sjm autoprod - Concept Afterburner Tail Lights

[SSSoon]

Phase 1 of install done.

Popped tail lights out - easy. I've been in there a few times before so know where everything is and how it hooks up.

Ground off the outer lenses - a bit of a PITA. Tried a utility knife first and would NOT suggest this option. Cracked the edge of one outer lens a bit. Can't really tell but it looks as though one wrong slip and you might badly crack your lens. Not worth it. Grinding takes a bit but by the 4th one my lines were much cleaner and it was easy. First one kinda looks like hell but nobody will ever see those lines.

Ground out welds holding inner lens in - also a bit of a PITA. Ended up using a drill instead - faster and easier for me. Once you're close to done, you can pry a bit with a screwdriver and if there are just a few strands of plastic left hanging in there, the inner lens just pops right off.

Drilled hole for flicker wire - did not need to. My OEM housing had pre-drilled holes in it with blue stickers covering them up. Just popped the stickers off.

Mounted new light modules - a little tricky to keep them from sliding around in the caulking. But, didn't take long. All sitting on my shelf now for 24 hours waiting for the silicone to dry. Caulked the hell out of the flicker wire hole and the places where I had ground through to release the inner lens.

Pix below. Will finish up tomorrow. Might wire up my switch tonight - I am going to be able to control the flicker option from driver's seat with a little toggle switch.

Would rather be on my way to C5Fest, but oh well. Next year.

[DarkneSS]

Originally Posted by sjmautoprod

The stars aligned and we have a cool bonus for those picking up their kits at the 'fest! Also, if you have a kit already, introduce yourself to get yours!

What about me?! =[ lol

And SSon howd you get the flicker? I thought it wasnt ready yet...l

[SSSoon]

Originally Posted by DarkneSS

And SSoon howd you get the flicker? I thought it wasnt ready yet...l

The flicker that I got will do funny things if key is in but car is off (see Tony's earlier posts) but I don't care. I will wire up a switch so I can turn it on and off from the driver's seat (my center console is starting to look like a cockpit with a bunch of switches all there) so no big deal.

Caulked the outer lenses on last night. Pic below. The silicone attaching the new inner LED units only takes a few hours to dry enough to handle, so did not have to wait 24 hours. Will add heat shrink connectors to the flicker wires this morning, but won't wire them up today. Don't think I will have time, and then won't be able to work on the car again till after vacation mid-August. But will get the load resistors on and get the tails reinstalled so at least I can drive the car again.

More advice: Number your tails (housings and lenses) when they are still one unit so that after you grind them apart you can easily tell which goes with which. I am very glad I did this.

[sjmautoprod]

Good notes!

For those picking up, we'll be at the Showstopper booth later this AM.

[SSSoon]

Well, all done and looking great. A few other pieces of advice:

1. After you get the tails out, put some paper towels or shop rags in the openings under where the tails go. That way when you drop small electrical connector pieces they won't roll down faster than the blink of an eye into the unreachable depths of your rear bumper. Ask me how I know.

2. When you are reassembling, place the tails back in their housings and plug everything in to test before putting the nuts back onto the tails. Getting the nuts on is a PITA and you don't want to do that until you know everything works and won't have to be removed.

3. If you are testing one side at a time, note that the harness on the other side needs to be connected. If you unplug the main harness on the right side, the left side won't work.

4. One of the inner foam reflectors on one of my tail lights did not have enough angle on it after I got it in and so had some shadow. I did some laproscopic surgery through the rear opening with a long wooden skewer that had a dab of silicone on the end, and got some silicone between the foam and the plastic housing. That kept the corner of the foam reflector up against the housing and solved the problem (it is the far right corner on the last pic below, under the SS logo). If I had to do it again, I would probably put a dab of silicone behind both outer corners on each foam reflector, just to keep it in place, before I re-sealed the tail light units. But because positioning of the reflectors is key, please don't do this unless you are really, really sure where everything goes. I don't want you to caulk it in place into the wrong place.

Did not get the flicker wire connected but will when I get back from vacation in a few weeks.

All in all a terrific product and I am really happy with the outcome. Thanks Tony!

[yotaman96]

Looks good SSSoon. Are those the dark diffusers?

[sjmautoprod]

Someone spotted with their bonus!

[UF4LIFE102SS]

How long will the bonus be around?

[Mindz]

That looks GREAT SSSoon. I can't wait to order my set of these.

[goshawk823]

Looks awesome, Pete! low cuss factor install for the most part, it seems...are you going to be around Richmond area with your car at all? I'd like to see these in person...

[sjmautoprod]

Not sure about the bonus. It was a last-minute idea, but, I really like how they turned out.

[A Pirate]

Originally Posted by sjmautoprod

Someone spotted with their bonus!

I like the bonus T-shirt. That's me advertising all day Saturday over at the CamaroCross. Basically spent all of Saturday over at CamaroCross, between qualifying and Finals.

But on Friday I got to check out the example taillights you had set up at the Showstoppers booth, and saw the tails you have installed on your own car. Going in, I really thought I was going to end up with the dark diffusers, but in real life both my son and I liked the light diffusers a little better. Both look great, but I found I actually liked seeing the diffusers even when the tails were off (it gave the three-dimensional look even then). The dark diffusers completely disappeared when the lights were off (which some "blacked-out" people might like, but I'm not sure even they will prefer the dark diffusers over the light ones...). And the light diffusers showed up the afterburner effect much brighter than the darks.

Thanks Tony for developing these.
Brad Ferrell

[sjmautoprod]

Thanks to the air-force couple that was admiring the tails at the 'fest and let me know that the diffusers have the look of a jet's turkey feathers! Mission accomplished!

Edit: Added pic...

[A Pirate]

Originally Posted by sjmautoprod

Thanks to the air-force couple that was admiring the tails at the 'fest and let me know that the diffusers have the look of a jet's turkey feathers! Mission accomplished!

Since I didn't know what they meant...

Per Yahoo Answers:
What is the purpose of the Turkey Feathers on the back of Military fighter plane jet engines.?????
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

The Turkey feathers expand to allow for extra exhaust emissions when an aircraft is travelling at hi speed eg. supersonic. As more air and fuel is sucked into the engine to allow the aircraft to travel faster so must the "turkey feather" exhaust panels expand to allow for the extra exhaust emissions. Otherwise the engine exhaust pressure would build up and the engine would blow.