Stock LED Rear Lights (First ever?)

EmDee

Omnishambolic
Okay, so you may have seen the MK1 Leon LED taillights floating around on Ebay. I liked the idea of them because they looked pretty stock, so I bought a set.

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To be honest, I was a bit disappointed when they showed up because they didn't look as OEM as I'd hoped. The crystal lenses are a bit lary for my tastes.

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I sported them on the car for about a year before I decided that they were looking a bit too blingy.

This is when I decided to buy another set of stock lights and replace the lenses on the LED ones with the stock lenses. How hard could it be?

Here is a step by step guide showing what I have done so far and hopefully you can all learn from my mistakes if you are thinking of doing the same. I should warn you to wear gloves and goggles, I have cuts on my fingers from doing this and don't want to imagine what could have happened if I wasn't wearing my sunglasses when using the Dremel.

First, I removed the lights from the car and replaced them with the stock set I had lying around. I've kept them so that I can put it back to original spec if I ever feel the need to sell up or something.

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Next, it was time for the fun part. Take the expensive LED lights and smash the crap out of them - I mean very carefully remove the lenses.

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Once you've done this, pop them in the oven and leave them on about 90 degrees for about 4-5 minutes (I take no responisbility for your melted lights so keep an eye on them). This should loosen the adhesive on the lenses and allow you to pry the remaining bits of the lenses off the cluster.

P02-12-09_224402.jpg


Now it's time to destroy your nice new stock lights (thanks Phatchoonz1). I first tried putting them in the oven to see if I could just pry the lens off, but there was no way. I even made a big hole in the cluster so I could push out the lens, but they are too brittle and will just crack. This meant that I had to Dremel around the edge of the cluster to remove the lens.

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The next step is to grind the remaining plastic down as far as possible to give a snug fit on to the LED cluster. I would recommend that you test fit them on the car so that you get the best possible fit and make sure one side is not higher that the other. Glue them on with silicone or some other strong adhesive.

Here's a before and after:

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Unfortunately, I caught the top edge of the second lense when I was cutting it, and am now after a replacement. Here is a picture of what not to do:

P13-12-09_1312.jpg


I will update this thread once I've got a new nearside cluster and hacked it to bits.

Hopefully I won't need more than one!
 
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BoomhaueR

Wanna go fasterrrR
Oct 9, 2008
810
0
Exeter, Devon
Looking good! I don't like any of the aftermarket rear lights, but your modification is much better. If only they made them like this to begin with.

It just so happens my brother (Hyde) has a spare nearside rear OEM lamp (from you I'm told lol), if you're interested in having it back? He only needed to replace the offside one. Drop him a PM if you do.
 
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EmDee

Omnishambolic
Looking good! I don't like any of the aftermarket rear lights, but your modification is much better. If only they made them like this to begin with.

It just so happens my brother (Hyde) has a spare nearside rear OEM lamp (from you I'm told lol), if you're interested in having it back? He only needed to replace the offside one. Drop him a PM if you do.

haha, yeah that would be one of the inner ones though, I'm after an outer cluster :rolleyes:

Think I've found one actually :smoke:
 

EmDee

Omnishambolic
Looking good mate
At least you did'nt leave these one's in the oven to long :lol:

Yeeeaah. For some reason I only just noticed this comment. I think it's my selective reading.

The rumours are all true, I melted one of my clusters. Luckily it was one of the boot lid ones from the LED set so no great loss. I was going to clean out the insides cos it got all manky. I think 20 minutes at 150 degrees was a bit much :whistle:

Thanks for bringing that to light Darren (no pun intended) now everyone knows that I have the short term memory of a mildly retarded goldfish :thumbup:

And if it's one of you lot bidding on that set on Ebay, just give up now, I will be victorious. :brucelee:
 

EmDee

Omnishambolic
The "new" nearside light only got here a couple of days before Crimbo, I've Dremeled the lens off it and have to file them down to the right shape/size.

Problem is the aftermarket lights are a slightly different shape to the stock ones, so it's taking me a long time to dremel the lenses down to the right shape. I want them to be perfect and it's taking ages.

I do not recommend this conversion for the faint hearted.

I shall overcome :thumbup:

pics coming soon.
 

EmDee

Omnishambolic
Update

Okay so I've been hard at it, with Isopon coming out of my ears and the Dremel permanently charging.

Here's a shot of the new lense getting dremeled:

P24-12-09_1334.jpg


They were then both cut and ready for the next step:

P29-12-09_1617.jpg


So that next step is to Isopon the edge of the cluster to give a flatter surface for the silicon to stick to and hopefully keep things watertight.

P30-12-09_113901.jpg


All ready to seal now - right? Well not so fast, I thought, I decided to test fit them today before sealing them up. So I popped outside, removed the stock cluster and put the new one in place. Because the LED clusters are a completely different shape to the stock ones, the line that separates the lense and the cluster is different - as a result it is sitting about half a centimeter proud of the bodywork and the cluster next to it.

I didn't take any pics of this because I was holding the cluster and lense together with one hand in the pissing rain and had left my phone inside.

So anyway, I am now faced with a new problem. I need to remove nearly a cm of lense/cluster from somewhere - all around the edge of both units. I am thinking I'll have to take it off the cluster, because the lenses are so fragile, but now that I've Isoponed them I have a lot more work to do than I would have had.

:cry:

I am sooo tempted to just bin it all.
 

jamiebennett81

Guest
I know how you feel mate....the smallest of jobs turning into a nightmare

stick with it though, as it will look sweet and a once off for the Leon boys :D
 

EmDee

Omnishambolic
Well, I decided to get back at it and after the trusty Dremel had charged up, I got back in there and started cutting.

P30-12-09_1634.jpg


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You can see from the before and after shot I've taken quite a bit off the edge of the clusters (I've done them both now).

As a result, the lenses actually fit better than they did before, which is a result. All I need to do now is sand everything down properly and make sure there are no sticky-outy bits before I test fit them again and finally break out the silicone and get them bonded.

The light at the end of the tunnel is flickering again, I hope it's not another train. :shrug:
 
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