Illuminated Exterior Door Handles

[Guittard22]

^^^^^^
That @@@@ crazy cool - like I said in a pm I buy a set if you wanted to make a few more

[Cobra25]

Hello Derick, just wanted to say heelo from south florida. Hope you & your family are doing well.

[fastblackmerc]

Hi Guys

Fitted my LED bolts to illuminate the exteroior door handles today and it all went extrodinarily well.




First punch out the centre of the rivit using a small drift, then use a 5/16 (8mm) drill bit to drill off the rivet head, finally punch out the remains of the rivet using a slightly bigger drift.




Slip your LED bolts in and "nip" up tight, they really do not have to be very tight and I think may need some thread lock to stop them coming undone, the jury is still out on that.




Wire in the LEDs then stand back and admire your handy work (yes I slipped with the drill taking a chunk of paint off my door handle ) I think at night this may work out better than expected as it appears some light is coming through the gap around the lift handle, roll on 8pm to try them out.


There may be an easier way!

This should please FastBlackMerc as I know he likes simple. When I originally devised this scheme I couldn't remember what the rear of the door handle looked like but since diving into the door this morning I think there may be an easier way.





In the space between the rivets there is actually a hole in the door that looks like it is filled with a locating lug for the door handle (circled in red in the picture above).

My new proposal is to drill a 13/64" (5mm) hole in the centre of this locating lug and simply glue one super bright LED into the middle of the handle, later tonight I will hit the electonic suppliers and see about ordering some LEDs, maybe by the end of the week I will have time to try out the new plan.

Regards

Dereck

Easiest way to remove the rivets is to pop out the mandrel (center piece), bend the 3 tabs back and forth until they break off then pop out the rest of the rivet. No drilling and no possible way to damage any parts or paint when the drill slips.

Better way to install LEDs.... just pop out the mandrel, thread your LED through the hole and use some 5 minute epoxy to hold the LEDs in the holes.

[slickster]

Show us some night pics please

[Dereck]

Hi FastBlackMerc

Better way to install LEDs.... just pop out the mandrel, thread your LED through the hole and use some 5 minute epoxy to hold the LEDs in the holes.

Now that doesn't seem like a bad idea but I've always assumed the rivets would work loose and eventually break off if the centre piece wasn't in place.


Hi Slickster

Show us some night pics please

Nightime pictures don't seen to come out too good, I tried with both the illuminated interior handles and the puddle lights, I will give it another try though just for you.

Regards

Dereck

[JoeBoomz]

Pics might not work, but a video might. Try at dusk when there is still a bit of sunlight left. I want to see these too, very interested in doing them if they work out well!

Thank you very much for posting your efforts!

[Dereck]

Hi Guys

Better way to install LEDs.... just pop out the mandrel, thread your LED through the hole and use some 5 minute epoxy to hold the LEDs in the holes.

Earlier on today I had some time to try out FastBlackMerc's suggestion of simply fitting LED's into the door handle rivets by just driving out the centers. I used some 5mm LEDs and a small blob of RTV to hold them in the rivets and to weatherproof the LEDs.

I ran into a slight problem in that the LED's kept popping out and tipping with the wieght of the wires, I am not too happy with the finnished look as the RTV ended up a little "splurged". I think next time I need to find a fast drying glue or some way of holding the LEDs in the handle while the glue dries.



Oh yeah I have tried a couple times to get some night time pictures but am struggling a little, hoe to have another go over the weekend.

Regards

Dereck

[slickster]

I don't see a reason why I can't just drill a small hole up inside the door handle then run the LED wire through that hole connected to the footwell light with a 3m backing on the LED strip

[fastblackmerc]

I don't see a reason why I can't just drill a small hole up inside the door handle then run the LED wire through that hole connected to the footwell light with a 3m backing on the LED strip

Why can't you?

[Tnbigbody]

I did my door handles a few months ago, I used the 3 in strips as mentioned. looks great, works well, no drilling or modifying of the door handle just make sure you use some good double sided tape or super glue to keep them in place. the stuff that came on mine weren't very resilient and popped off after a few days. I wired mine to the fuse box to the left hand low beam fuse. but you can use what you would like. I have grille lights, interior handle, and foot well lights as well and have them set up to only come on with my low beams because otherwise they couldn't be visible(not dark enough) but wiring them up as courtesy lights would be neat as well

[Guittard22]

I did my door handles a few months ago, I used the 3 in strips as mentioned. looks great, works well, no drilling or modifying of the door handle just make sure you use some good double sided tape or super glue to keep them in place. the stuff that came on mine weren't very resilient and popped off after a few days. I wired mine to the fuse box to the left hand low beam fuse. but you can use what you would like. I have grille lights, interior handle, and foot well lights as well and have them set up to only come on with my low beams because otherwise they couldn't be visible(not dark enough) but wiring them up as courtesy lights would be neat as well

Have a photos of the grill lights sounds cool

[Tnbigbody]

I started a new thread as to not hijack this one Guittard

[Dereck]

Hi Guys

Here is a night time picture of my illuminated exterior door handles, as you can see the picture was taken under street lighting, it had been raining and I still haven't got around to doing the rear doors yet.

They actually look a lot brighter in the picture than in real life partly because of the way digital cameras sense light and partly because rain droplets on the handle was magnifying the light.




Regards

Dereck