Fender Grill Lights DIY
 

I just Finished installing some LED Lights behind my fender Grills. They look great.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040608.jpg

And that is while there is alot of light, in the dark it looks wicked.

I used these flexible LED light strips from http://www.oznium.com/led-flex-strips.

1) Take the wheels off, and put the car up on Jack Stands.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040572.jpg

2) Remove the Plastic Wheel Well Liners completley.

3)This is the Space where the Lights will go.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040580.jpg

4) I ran the wires through the fire wall here. It is where your hood release cable goes through.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040577.jpg

This is where it comes through on the inside, by your pedels.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040579.jpg

5) I mounted the Lights to these right angle pieces of stiff plastic, and then covered them with aluminum Foil.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040583.jpg

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040585.jpg

6) I then epoxied the lights into the channel.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040586.jpg

7) I then mounted the Apparatus, with the wire going upward, directly behind the grill. First with zip ties, by drilling holes in the pieces of plastic, and linking them through the clips on my strakes. I then covered the entire back with duct-tape.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040590.jpg

8) I then ran the wires from both sides into the engine bay, Soldered them together, and covered it with split tubing.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040591.jpg

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040592.jpg

9) I then ran the wires in throught the firewall. And ran them up the side pillar to the Roof.

10) I removed the map light aparatus using this DIY.
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?t=97596.html

11) Ground your wires here.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040595.jpg

12) Draw Positive power from the blue wire on the little conncetor.

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040596.jpg

13) Set up your switch where ever you want, i chose underneath the sun visor

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040597.jpg

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040599.jpg

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040601.jpg

http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/v...a/P1040609.jpg

nioooce! i like it alot. good write up. i wonder how wb would look with blue lights??

well done!! I'll try something similar. I like your 'reflector' idea. it spreads the light much more evenly than others I've seen.

Just bought 2 9.5'' blues. I'm going to splice power into my blue RR footwell lights so they come on automatically!

ya, i used the 19" strips for mine.

Nice idea and the end result is really good looking.

I have two little lights that I'm figuring out what to do with....

the other car in the garage is quite nice too.

Wow....that is pretty impressive!! I like it.

You are the first person to solve the angle issue it seems.

Could you by chance take some outside night pictures at different angles? like one at standing height, one crouching, in front, from behind (thats what she said).

lonewolf did this but you could only see them at a low height. With your reflector idea, I think it will work.

Lastly, do you get a lot of glare or anything in sunlight from that light hitting the foil?

Hey mods, can you move this to the DIY section? This is going to be a hit!

Ya, I like the other car in the garage too, though I have never driven it. I havent havent noticed any glare from the sun, and I will get some pics from other angles and heights.

This is one of the coolest mods I've seen on the RX8 so far. It makes me wish I had the mechanical proficiency and equipment to do such a thing. Can you imagine how jawesome it'd be to have blue LEDs glowing from the strakes of my Winning Blue GT?

Thats something I would like to see as well

Great job BTW

I like it! I want to see some night pictures though.

cool.

more pics, please. can you see the foil through the holes in the daytime?

I was discussing with someone the possibility of wiring this (and footwells) up to the rear dome light. That way, we could have a toggle for it to either work for when the doors are opened, or are constantly on. Anyone see a potential problem?

Instead wire them to an always on source, or to your headlights. The problem with the dome light, it always on. If you want the fender lights and the footwells on, you'll have to have the dome on....

I wired mine to headlights, and put a switch between them. So the switch has to be flipped AND the headlights have to be on.

I was going to have a switch to make it always on, or on with the door lights. But I couldn't find the door light wire, and spent a long time on my back and was in such pain I gave up.

Well, in that case, I don't see a problem, except you might be overloading that power line if you're running 2 sets of extra lights (esp a LED strip). Not sure, but seems like it might.

Well, that's kinda my point. I have blue LEDs in the dome, and i don't want to be cruising around all the time with the vent lights on. It will attract way too much attention. The toggle would have either everything on or off while driving, and everything turn on when you hit unlock on the key fob or open the door.

From the outside the aluminum foil can not be seen. Even when you get down on ur hands and knees and look, it is just too dark in there. And i wouldnt wire them to the dome light. That means that you will have to have it on when the dome is on, i would wire it to an interior light that comes on with your headlights, and then a put a switch which breaks the circut. BTW what do u guys think of my switch.

^very clean install.

Possibly too much at night? Too many LEDs on the strips? Let's see some night pics.

Good job though!

How would it work if you spliced them onto the turn signals? That might be kind of cool, to have the fender grill light up with your blinker.

I did this for my footwell lights. This is the best way to do it for anyone wondering

I have not done this, but I think it would be a cool solution. However, Most states require white or amber turn signals, and I think the sides must be amber? So I'd beware of doing this

You could always use a strip of amber LEDs to make it a turn signal. I don't know the legality of it, but I would think you'd be a lot less likely to get in trouble for amber LEDs I would think. Realistically, I think it'd almost make the vehicle safer by making your blinkers more visible.

I've actually wanted to do this mod for a long time. I can't decide what'd be cooler. The blinker mod, or an always on (with the headlights) white LED. I have white LED clear corners and white parking lights, and 8000K headlights. Both would be pretty cool....