LED Turn Signals

Hey been awhile since I've posted here, finally got some money to splurge on the Taco!! I bought these cool LED turn signal boards to put behind my side mirrors, kinda give it that updated look I guess, they were fairly cheap. Going to wire them up when they get here hopefully in about a week. Anyone else done this? I searched some but did not find anything. I'll make this into a DIY thread when I do and add it to the DIY and How-to thread. I'll even buy some to sell here if enough people like them.


Now to take my door apart...

 

Well I see why no one bothered with this thread...FML this was a horrible idea that went wrong at every turn!

First off I read every post I swear about how to remove door panels...I never once saw anyone mention that you have to slide the door panel to the front of the truck I think to get the interior door handle to slide off its hook thingies. So I broke that first...


Next I removed my mirror..thankfully the white plastic backing that is attached to the motor part did not snap or break...

After that I needed to remove the 3 screws that hold the hinge in piece (atleast I think thats what holds it together lol) So I stripped one and broke another one off, they locktite'd the lil shits! Ugh I'll either try a easy out or drill it out to fix it...


Then the glass mirror needs to come off the plastic backing...and theres some serious adhesive on there, stuff is like 1/8th of a inch thick and tar like consistency. I poured some goof off all over it scrapped what I could off with a flatblade..now time to start prying around the edges on the backside where the adhesive still has a hold of some pieces....and ofcourse I apply just alittle too much pressure and break the damn mirror. Ughh now I hope the glass shop I bought my last mirror from still has them cheap ($8-12 last time I needed one).



Well I dunno what to say except don't do this..lol unless you have extra mirror parts of way better luck than me...I'll update when I get this effin hell of a project done...I'm gonna damn well do it now that I went to all this expense...

 

Actually you do not need to slide the door panel forward. You can grasp the door handle itself after you remove the crew, and slide it backwards and it comes unhooked. Had to do this several times over the past few years with the Tacomas I have worked on. If you need any help on this, hit me up. I'll be more than happy to do what I can.

 

Thanks man, yea I should of made a post or thread...but decided to learn the hard way hehe, I think it'll still work...if not I'll buy a new one. I bought some dielectric grease for the back of the LED circuit boards though today, so they won't short out from any water getting in there.

 

how are you going to make them show through the mirror?

 

Cool idea but sounds like a lot of work.

 

x2 ?? Sounds cool, but I am not sure what you are trying to do, because the mirror is not transparent.

 

Yea I was going to see if they would shine through the mirror, if not I may use some chemicals to rub the backing off. I thought it would be a neat project at first....but damn its killing me bought a new mirror glass today for $16.50 :s Well atleast when I get done I'll definitely be the only Taco with these coz its a PITA hahaha

 

I'm pretty sure they won't shine through the mirror. Chemical removal will also not work since it will take all the backing off and it will not be a mirror anymore. I would say you need to lay out the exact LED locations and just scrape those small little squares off with the tip of a sharp knife or thin chisel for the light to shine through. As said above, those areas will not be mirror anymore, so I don't know how that will affect your vision - technically create a bunch of blind spots.
The newer cars with the lights in the mirrors use a different type of mirror (like one-way glass) that is see-through from the back but still mirror on the other side. Regular mirror use solid paint on the back - in simple terms.
Great idea but I don't think it was thought through enough before you started.

 

I gotta ask.... Did you finish this project or scrap it?

I want to put LED blinkers on the outside of the mirrors (Like this http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/pr...om-led-turn-signal-review-w-pictures-how.html ) on my 03 PreRun.

Dave

 

He probably realized that if you take the backing off a mirror, you have a piece of glass. Then he climbed a high tower...

 

I actually finished putting back together 1 side of the door, lets just say this...theres a aluminum housing and aluminum screws in that with loc-tite on them, so if you try this BECAREFUL AS ALL HELL (I stripped 2 head and broke 1 off, luckily my re-threading skillz are top notch), and with that you'll need every bit of luck to remove the mirror without breaking it, not sure if theres a good way of doing this. I tried soaking the mirror in some spirits to weaken the adhesive...helped some.

I did not scrape or remove the mirrors 'mirror' coating. The replacement mirror seems to be not as well mirrored and the lights will shine through 'ok'. Not worth it going this route IMO, I'd wish I had bought some really thing LED strips to just put at the bottom of the mirrors external housing. But hey I learned something!

I'll post some pictures later when I finish the wiring, probably won't be noticable in daytime too much or at all.

 

*UPDATE*

Works pretty good, the LED has 2 sets of lights that alternate back and forth, and the video is shot through 28% tinting, so its still bright enough, but not to be seen at daytime.

Looks better in person...phone camera doesn't capture it too well.

http://youtu.be/hhGkrlejE88

 

Looks cool! Thanks for posting the video. I think take a lesson from your project and go a different direction.

Dave

 

I see what you did there.