Achieving the Camaro concept's afterburner tail light effect

[bolteon593]

Originally Posted by Phantom.5SS

OK I screwed around with an old Trans Am tail light (honey-comb style) and found that there is one more step....put reflective foil on the BACK of the eclipse lid. This intensifies the parking light (afterburner effect) and spreads the light out a little more evenly.

yup, very important part.

[skuttduck]

I managed to try the 3156 bulb in the 3157 socket. First off, you have to shave part of the bulb off to make it fit, but it will work, but only as the brake/turn signal light.

I also pulled out the LH IN RS tail light. Anyone want the part number? 92212647 and runs about $50 if one wanted to order this to mess around with.

I think the best idea is using a board of LEDs for the brake/turn signals, and then use a regular bulb behind the LED board for the afterburner. I would also chrome paint "Part c" just below the clear lense to get the light to reflect off.

Oh on these tail lamp there is a blue sticker covering a hole. That would be a great location to run the two wires feeding the LED board.

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

This is with a lot of LED's i think i got the afterburner looking good but the brake light is ok but can do better.

[bolteon593]

Originally Posted by 2SSRS

This is with a lot of LED's i think i got the afterburner looking good but the brake light is ok but can do better.

looking good!


still think we need to scuff/diffuse the chrome inside the main can to help even out the light diffusion.


can you show us a break down of what the internals look like?

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

Give me 10 min to re-size them.

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

This pic is with the red lens removed.



And this is the same pics, There is 3" of depth to the rear lens and i did put 2 layers of tint on the inner lens.



This is the back of the tail light hosing you see two sets of wires one is for the afterberner LED's and the next set is for the Brake light LED's



One more pic of the hosing with nothing in it.



This is the hart of all the light it the 1/2 Moon that i made as you can see its Dark there are 2 layers of 20% tint on the lens, And a lot more as you will see.



In the next 2 pics you can see that on the outside of this 1/2 Moon i have almost 50 LED's all red but if need be you can add some yellow ones to add to the look.



The 2nd pic.



This pic is of the back side of the 1/2 Moon you will see a lot of Small wires.



This is inside that 1/2 Moon look at all the LEDs in that part.



One moor pic of the inside for you.



I want to thank bolteon593 for the help and all the rest of the members on Camaro5 for all the help.

I have one more thing i want to try If i have a relay on the brake side that will run a resister on the afterburner side will that not make the afterburner lees brite as soon as you hit the brake.

[RMGee]

2SSRS-

...DAMN

You're leading the pack on this one. You're so close. Keep it up man.

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

Here is one more lens in front of all the LED's.

[Jericho]

Originally Posted by binlow84

Alright, I am no expert by any means but there is only one way I can see this happening and looking like the concept, and unfortunately I don't think it is possible with the stock lights. Others have touched on it (eclipse rather than afterburner, diffused lighting, etc.) but I have yet to see it all compiled the way I see it happening. Basically, it's like this:



In the image we have 3 separate sections. Section A is the brake light area. When the brakes are applied the circle in A will glow brightly. At all times section B should be lit with a softer glow (and by softer I don't mean less bright, just not a glaring red; more a pinkish glow).

Section C is the most important part in the setup. Without it it won't work, not even tinting would make it work in my mind. Section C is a conical half-circle/half-ellipse that sort of resembles a very shallow funnel. It must be a solid material that will reflect the inner brake light but will not allow light leak from the outer running light area. Section C shroud is a physical barrier between the running light bulb/bulbs and the brake light bulb/bulbs. There must be minimal light leak from section B to A (some can be allowed provided the glow from section B is bright enough to fool the eye). The "shroud" separating the 2 sections would have to physically touch the lens cover of the light so no light could leak around to section A and cause it to light up.

The second most important part of the setup would be the placement of the running lights, which just happens to be why the AAC-style will not work. The running lights MUST MUST MUST be diffused. You can't stick a string of LEDs/cold cathode tube pointed outwards and expect it to mimic the concept's look. My solution lies in the conical shape of the divider shroud between the 2 sections. Instead of pointing those LEDs straight out the back, stick them to the hidden side of the shroud and point them inward at a highly reflective surface which reflects the light outwards. This will give the effect that the light is more evenly distributed along the outer rim.

That's basically how my mind sees it working. Not a simple solution by any means but there is little doubt in my mind that it would resemble the concept's look.

I personally think you smacked it right on the head of the concept design. 'Direct Hit'

Originally Posted by skuttduck

I don't think that would work. The light is still coming from the same bulb. Only difference is that the brake light is brighter. I think this would work if the filament is more toward the base of the bulb and you could direct the light downward that way.

