24 12,500mcd LEDs, 1 every 15°, around the outer ring facing outward. Then, behind the cap, there are 24 more facing the tailgate. This helps with the glow behind the wheel. I have a feeling I'm going to redo this when I purchase 120,000mcd 10mm LEDs.

The plastic carrier. Drilled (drill press) all the holes out of a square piece of plastic. Drill the center hole just big enough for a brass bar to fit into. Once the holes were drilled I went over to the router table and clamped down a crossbar with the same size center hole and insterted a piece of brass barstock (we happen to have a lot of it for model trains). This secured the plastic in a stationary location, but allowed it to rotate. With the router on and the plastic engaged, I rotated the square and trimmed out the carrier in a perfect circle.

Next I instered all the LEDs, trimmed and soldered all the series connections and sealed the outer LEDs to prevent them from making contact with the spare tire mount. I also put some padded feet inbetween the lug holes to help cusion the carrier when the spare tire gets torqued on.

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3rd Brake Light Mod

While getting some of my LEDs set aside for a buddy I got to thinking about what I could use them for on my car. About 15 minutes later I began this sweet project.
Wiring info:
These bad boys are 12,000mcd and are mostly used in traffic signals.
They are wired as follows:
6 LEDs in series, 4 sets in parallel,no resistors needed.
The series/parallel setup with 24 LEDs can be directly wired to a 12v source, such as a car battery or automotive lamp wiring.

I laid down two strips of Scotch tape to mark my "center line" (not centered, just a straight line that follows the contour of the cover) and 1" spacing for the LEDs. Drilled two holes .188" in diameter and pushed in 1 LED, .194" diameter at the flange. The LED went about 2/3 of it's length in and stopped. This was just right as it doesn't put too much of the LED on the outside of the spare tire cover.

Top and bottom holes drilled, 12 on 12, 1 inch spacing. Top row with LEDs, bottom row empty.

All 24 LEDs lined up (polarity) and snugged in place. Sodlering iron is warm, I can smell it. haha..

Top row wired for 2 sets of series with negative leads.
Bottom row with jumpers half connected.

Wiring complete, 4 sets of LEDs wired in parallel. Wiring held in place with adhesive backed clips. The LEDs are sealed (must be isolated and insulated from water, after all, they are exposed to the elements), insulated and held in place with DAP Clear Silicone. This also makes LED replacement easier as you just need to cut the silicone and pull the LED out, then splice in the wiring and heatshrink the joint.

Here is how the back looks without the OEM 3rd light. The holes can be seen, but you almost have to be looking for them.

As you look down at the cover the holes are quite noticable, but still look good and could pass as cheesey OEM decor.

When lit you get a red hue from the side. The viewing angle on the LEDs is a mere 6 degrees so it's not blinding or overly visible at all angles.

This is a shot from across the street, plus 15 feet. The LEDs are just as bright, and visible, as the OEM side lamps.

At night, they are quite vibrant and it looks killer

Here is what everyone sees behind you.
The first pic is with a flash, second it without.

As I was walking by I couldn't help but notice the reflection along the inside arc of the cover, so I had to take a couple pics. With and without the OEM Lamp.

At night the lumens overpowers the viewing angle and you can see them quite nicely outside of the 6 degrees, but it is not a distracting super bright light, which is nice.

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StreetGlow Gold Series Under Car Neons

Here are two pics (with and w/o flash) of the purple neon kit I installed.
I should have pics up soon of day shots for the mounting method I used.

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