LED HEADLIGHTS

[sub_sea]

i have just cut out and sanded my new lexan aston martin shell. will soon be drilling holes and getting ready to paint. can anyone help me with fitting led headlights in it please. i want them to be behind the lexan so they dont look stupid please someone help.

[fatboyslim]

Take a look at...

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/xforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18191

Some good stuff there!!

[sub_sea]

have looked there but could do with more detailed help with the mounting of the leds.

[ChrisB]

drilling holes in the shell for projector type lighting effect worked for me. As to mounting the LED's I just used a hot melt glue gun - worked very well.

Chris

[jozza]

The best way to mount the LEDs behind the lexan is to make some brackets for them using offcuts of lexan, which you can then stick to the shell, or simply bend the legs of the LED to point out of the clear headlamp bit of the body and then stick them to the underside of the bonnet. If you wire them up before fitting, you can experiment by holding them behind the shell until you get them in the right position.

Hopefully I will be doing some more LEDs soon on a lexan shell, when I do I'll update my site with a guide and more details or possibly see if I can put one up here at TC.

[sub_sea]

i have some mouldable plastic which i bought off ebay i might try and make some sort of cup out of it and fit the leds in that and glue it to the shell. what you think

[jozza]

Is that the stuff you warm up to mould? Give it a try, should work fine. I'd suggest that you do a mockup using a plastic bottle or something like that first, just to make sure it works okay, before comitting to gluing it to your bodyshell.

It'll be interesting to see how well it works though, I saw some of the mouldable plastic stuff on ebay recently, is it any good?

John

[Augh3d]

Hrm... Has anyone tried latex rubber for sticking this stuff onto the body, filling gaps, waterproofing the lightbox etc? Not sure if it would be hardy enough to do the job alone, but you can get the stuff in a paintable solution from a lot of places, and it's pretty good for a lot of "grouting" type jobs, where you wanna keep out water and so on (Not sure how breathable it really is, it definitely has a decent water resistance when you don't actually want it to do that) I'm thinking it might be more removable and thus servicable than hotglue. Then again, you guys have the practical experience

[ChrisB]

Only potential issue I see with the latex is that it wouldn't bond that well with the shell and the LED's, so they might just detach a bit too easily during use.

The hotmelt glue bonds well and has a fairly flexible consistency when dry in my experience. The biggest plus though is that is is completely dry in only a few minutes. Some of the other chemical based adhesives / materials that need to "cure" would require you to clamp the work in some way until set I would have thought.

I think there are pros and cons to different materials and applications, its trial and error to see what works best. I already had a hotmelt glue gun so I went with that, and so far I've been impressed. The Hummer lighting has stayed waterproof and in tact despite a few heavy crashes and a lot of outdoor use.

The Scooby lighting has also stayed in tact despite a few collisions and some severe shell flexing [xx(].

Only issue I have with the hotmelt glue is its very "stringy" if you know what I mean - can be messy unless you are careful.

[jesterdude]

Hi all i have been experimenting with the plastic from a 4 litre milk carton(thoughly wasted out)as its cheap, its very flexible and pretty strong. I have made a headlight bucket from it by using the blue peter method of cut and lighly score the plastic to shape required, bend to shape, remember to leave flaps were sides join to stick together and then attach the leds. Back it with foil . leave some flaps to attach to the shell. Seems to be working . Get some pics up when finished.

Hope this helps.

jesterdude

[sub_sea]

yeah it's the stuff off ebay that moulds with heat. will be trying it soon for the lights so will let everyone know if it's a good way of doing it. i sure hope it is! i just got to try and find my hot melt glue and gun(think it's buried somewhere in shed).

[Virus]

hi sub sea

i have a rc18t mini 1/18th fitted with led lights and also a rs4 micro running a set of neons also, i found nitro fuel didnt work to remove the paint from the shell for my leds to go behind so i used a craft knife and gently scraped away the paint [:I] it made the area dull and frosted but looks ace my sig takes you to site with pics if you intrested

the lights an neons are varad type and are for the neons £35 and for the light kit it is £25 in my lhs in norfolk UK.

hope this helps out

Virus