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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.
 
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#7 ·
And it would look like ass. I like the stock look. Black would look terrible in daylight against the red/yellow tail lights.

I have always hated that "Modified" look with paint on the Talons tail lights.. Thats my opinion.
 
#4 · (Edited)
After this is done I took the LED strip and placed it just on the top portion of the housing. There is just enough room for the LED strip to ride in between the two halfs.
For light to flow throughout the area better, I had to paint the black housing under the Yellow TALON portion White. This makes it light the whole area better and more uniform. I made a test video explaining using one of my damaged center pieces.
You tube Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4VYquK-jd4

Now I still have yet to fully assemble it but as shown in my test video, it looks like a success...
Heres a picture of the test with the actual finished Talon center section. Bear in mind its not fully seated so light escapes all over the place. This will give you an idea.


Since the one I bought was badly sun damaged, I had to refinish the license plate section. Ii used a mouse sander to fully sand down the imperfections with 220. Than I used 1500 and wet sanded it smooth. Than coated it with 4-5 coats of Black.
 
#10 ·
That sounds like fun, let me know when you are up for it.
No I meant the inside, so the excess light doesn't shine out from around the lettering.
I would like to try it this way, unless the black on the inside would make the center section darker, I don't know for sure if it will but we can try it out, i'll see if I can get some other talon centers to mess with in case the first one does not work out.

Light still wants to travel "Through" the plastic where you scrape in the bevel wall
Understood.

I just want to know if I'll need to make a led strip or if I can buy it somewhere, Thanks again for the great idea and step by step/ video tarantula.
 
#9 · (Edited)
It cannot be done. Light still wants to travel "Through" the plastic where you scrape in the bevel wall. There is no way to stop the light from traveling through the plastic. That would defeat the purpose of getting light to shine past the black letters which from the factory was painted from the outside.
This project took 6 years to perfect. I have tried everything. (and spent alot of money trying my ideas only to scrap various center section:p)

I'm proud to be the first and so far the only one to figure this out for the Talons.

EDIT: Oh and forgot to post the thread which started it....http://www.dsmtalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85813
 
#14 · (Edited)
Oh and the LED strip I used is 72 bulb strip. You can get them cheap from Ebay. They are from Japan.
To get them to fit, you cut off the last three making it 69 leds.The strip I used was the biggest and most (in quantity) LED's you can get in a strip.
Most strips are a Tape design and the LED's are just too small to make the lighting bright enough. the one I used is not a tape design.
 
#19 ·
The more the better. Since theres hardly any room in between the front and back sections, I needed the most lights I can get in there to ensure a nice even light flow. There is like about a 1/16 of an inch of exposed plastic for light to escape to shine through around the black letters. If you use less, than the light might not shine evenly or worst, will not be bright enough. I want people to see what car is leaving their ass behind at night:p
 
#17 ·
Forgot to post this but heres what the center section looks like AFTER the modification.


Looks like I never touched it. I plan to paint the inside White both on the backing and behind the letters to maximize the lighting. As shown in the video and in all the pics, I did not paint anything yet.
It will be a while until I get it assemble and on the car. maybe next week. I'm still refinishing the center section. My whole car was redone from the outside (repaint, all new glass and moldings etc.) so i can't have an old looking center plate section. I even polished the tail lights.
 
#18 ·
The light is refracting through the plastic itself so there would be no way to eliminate that, but I agree it looks nice. My dad has been wanting this for some time on his talon. After I paint my tsi, I will look into doing this. Would it be possible to stick the section in the oven and bake it at like 200 degrees? I know it works very well with headlights and it might make the process a little easier.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Would it be possible to stick the section in the oven and bake it at like 200 degrees? I know it works very well with headlights and it might make the process a little easier.
Ha I tried that too!!!!LOL Fist its too large to fit in the oven at one time as most ovens are 30" wide. And when I stuck part of it and put it to 200F it warped like a mofo. That center sections was scraped instantly LOL I was pretty mad. The plastic where the license sits on is really thin.

There was two other methods I was going to try to make the adheasive soft.
1) Blow dryer
2) a tub of hot water.

The blow dryer worked so I never needed to stick the center section in the tub.
I did test a strip of the glue and though it does not melt really, it gets stretchy like gum.
 
#27 ·
Now that is a real compliment. I was hoping that finally the Talon could have something that the eclipse could not have. Everyone is always converting their rear Talon into rear Eclipses. This gives the Talons something to be proud of. ;)

I gotta hand it to you thats the coolest accessory i've seen done to these cars, and to be able to say that you were the first one to make it work is priceless. Nice job wish I was that smart and to have the patience for 6 years to do it.
Thanks guys, really. I knew that this would be really cool to figure out. Theres only one other car from the factory that had a similar lighted name plate. The Pontiac Sunfire IIRC. It had the word Pontiac in red light up at night but it was not even with the lighting or bright.

I hope to see others with completed rear center pieces. This was a really hard task and patience is key to getting it right. It real tedious work. If you notice the dates on the pictures of the finished lighted letters you can see how I did not do it all in one shot or all in one week. I actually had to bring myself to do it with every letter. The last two letters (O and N) I just took the plunge and dedicated 2 hours. Locked myself in the hot garage with no food or water, LOL. With every letter my wrist felt the burn.
I really do feel proud to be the first and to date the only one to have this. Priceless indeed!
I am looking foward to seeing more done and posted here in this thread. As with everything I have done (modifications), it always a joy to share it with other DSM'ers.
I wish this could be made a sticky.
 
#31 ·
I'm like Mac. I like it when people think out of the box. Try new things, new ideas, and prove that it can be done.
Only bad thing my daughter seen this. Now I might have to figure it out for a 1g eclipse. As if just keeping the thing running isn't hard enough. But great job. How long do you think it will be before some noob ask where he can buy one. Or better yet "What year of Talon had the lit up Talon emblem and can I change it to mine." LOL
 
#33 ·
This is so far the only update I have. Its coming along. I painted both sides of the LED lighting with White enamel paint. I used a sponge brush. Painting around the letters was real slow. I used the dabbing method to paint only using the tip of the sponge brush. It took a long time but worth it. I also wet sanded the black portion with 2000 grit and than buffed to a nice shine. After the white dries I will start the assembly.

 
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