Achieving the Camaro concept's afterburner tail light effect
 

UPDATE
If you're just tuning into this thread, you can skip to page six. Specifically, this post by TonyNo.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=132

This is a kind of collective effort thread to see if anyone out there has idea's for how to get the afterburner look.

I'd say its clear there is a demand for this
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35170

Here it is with the no brakes, and then brakes.
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/r...ner-tailli.jpg
http://www.sportscarcup.com/cars/che...amaro-back.jpg

Here is a video of a close up that I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heR6lf4T3z0#t=0m38s

AAC has gotten really close.
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/r...CamaroLE-1.jpg
http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/r...0RSSSLSLT1.jpg
You can buy those here
http://www.automotivelightstore.com/...letcamaro.aspx

So has kga10734
http://people.consolidated.net/kga734/z28/img_0984.jpg
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showpo...0&postcount=53


So if anyone has their 2 cents about this post it here.
I think its a matter of getting the light to diffuse evenly and outward only, but I have no idea how that would happen since I'm not so light-mod savvy. Either way, there probably needs to be an entirely new housing to achieve this.

Radz thinks its about trunkspace
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showpo...18&postcount=2

Neither of those is even remotely close. If you want yellow half circles for tail lights, those are great. Afterburners they are not. Too many people out there buying these things and are willing to settle for third best. The demand is out there, we just need somebody to do it correctly with diffused light, and make it happen.

The best way to do it would be to put a half-pie shaped piece inside that has a special tint on it that blocks the normal tail-light intensity but not the brake light.

If anyone has seen the gauges inside a Pontiac G6 (ahem my current car =P, google pics of this light up at night) They have the afterburner effect on those. I have buddy that studied electrical engineering at my university (not claiming him as an expert by any means but he brings up valid points) and after showing him the concept pics he says:

"Here is the key to that look:

The inner circle of the lighting fixture needs to be blacked out or tinted so little (but enough to be legal) light passes through. This will give the darkened center appearance.

The light needs to come from behind this blacked out center in a way that it shines around the perimeter of the light fixture. But some light needs to pass through the darmened center as well but much less than what comes out the sides. This can be done by using a smaller halo light with a softer (no brakes applied) glow. The smaller halo should be fixed behind the darkened center so you cant "see" the halo directly but only the glow it emits.

The sides of the lighting fixture needs to be highly reflective so the light can gleam off it forming streak patterns that mimic a soft glowing flame.

Also the darkened center should have notches cut out along the egdes where light shines through. This allows the light passing through them to have a broken up edge/definition to enhance the soft glowing flame look."

Basically what I got from this and the drawings, you lighting experts can debate this, is the middle of the lamp needs to be tinted or blacked out enough so barely any light comes out when the brake are not applied. The afterburner effect comes from having the light source be behind this tinted middle so the light shines from behind it onto the sides.

Heres some drawing he did that I photo'd on the iPhone:

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/d...6/IMG_0177.jpg

Great stuff. Def sounds promising

those look killer

I had an idea based on a thread I saw the other day.

A company on here is making an LED tail light that has the sequential feature, as well as a show feature. Well the piece is shaped like the inside of the tail light housing. I was thinking, what if you were to put that piece inside the housing, maybe an inch or so from the red lens on the outside, and behind it you put a bulb in that doesn't have the two filliments so it doesn't get brighter when you hit the brakes. So whenever you have your parking lights turned on, the bulbs will be on low light, but the LED piece will be blocking most of the light, allowing it to only show at the bottom and around the sides Then when you hit the brakes, the LEDs on that piece come on. Presto, you have an afterburner kit.

Any thoughts? It's kind of hard to explain without being able to show you guys what I mean so hopefully I explained it correctly.

Lets not forget that the center needs to be able to light up just as bright as the surrounding "glow" when the breaks are hit. In the above diagram..the outside would just get brighter as the inside would become just bright enough to be noticable. My guess is that its this seperation that makes this project tough using the existing lens. Really, what we need is a whole new setup, including lens, and housing with different bulb locations and all to really get what we're seeking.

Thats just my thoughts, and in no way at all am i remotely saying I could do it lol. If some company does it...awsome..but I wouldn't expect it to be cheap at all. (obviously) I don't even know if something like that would be plug and play possible with the existing wiring would it?

http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/2010camrear/1002900652

"The car is pretty wide and the taillights are out at the corners, but they're not as deep as they were on the concept car, a decision driven primarily by sheetmetal and trunk space. On the concept you can make those cans two-feet deep but someone who owns the car doesn't want that."

I likes dat.

But really.

How do I get 6" flames to shoot outta my rear end??

The light source here will not be a cheapo light bulb, that was just drawn in for simplicity. Its should probably be a halo and the middle should be tinted enough to block out a lot of light (not all!) when the brakes are not applied (lots of light will still pass around the edges).

Ok stay with me here as I'm not sure I can explain this well.

So on the concept, it looks almost like the afterburner light is coming from behind the actual brake light bulb. That's what creates that look. What I'm thinking could be done is using the AACStyle CCFL lights and placing some sort of plastic shielding around the light that obscures it so the light can only be reflected out and forward causing the effect. Think of a Bic pen where the inner ink portion is the CCFL. Cut about a quarter of the outer plastic off, bend the whole thing into a semi circle and place it in the light housing. This way, you can't see the actual CCFL but you can see the light coming out around the plastic housing. I think this would create the exact afterburner effect we are all looking for.

I can try and explain better if needed. I''l try and draw up a picture to post as well to clarify.

I think what's probably the ideal way to handle this is to have a semi-circular section of LEDs (or a darker plastic panel that will conduct light) that appears very dark when unlit. When driving in regular conditions, a parking light of sorts set behind the LEDs would be lit, creating the afterburner effect. Then, when you hit the brakes, the LEDs light up and that's that.

Despite the idea seeming relatively simple, I have NO idea how difficult it would be to implement. Just thought I'd share my thought.

I think that i know how to do it, But its a lot of work on the first link is the thread i started, I made one but in parts is like is $50 per light and almost 5 man Hr so i think that is a lot of work for most.

First thing is to open the tail light and remove the outer and inner lens, The inner lens is clear and needs to be cut to the shape of a 3/8 moon and then get a tint that is 20% to cover the moon shape, Next you need to get a new red LED bulb like this one.


http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/r...Dec14_0001.jpg
http://i482.photobucket.com/albums/r...Dec14_0002.jpg

Now the bulb is one that i found at the Truck stops i tried the one you can get at auto supply stores but all of them are to long for what you want.

I had to do some work on the ones you see as it had 4 contacts and we need the bulb to only work on the two, The high beams or power and the second two are the ones that give the side light that go's to the part that i made to hold all the rest of the lights, As of right now i have over 20 lights in this and i will post some new pics soon.

This was the first time i did it and not to bad but i used the longer bulb and a round mount for the rest of the lights.

Running lights.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1252368547

Stop light.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1252368547

But after this pic came out i redid the hosing to look closer the the concept, See the pics.
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/1614/dsc04807.jpg

So this was next after a new hosing, This is the running lights http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1253589125

And this is the brake lights.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1253589125

So what do you think so far?, Look i did all this by my self and a lot of more things but i need parts as and i can only do so much at one time.

Dos any one have some tail light lens that is what i need to finish it up as it takes all 4 lens.

One mor thing is you also need the LED Load Equalizers