jschreiber
10+ Year Contributor
- 47
- 0
- Apr 30, 2009
-
Pensacola,
Florida
Ok so while doing my FMIC I removed my front bumper and decided it was time for a touch up. Sand, primer, paint, and repair some damage from years of road use.
While doing so and waiting for the primer to dry I wondered what I could do to spruce up the front a bit...give it some POP. Thats when it hit me.... a lit up DSM emblem would be awesome. Now Im sure that its been done before and after some research I didnt find anything about it, I figured I would give it a shot.......
First I used a sharp razor knife and cut out the emblem. Go slow and the diamonds come out great. The pumper cuts easy with a good knife.
Now earler I had shopped around and having done work with acrylic sheets previously I knew that would work well. Hobby Lobby and such have sheets of stuff like that and unfortunately they were all clear and that wont work. So I bought a picture album I found there that had covers made of frosted acrylic. Perfect.
Off to an auto parts store to look for lighting. The flexible strip led light work great. You want the 24inch or longer ones. I chose white.
I traced the DSM emblem and got the size I needed then drilled three holes, one at each tip of the diamond on the bumper. Around a 1/4 inch off each point.
Then traced those holes onto two pieces of the frosted sheeting and drilled those out too.
Now my dilemma was to figure out how to get the lights to stay in there and lght up the emblem good also. What I did was make a circle with the light strip with the lights facing in and wrapped them around the three small bolts that would be the bumper. Made that circle tight and it formed a loose triangle that matched the cutouts perfectly. Then placing one piece of sheeting over the hole on the back side of the bumper then the lights and lastly the other sheet making a tight sandwich that the lights couldn't move around in.
Worked great.
Still have to wire everything up and finish the bumper but all in all, so far so good.
Probably will splice onto the side marker lights since they are low volt...
Well thats it for now.
While doing so and waiting for the primer to dry I wondered what I could do to spruce up the front a bit...give it some POP. Thats when it hit me.... a lit up DSM emblem would be awesome. Now Im sure that its been done before and after some research I didnt find anything about it, I figured I would give it a shot.......
First I used a sharp razor knife and cut out the emblem. Go slow and the diamonds come out great. The pumper cuts easy with a good knife.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Now earler I had shopped around and having done work with acrylic sheets previously I knew that would work well. Hobby Lobby and such have sheets of stuff like that and unfortunately they were all clear and that wont work. So I bought a picture album I found there that had covers made of frosted acrylic. Perfect.
Off to an auto parts store to look for lighting. The flexible strip led light work great. You want the 24inch or longer ones. I chose white.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
I traced the DSM emblem and got the size I needed then drilled three holes, one at each tip of the diamond on the bumper. Around a 1/4 inch off each point.
Then traced those holes onto two pieces of the frosted sheeting and drilled those out too.
Now my dilemma was to figure out how to get the lights to stay in there and lght up the emblem good also. What I did was make a circle with the light strip with the lights facing in and wrapped them around the three small bolts that would be the bumper. Made that circle tight and it formed a loose triangle that matched the cutouts perfectly. Then placing one piece of sheeting over the hole on the back side of the bumper then the lights and lastly the other sheet making a tight sandwich that the lights couldn't move around in.
Worked great.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
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Still have to wire everything up and finish the bumper but all in all, so far so good.
Probably will splice onto the side marker lights since they are low volt...
Well thats it for now.
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