Project - Car Wrap, 2012 F-Sport Bumper, Led Headlamps And Turn Signal

[normski2]

Excellent. I think there will be many who read this account and will be "blown away" by the undertaking of this project.

[agent_dess]

Hey Ahmed check ur inbox

[Exdee]

Awesome job, I'd be proud to drive that.

Thanks Ian

>Any issues with the AFS light blinking? Heard about issues with installing the new headlights on older cars.

You are correct, the new LED headlamps no longer come with AFS either because of cutting costs to accommodate the cost of building the LEDs or lack of space due to the LEDs. Hence on the newer cars their is no AFS system so no need for the car to monitor the AFS system. By installing these headlamps on a car that has AFS causes our system to detect an AFS fault and hence the AFS OFF light flashes. This does not have any effect on anything, its simply an alert indicating that there is a malfunction on the AFS and hence the system has been turned off. I rectified this by applying a dab of black bodykit glue (silicone like) on top of the AFS LED inside the instrument cluster.

Awesome job. Big wheels next?

Well to stay within the small budget of the entire project, I am considering just having the existing ones refinished in black until i come across some nice bigger set of wheels. It's quite hard finding a nice set of black wheels to suit the finish. Any suggestions anyone?

Man on a mission. :)

re tail lights. Have you seen the eagle eye ones?

http://www.clublexus.com/forums/is-second-generation/643623-eagles-eyes-product.html

[ahmed24]

Hey Ahmed check ur inbox

Thanks for the PM, i had a look at those black CT alloys which look really nice but they have different stud spacing so wont fit.

Have you seen the eagle eye ones?

Yeap, i did consider them but prefer the OEM ones that have the L shaped design which goes well with the front LED L shape design

[Dan07]

Wow ... that's all I can say.

By the way, the headlights look awesome, if it is not a secret, how much can they be picked up for with the DRLs?

[ahmed24]

Wow ... that's all I can say.

By the way, the headlights look awesome, if it is not a secret, how much can they be picked up for with the DRLs?

I purchased one second hand off eBay and the other brand new. Paid total of £629 for the pair and sold my old pair for £300. The new one cost me £495.

[ahmed24]

Here are some close-up pics of the front bumper and the second-hand LED headlamp showing panel gap between wing, headlamp and bumper are quite good. There is no gap whatsoever under the headlamp, it's as flush as it can get tucked underneath the headlamp. In the pic it might look like there is a gap but that's a shadow. I will try and take a better picture.

The second-hand headlamp could do with a slight headlamp polish, which I might do sometime soon.

Also, will try and take some pics of the LED's and possibly a video of the LED operation and post it soon.

[Rich OB]

Excellent project expertly executed!

Makes me feel embarrassed that I keep putting off silly small projects on my own Lex 🙊

[Dan07]

Wow ... that's all I can say.

By the way, the headlights look awesome, if it is not a secret, how much can they be picked up for with the DRLs?

I purchased one second hand off eBay and the other brand new. Paid total of £629 for the pair and sold my old pair for £300. The new one cost me £495.

I am absolutely in love with those headlights and they are not as expensive as I thought they would be!

I had a Yamaha R1 2009 motorbike a few months ago, and the headlights for that is £1350 + VAT - FOR A MOTORBIKE!!!

I was expecting Lexus to be charging about 1.2k for each headlight especially from the new shape.

Once I get my money up, that is definetely something I'll be looking to do as I'm obsessed with DRLs, but if I do it I want the real deal not the cheap LED strips from Halfords lol...anyway - well done bro the car looks ill. Hope to see it in person at some stage

[ahmed24]

I'm obsessed with DRLs, but if I do it I want the real deal not the cheap LED strips from halfords lol.

I do not like those aftermarket LED's either. most of them are not even bright enough to be DRL's lol.

Hope to see it in person at some stage

I need to start attending some LOC meets :)

[agent_dess]

Hey Ahmed did u get the message i sent u last week??

[ahmed24]

Hey Ahmed did u get the message i sent u last week??

Yeap, just replied to it. Thanks for the link. I do love those black CT wheels but the stud spacing is different so it wont fit

[agent_dess]

Really? That's a bugger is that why it says 45mm offset?

Have u thought about wrapping the wheels?

Hydro-dipping them or simply just getting them powder coated?

I'm quite fascinated with hydro-dipping at the moment.

[ahmed24]

Have u thought about wrapping the wheels?

Hydro-dipping them or simply just getting them powder coated?

I'm quite fascinated with hydro-dipping at the moment.

I'm considering having them maybe powder coated, but still thinking about it.

I was considering hydro-dipping some interior parts in gloss carbon.

[sendz]

Hi Ahmed, how did you wire you drl's to dim when the headlights are on? I did this upgrade also but I just put an ignition feed to them so they are always on full brightness. Thanks in advance.

