Mods - Exterior Discussion related to the looks of the exterior of the HHR.

Tail Light Mod, wondering if this would work...

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Old Oct 28, 2015 | 01:18 PM
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Tail Light Mod, wondering if this would work...

I had a thought and wondered if anyone had already tried to do this. Back in the 60's & 70's, there were a few domestic car companies that had clear lens tail light "sections" that were dual purpose. When the car was in reverse, a while bulb came on for reverse lights. At night when the tail lights were on, that area glowed in red; so the housing had two bulbs in the same area. This got me to thinking, has anyone "tried" to use a dremel to "cut in" another spot in the housing to insert another bulb (my thought would be a small running light socket with a red LED bulb). This is just a crazy idea, I don't know if there is room in the housing, and if there was, would bulbs would hit each other. Take a look at the pic I marked up and throw out some feedback.

Art
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Old Oct 28, 2015 | 02:45 PM
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Nope I've not seen that done!
Old Oct 29, 2015 | 07:02 AM
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How would the red light effect the back up light or would it?
Old Oct 29, 2015 | 07:07 AM
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If it would fit, I don't think the red LED being on (at night) would make a whole lot of difference. I think the white light from the back-up bulb would drown it out the short amount of time that it would be on (when backing up).

Last edited by a_bartle; Oct 29, 2015 at 09:14 AM.
Old Oct 29, 2015 | 08:58 AM
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SO your just looking to light up the red ring around the reverse light?

Is it a separate section? or all open? If it's all open that light would also shine out of the clear section.
Old Oct 29, 2015 | 09:05 AM
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Stop light with Spider LED, to give you an idea of brightness
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Old Oct 29, 2015 | 09:07 AM
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Stop light with blue dot! My personal favourite!
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Old Oct 29, 2015 | 09:08 AM
  #8  
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I would like the whole thing to glow red at night, wanting to add a little more "light" to the back end at night.
Old Oct 29, 2015 | 09:12 AM
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You mean like the LED tails in Solman98's signature pic?

These are cool!

http://m.ebay.com/itm/201455548361
Old Oct 29, 2015 | 09:27 AM
  #10  
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I love the LED tail lights on Solman98's HHR, they're really cool, but I didn't want to make that kind of investment (those aftermarket lights are pretty expensive). I've thought about doing the mod to remove the backup lights and replace them with a second set of tail lights, but then I'd need to come up with some kind of replacement back-up lights. I even thought about putting some small, round LED lights in the lower reflector area (3/4" round running lights I saw on eBay), but then that seemed like it could be problematic (I was worried about breaking the reflector trying to drill a 3/4" hole in it....). So this is just "another" idea I had, if there was room to "add" another bulb to the back-up light housing, it would be pretty easy to tap into the running lights for power, and work as a dual-purpose solution.



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