Illuminated SVT Fender Vent Myself

[infinitereality]

Not wanting to drop $200 on Recon brand illuminated SVT fender vents, I decided in an attempt to accomplish it myself with stock vents.
I ordered a sheet of 1/8” HDPE. I ordered a bigger sheet than needed, at the time had plans on the rest of it. Using a jig saw with wood blade I cut out each piece. I took the pieces to the belt sander to smooth down the edges as well as vertically sand the front and back side of the HDPE (more on reason for this later)
HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) Sheet, Opaque Off-White, Standard Tolerance, ASTM D4976-245, 0.125" Thickness, 12" Width, 24" Length: Polyethylene Plastic Raw Materials: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

I carefully removed the fender vents and debated on how to adhere the HDPE to them. I know HDPE can be pretty difficult to glue and was the main reason I sanded the front and back. I wasn’t confident that 2-part epoxy would hold and happen to come across my wife’s hot glue gun. I tried it out on sanded scrap piece of HDPE and actually worked fantastic.

I cutout the area of the fender just wide enough to fit the fender vents with applied HDPE. I happen to have a 4 waterproof 3” amber LED strips laying around from a previous project so after cleaning the area with rubbing alcohol I attached them vertically inside the fender as the pictures show. Soldered the wires to the existing fender vent LEDs, wrapped in electrical tape and heat shrink. Link to LED strips:
2 Amber Bright 3" 9 LED Waterproof Flexible Light Strip Black PCB Backing IP65 | eBay

Everything came out better than expected, the HDPE disperses the light perfectly so there is no hot spots shining through. The SVT isn’t too bright no too dim, it’s illuminated perfectly.

 

[Idleone]

I like it. I assume you could just do the "svt" and have it come on when the doors open only like the puddle lights? I think I would like it just not full time.

 

[infinitereality]

If you could locate the dome light wire to tag it'd be easily done. I just have mine wired to parking lights.

 

[Idleone]

Werd. Think I may try this. Thanks for the write up. Im going to see if i can block the vents with some black HDPE and just have the svt light up with the dome. How is the color match on the led's you posted?

 

[maguro]

Would this only work on a white truck, since the hdpe is white? Or can you get hdpe in different colors

 

[infinitereality]

The LED color is perfect match with factory running lights.

To be honest, I'm not sure what other colors they may make HDPE out of. I know people with the Recon brand illuminated SVT logos come white not matter what color they illuminate. They were putting some sort of film in front of them to match the truck color accent the truck color.

---------- Post added at 12:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 PM ----------

I forgot to add a picture of how it looks without the LEDs on

 

[Idleone]

I googled HDPE and it comes in lots of colors on amazon. Thanks for the reply

 

[infinitereality]

I googled HDPE and it comes in lots of colors on amazon. Thanks for the reply

Sweet!!! Are they all translucent though? I've had experience with HDPE and LEDs before in white, I wonder if LDPE would be more translucent?

 

[Evanscott29]

This is so cool. I've been meaning to do something like this for a while. I'll let you know what the black hdpe looks like


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[infinitereality]

Please do report back about the black.

Update... Hot glue is still holding good.