CASHEYE's MKIV Modifications & Small Projects.

[CASHEYE]

I thought I'd share my attempt so far at knocking up my own set of 'toxic tail' style lights, along with some other changes and see what you all think.

 

I know there have been other threads with LED conversions and this one which seems to be going pretty well. I didn't intend on doing this from the start even though I had seen the 'toxic tails' previously and thought they were awesome, I didn't fancy having a go myself. Even though reading though a build log from the guy who made them (can't remember his name) on some mother forums and thinking that it was pretty do-able, I didn't want to risk something going wrong and wrecking the facelifts on my car.

 

Anyway, I'd had my supra for about a year and on a drive down to Dorset from Bristol my brakes started squeeling pretty loudly, on the way back the squeeling quickly turned less squeeley and more grindy. So after I got home I parked it on the drive and intended to take it down the road to a garage to get it checked out that week. In the mean time, I thought I'd look online to see how much new discs and pads would cost to get a rough idea of what the damage was going to be. That soon turned into looking at a UK spec upgrade and then onto everything else that was for sale. So i made the decision to leave the car for now, save for some new brakes and see what happens. Although I hate driving the van, it meant I could get around without the supra.

 

So I though while the car isn't going anywhere, I'll make myself some of the speaker brackets for the front doors, after the door cards came out it wasn't much longer before the dash followed and there were lots of packages from ebay arriving with things like LED lights and fabric samples. Then I thought about restoring the headlights. I'd given them a once over with some t-cut a few times but the insides were pretty shagged. So they came out. What a ball ache that was. It would have been much easier if I'd have taken out the battery and the air filter gubbins but oh well.

 

Anyway, this is what they looked like. Definitely not the worst, but something that was worth doing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So after I sanded down the flaked chrome I primed the insides and sprayed one black (I only took apart one light as I wanted a real before and after comparison). I'd got some different chrome vinyls and some of that carbon print vinyl and try a few on the rings but I didn't like any. It was also really hard to create a perfect join so i left it black. I'd seen a few examples of halo lights for the supra and although I did like them, I did want to try and eventually restore the headlights to their original condition (chrome and all). So I thought I'd try and make my own. I settled for some COB LEDs and found a guy on ebay who sold them in pretty much the perfect sizes for the low beam and fog light so I ordered a pair of those.

 

When they arrived they had this yellow silicon type sealant over the top of the board which I thought was to either protect the LEDs or defuse the light, so numbnuts here started picking away at the stuff and when I came to test the lights, low and behold where I had picked away at the sealant, the bloody board didn't light up. So clearly this was some conductive layer which was meant to be left on. All wasn't lost though because I pressed the piece I'd picked off back into place and the thing worked again. Lesson learned.

 

Anyway, I really wasn't happy that I couldn't get rid of the yellow top so I've been testing every piece of vinyl chrome I can find in an effort to get something which one; will bend and form to the shape of the light and two; be translucent enough to let a good amount of light though. I tried painting them too but when the light shines though the paint, it's all patchy as if shining though paper (illuminating the fibers). I've given up on this for a while, so at the moment this is what they look like.

 

 

 

 

The scratches on the lens in that last picture are a result of my liberal sanding with some 2000grit wet and dry. I was waiting for some finer grades before i give them a polish.

 

The paint work on my car isn't in the best condition and although a polisher with larger diameter pads would be more useful in the long run, I settled on buying one of these...

 

 

I've got quite a few Milwaukee 12v tools already so even if it was balls, I'd have the batteries for my other tools. Well it wasn't. And after working my way though 2000 - 7000 grit and then giving it a once over with that polisher and some plasticX, the lens was starting to look like new.

 

 

And that's where I'm going to have to leave it for a while (or at least till I get home) as my mate just called and he's cooking a Sunday Roast. Boom.

Edited July 5, 2015 by CASHEYE
I'm a numpty (see edit history)

[Scoot]

Great work! I tried doing something similar a year ago and butchered the lense.

