On all of my cars, I consistently rebuild my parts one at a time with LEDs. I recently built this brake light for my 2000 civic ex 4 door.

I started by removing the rear package tray so I could get the original lens and bulb setup out.



removing the lens for the 3rd brake light

I had previously designed this board for my Evo, and then modified it a little to make another one for my CRV, so why not modify it yet again and re-use some of the CAD for the Civic?

I made a cutout from cardboard to trace the original civic lens. Then I scanned it, and drew it in CAD to get the shape perfect.

I need to cut a piece of copper clad fiberglass to the appropriate size for my pcb

Here I am using PCB paper to print a laser toner image on and then transfer this onto the copper. Once this is done I will etch the board with acid.

Here I am printing out a quick paper copy of the PCB design and doing a "sanity check" to make sure the design will work (just tracing the circuit by hand and making sure there are no mistakes)

 

Here is the board after etching and trimming. You can see the traces came out really clean

Drilling the holes for the LEDs

Holes done.

Here I painted the back side of the board black, and let it sit over night to cure.

This is the front side of the board. 28 LEDs total.

Just testing this. about 400 mA of current draw.

test fitting the board into the package tray housing

 

f




final result

final result

 

Wow. I like it because its different and the effort you put into it

 

Very nice. We have similar taste in body style and color as well (Titanium Metallic sedan)!

 

Thank you. For me this was purchased as a used car so I didn't get a choice of color and body style. I bought this car with a misfire that was sold because it wasn't running right. Previous seller couldn't fix the misfire and didn't want to pay to do the timing belt and valve adjustment it needed as well. I have grown to love it due to it's simplicity and the lack of all of the nonsense that is in cars today.

 

Similar. I just wanted a four door daily with manual, and here we are 16 years later still kicking around in it.

 

Ohh... My 2000 Civic is an auto, I sold my 4-door with a manual last year. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...ution-ix-mr-9/ Lot's of similar LED re-engineering projects on that car as well if you like my electrical work. I even built my own LED headlights and tail lights for it. Everything is in the BAT posting.

 

Wow man, you put a lot of work into that! Pretty neat. Just my 2 cents: I know you wanna show off that it's LED, but a diffuser would top that thing off perfectly. LEDs are very directional focused lights and will cause eye damage the more and more you stair at them. I know from experience. Diffusers help alleviate much of that. Just FYI