[ahmed24]

Hi Ahmed, how did you wire you drl's to dim when the headlights are on? I did this upgrade also but I just put an ignition feed to them so they are always on full brightness. Thanks in advance.

Here is what I did to operate the DRL led's as per OEM specs, I will do a detailed write-up on how to wire these up soon and post another DIY thread for those interested in just doing the LED headlamp conversion.

each headlamp unit has 3 wires coming out of the LED compartment through a rubber grommet. these 3 wires are then grouped with 2 other wires that come from the turn-signal bulb. (total 5 wires). This then goes into a 5 way connector. The connector has 2 rows, 1 row has all 3 LED related wires and the second row has the 2 turn-signal wires. I cut off the 3 LED related wires at the connector. (Black, Green, White). White is the Ground cable, Black is the +12v supply for the LED's to work in Dim mode, and the green is the +12v supply for the LED's to work on 100% brightness. I added my own 3 way waterproof connector to the end of these wires to make it easily detachable. I also added 1n5822 diodes as a fail-safe to each +12v wire just incase both +12v wires were to be on at the same time (which doesnt happen).

I purchased a universal DRL switching relay rated above 24W as both headlamps combined are about 24W. These relays are widely available and the function for this relay is to turn off DRL when side-light is turned on. I mounted this relay using a metal bracket to the airbox screw. Pictured here:

I also made all my wires go through 6mm conduit pictured below, and cable tied it all neatly:

I then have a fused +12V from ACC going into this relay, i also connected the +12v of the sidelight to the relay and a ground too so that it can switch off the output when the sidelights activate. Then the relay basically has 2 sets of black and red wire outputs for each headlamp. This output connects to the green +12v 100% wire and the black connects to the white ground. As for the black 50% +12v wire, it just directly connects to the sidelight wire.

So the way it basically works is as follows:

You switch on IGN and ACC +12V goes to the relay and if sidelight is off, the output of the relay sends power to the green LED connector, as soon as sidelight is turned on, the relay will cut the power and this is when the direct connection from the sidelight to the black wire kicks in and powers the LED's at 50%.

Hope this makes sense :)

[Silver Arrow]

Inspirational…..this is awesome. Now you need the ISF Wheels - with the quads on the back it won't look right unless you have some decent 19 inch (or bigger) wheels and the correct suspension drop to compliment that! But all the same, it is a brilliant piece of work!

[ahmed24]

Inspirational..this is awesome. Now you need the ISF Wheels - with the quads on the back it won't look right unless you have some decent 19 inch (or bigger) wheels and the correct suspension drop to compliment that! But all the same, it is a brilliant piece of work!

Thanks Jonas,

It's almost a year since I wrapped the car. Wrap is still holding up very well and still looks like fresh paint. Will give it a wash and post some new pics soon. In the meantime, for those interested in knowing how I disabled the AFS warning, pics are below. I opened up the instrument cluster. Took out the acrylic rod that transfers the light from the LED on the PCB to the back of the symbol section. I applied insulation tape at the tip of the acrylic rod and re-inserted it in. This way the bottom of the rod is blocked from allowing the light to travel up through the recess.

Here are some pics:

[agent_dess]

Hey Ahmed did you ever change or paint the wheels black??

[Nash GT]

Top work

[ahmed24]

Hey Ahmed did you ever change or paint the wheels black??

I've been lazy on that front lol, haven't got round to it. A very busy work load made me keep putting it off . Hopefully will do it in the next few months.

[ahmed24]

Here are some recent photos taken of how the car is looking with the wrap. It's coming up to 2 years this Summer.

Please excuse all the road-kill bugs in the following photos :)

[normski2]

Looking good Ahmed. Fine job you have done there.

[Dean8788]

Looks brilliant, a real motivational transformation! Do you mind if I ask how you have got on with the K&N Panel filter? I know sometimes the oil can cause MAF sensor issues and whether you have noticed any difference in engine note or performance. Lastly have you changed the bulbs in the fogs, forgive me if I missed it mentioned somewhere?

[ahmed24]

Thanks Normski.

Dean, I need to actually update my signature to reflect latest changes. A lot is out of date lol. In regards to the K&N filter, I ditched it a while back. I ran it for about 30k miles and had MAF sensor issue which to be honest could have been a coincidence and might not have been related to the K&N. I did not notice any difference in performance. The engine note on the other hand comes purely from the Joe Z intake I have combined with custom cut lower section of the airbox. The filter doesnt help with engine note. I've reverted to disposable filters.

I originally had PIAA bulb upgrades in my previous fogs. But with the new facelift bumper I switched back to regular bulbs. The yellower bulbs seemed to work better in actual foggy conditions.