DSMTalk Forums: Mitsubishi Eclipse, Plymouth Laser, and Eagle Talon Forum banner

Talon center section lights up finally! 56K beware

76K views 170 replies 52 participants last post by  Jason99GSX 
#1 ·
Many years ago a guy asked about lighting up the center section of the 2G Talons. I also had that desire but up until today, no one has posted that it has been done. I went through a few Talon center sections trying to figure it out. Than my car was rear ended and it destroyed part of the center section. Looking at it an idea popped up. Than I went to work on this long awaited plan for Unique-ness.
Because I had broken center sections I was able to test my ideas. And now I can positively say that it has been done finally! The one thing that 2G Talon owners can finally say is unique.

For the job I used a knife, Blue masking tape, A flat head screw driver, a Dremel, A blow dryer, one 72 LED strip, A razor blade, White paint, Silver paint, and alot of patience.
I taped up the knifes' edge with Blue masking tape so I can hold it like a pencil.

With the center section, You will have to first Dremel off all the tabs that hold the Yellow/Red plastic to the black backing piece. I set it on low speed so that I can cut the plastic without melting it. If it melts, it would fuse with the black making it much more difficult to remove. I used a carbide bit.

Cut the little tabs all the way around. Make sure to get them all.


Than with the blow dryer I started to heat up the rear black part a little. Not too much heat or you will warp the thin Black plastic. (ask me how I know:p One of the center sections that was scrapped:mad:)I just heat it up till it was warm than slowly, and I mean SLOWLY start to pry the two parts off. The red/Yellow plastic is one piece but can break real easily where the two colors meet. I just took my time and used the flat head screw driver to help with the prying and used the razor to cut away the stretching rubbery glue. It took me about 45 minutes to take them apart without breaking or cracking the yellow/red section. (I did break one set though previously:rolleyes: for trying to rush it)



After they are apart wash them good. Place a soft towel on your workbench and lay the TALON center piece on its face.Than slowly take your knife and scrape off just the raised edges of each letter. Each letter took me about an hour EACH!!! Try not apply force to the plastic while working because plastic is not flat. I used the edge of my work bench to try and get the piece as flat as possible. The hardest letters are the O and the N. If you slip with the knife just take silver paint and touch it up. Use a light behind the plastic so you can see the area where you need to cover the mistakes. Light will shine through allowing you to see the mistakes.
Nice and clean.


Each letter should look like this.

Now whats gonna happen is that when you scrape off the edges and shine light behind the letter, only the border around the BLACK will light up! Thats the secret. The letters are actually painted black on the front from the factory so scrapeing off from the back edges will permit light to flow into the yellow plastic therfore emitting a glow around the letters. You have to take your time because you only want to scrape off the raised edges and no where else! I made a scribe around the edges of each letter as well in the embosed area. The edges has to be completely free of silver paint for the full effect of the glow around the black letters. Whats cool and a side effect that was not planned is that the light will travel a short distance into the yellow plastic and make an Aura around each letter.





Fix the mistakes. This is what the mistakes would look like from the front with light shining behind it. Use silver paint

Next you will notice that there are two parts where the plastic does not extend down. The two areas where the license plate lights go. To ensure that these area emit the same amount of light as the longer sections I made extensions. I took 26 guage sheet metal and cut out 2 pieces at 1" x 6". These pieces was then screwed on to the black housing. I painted the back side of the metal strips black.
 
See less See more
15
#149 ·
Can i get a little more info on how to wire it into the license plate lights? I have no idea on how to start with something like that. I will base whether i attempt this or not on if i think i can do that part. And is there any other way to get those clips off in the first few steps without the dremel?
 
