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(1).
A shot of all the materials. |
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(2).
Grab your flathead screwdriver and towel. Wrap the towel over the
screwdriver, then carefully pry up the switch panel. On the drivers
side, do this from the bottom (where a clip holds it on). On the
passenger side, pry it up from the top. |
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(3).
Show how the drivers side panel is pried up (sorry for the dust - I took
this picture after I had done this, so I hadn't cleaned the panel off yet) |
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(4).
Here is a picture of the panel all but removed from the door. Gently
squeeze on the plug that is attached to the panel. |
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(5).
Panel completely detached from the car. Notice the four small
circles. These are the lights we are going to take out.
[NOTE]
The drivers side has four lights, while the passenger side only has two
lights. |
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(6).
Get your flathead screwdriver again, and unlock the lights. Works in
the same was as if you were taking out a screw (lefty loosey, righty
tighty, heh). |
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(7).
One of the lights out of the panel. These guys are small. |
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(8).
This is a shot of the back of the light. If you look closely, you
can see that part of the wire from the light ends at the back. You
are going to need to pry up those small wires, and unwrap the light from
the plastic holder (this is hard to explain unless you are looking at an
actual light...if you are doing so you will know what I'm talking about).
I was able to pry the wires up by using a one of the leads from an LED. |
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(9).
Shows the wires undone from the plastic holder. |
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(10).
Now, we need to separate the small light from the plastic holder.
You can first try to pull up on the light. This worked about half
the time. The other half I had to push the wires from behind to help
nudge the light out of the holder. |
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(11).
Go grab one of your LED's. If you have purchased LED's that are
small enough to fit right into the plastic holder, you can bypass the next
step. However, the LED's I purchased were a bit to large, so I had
to tailor them up a bit. On a side note, I choose to use Blue LED's
to replace the factory white lights. |
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(12).
As said, if your LED is small enough to fit into the plastic holder,
bypass this step. If not, go get your dremel and either a sanding or
cutting attachment (I used a sanding one). Now, we are going to
shave off just a little of the sides of the LED, and a good chunk of the
top (just be sure not to cut to deep thus affecting the diode). All
the cutting of the LED does, is diffuse the light of it more (which
doesn't matter in our case). |
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(13).
The LED's leads should fit perfectly into the stock holes on the plastic
holder. |
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(14).
Obtain your solder, soldering gun, and resistor.
Put a little bit of the paste on the longer lead of the LED, and the resistor
(will make the solder take better). Next, heat the gun
up, put a little solder on it, and attach the resistor to the longer lead
(the +) of the LED.
The resistor orientation
does not matter. |
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(15).
A shot showing the LED, plastic holder, and resistor soldered to the LED. |
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(16).
Next, we wrap the LED lead and resistor lead back in the same manner as
the original bulb. Again, this is hard to explain unless you have
the actual assembly in front of you. |
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(17).
Here is a shot showing all four modified lights back in the drivers side
panel. You are going to need to push down the top and bottom two
resistors to make room when you put the panel back in the door.
[NOTE]
The LED's have polarity, thus if you put them in the wrong way they will
not light up. Make sure the LED's are all lit up before putting the
panel back in the door. If they are not, simply take them out, and
screw them in the opposite way. |
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(18).
Before and After photographs of the passenger side door switch panel.
And let me tell you, these pictures do no justice. It is a very deep
blue color, and bright! |
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(19).
Drivers side panel. Again, the blue is much brighter/deeper looking
in person. |
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UPDATED
LED NIGHTTIME PICTURES!
(Click Me) |
Final Word -
Hopefully everything went
smoothly. I must say, that for less than ten dollars worth of LED's
and resistors, this is a very cheap yet unique mod to do. I first
saw this done by a member of DigitalCorvettes.com and had to try it for
myself. Remember to keep all of the small original lights, in case
you every want to put them back in. |