Electric Hobby drill (Dremel / Minicraft or similar) and 3mm and 5mm drill bits and various 'small - roundhead' cutting bits.

Standard from Box.

(lights removed already and replacement aluminium wheels/tyres fitted)

Comparison when complete.

First task is to carefully separate the body from the chassis.

With a knife or Dremel grinding disc, remove the burr from the studs holding the front light covers in place, ease them out and also remove the seperate light lens. Then gently press out the rear light lenses (4) and the rear engine detail panel (see next picture.

The areas of this rear engine cover piece that need to be removed are marked in black and shown removed, in the second picture

Caution: Pay attention to the top edge as cutting too much off will result in the locating lugs falling away too

Using a 3mm drill bit or roundhead Dremel drill bit, make the diode mounting holes in each rear lens cover as shown. I made the holes by hand twisting the drill bit between finger and thumb to reduce friction heat on these small pieces.

The brightness of each diode can be increased or decreased to suit by deepening the hole drilled. In the pictures I have made the holes in the rear lights (curved profile) as deep as possible without going the whole way through and for the brake lights (flat profile) I have gone partially through. This is to make the diodes flat with the outer plane of the lenses thus giving maximum brightness and more contrast with the rear lights.

As for the front lights... abit more hassle but I assure you it is worth it for looks at the end!

Simply (BUT CAREFULLY!) drill out the centre, at a suitable angle to ensure the diode points directly behind the car when fitted, with a 5mm bit (again, a roundhead bit is better).

When you can see daylight through the hole, stop and press out the clear plastic lens (far right of the picture) and discard to your bits box or bin as they will not be required.

With this done, continue to drill the hole completely through both black section and silver reflector.

The next stage is to glue the diodes in place.

Slide the front diode into the black piece from behind and make sure it is in as far as it will go. Then, from the front, slide the silver reflector ring onto the diode as far as it will go. You will note it will still recess slightly into the black piece.

Tightly bend the wires in the correct direction as shown.

For the rear units, glue them in place, paying special attention to getting them at right angles to the lens faces, so they shine correctly once replaced.

The front covers can now be glued in place and the clear covers located and glued also. Minimal glue is the name of the game here to prevent overspill onto the bodywork.

At this point I painted the backside of the diodes with an Acrylic silver paint to limit light bleed.

Important: Due to the shortage of space between the front light unit and the wheel arch, no matter how neat you are, the back of the diode and the wires WILL touch the tyres. Therefore 'skinny' tyre replacements will have to be used OR the rear of the tyre will have to be cut away (see below).

The underside of the interior next to the driving seat needs to be marked, then cut away to the diameter of the battery (Top side of which can be coloured Black so as not to be seen from the outside of the car). The batery can then be glued in place, flush with the underside of the compartment.

Circuit board can be fitted to the rear of the drivers compartment now also. Double sided tape worked well for me.

At this point, everything is wired up (you can see where the LED wires should be placed for soldering here too), cables are routed away from the centre channel and the drive shaft and the last two 'power' cables are waiting to go on the motor. Remember - if, once finished, the lights fail to work, try swapping the 'power' cables on the motor Before getting too deep in checking your work.

Replace the rear engine cover, screw the Body back to the Chassis, refit the aerofoil and that's it....

.......Time to test !

Thanks for reading this far and I hope it proved helpful.

Regards

Allan Wakefield. please feel free to contact me with any questions or requests.

POST SCRIPT:

Overdrive light sets improved in performance and size whilst I was completing this Project. Placement of the Battery might now be out of date because they are alot smaller now, depending on the kit you are using.

This link leads to an animated GIF file of:

The finished headlights.

This link leads to an animated GIF file of:

The finished tail lights.

Night Driving.

Night Driving.