Flush Mount Factory Tail Lights - YJ - Write-Up

jesseleikerjeep · 01-21-2010, 08:41 PM

Hey everyone.

So I want to first put out there that this is my first write up, so if anyone has any suggestions on how to make it easier, less redundant/boring, etc. please let me know!

I flush mounted my tail lights (factory tails) today off the tip I got from Steelman (most of the ingenuity for this write up goes to him...I just happened to get my camera out first, lol). Directly below are the before/after photos...after that is the information part of everything! Thanks for looking - hope this helps out...I really had to read through Steelman's description a couple of times and still ran into some snags/confusing spots while I was doing mine...hopefully this makes for an easy way through. Plus; this is specifically built for the YJ...which I quickly learned is much more difficult because of the location of the fuel-fill trap/license plate situation...here is how I went about mine (I've seen guys go sideways with the YJ...but never standard).

BEFORE the flushing:

AFTER flushed out:

Relatively stout on the difficulty listing...the fuel door gets RIGHT in the way, wouldn't you know it. It requires a little extra patience and elbow grease, but I just think it looks SO much better than the alternative to doing this on a YJ (Sideways with Reverse towards the road...just looks goofy-ish to me).

jesseleikerjeep · 01-21-2010, 08:42 PM

Ok, so lets begin. The first thing you are going to want to do is pull the tail-lights. There are four phillips screwheads (one in each corner) you have to pull to remove the lens...than there are 3 bolts (3/8 if I remember correctly) that you must remove. These bolts serve dual-purposes, we'll get to that later:

This will drop the whole housing out, but still connected by wires (which I left connected the WHOLE TIME, by the way, just worked very carefully while cutting). Because the housing is tapered out, you'll have to make a stencil for where to cut on the tub based on the "lens" side, not the "body" side. I used a few pieces of card board, pieced it all together, measured 4 times and cut one.

While tracing that outline, keep in mind that there is a turn-signal lens on the side of each of these, so they are not interchangable. You must flip your stencil over horizontally to get the right size for both. After getting it all prepped out...clean the area well and use a pencil or (better yet) a wax pencil to outline your stencil so you know where to cut. I used a Dremel with a 540 cutting blade the whole time, no matter what I cut. ALSO: You must START your stencil at 5 and 1/4" below the top of the tub or you will cut into your wheel well on the inside of your Jeep. Don't do that!

Because this is a YJ, you are also going to have to do the following: Remove your license plate flip-down thingy. Remove the 3 screws holding your gas fill housing in, remove the six bolts holding the filler to the housing, and take the housing out. You'll have to draw your stencil OVER the housing, and cut the top of your housing accordingly:

jesseleikerjeep · 01-21-2010, 08:42 PM

Ok.. now you can start cutting. I cut the long side runs first, than switched over to the top, than the bottom. The bottom rounded is tricky to cut with your Dremel, so be careful - take one section at a time. About 4 Dremel 540 cut-off wheels per side and you are totally cut out!

Keep in mind that your driver-side will look awkward now because it is overlapping the gas filler pre-cut spot...this is perfect:

Now that your holes are cut, you need to cut the litte black nubs off the back of your Light housing. They are on the backside of where you removed the screws for your lens to pop off. Before you move on from this point, make sure everything fits into place as it should:

With everything fitting into place, take a drill bit to pre-drill holes for those screws you took out for the lens removal. Those are now going to act as the screws that hold the fixture in place. Sit your housing in it's spot and pre-drill...

You are almost done...now back to those three bolts in the housing. Those are also doubling as grounds for your tail lights...without them, you will have all sorts of silliness going on. What I did was take a piece of thin bailing wire and wrap it around a bolt already existing in the underside of my wheel wells:

I than ran that wire out of the hole. I cut a little piece of my already cut-out tub portion that has the pre-existing bolt hole from those housing bolts in it and just ran the housing bolt back through the housing, and through the old piece, tieing the wire from inside the wheel well on the other end. Rinse, repeat with the other side. You are grounded.

You are grounded, pre-drilled, your gas fill housing is cut out, your nubs are chopped, and your tub is molested...slide the housings back in, than slide the gas filler housing on, re-attach it, than run your original "lens" bolts through your pre-drills and see if it works.

I don't think I'm missing anything...if I am, hopefully someone catches it. There's your YJ Flush-mount Factory Tail Light Write up....now someone upgrade me to Premium Membership! hahaha.

Seriously though: thanks for looking...hope it helps someone!

SeanB95YJ · 01-21-2010, 10:16 PM

That's awesome! great mod on the cheap

The only thing - you didn't show (or say) how you're going to take care of the need for side marker and license plate lighting.
Still, great mod.

YJBlues · 01-21-2010, 10:22 PM

Looks good, I wonder however, why you didn't just mount them an inch higher so you didn't have to mess with the fuel surround?

SeanB95YJ · 01-21-2010, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by YJBlues

Looks good, I wonder however, why you didn't just mount them an inch higher so you didn't have to mess with the fuel surround?

He addresses that in the 3rd paragraph of his second post.... if you put them any higher, you'll cut into the cabin area above the wheel well... you want them below that line.

YJBlues · 01-21-2010, 10:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanB95YJ

He addresses that in the 3rd paragraph of his second post.... if you put them any higher, you'll cut into the cabin area above the wheel well... you want them below that line.

