Paralell Thoughts

[Mountain-man]

Hey guys, I found this pic of the Honda CR-Z concept in my latest Motor Trend mag, and found something very interesting about it's design. It seems as though Honda and I had paralell thoughts. The funny thing is both LED strips are placed in exactly the same place on both cars, both are single teer strips, and both are white LEDs. Pretty slick huh?
My car with the custom LED running lights.
CR-Z with LED strips
Paralell Thoughts

[jarrod_aspden]

nicely done! What are the lotto numbers for this week?

[sikspd]

does any light project enough to see better or is it just for show ..........either way its HOT very nicely executed!!

[Mountain-man]

Originally Posted by sikspd

does any light project enough to see better or is it just for show ..........either way its HOT very nicely executed!!

I finished this project around June of 2007 and I've been planing it for about six months to a year prior to actually buying components. I just saw the pic of the CR-Z in the latest Motor Trend Mag a couple days ago and had to laugh. I never knew Honda was doing something similar. There is another thread that was started, http://www.superhonda.com/forum/show...74#post3606974 , but all the pics are gone. I had trouble uploading pics at the time.

About the lights themselves, it's mostly for show. They DO light up the ground a little but it's not enough to make them pracitcal. It's one of those things that you think about while driving home from work and just can't get it out of your head. You just think "Man, that would be SOO COOL!" Finialy after three redesignes of the mounting rail (the alluminum part) and a bottle of SoCo to my boss for machining it, I was able to get really started on it.

Here is basically a repeat with some extras.

I should add that I used a plexiglass diffuser to protect the lights. It's not very apperant in the pics.

[sikspd]

thats something to be proud of.so so clean. looks great can I use that idea?? I am putting a full bumper replacement on my car its actually in the body shop now and should be done within a month.

[clayton]

that looks great you should be in R&D or something.

[Mountain-man]

Originally Posted by sikspd

thats something to be proud of.so so clean. looks great can I use that idea?? I am putting a full bumper replacement on my car its actually in the body shop now and should be done within a month.

Sure! I'll try to help you out as best I can. The wiring system I used isnt the greatest but there are several ways to improve upon it.

Are you replacing with a stock bumper or an aftermarket? I just want to warn you that this will require CUTTING into the piece. There is ZERO ROOM for mistakes if you do this, or you'll be out a lot of cash. I supose if you have a shop do it for you, you might be OK, but man, that's going to be expensive. I did practically all this stuff myself. Freestate heat-forming the plexiglass diffuser to match the chin spoiler stunk up the kitchen for a few hours. That was mostly from the RTV silicone used for the custom mold though.

There is a product that is VERY close to what I have and will be FAR cheaper, however, the lights will shine perpendicular to the face they are mounted to rather than angled like mine (mine shine directly forward to the front, vs outward like fish eyes) You can find them here: http://www.aj-racing.com/catalog/pro...6&cat=0&page=1
Now, there are ways to get around this, but you will loose the dotted light effect. I can help you with that too. The A&J Racing set uses 9 lights per array vs 15 in mine.

Otherwise, I used LED Microstars. They are waterproof, and encased in a SS machined housing. You can find those at www.theledlight.com They are quite $$$ though. You will also need a voltage filter too whih run about $12 a piece, but you will only need 1 or 2 depending on how you wire it. I made a wire map if you need it.

[Mountain-man]

Originally Posted by clayton

that looks great you should be in R&D or something.

Thanks!

[sikspd]

full bumper replacement ibherdesign.com check it out I did all the fitment myself and am very familiar with working with fiberglass and do everything but spraying mainly because the wife will fuck me up if upstairs smells like fresh paint! ha ha ha! you said theres a plexiglass cover over these leds? I found clear led strips of ten i'm curious to see whats up with them there made of a rubbery material I have worked with them before on the undertail of a cbr900 motorcycle i did. very precise drilling but ended up looking like a million bucks.

