Side Mirror LED how to with pix!!! Finished color

[DXJP]

Ok Im doing the all to familar benzo door mirror led swap on a sentia. Does anybody want a how to or should I just piss off.

[eurospec]

How to! I just enjoy seeing any custom work.

-Rick

[SilverFocusZX3]

PLEASE SHOW US A HOW TO! I admire your work and have been able to learn so much from going over your past posts.

[Dominik]

Ditto, I'd love to see how its done!

Feel free to do a How-To on flares on the rear of a sedan too ;D

[BASTOS]

Do it Do it Do it (cheering)

[firelizard]

Any how-to is a welcome how-to

[swifty949]

To answer your question... Does a Pimp have ho's?

[jstyle]

Ok Im doing the all to familar benzo door mirror led swap on a sentia.* Does anybody want a how to or should I just piss off.


Please do ...Im in the middle of doing the same to my Q45 and would like see how you blend the lens to the mirror.

[DXJP]

To answer your question... Does a Pimp have ho's?


HAHAHA RAY RAY!!!

SAy I dont want to be the only dealer left cant you help me score a few kits so I can run.

Ok Ill take pix of the left side I finnished the right side in a few hours yester day so I guess I can do this.

Heres a sneek peek

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/mirror1.jpg

[DXJP]

OK here we go if you dont like the info piss off. If it helps you thats great. By the way I get $300 a mirror to do this not including parts so consider this valuble information.

Ok Make sure you mask your parts off dont be stupid and scratch them or get S#$T on them.
Mark your lines out and try and find a peice that somewhat resembles the conture of your mirror not only the out side but the inside. If your new at this NOW isnt the time to be puting a square peg in a round hole.

Becouse I did the drivers side first I use it to get the location of the passenger side. Now these Sentia mirrors are nice to work with the outer unscrews and makes it stupid easy to do this.

1. masked and ready to mark
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto1.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto.jpg

2. Now cut it out
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto2.jpg

3. See if it fits
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto3.jpg

4. Compare the fir and line up
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto4.jpg

5. Make sure it fits inside too
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto6.jpg

6. Cut the inside for the extruded portion of the lens
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto7.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto8.jpg

7. test fit and align everything
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto10.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto11.jpg

8. I usse this modeling epoxy the stuff is wicked for doing this it gets hard as the origional plastic and you can work it with water. you need to mix it one to one
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto12.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto13.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto14.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto15.jpg

9. Now apply it to the surounding and force it into the cracks you want a little to push threw the back for a tight fit
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto16.jpg

10. Like I said I can work this with water up to 30 mins so get a bucket of water and start forming it with your hands like a potery project.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto17.jpg

You can add and subtract material where needed I went with a little more volume than the parts so I can sand it back to the part depth. Make sure you cary it out far enough so you dont have to throw a bunch of putty back at it latter.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto18.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto19.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto20.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto21.jpg

OK this takes a good 3 hours to dry enough to sand so when I get to that point Ill update the thread or you can look at the first pic to see what it looks like before primer.

[firelizard]

That is so awesome, I would really like to do that to my car, now that I know about that epoxy stuff I feel a bit more ready. Should we be looking for a specific kind of epoxy or will any plastic epoxy putty thing work?

[SilverFocusZX3]

http://www.tbb-extra.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/bowdown.gif Simply AWESOME! I love checking your work out and the write ups are so inspirational I love 'em. Im very interested to see how you removed the light and sanded the mirror. Did you remove the light before this epoxy fully cured or will it easily come off by having the green tape on there. Argghhh I swear im going to be checking this thread right when I wake up this afternoon ( I work the 3rd shift* :'(* )

Got a question on the side for you if you have a free moment: Do you ever put wax on the tape to prevent fillers, composites, and other materials from ever sticking to the tape or do you feel this could ruin the material and caus lifting or other problems down the road?