#154 ·
heres some pics of the progress. i first taped and sprayed the inside silver metallic, then flat black and then white gloss, all very thin layers. i then used a small dremel bit (used for intricate designs and signatures) to get mostly the paint off. Just enough where a little orange starts showing. then proceeded with a utility blade to get the rest off and make a clean edge. i was able to get it done (lettering) in 3 hours. dremel helps get the bulk that can wear your hand out and slow you down. :evillaugh:

i also taped out TALON on the outside (took about 2 hours just taping :freakout: ) because it was fading and could see orange like everyone's complaint about the factory paint. The factory paint didnt not seem like paint, almost a tint, so i got some tail light tint spray, did four THIN coats, and left it semi gloss. (i actually kinda like it glossy) If you try to touch up it wont look right, do the whole thing even of its just the N and the T that needs it. And make sure you get tape up on the sides of the bossed/stamped letters. taping the whole thing and then cutting around it wont do :huh: (paint stops at the top edge, if you cut it after taping, it wont look right). Cut it before CAREFULLY placing it around the lettering.

now i just need to touch up where i slipped with the razor..... (grabs paint brush) ......NOW!:burnout:
 

Attachments

#156 · (Edited)
So nice to see people still interested in doing what I invented. Keep it up fellas.

And with regards to the LED...the major requirement is that the LED strip fits between the front cover and the rear cover. You will want closely spaced LED's so that the light will light up the word TALON evenly.

i then used a small dremel bit (used for intricate designs and signatures) to get mostly the paint off. Just enough where a little orange starts showing. then proceeded with a utility blade to get the rest off and make a clean edge. i was able to get it done (lettering) in 3 hours. dremel helps get the bulk that can wear your hand out and slow you down. :evillaugh:
I tried using that Dremel tool bit, but because it can actually remove plastic material you can make more errors. The best way is with just the blade, and in my case a knife. It takes longer to do but is well worth it because you won't have to chase after all the errors. Remember that the errors will show up in the front when the lights illuminate and make your work look like crap. Also remmeber with the errors, you want to make sure to use silver paint first just as the factory did so you can ensure that it blends in with the rest of the panel, than cover with black than white paint.
The black paint is the barrier from the light preventing it from shining through and the white is used as the reflector to help illuminate the leds more evenly and brightly.
 
#157 · (Edited)
Yeah. I actually did a base silver for any factory mistakes then the black and then gloss white. I didn't have flat and didn't have much funds at the time so i used a can i already had. unfortunately the gloss made it difficult to remove all that paint. So it was pretty forgiving using the dremel with all that paint. And of course i followed up with some silver i still had left for the knife mistakes.

I keep forgetting to get good pictures of it. I need to get a video though to see it in action.

I used a relay to switch between the white leds on running lights on the top facing down and a red small-led strip on the bottom facing upwards on the inside when i hit the brakes. Not as bright as you'd expect using small leds but i wanted to add my peice to the wonderful job tarantula did.
 
#165 ·
I'm going to be using amber LEDs as it will be brighter. White LEDs are a different wave length so some of the light is blocked by the amber lens.
I'll post pictures when I finish.
I would think mine is really bright as I'm using super bright white LED's. I would think that amber would not be as bright as you state as it would match the amber of the tail panel. If anything the letters would look more orange. Interesting to see the difference.

Great job you guys!
 
#166 ·
Look at my earlier post on this page. It's not completely enclosed but that's an amber LED board I made. When I do my LED tails I'll be making a complete board for the TALON part, should be really cool.
There's a difference, not sure how much of one.

I might be sticking with white unless I can find an US seller that will ship to Canada for the amber LEDs.
 
#167 ·
If you can fit a board, with more LED's than that would make the letters brighter...I agree. But I'm referring to a strip of LED's as that is the original design.
The LED board would be an updated and therefore would be better. More options, and more LED's. Than I would surely say yes, brighter.

But if you are using one strip of LED's in amber, I would beg to differ that it would be brighter.
Either way great job. Makes me proud.
 
#171 ·
This is awesome! I think I may do this with my Talon. I had an idea like that awhile ago before I even had a Talon, I just always thought it would be cool if the letters lit up just like this. Thanks for posting this up!

-Jason
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top