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I wasn't happy with the finish on the disk splash sheilds and noticed PPC had a paint stripper which said it would remove POR15. So I ring PPC and they confirm it will strip cured POR15. I'm about to get in my car and head out to get some when it dawns on me that I had some normal paint stripper. I thought why not give it a try and if it works I wouldn't have to buy their over priced stuff. Lo and behold normal off the shelf paint stripper works.

So I spend an hour or so stripping the paint, then another 30 minutes wire wheeling the sheilds back to bare metal (this was the third time I've stripped them back btw) I set up a degreasing bath for them with their stuff and let them soak for 30+ minutes, so far so good.

I take them out and give them a good rinse, clean the tub, and start to metal etch them with their solution for another 30 minutes plus. I get occasional whiffs of 90w gear oil (but slighty different) and think to myself the metal etching solution smells a lot like 90w.

I finish the etch process and rinse everything off really well and set in the sun to dry for another 30 minutes. After that I hang them up ready to paint and as soon as I start to put the first coat on I wonder why the paint reacted on the surface.

A minute later it smacks me right in the face, I used the solvent brush to clean up some 90w that I spilled on the driveway (I start banging my head on the wall at this point).

I used up all the degreaser and all of the metal etch, do I stop and start all over again having to strip the small patch, throw out the paint I just poured and wait a week to get new chemicals, or do I say f*ck it and continue on.

It didn't look too bad so I said f*ck it and completely painted them. First coat was so-so and the second coat covered it quite well. I don't have much hope for the longevity of the paint on the sheilds but being where they are I don't think it matters too much. They look good at the moment and if I so desire to re-do them for a fourth time it's only 3 bolts and a brake line.

Nothing much has progressed with the rear end due to lack of funds, however, I've finally started on my shift light project. I wasn't happy with most units on the market so I decided to make my own. Being a semi-sleeper I wanted to keep everything as stock looking as I could.

The end goal is an adjustable shift light that you'd never know was there. Luckily there was an empty warning light socket that was taped over from the factory. The incandescent light bulbs were too dim so I expirimented with an LED. I figured out how to fit the LED and resistor into the bulb holder so I could still use the factory circuit board and connector.

I just need to make a yellow lens for the cluster and get either a white or yellow LED to replace the blue one.


I'm not sure how fancy I want to get but most if not all shift lights give you a cap for night. I may try to use a dimable light of some sort and use the headlight signal to dim it at night, or at least while the headlights are on.


This was just a test....

I guess when you finish the shift light you'll need to get that 9" in there a post a video testing it out

Been waiting to hear this thing running.

Your not missing much, while you can tell it has a cam in it it's not really lumpy. Testing the 9", light and rev limiter will be a fun process,

I've had a bad run of bills and haven't had much spare cash to throw at it. Hopefully in two weeks I should have the rear end paid off, which means after the new year I can get back into it.

I've always wanted to make an incognito shift light so what better time for when there's downtime to tinker. At least when the rear end and light are done that pretty much sums up what I wanted to do, then I can get it re-tuned and enjoy it.

I made my amber lens and after testing an array of LED's found a combination I like. I just wish the lens was a little darker, but it will do.

If you have any black r/c paint, reduce the crap out of it and dust some on the lens to "smoke" it out a bit.

Think Tamiya PS-31 "smoke" would work?

Since the area behind the lens is the reflector I thought of expirimenting with gloss black or other colors to see how it affects the appearance, brightness and functionality.

It should, it's basically the same thing as over-reducing black. It'll be something you need to play around with since it may not be translucent enough right out of the bottle.

If you darken the light housing it will no longer reflect and you will probably just see a round light through the lens. You want it basically white in there to really make it glow evenly. Then mute down the brightness on the outside of the lens with some kind of translucent black.

Hard part will be finding the balance of bright enough in the daytime, and dim enough at night.

It's a balancing act between being opaque enough yet bright enough. I must have tried half a dozen LED's to get it where I was happy enough. All the yellow ones 3mm, 5mm and 10mm from their catalog were all too dim and needed to be brighter. The ultra bright whites were good but washed out the color of the amber lens and looked crappy.

