Red tail light conversion

[FMJ]

So i am at the 3 year warranty running out point and it’s time to start some more mods. 2017/18 Mustang GT in Magnetic Grey. Mods so far are:

Rear muffler deletes
side lettering vinyl
rear side reflectors swapped from amber to red
Rear side window louvres
Stainless fuse box cover
Customised engine cover paint and vinyl
Ford performance shift knob
led side lights, interior lights, reverse light and DRL/fogs
Sound tube delete

I wanted to do something different and miss how retro my previous S197 looked so decided to try to replicate a few more classic features on my S550.

I wanted to change to traditional red tail lights but found that this isn’t easy. Yes you can swap to US lights but the wiring, LED boards, connectors and drivers are all different. It’s not plug and play. Even if you buy expensive adapters you will still have no orange indicators meaning MOT fail and no payout if somebody rear ends you having not realised what US style flashing reds mean. You can pay about £800 for new LED boards to include amber LEDs to fit to US tail lights or even £1200 to have them fitted… but that’s insane!

You can stick on red tinted film but I don’t really like that option and find that it darkens the light from the LEDs too much again possibly getting you in hot water come a collision.

I wasn’t that bothered about the sequential turn signals I just wanted the traditional red lenses but with the U.K. functionality.
So I got a pair of used US tail lights for £300 and very carefully cut them open with a hot knife blade. I did the same to my Uk tail lights. Then I swapped the LED boards and wiring over. So I now have US tail lights with U.K. electronics. The lights were bonded back together and are nice and water tight.

Fitted to the car you cannot see the cuts or new seal at all, even with the boot open. The U.K. LEDs shine through the red reflectors perfectly.

It’s not an easy process and you do have to be very careful but I love the result and am very glad I did it.

Here are the videos before and after. Please note the flickering is just due to camera frame rate, the lights don’t flicker in reality.

Before


After

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[hinch]

why did you not just get your uk ones tinted? i think manders on here was doing tint kits for a while.

 

[Kristian87]

great job! I think for £300 and your time, that's an absolute bargain. Assume you got them shipped from USA via ebay? How was the conditon? I've got a pair on my watch list.

@V8_MOTOR did this exact thing a while ago, and whenever I go to see him, I realise how much better the oem red lenses look. The tints look good, but can never match the real deal.

I'm greedy though and want the exotic pony mods 3 amber/3 red light boards haha

 

[Kristian87]

Also...have you thought about flogging your usa internals/euro outers back to someone in the USA? I bet they'd be an easy sell.

 

[FMJ]

why did you not just get your uk ones tinted? i think manders on here was doing tint kits for a while.

A few reasons:

The American lights have silver reflectors inside which increases the amount of light passing through the red plastic. By transferring these over with the LED boards I have got factory levels of brightness.

The videos above are taken in direct mid day sun yesterday so as bright as it gets which doesn’t do them justice.

If you tint the U.K. ones they have black reflectors so the lights will be dimer.

The several attempts at either painting or applying vinyl to U.K. lights I have seen have either looked a bit untidy or have dimmed the lights.

I wanted proper solid red plastic that is permanent and had the right reflectors in it.

Lastly tinting your lights just reminds me of black corsas with their rear lights covered in so much tint spray you can’t even see their brakes or indicators in daylight.

 

[FMJ]

Also...have you thought about flogging your usa internals/euro outers back to someone in the USA? I bet they'd be an easy sell.

Thank you .

Yeah I have completed the opposite setup. So I have a set of U.K. clear lights with US internal sand plug/wiring etc which will fit straight on a US car and work like OE us lights but with clear lenses. Hopefully I can recoup what I spent.

The US lights I purchased from Germany via EBay. They were pretty good. One had a scratch but a cloth and a bit of tooth paste polished it right out.

 

[V8_MOTOR]

As Kristian mentions, I did mine back in 2018. Can't believe its been nearly 3 years. great job though.

I decided to keep my European black internals with the red to have that darker look inside the lens.

I did 2 sets. One for me and another for a friend.

 

[FMJ]

As Kristian mentions, I did mine back in 2018. Can't believe its been nearly 3 years. great job though.

I decided to keep my European black internals with the red to have that darker look inside the lens.

I did 2 sets. One for me and another for a friend.

Cool to be honest I’m surprised more people haven’t done it. This was the first of a few little mods I have planned with the aim of making the car look a little more retro (I know some people won’t get it but I like lots of nods to the classics).

 

[Chappers]

i'm probably going to be the black sheep here but i prefer the clear lenses, i too went exotic pony 3A3R on mine though love the sequential

good job @FMJ

 

[Yellow Toy]

Same Chappers , I like the clear lenses with my Magnetic color and went with Exotic Pony sequential as well..
But i do luv the US red tail lights..

 

[raptor17GT]

while I'm happy with my own lights as they came from Ford I do like to see folks take that extra mile and do a conversion the full on OEM way. Lovely work, good job
I'd like to do the front lights but basically I'm too tight to get it done! Cant see them when I'm in the car anyways and a set of tyres is gonna be needed before winter so that's my next cost.

 

[Yellow Toy]

I hear you about not being able to see the lights when driving , but there are sneaky ways to see them lol..
Ive got my car booked in to get the Diode Dynamics sequential and color change front Tri-bars done, yep not cheap Grrrr. but does look good..

 

[raptor17GT]

I hear you about not being able to see the lights when driving , but there are sneaky ways to see them lol..
Ive got my car booked in to get the Diode Dynamics sequential and color change front Tri-bars done, yep not cheap Grrrr. but does look good..

every time you pull up behind a car / bus / van you will see the tri lights so yeah it'll look amazing. I have a cracked front indicator lense so that might get replaced with properly bright DRL's if I can find some.

 

[FMJ]

while I'm happy with my own lights as they came from Ford I do like to see folks take that extra mile and do a conversion the full on OEM way. Lovely work, good job
I'd like to do the front lights but basically I'm too tight to get it done! Cant see them when I'm in the car anyways and a set of tyres is gonna be needed before winter so that's my next cost.

The front Tri’s will be the next mod I do along with a new grill and oil cooler (all bumper off stuff together). I will put up pictures as I go. To be honest having done the rears I really don’t think the fronts will be that hard to do yourself!

 

[Gloucesternige]

The front Tri’s will be the next mod I do along with a new grill and oil cooler (all bumper off stuff together). I will put up pictures as I go. To be honest having done the rears I really don’t think the fronts will be that hard to do yourself!

I have made some Resin screw on covers for the bottom of the headlights so you can cut the bottom open using my template and go in from underneath, then screw on the resin cover to seal it all up again. You're pretty local, pop over and take a look.

I love what you have done to your tail lights, I want to do exactly the same but am struggling to get hold of red lights.

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