INFINITY MIRROR TAIL LIGHTS

Finished product

Finished prototype testing on the bench before installation

Step 1: mask off the lens to keep it clear

Inspecting the seam of the lens with the housing under magnification. I was looking for the line to cut along to not damage the lens.

Recording how the wiring is set up before I start taking it apart

More recording factory setup

Unplugged and removed the connectors, recording the factory state of this harness. Mostly bayonette style connectors that were easy to remove.

Cut off the lens with a dremel thin cutoff tool. The inner mechanisms were screwed in from the back, easy to remove.

Removed the inner assembly

Inspecting factory tabs that keep the inner assembly together, figuring out what comes next

Removed the outer reflector

Completely disassembled inner assembly

Inspecting the main reflector, plotting what I need to cut to fit the infinity mirror assembly

Center reflector removed from the inner assembly lens

Inspecting the inner assembly main housing. This looked like a perfect spot to fit the infinity mirror assembly, just have to cut away some protrusions...

Dremel with an engraving ball bit took care of those protrusions.

Started cutting out the center of the main inner lens

Inspecting progress from multiple emails

Center of the inner lens removed, will sit on top of the infinity mirror assembly

Side view of the inner assembly lens with the center cut out

Laying the LED halo lights back to back. The wire leads come out the back side of the circuit board meaning the two sides won't sit flush.

Side note: I reached out to Diode Dynamics engineering team to ask if they would be thermally ok back-to-back like this, and they gave me a thumbs up.

I 3D printed some shims to set a bond gap that just barely let the wire leads come out. Not pictured: I then put automotive silicone glue all around and pressed the two halos together.

Glued the lower mirror down into the bottom of the inner assembly housing (again with the automotive silicone)

Added a bead of adhesive around the perimeter before I slid in the 3D printed lower spacer (PETG) that will hold the halo lights in place, parallel to the lower mirror

Placed the halo lights in and installed the upper spacer (hard to see the black on black but it's there around the edge)

Placed the upper mirror on and glued in place

Soldering on a pre-crimped connector. There wasn't room for the LED controllers in the light housing so they had to live in the car.  There wasn't room in the cutout in the car body to pass the controller through, so I had to pass the wires through and connect it up when it was installed. 

Finished wire harnesses

The light pipes in the factory housing were powered by two LEDs at the top side of this chip that were run off a control circuit that didn't fit in the housing anymore after stuffing in the infinity mirror assembly, so I had to swap them for some LEDs from digikey that could run off the car alternator directly without a separate controller circuit.

I wanted to keep the original PCB(a) because it aligned the LEDs with the light pipe and also provided the board mount connector, that I could still use to tap into the +12V & GND. I baked the board in the oven briefly to get the solder flowing then pulled off all the surface mounted components.

The LED was designed to be surface mounted, but the pads on the PCB weren't compatible with this footprint.  The easiest way forward was to solder some wires directly to the back of the LED.

I used more automotive silicone to hold the LEDs in place and ran the wires back to some contact pads that connected with the board mounted receptacle. 

View of the inner assembly showing my harness spliced (red/black center right) with the factory harness that connected to the light pipe pcba (orange, left side).  The clear plastic in front of where the LED is mounted is the light pipe, the full light pipe is visible in earlier teardown photos.

My harness didn't quite seal with the factory insert for the 90° bayonet connector (gray) so I filled the cavity with more automotive silicone. Zip ties to keep cables in place (I didn't use any expandable sleeving here since some of the connectors were too wide and I didn't have the tools to add fresh crimps.

I applied more automotive silicone around the perimeter and clamped the lens back on while it cured

Finished prototype testing on the bench before installation

Installed the prototype to test it running off the alternator. OEM left, infinity mirror right. Great success!

Closeup of the fresh installed prototype

Some glamour shots my photographer friend helped me with, shot at the Pacific Design Center

@matgro1 on instagram

He's also reachable at matthew-groner.com

Shot in Beverly Hills