DIY making the afterburner effect tail lights
 

In order to make your own "afterburner effect tail lights" you will need a lot of time and skill to do it effectively.

First is to remove the tail light's out of the car, Once out you need to grind off the outer lens (the red one), Then the inner one which is the light diffuser, There are 3 points that hold the diffuser in place to the housing See pic.


http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1291256706

Its hard to see put if you look at the step you see the three points that the diffuser is held in place.


Things you will need are as fallows, In order to remove the step in the housing you will need some fiberglass resin and fiberglass mat you have to cut stripes of fiberglass mat to go around the housing as in the pics here.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1281410086

1 more.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1281410086

Now do the same for the top of the housing on the inside, Here is a pic, in the pic you will see a red line that line is 2 1/2" back to give it a look of depth like in the concept car

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1281410086

By the way did you see the 2 new holes in the rear of the housing? that will come in a short time.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1281410086

So now that we built up the housing all the way around and on the inside top we start to grind down the step on all sides to get the right look for the housing, Its hard to put in to words so here is two pics one of the concept tail light and one i did.

GM light.http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1249087902

My light.http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1280008985

I know my was not as bright as the GM light but that was an all LED light we are not doing that any more, Remember the extra two holes. :)

Next was the hardest part of it all to find the right plastic part to use to make the inside piece that holds the diffuser in place, After many many try's i found the right part to use, here it is.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1281410086

If you cut the Handel off and then cut it at the end of the text you have the right size to go over the 3156 light bulb, That will give you the right part to make a mold.

Here is a pic of that mold.
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1281410086

Did you get that number we are not running the 3157 any more, only a 1 element bulb, Why only the one element bulb you ask, By using the 3156 bulb you will not have any problems with the DIC in the car you dont need a Resister in the line it pulls the same watts as the 3157, and it is the same watts as the brake light now.

And now for the 2 holes that i added to the housing, Will i did not add them as much as i found them, What do i mean one of the two are there all we had to do is look. Here is one pic
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1281410100

If you look at it you see a .625 ring with a small hole that a lot of use use to run some wires threw, But what if it was for a 194 light holder like in my pic, And you drilled out the ring to say the size of the holder, here is what it dos it back lights the housing to look like the afterburner effect tail light, And if you use the 906 bulb that is the same power as the 3157 second side so all the power stays at the same level.

Here are some small pics on the work table will have new pics in the next 3-4 day all in one pic and in the car.:readthethread:

Those are some mad skills there. Nice DIY photo shots. After reading through this, I have the time, but no way do I have the skills to to this kinda work... :iono:

So, I guess I'll just stop at your place on the way to next years C5Fest2 (Fest in the West, right?) - and have you work your magic on my Camaro.

Awesome. Holy cow, that's all I can say...

Can you add the ABL across my dash too while we're working in your garage?? :facepalm::D

For you, No problem, but don't let any one know.

Looks great....I just don't have the patience for that:D

That's some serious DIY talent right there, let alone the stones to gut your tail lights and experiment with them.

Looking good, but let's see some pics on the car!

Its the kind of work i love to do.

Thanks for the nice words, Its not hard to cut the tail lights if you got extras.

By Saturday i will post pics of one side.

+1

Very Cool!

Ofer, you freakin ROCK man. That is awesome, and I cant wait to see how they look on your car!

Holy crap! Yes! Lets see them!

Pics Please......................................

Here are the tail housing after i gridded the housing and then filled them, More pics in the am.

So i f*** Up on the placement of the lights and was looking for a way to make it work, i want and ordered so high price LED's that was a wast of money, So back to square one and than it hit me in the head, I had to make a part that let us replace the light bulb so i made a plug that gos in the hosing and holds the 921 light bulb's will that worked but still was not 100% the look of the afterburner effect tail lights.

So i started moving the lights in the hosing, All this time the light bulbs came from the back of the housing now i put them from the top and that did it, Look and see.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1282868993

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/attach...1&d=1282868993

If i had a better camera, i will get you some good pics.