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    #1

    Back lit door handles!

    This is a mod I have been wanting to do for a while now. I was over at my girlfriends cousins house and they had a lot of junk they were throwing away. I picked these up.



    They were originally in a case like this.



    But I took the circuit board and LED's out and got this.



    I have two of these with 12 LED's on each. The board is set up so that there are 4 parallel circuits with series circuits on each branch so there are 4 sets of 3 LED's with their own resistors. I am going to cut the board in sections and do whatever necessary wiring is needed so I can have a set of 3 LED's for each door handle. I might distribute the rest somewhere else but for the time being I am just going to get the handles back lit.

    I wasn't really going to go for blue but since they are free oh well lol. Besides the boards would be the hard part, I can always just change the LED's and maybe the resistors later to get the color I want. I can't wait to post pics of the finished product.
    Tags: None
    #2
    Hi Merc3517

    I put a couple of LEDs in the door handles of my Town Car, I didn't realy want orange but had them lying around doing nothing, green would have been more in keeping.



    Regards

    Dereck
    President and founder of The Turbine Wheel Appreciation Society and Little Debbie Cake Connoissuer

    Also "The Pondside Pain In Your Posterior"

    Comment

      #3
      That's pretty much what I am going for. I agree Green would have been better but free is free and I can always change it later lol. Looks good though!

      Comment

        #4
        Ok here is a little update. The other day I worked on this a bit and I got the LED's cut up like I wanted and wired them up and they work just like I had thought they would. Today I am working on actually installing them. I removed on of my door panels and started coming up with ideas as to how I want to do this and I think I have got it. Only thing left really is to start cutting stuff and putting it together lol. Here are some pics so far.

        First of all these things are pretty damn bright!





        I am installing these in a such a way that the main intensity of the beam is not directly coming out of the door panel, I want a softer glow like this.



        Here are some pics of what I did to the board to get the sections of LED's.





        You can see in this image that I scraped off some of the green stuff on the board to get more soldering contact so I could solder wires to the pieces of board I cut from the whole.



        Here is one with new wires soldered on.



        Here they are all together working.



        I was able to get all that I needed out of one strip so the other strip I have may end up being my headlight switch illumination project but lets not get ahead of myself lol.

        Comment

          #5
          Another update. I glued the LED's on the back of the door panel pointing to the door. Below them is the door handle cup which I drilled three small holes in to let the light through. It seems to work very well. I sat in the closet and lit them up and I get a soft little glow through those three holes. Hopefully I can get this one done today before school and see how it looks and then tomorrow I might be able to get the rest done.

          Here are some pics.





          Comment

            #6
            lookin good!
            1988 MGM GS - Preferred Equipment Package 172A; InstaClear

            1980 Lincoln Continental Coupe
            1994 MGM GS Montigua
            2005 F150 Lariat Scab 4x4 3.73 LS
            2002 Mustang GT Coupe

            Comment

              #7
              That is pretty cool. Nice work. Will definitely be nice when complete. I should have done something similar to this while I had the door panels off my car....
              ~David~

              My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
              My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

              Originally posted by ootdega
              My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

              Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
              But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

              Originally posted by gadget73
              my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.



              ​

              Comment

                #8
                More update. I have one door panel done and I am working on the rest right now. Here is a pic of the on installed. It isn't the best pic but it's because the back lighting turned out perfect. It's a very subtle light that just does it's job and doesn't overpower anything. I love it.

                Here is a pic of it from the perspective of the passenger.



                Here is a pic looking up at the holes in the door handle cup.



                Here is a pic looking at it directly from the side.



                The best part about this is that one would never notice them until they are lit. Very subtle.

                Comment

                  #9
                  That's awesome! I'm contemplating putting some in when I put the new door panels in.
                  Parts Car (Scrapped ) - Vicky - 1987 LTD Crown Victoria: 17x8 Gunmetal Gray Coys C-5 wheels, 235/55-17 Falken Ziex ZE-502 tires. 79 LTD Grille, Taillights, and Turn Signals, Blue LED Dash Lights, PI Rear Sway Bar, 140 MPH Speedometer, Dual Exhaust w/ Mustang Headers.
                  New Project: Vicky II - 1981 Ford LTD: 61,XXX miles, virtually rust free. Currently For Sale

                  Comment

                    #10
                    I finished it all up! I actually finished it last night but I was too tired to post anything. Here are some pics. There might be some adjusting required but I am very happy with how this turned out.





                    Thanks for all the kind comments above. Now I am going to slap the next person who says they can't find the door handles!

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Nice mod, looks good.
                      2020 Volvo XC90 T6 Momentum (Ice White / Blonde)
                      2022 Ram 1500 4x4 5.7 Etorque, Built to Serve Edition, (Granite Crystal / Black)
                      Past Panthers
                      1989 Grand Marquis LS (Cabernet/Grey), 1989 Lincoln Town Car SS (White/Blue), 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis Ultimate (White/Black)

                      Originally posted by Lincolnmania
                      if its got tits or tires it's bound to give you trouble

                      Comment

                        #12
                        lol I had a girl I met at school with me in my car once...she got a little afraid because she did not know how to get out of the car......I lol'd.
                        ~David~

                        My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                        My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                        Originally posted by ootdega
                        My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                        Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                        But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                        Originally posted by gadget73
                        my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.



                        ​

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Originally posted by 87gtVIC View Post
                          lol I had a girl I met at school with me in my car once...she got a little afraid because she did not know how to get out of the car......I lol'd.
                          It's usually hard to figure out how to get out of a trunk from inside it.






















































                          Lol but that happens to me all the time as well. the door handle thing not the trunk thing...
                          -Phil

                          sigpic

                          +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

                          +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

                          Comment

                            #14
                            shhhhhh. Now that you told everybody no girls will trust me.

                            Same girl called the interior of my car "intense" but then went on to say my speedometer looked like an old fashion radio.....
                            ~David~

                            My 1987 Crown Victoria Coupe: The Brown Blob
                            My 2004 Mercedes Benz E320:The Benz

                            Originally posted by ootdega
                            My life is a long series of "nevermind" and "I guess not."

                            Originally posted by DerekTheGreat
                            But, that's just coming from me, this site's biggest pessimist. Best of luck

                            Originally posted by gadget73
                            my car starts and it has AC. Yours doesn't start and it has no AC. Seems obvious to me.



                            ​

                            Comment

                              #15
                              Originally posted by 87gtVIC View Post
                              shhhhhh. Now that you told everybody no girls will trust me.

                              Same girl called the interior of my car "intense" but then went on to say my speedometer looked like an old fashion radio.....
                              haha its kinda true though!
                              -Phil

                              sigpic

                              +1982 Ford LTD-S Police Car. Built 351w, Trickflow 11R 190 Heads, Holley Sniper EFI, RPM Intake+ Hyperspark dizzy, WR-AOD, Full exhaust headers to tails. 3.27 Trac-Lok Rear. Aluminum Police Driveshaft. Speedway Springs+Bilstein Shocks, Intermediate Brakes, HPP Steering Box.

                              +2003 Acura CL Type S 6-speed

                              Comment

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