Author Topic: Better Boot Lighting (Read 2130 times)

vRS Carl · « **on:** February 20, 2011, 04:43:55 pm »

The lighting in the boot has always bugged me. Even with High Powered LED bulbs in place of the OEM W5W ones for me it still wasn't what i wanted.

Recently i replaced the DRL on the Slinghshot with Philips Daylight 8 LED after seeing a review of them in a Magazine. They are far better (and far more expensive at £140) than the £40 jobbies i had on.

I had to send my old ones back (part of the reason i changed to phillips after the review) as they let water and crap etc in and these were replaced no questions asked.

So today i had an idea. Instead of the DRL sitting on the shelf in the garage i decided to barstewardsise them to make them smaller. I took them apart and then fixed them so that i was left with just the Cover and reflector. I then set about dismantling the trim completely from the boot. Once done i fitted them to the side trim panels and then wired them into the existing boot light.

The result is

Lights in position (Sorry its a bit of a crap pic but they are a bit bright for the Piephone to handle)

With boot cover in place which gives a better idea of the brightness)

Overall im extremely happy with the brightness levels now in the boot. The pic doesn't do it justice but to give you an idea the pics were taken inside an illuminated garage. I'm not fully happy on how they look as i would have rather recessed them into the trim. However the light units don't lend themselves well to doing so & i didn't want to start hacking bits of trim up to find i couldn't do it. Also i have a couple of other plans for the car which i need to sort first before i can start doing that. What i do intend to do is make a housing that they can sit in so that they do indeed become flush.

I never took any pics whilst doing the install etc as i was taking my time to do the job neat

(4 hours in total although about 1 1/2 of that was dismantling trim and putting it back together) I will be dismantling the trim again later in the week so will take some pics then.

Comments good/bad welcome as always

stealthwolf · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2011, 04:47:30 pm »

Silly Q but did you do just one side or both?

I really prefer good illumination for the boot. Complete PITA looking for things with a crappy boot light. Do like the brightness.

vRS Carl · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2011, 04:56:37 pm »

Yup did both sides.

You can just make out the RHS DRL in the first pic of the boot

RedRobin · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2011, 04:59:11 pm »

^^^^
Wow!! Who's on stage? Pink Floyd?

I agree, standard boot lighting is extremely poor. DRL's in your boot! - That has to be a first!

£140 somewhat expensive way of doing it though. I thought you'd been trained to assemble a gun blindfolded, Carl - You don't need lights in your boot.

vRS Carl · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2011, 05:03:23 pm »

Robin the lights in the Boot aren't £140

They were the Original £40 DRL's that i had on the car. I replaced those with the £140 ones and sent them off due to all the water and crap in them. I was then sent a new set back

These are what's in the boot which i barstewardsised to make smaller.