[Luxluc]

Great work there.

[listy]

Have you thought about tinting spray for the rings? Should deaden the colour down nicely without too much of an adverse effect on the light output.

 

I keep meaning to do a "toxic style" conversion on my fronts, and a set of rears (I have two sets waiting in the garage) but just haven't gotten around to it.

[Andrew K]

This is something I need to attempt but haven't got the nerv as worried I'd ruin my lights

 

Looks like you got on well and done a good job

[CASHEYE]

Ah! Many thanks for the praise guys. I fear the hardest part is yet to come when they need to be reassembled but I'll worry about that after everything else is finished.

 

Have you thought about tinting spray for the rings? Should deaden the colour down nicely without too much of an adverse effect on the light output.

 

I keep meaning to do a "toxic style" conversion on my fronts, and a set of rears (I have two sets waiting in the garage) but just haven't gotten around to it.

 

I'll look into it. When I said I'd sprayed them before, it was only with a rattle can. And one of the main issues was that the paint wouldn't adhere to the silicon/rubbery seal over the LEDs. I'll speak to a friend this week about getting one sprayed with an airbrush to try and get a more even coat.

 

Great work! I tried doing something similar a year ago and butchered the lense.

This is something I need to attempt but haven't got the nerv as worried I'd ruin my lights

 

Looks like you got on well and done a good job

 

When it comes to taking the lights apart. As I've only done one (well technically 3 but I'll come to that later ) I'd say that the trick is to set the oven (If you chose to do it that way) to a fairly low heat and take it slow. Keep checking the glue and as soon as it starts to get sticky you've got a fairly good chance of pulling them apart. You want to get a happy medium between melting the glue and not melting the lens. The glue will melt before the lens will so putting the oven on a high heat won't do you any favors.

 

In regards to the sanding and polishing of the lens, as long as you don't go in really hard with some low (1000's) grit wet and dry, there isn't much you can't sand/polish out. Again, patience is the key. I tore each grade of wet&dry into a 2inch square and rubbed the lens in the direction of the existing lines on the plastic (see picture). I went from 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 5000, 7000. After each grade I checked to see if there were any outstanding marks from the previous grade (scratches should be finer and the lens should look less fogged) and if there were, I'd go back over the whole thing again until the scratches looked even across the lens. After 7000 the lens just looks slightly dirty and if you wiped it with a damp cloth, it would look clear. if you don't have access to a polisher, you can work in some Meguiars PlasticX or Ultimate Compound by hand. I've found both do a pretty good job.

 

 

So until I figure out a solution to covering the yellow on the lights, the fronts have been put to one side. Now, I've been hankering after something for quite a while. The past 4 years actually. When I used to live in Cornwall I had access to a Laser Cutter which I used, mostly to mess around on, but I did make a few things which I sold in a few shops and online. I wanted to take it further but logistically it wasn't feasible but this Friday just gone, after a 12 hour round trip to Halifax, I returned with this!

 

 

So after setting it up I got to work on cutting out some acrylic discs for the rear lights. If any of you have taken the lenses out of the rears, you know they are peculiar shapes. Not quite circular or a simple oval.

 

First off I popped out all the lenses from one of the lights and cut off the tabs which clip into the reflective housings.

 

 

 

Then (unpictured) I tried to scan in the lenses but because of their thickness and the transparent material the scan wasn't very clear. So I placed them onto a piece of paper and traced around each one as cleanly as possible and scanned that in. Then in a program called 2Ddesign tools I drew out a path for the laser to cut around each of the shapes and cut them out. The fit wasn't perfect but good enough for a test. What I'll probably do with the final go is cut the pieces slightly larger than I want, then clamp the original lens over the top of the acrylic replacement shape and sand down the edges to get an exact shape.

