The Top DSM Community on the Web

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. Log in to remove most ads.

Please Support RTM Racing
Please Support STM Tuned

2G How To Light Center Tail Section For $75

This site may earn a commission from merchant
affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

We've all seen good and bad attempts to light the center taillight sections on 2Gs. Although they look good when finished, most of us don't have the time or skills to hand-build led boards.

Here's how we lit the center section of our 2G Spyder for $75.

Disclaimer: This documents how we upgraded our taillight. You are responsible for your own modifications, and any results that happen. You will have to remove some interior body panels to access the center section attachment bolts, and to access the wiring harness. We did not use voltage regulators in this application, which can protect the leds from over or under voltage. You may wish to include those if you do this mod.

Disassembling the center section is covered in other threads in this forum. We used the traditional oven heating technique to soften the lens-to-housing glue.

The toughest challenge was to get the silver "paint" off of the inside of the center section lens. Turns out the difficulty was because Mitsu used a lacquer paint that "melts" into the red lens. Great for longevity, but not for removing. We experimented with different techniques and chemicals, but the only thing that worked, without damaging the red lens, was careful sandblasting. As you can see in the picture below, the blasting was strong enough to removed the silver layer, but not flatten the "bumps" on the lens. This is important so that the look of the lens matches the other taillights when done. We paid our local favorite powdercoating shop $30 to blast this.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.



Next, we cleaned and painted the inside of the center section housing with chrome paint, so that it would reflect the indirect lighting of the leds to provide a light bar look.

We researched and found the perfect length, adhesive, weather-rated led strips, in warm white. The design was to have one strip on the top of the housing, and one strip on the bottom of the housing, that came on with the parking lights.

We added second strips, both top and bottom, to come on when the brake lights activated. This way, the brightness of the center section will increase in brightness at night, just like the outer taillights do.

The part number of the adhesive led strips is WFLS-WW30-WHT from superbightleds.com. $10 each times four (4).

Here is the picture of the painted housing, with the four strips of leds installed, two in the top and two on the bottom. NOTE: It looks like all four led strips are on the bottom of the housing in this shot, but that is the reflection of two strips off the chrome housing:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.



Now for the wiring. The wire needs to pass through the housing, so we drilled a hole in the corner of the housing and a matching larger one in the sheetmetal behind the housing, in order to get the wires next to the wiring harness. It is important you line up the holes exactly since the housing bolts up tight to the body sheetmetal and will pinch and cut the wires if it is not directly in line. Drilling a slightly larger hole in the body metal allows you to shift the center section around for best alignment, when remounting.

You must be logged in to view this image or video.


Wiring Connections:

Running Lights: One set of wire leads from each, the top and the bottom of the housing, connects to the parking lights in the harness, behind the left taillight.

Brake Lights: To make sure the second set of leds only came on with the brake lights, and not one of the turn signals, we wired one set of wire leads from each, the top and the bottom of the housing, to the factory center high-mounted brake light. In our case, since this is a Spyder, the factory brake light is in the trunk lid, directly over the center section, but coupes still use the same connection into the harness.

Here is a photo of a quick wiring test using the parking lights only:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.



After testing your wiring, finish bolting the center section to the car, reattach all interior panels, and clip the center lens into the lighted center section.

Below are pictures of the finished working project.

Running lights:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.



Brake lights:

You must be logged in to view this image or video.



We hope this has helped give some of you that want to light your center taillight section, a method to do this, without spending too much time or money.
 
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community
Boosted Fabrication ECM Tuning ExtremePSI Fuel Injector Clinic Innovation Products Jacks Transmissions JNZ Tuning Kiggly Racing Morrison Fabrications MyMitsubishiStore.com RixRacing RockAuto RTM Racing STM Tuned

Latest posts

Build Thread Updates

Vendor Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top