[Jim Branham]

I asked JJ about a set of LED lights for those roof vents in the rear of the car. The outside holes for turn signals and the inner 4 a combo of park and brake lights. Am I the only one interested in such a thing? I know the vents need to function after the mod, but if it is possible....

 

[Jim Branham]

roof vent LED lights

What I was thinking of was turn signal lights in the outside vents and a combo of brake and park lights in the middle four. Think about how much that raises those idicater lights into the veiw of cars behind you. Even if you didn't get the LED tail lights, how much safer would you feel knowing those behind you can now easily see what you are doing- turning ,stopping, just driving? How many Opel GTs have you seen with damage in the rear just because the person in the rear didn't see the little GT there? I talked to JJ (E-mail) and he said he might consider doing a run like he did with the tail lights but we would need more than just myself in order to do it. I plan on doing this mod someday... but if we could get JJ to do it, it would be so much easier, and I hear JJ does quality work! Is there really so little interest in this kind of modification?

 

[willyrick]

I might be interested, depends upon the cost.

 

[pvcar]

i would also be interested but how much would be a factor.

 

[DESTEC (R.I.P.)]

Jim B.,

Sorry about your Opel guy, took out the rear molding too I see.

Anyway: I have a circuit board done that is .350" high and 3.5" long (I think, I am not home now) and can be used a a brake or tail light and can be daisy chained to any length one wants.
It will have (2) .125" holes on the center line for "some kind of mounting" I will have (5) high intensity LEDs. Red presumably.
I plan (if I make the board) to use (14) such modules to make a 2-digit 7-segment SPEED LIMIT sign that I can dial in the SPEED LIMIT and flash it to the tail gater behind me. This is for my truck rear window. The "digits" will be 6.5" high, made from these LED bar modules.
Hey, they're like Lincoln Logs, hook 'em up any way you want.

Drawing to follow.

JJ

 

[Gary]

Thread split to: Parking Lots & GT's

 

[DESTEC (R.I.P.)]

LED Bar drawing

LED light bar, small enough to fit into OGT rear vents.

 

[Jim Branham]

I see the connections are listed stop, ground, and tail. Does this mean each section responds to both park and brake signals or only one depending how it is wired into the cars wiring?

 

[Jim Branham]

Ok, I spoke to JJ on the phone and he explained it pretty well. The schematic above will function as follows: less intensity for the park lights and full power for the brake lights, or if you only connect one or the other, they will function at that power level. They can also be ordered in red or yellow. He anticipates a cost between 10-12 dollars per unit. These units, although somewhat weather resistant, would probably be better off in some kind of housing, which would be the buyers resposibility to fabricate. Also, the issue of the wiring route to the vent location is the buyers resposibility. I am thinking for myself to put the yellow in the outer vents and fill the rest with the red ones. Talk about visibility! For around $70 you can be sure no one is going to not see you and smack up your pride and joy. But we need more interest than the 6 I want for myself. Come on guys, there has only been 3 or 4 people interested so far, that's not enough to get JJ to do a run on these lights for us. There is no doubt about myself wanting these for my car. That's all I gain from trying to get this made. Let's do it!!!!

 

[opelenvy]

Darrin, this issue has been discussed before and has been strongly cautioned against blocking all the vents off with lights. These vents are functional. I believe it keeps your windows from fogging up when it is damp. I'm sure a couple wouldn't hurt anything, but running all the way across? I don't think you would get much air flow if you do that.
I, myself, have no experience with this just speaking from what others have said. I think it would be nice to have a center brake light 4"-6" wide though.

 

[GTJohn73]

Led strips

George is correct. Don't block all of the vents or you will have no airflow through the cockpit and your rear and front windows will fog up easily. It makes for very uncomfortable and dangerous driving.

Count me in on two of the units as a high-mount third brake light in the center vents. Let's get this going so JJ can make a run of these.

- John

 

[Jim Branham]

I agree that blocking the vents off is a bad idea. They draw a vacumn to the interior to draw out fumes and all, and are connected to a drain hose to release water that comes in the vent. I am not an expert on the matter... but if the LED assemly is 2 1/2" long and goes into a 4" wide slot, wouldn't it leave enough room for the vent to do its job? What if only a couple of the vents were partly obstucted by the LED assembly? Any experts out there with some math formula to figure this out? It would be nice to see some numbers for partial obstuction to the middle 2 vents, then the middle 4, and then partial obstruction to all 6 vents. These assemblies shouldn't have to completely restrict the air flow, the big question is "How much will they restrict it and how much will it affect the function of those vents to vent the interior?" Hey... I want these LED assemblies to make things safer, not to asphyxiate myself!!... Whoa, that's brutal! Anybodies $.02 worth is appreciated here... BTW, GGT, these LEDs are 2 1/2" long, put 2 of the red assemblies in the middle, seperated by the metal between the vents and there you go, a 4"-6" wide center brake light. They can be daisy chained together to whatever legth you want. I see this as an oppurtunity for me, or anybody else, to get some prefabricated LED assemblies just like you see in the schematic above, for 3rd brake lights and for whatever else I may find a use for them

