Thought I would share one of my recent projects!

problem: I can't figure out a good way to get the front signal performance that I'm after. normal light bulbs have the advantage of brightness, but they get hot, melt the signal housings, draw a lot of power, and I want the fast on/off time that LEDs offer.
LED offerings in the form of LED replacement bulbs and possibly added LED strips just can't compare light wise with the stock bulbs. when testing LED lights, they gave me the quick on/off times, but in their bright mode they put out about the same amount of light as the stock lights in dim mode. so I've been thinking about ways to solve this problem for quite a while, this is what I came up with...

I took a set of clear corners from JWM. packed them with 120 super flux LEDs (60 per housing) and built my own LED corner lights! I also went for a blackout concept with them, since I don't need the stock reflector anymore at all, I sanded the chrome off the entire interior of it and painted the housings flat black. I was going to add a very mild tint to the outer lenses but decided to give them a try like this first.







all told these housings have about 15 Watts of LEDs in them. The pictures really don't do it justice, the camera tends to adjust and make them look not as bright as they seem in real life.

330,000MCD per side!

looking at the lights, especially how well they reflect off of cars in front of me, and how much they light up the garage after dark with the parking lights on only, I'd say they put out 2-3 times the light that the 10W LED modules I had before.

 

I admire your effort and creativity, however I'm not sure what you accomplished more than a good set of switchback LEDs could not provide? Here's a photo of the my transition from amber LEDs to Switchback LEDs.

 

thanks!

well to each his own...I've looked at switchbacks several times, and seen them out on the road many times. it sounds like the type of thing I'd really like, but for whatever reason, every time I see them I just don't like the look. I prefer white headlights and colored running lights. switchbacks just never really appealed to me for some reason.
other than that:
I had a lot of fun building them.
I like the blackout look without actually using tinted lenses. (although I might still put a very light tint on them at some point, minimal loss of light, and it should look very dark with the blackout effect)
They're quite unique.
and as I mentioned in my post, they're significantly brighter than any plug in LED solution I've ever found, and I've looked far and wide trying to accomplish my goal of getting close to stock-like light output from the front signals with all LED sources. this is as close as I've ever seen. its not quite as bright as stock, but its getting there.

I did of course think up a pretty significant improvement idea for these lights the very night after I finished installing them. I guess I'll have to build another set later with the revised design.

 

Looks Nice!!!

 

I like em!

 

Great job!

 

Yep, it all comes down to personal preference. I had the LED amber corners until I went with the switchbacks per the picture.

Good luck with MACH II design...

 

Good to see something different still being done for the C5. Those LEDs you installed sure gives the front of the car a unique look.

 

You bedazzled your lights !!

 

haha. I considered making a diffuser to smooth it out just a little, but I thought it would actually be a pretty good compliment for the halo's

 

I can't knock it for effort. You have skills I don't. My only criticism would be that it resembles a highway sign. Don't be offended. You did an awesome job.

 

It looks pretty cool.

 

Really cool!

 

Good work, you have talent, but IMO doesn't look really good. Since you like your running lights amber, you could have used one white strip at the bottom and used those as your switchbacks instead of the bulb to achieve the look you wanted. That's the way I set mine up.

 

It has potential. I like the DRL/turn signal area.

 

That was similar to my old setup which I took out. I didn't like the look all that much. I don't like DRLs, I have mine disabled.
And as far as DRL implementations go, GM's amber DRLs are the best looking in my opinion. I went the route of adding white strips into the lenses before. I thought it would look great but the first time I turned them on...it just didn't do it for me. That's why I went all amber with this setup. My primary objective here was to make an LED signal that was reasonably bright. I've made a few other attempts using the most widely used options and haven't gotten what I was after. This is pretty close.

 

 

To the OP like the look.. Nice work on the car... Robert

 

I like what you did.....nice job.

 

Pretty darn kewl