Ahh, missed that, sorry, I even see it now in the pic. Looks like a good excuse to do a TJ style fuel door on the side to me!

Fhajad · 01-21-2010, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanB95YJ

That's awesome! great mod on the cheap

The only thing - you didn't show (or say) how you're going to take care of the need for side marker and license plate lighting.
Still, great mod.

License plate light would just be a row of white LEDs or something.

As for side markers, there isn't any side markers really. It just blinks the whole red light, and the side people from another road can see your fronts much more clearly.

ajamison · 01-21-2010, 10:53 PM

great job i really like it, i might try it on my TJ

**Mean Max** · 01-21-2010, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanB95YJ

That's awesome! great mod on the cheap

The only thing - you didn't show (or say) how you're going to take care of the need for side marker and license plate lighting.
Still, great mod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fhajad

License plate light would just be a row of white LEDs or something.

As for side markers, there isn't any side markers really. It just blinks the whole red light, and the side people from another road can see your fronts much more clearly.

Nice Job!

You could always add some small 2" round LEDs in the sides for a side marker, like these on my '91 YJ.

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f12/led-side-marker-light-write-up-861894/

Max

timmysyj · 01-22-2010, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fhajad

License plate light would just be a row of white LEDs or something.

As for side markers, there isn't any side markers really. It just blinks the whole red light, and the side people from another road can see your fronts much more clearly.

What do you mean there isn't any side markers really? Im pretty sure they are required by law and were put there for a reason.

To the OP. Why wouldn't you just grab some cheap led tail lights? These Jeeps have a hard enough time with rust as it is, let alone having a 5" hole cut into the rear to fit tail lights that suck even when new.

yjhero89 · 01-22-2010, 12:16 AM

i think it looks sexy.

jesseleikerjeep · 01-22-2010, 12:26 AM

Hey guys;

Yeah, the side-markers I don't really care about. They are almost impossible to see when you are driving around anyhow. They are almost completely closed off from the light source. If I ever get hassled about it, I'll do just as Mean Max and a few others said and get little LED's for the side to route the power off of.

That 5" below the line rule is one you are going to need to follow period. I actually went about 3/16" lower than 5" total and still came dangerously close on the driver side.

I already have my license plate light rigged up on a swing-away tire carrier I've been welding together...for the next week or so until it's done I'll just have it mounted rag-tag on the top of the bumper and the plate screwed haphazardly into the stupid factory "bubble" bumper.

AJamison; your TJ should be a LOT easier...you don't have to contend with the gas filler...and as soon as I get corner guards I won't have to either, because I'm converting my filler to TJ style...tired of gas on my shoes everytime I top it off.

To timmysYJ; First off, grabbing some cheap led tail lights defeats the purpose. The cheap ones don't have reverse built in so you are forced to do wiring work, which is one of two things I don't do (changing diapers is the other), and the ones with reverse lights built in are pricey. This mod is designed for people like me who do not want to spend a lot (or even a little) money to have an excuse to go out in the garage and either build or break something. And I have to absolutely disagree with you on the "suck even when new" statement. I think the trailer-style lights are much more attractive than the new LED's on a 1991 YJ. Putting a diamond on top of a piece of dog **** doesn't mean it isn't dog **** under that shiny rock...and as for rust issues; this is probably the least rust-prone spot on the jeep now. It's now covered on top by a wheel well, on the back by metal, the lense cover, and a small bead of caulk around the whole thing, and on the bottom and front by a plastic mud guard over the tires...that thing isn't getting rusty.

Total Price here: $6.27 at Ace Hardware (a pack of Dremel 540's...I already had 4 in an old pack and it took me all of them...you could call it a solid $12.5 to be safe).

THanks guys, I really appreciate it! My first write-up, and the first time I've seen it done right-side up on a YJ! (I've seen them sideways, and I've seen them ****-eyed, never straight). Hope you like!

jesseleikerjeep · 01-22-2010, 12:28 AM

Why thank you yjHero. I agree with the sexyness of her back side. She's really starting to trim up. loll.

timmysyj · 01-22-2010, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jesseleikerjeep

To timmysYJ; First off, grabbing some cheap led tail lights defeats the purpose. The cheap ones don't have reverse built in so you are forced to do wiring work, which is one of two things I don't do (changing diapers is the other), and the ones with reverse lights built in are pricey. This mod is designed for people like me who do not want to spend a lot (or even a little) money to have an excuse to go out in the garage and either build or break something. And I have to absolutely disagree with you on the "suck even when new" statement. I think the trailer-style lights are much more attractive than the new LED's on a 1991 YJ. Putting a diamond on top of a piece of dog **** doesn't mean it isn't dog **** under that shiny rock...and as for rust issues; this is probably the least rust-prone spot on the jeep now. It's now covered on top by a wheel well, on the back by metal, the lense cover, and a small bead of caulk around the whole thing, and on the bottom and front by a plastic mud guard over the tires...that thing isn't getting rusty.

We'll have to agree to disagree then, because they do suck! You drive it not me, so I couldn't care less.

Why ask for opinions on what you did if all you want to hear is "wow awesome job!" or "looks sexy!" and not the opinions of people that don't like what you did?