 

 

 

The next part was to temporarily glue the LED rings in place and put everything back together. Just like in the 'toxic tails' I've got 2 rings for the indicators and reverse lights and 3 for the middle two. The middle lights will both serve as night lights and brake lights with the outer ring being the latter. I may change this and have the largest ring as brake, medium as rear light and small as fog. I'll see how it works out. I've had various success with these COB LED rings which I'll go into after this post (the keen-eyed among you might notice why) and I'm currently looking for a more reliable supplier. Anyway, onto the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this last picture, it seems like the smallest ring has been dimmed, but the camera has just picked up more light from the other two rings and over compensated, making the inner ring seem like it's putting out less light but it's actually constant between all the rings. I'll upload a video of these later this week. I think another thing to test is to black out the reflective housings as the LEDs are pointing out, there's no need for them to reflect any light at all. Maybe just a piece of black acrylic behind the rings will suffice.

 

I'm pretty happy with how these are working out but they definitely need refining. I'd also like to maybe create a new back for the lights so I don't have to separate the whole thing if and when one of these rings dies.

 

That's all for now, I'll see what I get up to tomorrow.

[supra_ufo]

great work mate, I have been meaning to do something like this. I notice alot of people do this to face lift rears rather than the pre's is there a reason why?

[Rob W]

Look great, a lot of patience to do something like this.

 

I think people do this to facelifts more just because of the insert style, look alot more modern.

[Noz]

I love custom stuff, there's a fine line between there between over doing something though, as I'm sure you've seen on FB with the wide variation of rear light designs coming out.

 

These mate, I must say are the perfect combination of stock design with aftermarket design. Hat's off to you mate. Love this design.

[hiten55]

Fair play for giving it a crack - they came out really good! Cant wait to see whats next [emoji16]

[CASHEYE]

great work mate, I have been meaning to do something like this. I notice alot of people do this to face lift rears rather than the pre's is there a reason why?

 

Look great, a lot of patience to do something like this.

 

I think people do this to facelifts more just because of the insert style, look alot more modern.

 

I think that's about right. I've just bought a set of pre facelift lights from a fella on here. I need to replace the clear plastic covers for the rear lights I already have as I *cough* *cough* melted them in the oven (remember when I said I'd actually cooked 3 lights?) Turns out the timer on the fridge doesn't work any more. Ah well.

 

I love custom stuff, there's a fine line between there between over doing something though, as I'm sure you've seen on FB with the wide variation of rear light designs coming out.

 

These mate, I must say are the perfect combination of stock design with aftermarket design. Hat's off to you mate. Love this design.

 

Ah many thanks dude. I can't take credit for the design though as I'm simply copying someone else, but we'll see if there isn't room to put my own spin on them somewhere.

 

Unfortunately these rear lights are also going to have to be put on hold for a while until I can find a more reliable source for the LEDs. Basically I bought the original 4 for the front lights a few weeks back. I didn't have a 12v battery to hand to test them so I used one of the Ikea power supplies for their 12v spots. Perfect. Until one of the regulator boards caught on fire. I was about to sent a shirty email to the seller when it dawned on me that it was probably because it was an AC power supply and the COBs were meant for DC. Anyway, after some head scratching I ended up using a laptop power supply which worked fine and just connected two lights to one regulator board.

 

Now jump forward a week or two and the rear lights have come out and I've ordered another 20 of these COB LEDs in various sizes. When they arrived I began testing them with the laptop power supply which was rated at 19v (the multi meter put it at just over 15v though) but still within the LED's advertised range of 12-24v. Just to be safe though i went and bought a 12v battery from screwfix, the first few worked ok, but then things went down hill fast. I ended up with 10 regulators catching on fire and 4 more rings having dead LEDs on them (that's 15 out of 24 either broken or defective). So I emailed the bloke back with a video of them burning and an request of what I wanted replaced. In his reply he offered me £2 as reimbursement for the burned out regulator boards and nothing for the broken rings... Anyway after a few more incredibly polite emails detailing how £2 wouldn't quite cut it and reminding him that 'THESE THINGS CAUGHT ON BLOODY FIRE' he offered me £4 but said they wouldn't replace the broken ones because he wasn't the manufacturer. One phone call to eBay later and I've now got to wait 8 days for his response. I'm not holding my breath.