 

[opelenvy]

I agree, two of these together would make a perfect center brake light and surely wouldn't block enough air flow to worry about. Just a matter of the wiring. If you have your headliner out, no problem. I don't. Jimsky did a similar deal I believe but some wire was visible.
The weatherproofing would be pretty easy since they don't need any air, you can completely encapsule them.
Count me in for two if anyone is counting.

 

[Jim Branham]

vent LED

I am in for 4 yellow and 8 red, I have more than 1 GT. That makes 12 red and 4 yellow. Great, Lets get that count up there!! I think with the spare tire well out of there, you could probably fish a wire down the vent from the outside to the inside where the tube for the drain connects. My spare tire well is out now due to a rearending I just got in a parking lot, I'll see how tough it is tomorrow and post it.

 

[ski-doug]

I have been thinking about this idea as well. There are some commercial off the shelf units for motorcycles that I have been looking at however they are more than double the price at 29.99 each for 4.5 inches. Plus another 10 bucks if you want them high/low to double as running lights.

JJ, I'm in for a set of 2 amber and 4 red.

As for the vents, I looked pretty close at that as well, and don't think these will be a problem because the majority of the vent flow areas are on either side, with three supplemental holes that are only about 1/4 inch and are hiding behind the three middle pillars. I imagine that the two outer vents draw sideways from the large openings and as long as these units could be adhered closely to the back wall the air should flow in front of them, and not that they need it, cool them. As for the middle four the air flow comes out of the rather small 1/4" holes and as long as the connecting wires are secured high these should not be a problem either. If it started fogging up I would simply enlarge the center holes. Not that I will ever find out, I live in Southern California and don't even know why they put wipers on cars except to clean the smog off the windscreen

 

[cougar6]

LEDs

Do these LED bars fit the bill (available in lengths from 1.25 to 48 inches, different colors, and choice of wheatherproof or not)?

http://www.ledlightingsystemsinc.com/pages/LightBar/lb250s.htm

Oops! Can't spell weather.

 

[ski-doug]

the weather proof ones wont work because 7/8" is way too big. If you could find out if the other ones are less than .375" (3/8") then they may work. You would want to get the 60 degree view ones as 10 degrees would be hard to aim so that suv's and monster trucks could still see you.

My thought on weather proofing jj's would be to slip them into a piece of 1/2" clear heat shrink tubing and then if needed cut small holes for the LED's to poke through. Then I would use the high strength clear double sided mounting tape from scotch to mount them.

 

[DESTEC (R.I.P.)]

Jim B,

I sent you a working model (hand wired) of the Brake / Tail, 5-LED bar assy.

Too, keep in mind group, we are just running this up the flag pole to see who salutes. I have not decided yet to produce this gizzmo. But Jim B. can evaluate one now, and post his impressions of its usefullness.

JJ

 

[Jim Branham]

fishing wire to the vents

Wow! It wasn't easy but I got a wire into the first round hole inside the vents on the passenger side to go all the way to the back end. It seems like these vents have double walls or something. When I first tried to fish it it went all the way to the right and I could see the wire inside the vent from the outside of the car . I could see it behind the metal wall inside the vents, all the way to the end of the vents. This area seems to dead end there. Finaly it seemed to go into another passage that was behind that same first hole and also went all the way over to the right and I could not see it from outside looking into the vent. I was able to hook it with another wire that I brought up the channel formed by the outer skin on the rear fender and the wheel well area, I think this is the same way the dome light wires get up there. Now, I had a car without a headliner in it so it was much easier to get that wire from the vent to the passenger side and hooked onto the wire I ran up from the rear fender area because I hooked the vent wire first from the tiniest little opening inside the car where the vent wall curves downward at the top of the rear window. I pulled a lot of extra through and then stuck a couple of feet of wire into that tiny opening and was the able to hook into a piece of all that extra wire and pull it down from the rear. I think it would have been a lot harder if I wasn't able to pull the vent wire first from the tiny opening inside the car with no headlinerand then feed a lot of extra wire into that space in order to have a better chance of hooking it. It took about an hour and that was with the spare tire area already out of the car. The wire will be completely hidden. If anyone's interested, I could post some pics of the route.

 

[Jim Branham]

wire route from vent to rear end

First, the hole in the vent. Pay no mind to the arrow, it's the blue wire we are looking at.