El Cheapo DIY Brighter Tail Light mod... (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

ThatNickGuy

SILVER Star
Joined
Mar 28, 2005
Threads
13
Messages
74
Hi Fellas,
I was sitting around this week staring at my rig with a furrowed brow wondering what I could do to make the tail/brake, reverse, and rear turn signals brighter and more visible while in traffic during the day. I've always thought they were a bit dim by today's standards (although certainly sufficient for the 80's...) To me - what with a new crop of texting teenage drivers being released into the wild to enrich the depth of idiocy on the road every year - it seems our aging, lumbering, lovable beasts of overland virtue could use any help they can get to keep from becoming "rocks in a flooded stream".

So I bought a roll of this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/380432899453?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&var=650045375551&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Took off the lenses, removed the bulbs, and lined the aged and dull (did they even try to make these silver?) parabolic reflector as best I could to get complete beam coverage.

Here's some subjective pics of the attempt for your approval. The L side tail light has been modified while the R side is in original condition. (I couldn't for the life of me get the timing of the blinking hazards down to show the difference in turn signal quality, but it's as significant as the others...)
20140908_174740.jpg
20140908_184612.jpg
20140908_185249.jpg
20140908_185327.jpg
Overall, I'm pretty satisfied with the result.
 
Last edited:
As you said - you wonder if Toyota even considered reflectivity a design criteria. Good idea and nice photos.
 
Thanks Steve :beer:. Really a half-:banana: job. Sometimes messing with stuff pays off (fingers crossed!)
 
Definitely an improvement, even as well as daylight pix will reveal... And cheap.

Nice.

Don't forget to remove that drill before you got out, again! ;)
 
i did this mod to the heater/fan controls light to brighten up the dash lights, it never occured to me to do the rear lights!

nice work mate, now post up some more pics of that jdm beast :D
 
Thanks a lot guys! Maat, I really like that dash light idea. Good thing I still have a half roll of the silver vinyl left. I may just stay trying to make everything more "reflecty-er"... never know right?
 
What width did you buy? The default 2 inch?

Yes, I went with the 2" tape. I found that size to be very convenient to work with and easy to cut properly "feathered" shapes out of for all those inside corners and bevels. And it just so happens that it almost perfectly fits the overall height of the reverse lamp recess. (note pic above; much smoother appearance) Not sure how long the roll was but I had plenty for sure!

I also used a pocket knife to slice and relieve some of the tension bubbles so I could lay the whole cut piece flat and as smooth as possible - or fold the edges onto themselves as tightly as i could.
 
Well I went and bought the chrome paint. Then I went to grab my spare set of tail and front light housings... much to my surprise I found this:

2014-09-11 14.55.36.jpg


2014-09-11 14.54.54.jpg


Both of them have reflective metal inserts in some of the reflector bowls... I'm not sure what specific model these came from but they are 60 series for sure.

I will now need to look at the ones on my truck...

mark
 
Wow! Jealous... wish mine had that metal bowl insert. I bet a good polishing would render a pretty sweet beam indeed!

I went ahead and ordered a new set of colored lenses for my tail lights too. I'll be replacing the subdued "smoked" lenses that are on there now...
 
Yeah, think I might get into my dome lights too...
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom