Finally Ordered them! General lighting mod thread.

[Steeda04SVT]

I was considering getting some LED replacement bulbs for the marker lights, both front and rear. but I believe I would have to get some sort of resistor setup so that they don't flash so rapidly. I was also considering getting some clear, with chrome reflector headlight housing so that I can use them to get the most light output, and then use the blackout ones for the retrofit. I would just keep the blacked out marker lights on until the retrofit was done.

I did the LED turn signal flashers and parking lights and rear turn signals and back up lights and for the turn signals all I needed to add to get rid of the quick flashers was add a heavy duty flasher relay and it works fine on mine.

 

[scottyV2012]

whats the part number for the LED's????

So instead of doing multiple threads about my lighting upgrades, I am just doing them all here. So I got my new License Plate light covers, and LEDs! I also made a stop to Harbor Freight, and got a few Goodies for my light bar, and some of those $7 lights I talked about above.

Pictures:

LEDs $6.99 of Ebay, Lights I want to say where $4 off of Rock Auto

Part number if anybody wants it.

Close up of the LED, I wasn't sure how much room was in the light housing so I got the smallest one.

Harbor Freight Lights, $6.99 Each... Similar to the HID look a likes that are 5 times the price.

Close up of them.

Harbor Freight Off Road Lights, $12.99 Each. Glass Lenses.

Like I said, alot of lighting upgrade to my Explorer this year, also Still waiting on the head lights, they at least arrived into IL today, so I will either have them tomorrow, or Monday.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

whats the part number for the LED's????

To be honest I am not sure. I just got them off of Ebay, I typed in "SMD 194 bulb 12 volt", and these came up. I don't believe the numbers on the bags are a reference for a part number. I think there is a link on the second page at the bottom.

 

[Paraphoe]

Yea, simply plug and play, I made sure to search for 12 volt LEDs, only thing you need to worry about is polarity, since LEDs are diodes... here is the exact link to the ones I bought.

LED EBAY Bulbs

Thanks bud, I'm gonna make this happen.

 

[Paraphoe]

Installed the new housings and LED bulbs Wendesday night. SUPER simple, plug-and-play, and they look great. Thanks dude, nice little upgrade.

Next step is to change over all the interior lighting to LEDs.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Installed the new housings and LED bulbs Wendesday night. SUPER simple, plug-and-play, and they look great. Thanks dude, nice little upgrade.

Next step is to change over all the interior lighting to LEDs.

Isn't the light output great? I love mine, I am sure the cops who drive behind me at night do aswell, lol. I sort of like my overhead lights to be incandescent but my cluster lights are for sure being swapped for LEDs.

An update for the truck finally, sorry guys, school finals, work, and everything else caught up with me. Today I had the whole entire day off!!! YAY, so I finally got to Nightshading the tail lights, and blacking out the grill center, along with many other things, I am hoping to have everything on the truck on Friday, but we will see how the weather, and my self hold up.

 

[YoungMounty]

Got some LED bulbs for my tag lights thanks to this thread.
Before: (notice the one out)

After:

The right one in the after pick looks yellow-ish but they are both LED white (and bright) in person.

 

[Paraphoe]

Isn't the light output great? I love mine, I am sure the cops who drive behind me at night do aswell, lol. I sort of like my overhead lights to be incandescent but my cluster lights are for sure being swapped for LEDs.

An update for the truck finally, sorry guys, school finals, work, and everything else caught up with me. Today I had the whole entire day off!!! YAY, so I finally got to Nightshading the tail lights, and blacking out the grill center, along with many other things, I am hoping to have everything on the truck on Friday, but we will see how the weather, and my self hold up.

They look great on mine- especially with the LED tail light strip I have. And I just finished re-tinting my tails (did it years ago and they were looking weathered) and re-powder coating my taillight guards. The rear of the truck looks nice and fresh! Haha.

Post up pics so we can see how the tails come out. If you're using VHT, be careful - it only takes a couple of coats - that **** gets dark FAST.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Got some LED bulbs for my tag lights thanks to this thread.
Before: (notice the one out)

After:

The right one in the after pick looks yellow-ish but they are both LED white (and bright) in person.

Glad the thread helped you out. looks a lot better, and now the cops cannot bother you for having the lights out.

They look great on mine- especially with the LED tail light strip I have. And I just finished re-tinting my tails (did it years ago and they were looking weathered) and re-powder coating my taillight guards. The rear of the truck looks nice and fresh! Haha.

Post up pics so we can see how the tails come out. If you're using VHT, be careful - it only takes a couple of coats - that **** gets dark FAST.

I did 2 coats and it was REAL dark. then 6 coats of clear, lol. I am actually about to go outside to wet sand and polish, I might put them on today, we'll see.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Well after many hours of wet sanding, polishing, and fitting stuff, I got everything installed today! I didn't take too many pictures, but I got some. So here is everything!

Here are the befores of the tail lights, the CHMSL I had to paint on the truck, so in these pictures it has been painted, but not yet wet sanded, or polished.

