DIY: illuminated kick plates color change
 

ok, so I read on the other threads here that you couldnt change the color of the illuminated kick plates because it doesnt have a bulb. However, doing electronics for LVMPD for a living and not accepting "NO" for an answer in general, I went ahead and changed the colors and decided to do a complete DIY for anyone else interested.

This is something I only recommend for experienced DIY'ers. If you have never done a DIY with simple electronics before, you may damage any part of the kick plates and it could render it ugly or unusable.

Anyhow, here's how it all began, I ordered a PG 370z and didnt like the idea of having an orange light with a silver car, so i decided to rip apart a kick plate and see what kind of LED i would need to turn the orange into white LED's.

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/start.jpg

picture of the old color:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/oldcolor.jpg

Now flip it upside down and you'll see tabs that need to be bent upwards to allow the plastic peice to slip off:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/backtabs.jpg

upclose of the tabs after i had them flipped up:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/tabsopen.jpg

For reference, all of the circles are tabs that need to be bent. Yes there is a tab under the cloth tape in the picture below. And the rectangular boxes are where the glue/double sided tape is located. the glue is holding the aluminum top piece to the plastic bottom piece.
http://www.the370z.com/members/cjani...scrape-off.jpg

once you get the tabs open, carefully pry the ends open and then scrape the double sided tape off that holds the two pieces together:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/sideflip.jpg

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/wedgetop.jpg

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/wedge2.jpg

You need to make sure you are very careful when you stick something in between the two to open it up. Use something long and flat and dont allow any sharp points to hit the metal part or else you'll cause damage to be visable from the other side,
[http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/damage.jpg

once you get it off, this is what you will see (use this image to see where you need to seperate the double sided tape without poking the aluminium:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/interior.jpg

Now, lift the tape off the box thats on the metal section and then cut the caulking that is holding it on:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/tapelift2.jpg

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/cutglue.jpg

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/lift.jpg

once you cut the glue off and pry the "box" off, this is what you will have:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/apart.jpg

Now you need to pry the metal cover from the "box" open, and take the plastic Z out:
http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/pryz.jpg

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/zopen.jpg

carefully cut away the LED board from the plastic Z. It is also held on by clear caulking, so carefully cut it away and then you'll have two LED boards per side, I circled the actual LED's that need replacement:

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/ledboard.jpg

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/ledboard2.jpg

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/ledboard3.jpg



Those items that I have circled and look white, thats the LED and its a 1mm LED. I used the white LED's here: SMD LED (UT-692NW)
You can use any of the color LED's on that website, or any site, just make sure its a SMD LED around 1mm.
This is where the hard part comes because you need to solder off the old LED's and solder on the new ones, I am not to be held accountable and am warning anyone who isnt familiar with this not to do the soldering. these are very small parts and can easily be messed up.

When you have your new LED's on, make sure the LED's work. before you REVERSE THE ORDER of everything. putting it back together is the easy part, just make sure you have clear caulking in hand to glue the parts back together.

if you have any questions i'll try to answer them, I love my new illuminated kick plates and cant wait to put them in my car (gotta wait for it to arrive first ha!)

http://www.liquidc4.net/images/kickplates/newzcolor.jpg



OH YEAH, dont forget the rep points if you found this useful, took me a while to get the pics uploaded and posted on here with this DIY :tiphat:

and a BIG THANK YOU!!!! TO VIPOR, for hosting these images for all of you to see!!




the other colors:
http://www.the370z.com/members/cjani...717-yellow.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/cjani...e7716-blue.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/cjani...ite-silver.jpg
http://www.the370z.com/members/cjani...9-img-1131.jpg

Good man someone should enjoy this

Absolutely amazing! Two thumbs up. I respect your courage to do such mod. :tup::tup:

very nice work. So you mentioned you don't have the car yet...where did you order the iKick plates from ?

+1

I got it from Welcome To The Z Store! Nissan-Datsun 240Z-260Z-280Z-280ZX-300ZX(Z31/Z32)-350Z-370Z Parts!

that site has some very good prices in comparison to other places.

Hmmm... I wonder how bright blue LEDs would work out?????.....

^^ there are some very bright blue LED's out now. I think it would be a darkish sky blue.

i'd be all over this with red LEDs, but the fear of breaking the IKP would overwhelm me...

excellent job with the DIY, though, gotta give rep

Rep points all the way! You're the first to do this who has posted on the forum! :tup:

Cjanik, question: how did you solder these LEDs on? It looks waaaay too small to use a soldering gun, did you use an oven to work with them?

No, I used a soldering Iron because the tip is small enough to just touch the solder patch on the LED's side. The contact patch where the solder is on the board is big enough that you just have to touch the solder and it will melt the LED loose on one side, then repeat for the other side of the LED.

when i put the new LED down, I did not use new solder, I just layed the LED down, used needle nose pliers to hold it in place, and then heated up the two solder spots again, which made contact to the LED's sides and that was it.


if you look at the last picture of the LED board I took, (the really blown up one), you can see that the contact patch is as big, if not bigger than the LED itself. plenty of room to touch the tip of the soldering iron with.

Hmm we need to do this to your car I got the skills for led's:happydance:

Oh, seriously? I didn't look hard enough, I guess.

...Okay, that's it, some red LEDs are coming my way. Thanks again for the write up and inspiration :D

^^ post pictures when your done! I was contemplating red ones for a while then decided to go with white. Would like to see what the red looks like.