| Making this: |
Capable of this: |
|
|
|
| |
First, this is a rough guide. I am sure there are other ways
but in my opinion this gives the best result in the easiest way. However
this is not a simple installation so if you have never installed a light
kit before I recommend you try a basic kit first. The basics in this tutorial
will work on any car.
NB: Using some of the tools in this way can be dangerous unless you
know what you are doing, if you are under 18 please ask your parents for
help/permission. I would hate to be the cause of holes in your hands or
missing/ burnt fingers. |
| |
| As a start you will need the following tools and materials
as a minimum: |
A soldering iron.
A slow speed electric screwdriver with a 3 jaw chuck and/or a hand chuck.
Jewellers pliers.
A selection of small drill bits (see further down).
A sharp craft knife with a thin blade.
Black paint or permanent marker pen .
Fine grade sandpaper (1000 grade approx).
A hot glue gun (any two component glue such as Araldite will work but make
the job so much longer).
A low vapour glue such as Pattex Repair Extreme.
NB: Do NOT use any super glue or similar, it WILL fog the clear plastic
and paintwork as it dries.
Finally, Patience! erm.... lots of it.
If you have an LED tester all the better. It helps check along the way for
connections and the LEDs are working and all emitting the same light.
|
A suitable light kit and any additional LEDs. Most come
with 2 front and 2 rear 3mm LEDs in bright white (Xenon) and red.
In this case I have used a standard Overdrive permanent light kit, a quick
fit connector set and I added another six - 3mm Xenon LEDs and two SMD
LEDs (flat and square in profile. NOTE: these are usually not as bright
and emit a more yellow light).
|
| |
| So what comes first? Strip down the car to expose the areas
you want to install the lights to. In this case the complete front nose
section comes away (which is very handy as you will see ). Any part attached
to the body of the car can be accessed from inside the body, usually via
pegs that are heat sealed onto the body. Use a sharp knife or thin blade
screwdriver to ease the part away (in the case of internal bits like the
cockpit) or push it back through (as in with the rear light lens seen below). |
|
|
First, the easy part, install the rear LEDs.
Drill out the centre of the two square holes shown below. You can then hot
glue the two red LEDs in place, flush with the outside of the recess. That
done you can refit the rear light cover. Use either hot glue or the soldering
iron to spot weld the two parts together at the lugs as they do at the factory. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Now for the first tricky bit. Fitting the SMD LEDs into the
top spot lights.
First you need to solder the copper wires onto the LEDs. The LEDs should
be marked for polarity (usually a black dot denotes negative). The wires
are coated so you need to sand this off with the sandpaper, about 5mm each
end should be fine. Tin (lightly coat all surfaces to be joined with solder)
the tabs on the LEDs and the wires. Then solder the wires to the LEDs. You
need to be fast with this as SMD LEDs are very prone to heat damage.
Now you need to use the tip of your sharp knife to prise out the lenses
in the spot lights. They are a tight push fit so come out relatively easily.
On this car the back of these lenses are silvered, a quick rub on your jeans
(or a clean rag) will get rid of this.
Using the 3mm drill bit, drill out the centre of the spot lights and then
open up square with the knife so that the LEDs are a push fit into the back.
Press the lenses back into the spot lights and then (using whatever glue
you decided on) fix the LEDs in from the back. When dry, coat the back of
the LED and 1 or 2 Cms of the wires black. Finally mark the open ends of
the wires for polarity.
What you want to end up with is in the bottom two pictures here... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Set these aside as we move onto the bodywork and go about
making it ready to refit the spotlights. This is also where a hand chuck
will help, along with some small (1mm / 3mm / 4.3mm) drill bits. The smaller
size drill bits and the file bit are from the likes of Dremel and Proxxon.
You can also raid your dentists tray next time you are there but don't say
I told you so! remember to clean off the blood and gore first as well. |
|
|
| Anyway, whatever you use, drill two holes just behind the
mount hole for the spot lights. Using the shut lines of the model helps
a lot. See them? lower corner of the windscreen, where the front wing meets
the roof pillar. |
|
|
| Then you need to carefully insert the wires from the spot
light and thread through, refitting and gluing the spot lights at the same
time. When finished they should look like the right hand picture, very discreet
and secure. Now you know why you needed to mark those wires for polarity
! |
|
|
|
| |
Next is a long part and very fiddly. You only need the front
section which allows the top spots to dry well. It is important that the
bar carrying the two light clusters does not come away from the grille unit
as this will make aligning the 6 holes very tough.