Afters of the tails, after a couple hours of wet sanding, and polishing....

Befores of the Front...

Disassembly... No wonder my parking lights moved when I went over bumps...

Oh noes what happened to the grill!?!?!?!

So what is the the part in front of the grill made of, because it sure seems to not be any sort of plastic...

Found the grill, and all done, minus headlight adjusting...

The new/used grill... I painted it BLAAACK

I hid the wiring for the Hella a lot better this time.

Daytime illumination, Everything shows up great!

Nighttime illumination... After adjusting it for 45 minutes. :thumbdwn:

I really like the look of the reflectors.

These things are Hella Bright!

Night time illumination was really impressive, the nightshades let out WAY more light then I expected.

running lights...

Brake lights on...

And that is all the pictures I have fore now. I can tell everybody right now if you plan on replacing you head lights like I did, and you have a brush guard like I do, take it off, because it will make everything take 10x longer then it should. I also suggest watching the 1Aauto video for removing the head lights, it really helps me out a lot. Although with these lights matching up the adjusters is useless, because of the different light pattern.

So what do you guys think?

 

[Ford1288]

Looks awesome! Thank you for the update, I will definitely be buying those headlights. I wish you were local to me, I'd pay for you to tint my tail lights like that.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Looks awesome! Thank you for the update, I will definitely be buying those headlights. I wish you were local to me, I'd pay for you to tint my tail lights like that.

To be honest it was my first time really painting something like this. I really just took my time, and did everything right. First step is to clean the lights, then hit them with some 1500 grit wet sand paper, then clean them real good again, I used denatured alcohol. then 2 coats of night shades, but don't be too heavy, or you will get runs. then after that I did 6 coats of clear, just be real careful with the clear, because it may not look like your putting it on, but you are, it is real easy to put too much on and have a lot of runs. after that I let them cure for 48 hours, then hit them with some 2000 grit wet sand paper, and then used some Meguiars Ultimate Compound until I was clear enough to see my reflection.

If you are like me and mask off the reverse lights, you will have to spend a lot more time getting rid of the line that the tape made, for me you can see the color difference, but you cannot feel it at all, which is totally fine with me. good luck man, it really isn't that hard, just have some patience. it really helped me that I was also painting 2 other things, so I had no down time to get inpatient, once I was done with the last thing 10 minutes went by and it was on to another coat for the first thing.

 

[98Explrrrrer]

Looks really nice man !! been looking @ the lights myself on ebay nice to see how they look installed and lit up.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Looks really nice man !! been looking @ the lights myself on ebay nice to see how they look installed and lit up.

You mean the photoshopped ones they have on the add doesn't sell it for you??? lolol. But they look pretty sick, I really like the reflectors.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

MORE MODS!!!!

This time I finally took apart my dash and got rid of the old bulbs, and installed some 194 SMD LEDs!!! The difference is AMAZING!

BEFORE:

AFTER!!!:

What a HUGE upgrade with not that much work needed. I am really liking the Blue color, but I am not sure how I went from green t blue, but I don't really care because it now matches my stereo.

 

[FIND]

It is the coating on the back of the gauges. Pre-98 explorers used a bluish filter that lighted pale green with yellowish incandescents behind it. LEDs use a more narrow spectrum of light, and a whiter light, so the light coming through appears blue.

98+ Explorers use a green filter.


Plus, many of the cheap LEDs that are advertised white, come out more blue than white.

 

[Jaocagomez]

MORE MODS!!!!

This time I finally took apart my dash and got rid of the old bulbs, and installed some 194 SMD LEDs!!! The difference is AMAZING!

BEFORE:

AFTER!!!:

What a HUGE upgrade with not that much work needed. I am really liking the Blue color, but I am not sure how I went from green t blue, but I don't really care because it now matches my stereo.

Omg there's a HUGE difference!

is it hard to change the dash lightbulbs? actually my dash looks darker than your first pic.

can you post pictures how to do it or how many 194 smd leds does it need?
thanks in advance.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Omg there's a HUGE difference!

is it hard to change the dash lightbulbs? actually my dash looks darker than your first pic.

can you post pictures how to do it or how many 194 smd leds does it need?
thanks in advance.

T change the bulbs is not really hard at all, it seems like it is, but I really think it is quite easy. I followed MustangP51's thread about it, and used the same SMD LEDs that I used for my license plate lights. There are 6 LEDs in all that you have to replace.

Here is a link to the thread, full of great information!

Link on how to remove the gauge cluster!

 

[1996BLKBauer]

It is the coating on the back of the gauges. Pre-98 explorers used a bluish filter that lighted pale green with yellowish incandescents behind it. LEDs use a more narrow spectrum of light, and a whiter light, so the light coming through appears blue.

98+ Explorers use a green filter.


Plus, many of the cheap LEDs that are advertised white, come out more blue than white.

That makes sense for sure. I lit one of the bulbs I pulled up, and it seemed to be a little bit more yellow then a normal 194 bulb. No doubt that the LEDs are cheap, but they work, so I am not complaining.