I stumbled upon the ultra bright yellow by fluke which gave the best result so far. The next step would have been to try and paint an ultra bright to see if it was effective.

The yellow led that I'm currently using is 23,500mcd and the brightest white in their catalog is 45,000mcd. Fingers crossed smoking the lens doesn’t change it too much.

I think a mirror black type reflector is a good option as when the LED is off the lens will appear dark, when it's on hopefully it will reflect enough to light up almost as good as the white. Making a test filter to slip in behind is easier then making a new lens.

scr8p wrote:Hard part will be finding the balance of bright enough in the daytime, and dim enough at night.

The guy who is helping me ears pricked up when I made mention of using the headlight signal to dim the LED at night. You could tell the wheels instantly started turning and he said you could probably pulse the LED to reduce its brightness at night.

Are those leds the kind that put off a decent amount of heat like an incandescent? I recently added some sign style LED modules for my check engine light and turn signals. I had my girl use fingernail polish to cover the led to dim it down. You could try dimming the bulb itself and see if that works for you.

Bare LEDs typically cannot be dimmed, as they only work within a very narrow voltage range. If the voltage is a few tenths of a volt lower than a particular LED's operating range, it might get a bit dimmer, but then it'll just stop working. A few tenths of a volt too high, and *POP*. Dead LED. Circuitry such as resistors can be used to help LEDs survive fluctuating voltages, and to be able to use them with AC current (LEDs are DC).

LEDs also typically produce very little heat. I could barely touch the interior courtesy lights in my GN after only a few seconds having the door open, they got so hot! But when I replaced them with the equivalent LED-array bulbs, they don't get even warm to the touch.

I think the only viable suggestion is to spray on a coat or two of smoke or similar paint. Maybe that VHT Nightshades stuff that people use to tint their headlights & taillights, because you can spray on as many or as few coats as you'd like to get the desired results. The headlight dimmer switch idea most likely won't work. The LED bulb will just blink off when it's too low, and blow up if it gets a bit too high (unless it's protected with resistors). It won't dim the way a typical bulb will.

romulus22 wrote:Are those leds the kind that put off a decent amount of heat like an incandescent? I recently added some sign style LED modules for my check engine light and turn signals. I had my girl use fingernail polish to cover the led to dim it down. You could try dimming the bulb itself and see if that works for you.

These LED's put out more heat then I thought they would, at 14.4v with the resistor they were only pulling .06 amps. As in how much heat they weren't as hot as a normal bulb would have been but still warmer then I was expecting.

The issue isn't making the bulb dimmer, it's actually the opposite. I fear once I smoke the lens it will dim the light output too much and they don't make a brighter yellow LED.

Coelacanth wrote:Bare LEDs typically cannot be dimmed, as they only work within a very narrow voltage range. If the voltage is a few tenths of a volt lower than a particular LED's operating range, it might get a bit dimmer, but then it'll just stop working. A few tenths of a volt too high, and *POP*. Dead LED. Circuitry such as resistors can be used to help LEDs survive fluctuating voltages, and to be able to use them with AC current (LEDs are DC).

LEDs also typically produce very little heat. I could barely touch the interior courtesy lights in my GN after only a few seconds having the door open, they got so hot! But when I replaced them with the equivalent LED-array bulbs, they don't get even warm to the touch.

I think the only viable suggestion is to spray on a coat or two of smoke or similar paint. Maybe that VHT Nightshades stuff that people use to tint their headlights & taillights, because you can spray on as many or as few coats as you'd like to get the desired results. The headlight dimmer switch idea most likely won't work. The LED bulb will just blink off when it's too low, and blow up if it gets a bit too high (unless it's protected with resistors). It won't dim the way a typical bulb will.

The LED will always run on 12v, the idea is not to dim it like you would your normal interior light.

Headlights off (day time) Full brightness
Headlights on (night time) Reduced brightness.

The way to dim the LED as explaned to me is to pulse it. Say for example the LED is pulsed 1000 times a second or whatever the interval may be can essentially dim a LED.

I'm not so concerned about the day/night dimming, that's just "extra" cool stuff. As long as the light output is good enough and the yellow lens a little less obvious I'd be over the moon.