LED Taillight with slot howto

[zittele]

Nik suggested that I create a writeup of my taillight mod that I have been working on the past couple days. It was kinda of mix of several tail section mods into one. I really liked the result besides the paint. I bought the wrong paint, and by the time i noticed, I had already used it. Oh well.

I ordered a custom raidiantz turn and brake zflex led strip. 1.8" left 4.8" brake 1.8" right. There really wasn't much more room for anything bigger.
http://www.radiantz.com/index1.html?c6.html&1

I also wanted to use the cheese grater logo in place of the taillight.

Here is the finished tail:

Here is a video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYLMrJiVbNE&feature=youtu.be

First thing I did was get a drill, and drill several( about 15) holes all around the where I wanted the slot. I then got a grinding wheel and went to town.

After that, I put a sanding disc on the grinder and smoothed everything out.

But what I noticed when you take the taillight out, it leaves a 1" by 3" gap where water and all sorts of crap could get it. So for now, I just put some bondo in there since I am not the best tig welder.

Clean it up.

I smoothed out the inside a little, but since I would never see it, I didn't care.

Prime it, paint it, glue the strip in, and put the logo in.

Here it is on the bike.

 

[sparky300]

Very cool dude [up]

When you say "glue", what exactly did you use that didn't require backing behind the LED strip?

edit: what about wiring? Did you use a dual-element circuit?

 

[thrstrmech]

nice, you may want to put something behind the logo to keep water and dirt out

 

[zittele]

sparky300, I just used hot glue for now because I am going to paint it the dark grey color next year probably. And yes I got the dual element from radiantz, it'd like 5 bucks but they sent it to me for free.

thrstmech, I put tape on there for now. I am going to cut out a thin piece of plastic soon.

 

[nikfleisch]

[up]. Looking forward to seeing it in person.

 

[stellio78]

Very cool, I'd like to use the same light but with the DCC race tail http://www.dcc-germany.com/cms1/parts-shop/62.html

 

[sparky300]

What's your plan to mount the LED permanently?

 

[zittele]

I'm thinking some pl300 or something.

 

[DrogeN Omen]

that looks awesome. good work, Rep points given