 

Anyway for those of you wanting so see them burning... Here's a terrible video I made.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxxTbkJOSM (embedding it didn't seem to work)

 

Right, so while I wait for the LED issue to be resolved, onwards to something else.

 

One of the other things on my list was to make a set of speaker mounts for the front. So I set about drawing up a file from a PDF i got from these forums for the bracket shape. I know you aren't going to see these things when they're hidden behind door cards but I like the idea that if I ever do sell this car, if the person ever takes the door cards off they'll see that the person who made something as mundane as a speaker bracket tried to make it as unique as possible.

 

So here's how it developed. I scribbled my username onto a piece of paper with a sharpie and scanned that in. Traced it out in the program and set that to engrave. I also did the TOYOTA text and logo but didn't end up using them. I did however draw out a space for the speaker crossovers. Anyway, here are the drawings and a cardboard test i made before i cut out the real thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure if there's going to be enough clearance for the crossover but I'll test fit it later today. I really like these, but I'm not totally convinced I can't make a speaker pod to fit into the gap in the door where the originals were. Maybe another time.

 

Oh and on another note, if anyone wants to loan me a GZ rear speaker pod in exchange for something (probably laser cut), I'd love to try and make my own rear pods .

[Kendo11]

Really good work mate, love little projects like this.

[SupraStar 3000]

I love the tech in this thread. Awesome work. Those lights look spot on. The future looks bright for Supra lights.

[Kendo11]

Might also be worth posting up the dodgy eBay seller, so anyone wanting to avoid the same problems doesn't buy from them.

[Kev.O]

I really like the ideas in this thread, keep up the good work and updates please.

[MadMax2042]

Great work, inspires me to sort my headlights

[Noz]

Can't you build your own voltage regulator? I've built loads for electronic projects for work over the years

[CASHEYE]

Really good work mate, love little projects like this.

 

Might also be worth posting up the dodgy eBay seller, so anyone wanting to avoid the same problems doesn't buy from them.

 

Thanks dude, I did think about naming and shaming him, but as I've raised a dispute though the resolution centre, I think I'll give him the benefit of the doubt before I drag it out (but I'm not holding my breath).

 

I really like the ideas in this thread, keep up the good work and updates please.

 

Thanks, any feedback or alternative ideas are always appreciated.

 

Can't you build your own voltage regulator? I've built loads for electronic projects for work over the years

 

I think that's probably the only option I'm going to be left with. To be honest, I don't technically need them for the lights to work, and a resistor would keep them from being over powered, but I would like something a bit more substantial on a little board.

 

 

Right. So after that last picture with the crossover unit resting on the bracket, I checked that the size was right and all the screw holes matched up which they did. Douze points.

 

 

But when I hung the door card on, the speaker didn't match up very well with the existing hole. As I'm not using the original speaker grills, I want the fit to be pretty perfect because you'll be able to see the speaker though the grill.

 

 

 

I drilled a hole for the tweeter in the door card because although I want to at some point, right now I don't have the time to take the whole dash out and re upholster it along with the door cards. But when that time comes, if I don't like them being in the doors, I'll just cover the holes and put them in their original position.

 

The other problem is that there isn't enough space behind the door card for the crossover to sit on top of the bracket. But there is more than enough space where the old speaker pod was so I've now cut a new design for the bracket and made the area for the crossover recessed.

 

Here we have the original design from earlier, a new cardboard prototype i cut out and the final plywood piece. In the plywood bracket I've moved the hole for the speaker up and to the right slightly so hopefully it will line up with the hole in the door card better than before.

