Hello,
I just upgraded my tail lights and though i would share some of the info on here.
For background, i like to keep my truck looking more stock, it is a daily driver for work and i feel like most of the china/"performance" upgrades are really cheep and always leave something to be desired.
I have however always loved the high output of ambulance tail lights, and how they have that little strobe each time you hit the brakes to get your attention is awesome, i am sure you all have times when your on the freeway and people pretend not to see your turn signal, with that little strobe i now have a much better time merging on the freeway.
The little strobe is actually called "Signal Alert" and it is on most of the LED Whelen light heads. What is does it when you press the brake/turn signal the light flashes about 3-4 times very quickly then goes steady.
They make a few rectangle light heads with "signal alert" built in to them all different sizes, lucky for us the 400 series fits in our tail light housing perfectly.
What you will need:
8mm / 5/16 wrench
Dremel tool/oscillating tool
Silver Sharpie
Pair Whelen 400 series light heads (400 Series - Whelen Engineering Automotive)
Hot Glue Gun
It took me about an hr to complete so not a large time commitment. Best advice though is go slow make smaller cuts and take your time for the best fit.
First remove your old lights. There are 2 5/16 / 8mm bolts located in the tail gate jam that holds the light housing. Once you remove the bolt you have to pop the lights out with a little force, you do not need tools just your hands. Don't rotate the housing too much pull straight out. The bulbs just rotate to pop out.
Once you have your lights out find a good work place.
This is how the light heads arrive (they will also have a red cover i did not take a photo of.
As you can see it comes with a rubber gasket and mounting bracket of sorts, this is all used for a flush mount, but we are just going to use the mounting bracket as a template to make our cuts.
You can place the plastic bracket on the back of your housing and where the points make contact make a mark for your 4 screw holes.
Make sure you do not cut in to the screw hole areas, you can get away with just hot glue and a tight fit but the screws make me feel like it is lifetime quality.
Also when you make the screw hole locations keep in mind you want for them to be as close to the flat side as possible (top of image) and keep about 1/4" to 1/2" clearance from the metal grommet (you will see in a later step how i clear this gap out.)
Now you get to start cutting, in my last images you can see i already cut out my hole, I begin with cutting a tight line along the flat side as close as i can, then using the plastic mounting bracket you can gauge your other cuts, keep in mind little cuts and test fitting is the best way.
Even though the left and right sides in the photo above appear curved they are actually straight lines if you look at it from the top of bottom, it is the curve of the reflector that created that curve and it worked out to perfectly cup the led's in the light head.
This is the next cut, on the flat side you need to cut approx. 1/8" off of the edge to flatten the top out.
Idealy you want a tight fit, the light head will not fall in to it's location you should have to push it in firmly and it should hold it self in under friction alone.
Here is a photo from the end with the light head just resting on the fixture, you can see how i cut a little too much from the right hand side but that is what the hot glue is for.
all you have to do is press down and it pops right in.
I just upgraded my tail lights and though i would share some of the info on here.
For background, i like to keep my truck looking more stock, it is a daily driver for work and i feel like most of the china/"performance" upgrades are really cheep and always leave something to be desired.
I have however always loved the high output of ambulance tail lights, and how they have that little strobe each time you hit the brakes to get your attention is awesome, i am sure you all have times when your on the freeway and people pretend not to see your turn signal, with that little strobe i now have a much better time merging on the freeway.
The little strobe is actually called "Signal Alert" and it is on most of the LED Whelen light heads. What is does it when you press the brake/turn signal the light flashes about 3-4 times very quickly then goes steady.
They make a few rectangle light heads with "signal alert" built in to them all different sizes, lucky for us the 400 series fits in our tail light housing perfectly.
What you will need:
8mm / 5/16 wrench
Dremel tool/oscillating tool
Silver Sharpie
Pair Whelen 400 series light heads (400 Series - Whelen Engineering Automotive)
Hot Glue Gun
It took me about an hr to complete so not a large time commitment. Best advice though is go slow make smaller cuts and take your time for the best fit.
First remove your old lights. There are 2 5/16 / 8mm bolts located in the tail gate jam that holds the light housing. Once you remove the bolt you have to pop the lights out with a little force, you do not need tools just your hands. Don't rotate the housing too much pull straight out. The bulbs just rotate to pop out.
Once you have your lights out find a good work place.
This is how the light heads arrive (they will also have a red cover i did not take a photo of.
As you can see it comes with a rubber gasket and mounting bracket of sorts, this is all used for a flush mount, but we are just going to use the mounting bracket as a template to make our cuts.
You can place the plastic bracket on the back of your housing and where the points make contact make a mark for your 4 screw holes.
Make sure you do not cut in to the screw hole areas, you can get away with just hot glue and a tight fit but the screws make me feel like it is lifetime quality.
Also when you make the screw hole locations keep in mind you want for them to be as close to the flat side as possible (top of image) and keep about 1/4" to 1/2" clearance from the metal grommet (you will see in a later step how i clear this gap out.)
Now you get to start cutting, in my last images you can see i already cut out my hole, I begin with cutting a tight line along the flat side as close as i can, then using the plastic mounting bracket you can gauge your other cuts, keep in mind little cuts and test fitting is the best way.
Even though the left and right sides in the photo above appear curved they are actually straight lines if you look at it from the top of bottom, it is the curve of the reflector that created that curve and it worked out to perfectly cup the led's in the light head.
This is the next cut, on the flat side you need to cut approx. 1/8" off of the edge to flatten the top out.
Idealy you want a tight fit, the light head will not fall in to it's location you should have to push it in firmly and it should hold it self in under friction alone.
Here is a photo from the end with the light head just resting on the fixture, you can see how i cut a little too much from the right hand side but that is what the hot glue is for.
all you have to do is press down and it pops right in.