[mrkenji]

AWESOME WRITE UP.. POSSIBLY A PROJECT I CAN WORK ON IN THE FUTURE! :)

[DXJP]

http://www.tbb-extra.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/bowdown.gif Simply AWESOME! I love checking your work out and the write ups are so inspirational I love 'em. Im very interested to see how you removed the light and sanded the mirror. Did you remove the light before this epoxy fully cured or will it easily come off by having the green tape on there. Argghhh I swear im going to be checking this thread right when I wake up this afternoon ( I work the 3rd shift :'( )

Got a question on the side for you if you have a free moment: Do you ever put wax on the tape to prevent fillers, composites, and other materials from ever sticking to the tape or do you feel this could ruin the material and caus lifting or other problems down the road?


No I dont wax the tape but this is 3M tape here in Japan and it does have a slick surface. I dont think its coated I think its the prosses. But some markers wont write on it the ink fish eyes. Also I let it harden so I dont move the epoxky when I pull it out. Pops right off.

[DXJP]

OK here is the last of it. From this part on is just prep and paint. What I did was pull the part then sand the outer to a close conure of the mirror. You want to do that first before sanding the edges of the part. Why well most times the lines will open up as you get close to the levelness of your peice and the body peice.

Part pulled and sanded
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/finnish.jpg

Here you can see the overlap on the part
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/finnishh.jpg

Here you can see the line left by the part
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/finnishh1.jpg

here is where it needs to be sanded back to fit the part I also leveled the over flow to the back side so it is smooth there to.
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/finnishh2.jpg

PArt in place
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/finnishh4.jpg

Now I need to sand it back to flush the part here I draw a line to work to
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/finnishh5.jpg

I will need to add putty in behind the lenz to fill in the opening
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/finnishh7.jpg

And finaly I will sand it so the lens sticks out enough to compensate for primer and paint. Next pix will be painted. You will need to run the wires threw the door and tap into your turn signal harness.

[jstyle]

Great write up.
Thanks.

Whats the price on that epoxy you used?

[DXJP]

here it is painted and assembled.

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/paint.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/paint1.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/paint2.jpg

[Ender-DI]

That's so cool! Always great to see these kind of write ups to get ideas for the future.

What is the turn signal sourced from?

[Gao Jian]

looks very nice, loved the write up

[guymx83]

look like a benz e 55 ish some rather. i think a full length one like off a m45 would of looked neat :smitten:

[DXJP]

Yeah its off a benz its what the customer brought. I think there could have been a few choices for it but it wasnt up to me.

Either way I made 600 bux, he got a upgrade, and you all got a free how too.

[SilverFocusZX3]

Great write up and learned so much. Thanks again DXJP.

[OnTop]

nice DIY
so what about the s13 getting s15 widebodey rear?!?!?* i wanted to do that but didnt only to avoid the ''s'' chassis wave


http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y182/DXJP/howto21.jpg

[DXJP]

Thats the Veil Side D1 S15 kit im building onto the 180. Almost 70 mm wider but Im making a truck out of it.

[firelizard]

Thats the Veil Side D1 S15 kit im building onto the 180.* Almost 70 mm wider but Im making a truck out of it.

Your words are pornography to me. :P

seriously though, that sounds really really cool, I would love to see the finished product, or even better some construction photos.

[Xotic sC]

next step : anybody have a place to buy universal side lens? I have an idea on what I'd like to see done. Moon crescent shape anybody?

[tech126]

thats a nice custom addtion done at it's best..Thanks for the write up, pics and info..Wish we here in the states could find "universal ones" to make it fit.. I want to put some on my first gen odyssey..

[jstyle]

Thanks again for the write up DXJP.
I put it to good use. 8)

[clearstar society]

This should be a sticky

Great Work!! I always respect someone who shows how it is done 8)

[Yummyriceball]

How did you guys wire up the lights?

[chmercer]

just run wires from the mirror lights to your side markers / front turn signals and tee off them

[KumaXL]

Super write up thanks so much for the time! :smitten:

[juniorEXE]

Excellent craftsmanship

[ap716]

where can i get that epoxy from?

[DXJP]

try a moddle shop or somewhere they sell moddling supplys.

[MS9]

try ebay...

[MS9]

that shorter light used on that sentia, is that only found on e55 mercedes or are they found on other models?

[DXJP]

Found on yahoo.co.jp

You ca do it with any light if you got paitiance and skillz