[Mountain-man]

Originally Posted by sikspd

full bumper replacement ibherdesign.com check it out I did all the fitment myself and am very familiar with working with fiberglass and do everything but spraying mainly because the wife will fuck me up if upstairs smells like fresh paint! ha ha ha! you said theres a plexiglass cover over these leds? I found clear led strips of ten i'm curious to see whats up with them there made of a rubbery material I have worked with them before on the undertail of a cbr900 motorcycle i did. very precise drilling but ended up looking like a million bucks.

Experience in working with this kind of stuff is a total plus, so you've got that going for you right away. Nice!

I'm not sure if I was looking at the right bumper or not. Looks pretty neat . . . I guess I like the stock look better, but that's just my opinion.

I think I am picturing the same LED strips that you are. Not quite sure they will work to your advantage in this case or not. I guess it comes down to where you are placeing the LEDs in the first place that will determine how they'll shine and in what direction.

THe plexiglass cover had to be designed and fabricated as well just like the mounting rail. I used regualr 1/4" sheet stock plexiglass and had a island milled out and the rest milled to spec per my drawings. Then I had to make a custom mold that the plexiglass could form to. The placement of the rails in the chin spoiler warrented the need of heat-forming of the plexiglass diffusers because even though there is a very subtle curve as it got closer to the center of the spoiler, it was enough to place too much stress on the plexiglass to keep them in place, and the stress may have caused cracking in time. I needed very little stress for it to work. Therefore free-state heat forming. I used a dremmel tool to make the cutouts in the spoiler and used electical vinal tape as a guide. Cuting wheel for the rough hacks, and a fine burr-mill for the edge cleaning. . . . man those first few cuts were really painful because there was no turning back after that.

I used Alumilite RTV silicone for the mold. Smells like crap, has the consistancey of snot, and looks like vanilla pudding (or "another substance" depending on how you think). The upside is that it has a high temp resiliance of 500 degrees ferenhight; perfect to form plexiglass. You have to be very careful though because if it's in too long, the plexiglass will begin to fog or worse- bubble. I used 12-14 min at 450 degrees to get my results. (I hope I remember correctly!) I had spare strips to test on. The smell of the RTV silicone will probably drive your wife to madness as this would most likely be done in the kitchen oven (where I did it . . . on Mother's Day of all times!) I'll warn you ahead of time that this smell seems to penetrate your clothes and skin so that you still smell like it after you've showered and changed. And the smell will linger in the kitchen for hours. Best to do this at a freind's house or at 3:00 AM.

P.S. If you want, I can provide the working drawings that I made for this project (including wire mapping), but they are tailered to the OEM chin spoiler. Not sure how much different they would have to be for an aftermarket application. I'll also let you know there were some minor modifications that had to be made to the diffuser and to the mounting rails in order for proper fitment after they were machined and formed. Nothing serious, just some extra material removal and I was set to go.

[sikspd]

cant wait to get this finished !!!

[Mountain-man]

Originally Posted by sikspd

cant wait to get this finished !!!

You have me interested. Don't rush though. Can't wait to see it when it's done!

As a side note, I think mad-ass is an LED guru, so it might be a good idea to PM him and get a few pointers from him as well.

P.S. Any LED product that you install, unless it has a filter or voltage regulator built in, you should get a couple to work with your LED project. Most LEDs have a fairly narrow range of voltage that they will function on, but the higher the voltage over their optimum setting will result in poor life. Most automotive 12 volt systems will pump out 14-17 volts through the system. I did a number of tests with a volt-meter off the batery terminals, and other places to see exactly what my car puts out.(a very consistance 14-14.75 volts) Yours may be different, so testing is required. Voltage regulators can also be purchased from www.theledlight.com . There are a huge range if different ones available, so you should be pretty safe once you have your calculations and measurements done. There is also a power surge when switches are activated or the car turned on in general. This can in turn damage the LEDs, so regulators are a MUST!

[sikspd]

FRONT SIDES AND REAR BODY KIT COMES BACK ON SATURDAY AND THEN THE MOLDING OF THE WHEELWELLS COMES IN TO PLAY AND THEN THE LED LIGHTS GET INSTALLED LORD KNOWS I GOT PLENTY OF TIME WITH ALL THIS COLD WEATHER.