The more I look at the concept light I believe it was achieved using two chambers and two bulbs.

I like the idea of using the LED circuit board in front of the existing bulb, and replacing the clear plastic with that. I'll see if I can find my 3156 bulbs and see how they work in place of a 3157 bulb.

If they work to control the tail lights then this would be good, as you can using the existing wiring and not have to cut anything.

Sounds good, I was thinking you could mount the after burner leds to the back side of the eclipse and then you would get an intense light towards the center that difuses out due to the placement of the leds and reflection. Now your running lights should look more like the concept and when you apply the brakes the brake light comes on solid red and bright, no worries about tickets for poor brake lights.

Originally Posted by 2SSRS

This is with a lot of LED's i think i got the afterburner looking good but the brake light is ok but can do better.

Originally Posted by 2SSRS

This pic is with the red lens removed.



And this is the same pics, There is 3" of depth to the rear lens and i did put 2 layers of tint on the inner lens.



This is the back of the tail light hosing you see two sets of wires one is for the afterberner LED's and the next set is for the Brake light LED's



One more pic of the hosing with nothing in it.



This is the hart of all the light it the 1/2 Moon that i made as you can see its Dark there are 2 layers of 20% tint on the lens, And a lot more as you will see.



In the next 2 pics you can see that on the outside of this 1/2 Moon i have almost 50 LED's all red but if need be you can add some yellow ones to add to the look.



The 2nd pic.



This pic is of the back side of the 1/2 Moon you will see a lot of Small wires.



This is inside that 1/2 Moon look at all the LEDs in that part.



One moor pic of the inside for you.



I want to thank bolteon593 for the help and all the rest of the members on Camaro5 for all the help.

I have one more thing i want to try If i have a relay on the brake side that will run a resister on the afterburner side will that not make the afterburner lees brite as soon as you hit the brake.

2SSRS,
Your work is cool and definitely shows serious thought and exicution. I like what you've done a lot. If I designed some I'd have you build it.

[scythezo6]

I honestly dont think a handful of LEDs is the answer. Look at the concept pics. The lighting needs to be backlit and etch onto reflective sides to give a burning glow effect. The sides need to be reflective and the center tinted.

[Mr Twisty]

2SSRS is looking better, seems to be more of a halo rather than eclipse in the pics tho.

[TonyNo]

The damn step in the housing will screw us getting light diffused out to the edges properly. Looks like a new one is required. :(

[Camaro Lives On]

Originally Posted by binlow84

Alright, I am no expert by any means but there is only one way I can see this happening and looking like the concept, and unfortunately I don't think it is possible with the stock lights. Others have touched on it (eclipse rather than afterburner, diffused lighting, etc.) but I have yet to see it all compiled the way I see it happening. Basically, it's like this:



In the image we have 3 separate sections. Section A is the brake light area. When the brakes are applied the circle in A will glow brightly. At all times section B should be lit with a softer glow (and by softer I don't mean less bright, just not a glaring red; more a pinkish glow).

Section C is the most important part in the setup. Without it it won't work, not even tinting would make it work in my mind. Section C is a conical half-circle/half-ellipse that sort of resembles a very shallow funnel. It must be a solid material that will reflect the inner brake light but will not allow light leak from the outer running light area. Section C shroud is a physical barrier between the running light bulb/bulbs and the brake light bulb/bulbs. There must be minimal light leak from section B to A (some can be allowed provided the glow from section B is bright enough to fool the eye). The "shroud" separating the 2 sections would have to physically touch the lens cover of the light so no light could leak around to section A and cause it to light up.

The second most important part of the setup would be the placement of the running lights, which just happens to be why the AAC-style will not work. The running lights MUST MUST MUST be diffused. You can't stick a string of LEDs/cold cathode tube pointed outwards and expect it to mimic the concept's look. My solution lies in the conical shape of the divider shroud between the 2 sections. Instead of pointing those LEDs straight out the back, stick them to the hidden side of the shroud and point them inward at a highly reflective surface which reflects the light outwards. This will give the effect that the light is more evenly distributed along the outer rim.

That's basically how my mind sees it working. Not a simple solution by any means but there is little doubt in my mind that it would resemble the concept's look.

BINGO!! I think we have a winner. But the question is... can anyone do this?

[2SSRS@Gen5diy]

Originally Posted by TonyNo

The damn step in the housing will screw us getting light diffused out to the edges properly. Looks like a new one is required. :(

That is funny was thinking the same thing.