Now, first prise out the 6 lenses as shown below. Again they are silvered
on the reverse side so you need to polish it off. Then seperate the parts
as below.
Taking the two silver headlight sections drill a 3mm hole in the middle
of each headlight recess. |
|
|
|
|
Push one LED into each unit from behind, ensuring the negative lead is
at the bottom (negative on a standard LED is the shorter of the two).
Refit the units and secure with glue or hot weld. Use the outer lug in
each case as the inner will be drilled away. Once they are in place, push
the LED in until it touches the clear lens and glue in place.
|
NB: The LEDs above need turning 90 degrees so that the shorter pin
is at the bottom.
|
| Now refit the grille into the rest of the front section. You
will have to glue this in place as the retaining lugs will be drilled away
as I mentioned. The best place for glue (hot glue) is at the two sides where
the silver units meet the white of the front section and between the front
section and the top of the grille. This will be hidden on reassembly by
the bonnet. |
|
|
Allow this to dry fully as we are coming to the hardest part
of the whole project. Get past this and the rest is a breeze!
Drill a 3mm hole in the centre of each of the six spot light housings and
take each one completely through the grille and front section. You need
a slow speed drill (preferably a cordless battery drill) because if it is
too fast the friction created will heat and melt the plastic. You want to
end up with this. |
|
|
|
Then, from the back and on the two spots that align over the
grille ONLY, you need to drill 4.2mm clearance holes (the LEDs have a flange
on the back that is 4.1mm in diamter) through until you get to the spot
light. This is to enable you to get the LEDs into the back of the spot light
housing. Use a file bit at slow speed to enlarge the area (again from the
back only) around the four remaining spot light holes. This to enable you
to push fit the LEDs into the back of the housings.
Ensure ALL negative wires are on the inside of the ring formed by the 8
LEDs (see pic below) and hot glue each in place making sure they are straight
and parallel. |
|
|
When completely dry and set, you can refit the clear lenses
from the front as in the picture on the left below. The next part is tough
to explain but use the (not so clear, sorry) picture on the right below,
bend and solder the negative wires first. Group them into left and right
with the two inner ones joining in the middle of the unit as you can see
in the centre of the picture.
Front LEDs are always connected in parallel, grouped per side with the negative
being common.
For the positive wires bend and solder them so they clear the negative groups
and again using the inner LEDs as a meeting point, leave those sticking
backwards as in the picture. |
|
|
|
|
Now refit the glass and cockpit to the body using hot glue or spot weld
again.
When this is done and dry you can refit the front section to the rest
of the body, I spot welded and hot glued the two side locating lugs for
strength as the center lugs are no longer in place.
Just before fitting you need to remove the plate under the bonnet. You
can see this at the bottom centre of the next picture and this also shows
the placement of the board itself. Fix with hot glue for best results.
|
|
|
| |
| Onto the back again, bend cut and solder the rear LEDS as
below. Rear light LEDs are connected in series so the longer wire of the
right LED below is connected to the blue cable and the short wire of the
left LED below is connected to one of the common brown cable. Secure each
cable away from the wheel arches. |
|
|
|
| The wires from the top spot lights are connected in parallel
thus: The black wire on the board is connected to the two positive wires
and glued out of the way just under the front of the board. Using the common
brown cable that will go to the front lights, strip some sleeving away near
the board and connect the two negative wires to this. I then glue it on
top of the black cable connection to keep it out of the way. The hot glue
will suffice as insulation. If you have an LED tester, now is a good time
to double check the wires and ensure the LEDs are working. This is what
it should show. |
|
|
| |
Deep breath! only 4 more parts to go.
Wiring the front lights in relatively easy and should be clear. You have
two white cables coming from the board. They go (does not matter which way)
to the positive wire of each cluster. The brown wire that you stripped and
connected to the top spots now goes to the common centre connection of the
negative wires. Route to clear both front wheels and the guide.
At the same time you can route, trim to length, secure and add the quick
connector to the remaining brown and the red cable as below. The black sleeves
are heat shrink so a quick burn with a cigarette lighter or close proximity
to your soldering iron will secure them. |
|
|
| Now repeat for the motor connections, using the trimmed left
over cables from the board. |
|
|
All done! connect the quick connector checking on polarity
and refit the body to the chassis.
All that remains is a track test. You will get the great satisfaction of
seeing this as the end result... |
|
|
| |
| The weight involved means this will not become a great race
car but for those night driving moments it is bliss. Thank you for taking
the time to read this far and I hope it inspires you to make your cars just
that little bit different! |
|
Allan Wakefield (Swissracer) © 2008
|