 

 

 

 

 

A quick test fit and everything looks pretty good. I'll trim the excess door card around the speaker at a later date and I'll probably make another plywood ring to go on the inside for something to screw to.

 

 

 

 

And that about wraps it up for this bank holiday weekend. I'll probably be back with some more updates later in the week and hopefully I'll find some time to play around with this too.

 

 

Oh and I couldn't resist cutting out one of these. Might even replace the existing one on the back of the car. We'll see.

 

 

 

But right now this guy needs feeding and he's pretty pissed as my temporary work desk is covering up the spare bed where he likes to sleep

Edited May 30, 2015 by CASHEYE (see edit history)

[a98pmalcolm]

Nice work there bud..

[Kev.O]

If you custom make a voltage regulator for each section of lights, is it worth fitting them all on one board, in a nice tidy plastic box?

[Scoot]

Which size rings did you end up using for the fronts and rears then?

Really like those rears, don't want to butcher my facelift rears though.

[Willson]

Lights look great

Fair play on getting your own laser cutter too! Endless opportunities with that.

[CASHEYE]

If you custom make a voltage regulator for each section of lights, is it worth fitting them all on one board, in a nice tidy plastic box?

 

That's not a bad idea. I've been looking at videos of people making custom PCBs with laser cutters so maybe when the time comes, I'll give that a whirl.

 

Which size rings did you end up using for the fronts and rears then? Really like those rears, don't want to butcher my facelift rears though.

 

The fronts were 70mm and 90mm and the rears were 60mm and 80mm for each light plus 2x90mm for the reds. The rings themselves are 5mm thick so the 80mm fits perfectly inside the 90mm ring.

 

I might as well come out and say it as the seller isn't playing ball with replacing the defective lights he sold me (actual diodes on the boards not lighting up). The seller is called 'Yoopar'. Personally, I'd stick clear of him, but then I can't say that you won't have the same problem with other sellers. The good thing about him was that the lights were shipped from the UK so only took a few days to arrive and no hidden import fees. But then they did burst into flames. Swings and roundabouts.

 

Lights look great Fair play on getting your own laser cutter too! Endless opportunities with that.

 

Thanks dude. It's been a long time coming. I've got a long list of things I want to make on it too and it only seems to be getting longer.

 

Anyway, I had an hour or so spare this evening so I started work on a diffuser for the front rings. I'd been looking at the BMW halo lights and they seemed to have this clear ring/diffuser in front of the lights and I thought I could try and make something like that to cover up the yellow tint of the ones I'm using.

 

So this is what the COB LED looks like when stuck to the headlight. It's got a pretty low profile so even when it's got another 3mm of acrylic over the top it still shouldn't protrude too much.

 

 

So this is what I came up with. It's a transparent grey acrylic which has been cut to the same size as the ring with lines engraved all around. The acrylic sheets come with a kind of cellophane protective cover on the front and back. I decided to leave it on the outside as if I'd have sprayed the acrylic prior to cutting it. Then I hand cut two strips of a thin black plastic sheet I had laying around and glued them round the outside and inside of the acrylic. I cut them a bit short but as this is only a prototype, i can forgo perfection.

 

 

 

And this is it fitted over the existing COB ring. It's not a bad fit. If there were more space on the inside of the light (the area of the plastic housing between the fogs and the low beams) I'd try filling and smoothing the diffuser into the original ring. But I don't think there's enough space in there.

 

 

When the light is turned on, you can't see the protective film so I'll try this again with a paint or even just sand the top to diffuse it even more so you can't see the yellow tint though it.

 

 

And then just a comparison between a naked ring and a diffused one.

 

 

That's all for now. I'll try and get a more refined version done after the weekend along with an alternative to the COB LEDs for the rear lights, until then...

[Kendo11]

Absolutely brilliant work mate.

 

Do you have a job?

 

If so quit, and start mass producing these.

[a98pmalcolm]

they look awesome