[uatimrose]

So I helped my buddy do this to his Jeep before we tried it on mine. Isn't that always the rule, screw up theirs, and do it right for yours?

Ok so we just went to the local truck supply and picked up 2- 10 LED round lights.
Cost: $20 each

Then we got the wiring connector for it (which ended up being the wrong ones, but you'll see as you read)
Cost: $5 each

Total: $50

It all started with taking off the old taillights. Which involves a screwdriver or a tiny Torx. Mine has 4 phillips head screws. Then use a rachet to take out the three bolts that hold it in.



After you do that the taillight will come off of the body and you can pull the wiring out of the hole until you find the connector. Then you would separate the connectors. Repeat for the other side.


Now you can start planning out where to put the lights. We used a paint cup like this because it was almost the same size as the light. Find something circular that is the same size as your lights:



We started the bottom of the circle at the lowest part of the existing opening so we'd do less cutting plus any higher and we would have been inside of the tub in the interior. Trace out your circle on the body and we used the three bolt holes as a way to semi-center the taillight location.



A pneumatic bodysaw from Harbor Freight did a good job of cutting out the holes. And it cost something like $20. Cutting the hole in the body was easy and took no previous expertise with bodysaw's to work well.


It took a little bit more trimming to get the light to go in. Be careful not to cut away too much that it is visible when the taillight is in, but the lip on light made it easy because I can't cut very exact.


Keep reading below....

[uatimrose]

Once you get the taillight to go into the opening, rotate it and find where you are going to mount it. Then mark the holes with a marker. Drill holes with a drill bit that will fit into the mounting holes. You don't have to step-up drill bit's or anything like that. Just put the bit where it needs to be and go.


We used rivets because it looks good and it's easy, but you could use bolts if you wanted to reach up there and put on the nut. Not sure what size rivet it was. Just found the size that was clostest to the size of the hole and went with it. Don't mount them yet though.

We have to take care of the wiring. If we would have thought about it we would have used the old connector off of the old taillight, but we got ahead of ourselves and just hard mounted them by stripping the wiring and soldering them together. I think the blue outside wire was the tail light and the middle wire was the stop/turn signal. The other wire was the ground, but look at the back of the light and it should tell you which wire goes where. And when in doubt just try it out by temporarily hooking it up. Btw....if it looks like a messed up wiring connector for the tail light. They gave us the wrong one, but they were closed so we used it anyway....still works the same.



For the ground part of the light harness, we just used the rivet on the bottom to hold it from the back side and ground it to the body which was the only part we had to reach up there (PITA), but it worked well. This isn't how it was literally mounted....just wanted to show what it looked like without having to put my camera up inside there:



After that you can put your rivets in and go to town.


Then it's just a matter of doing the same thing to the other side....which always goes quicker because you've learned how not to do it wrong....hopefully.





One small problem we faced at the end was that the turn signals wouldn't work. Then we found that we had to replace the old flashers on the fuse panel inside the Jeep. They had to be electro-mechanical because the old ones only worked with incandescent bulbs (You need one for turn and one for hazards). That was a quick fix and now they work great.

Hope everyone can understand this and realizes that it's easy and works great. It'll be done to mine soon! Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for additions.

See ya,

Tim

[ggjeep]

Good job! I like the look, however my state (NJ) requires a license plate light.

[COOLJ]

yeah i just did the same thing to my yj a week ago. they look so sweet goin down the road. now the thing that sucks is now i have to put the gas cap on the tire instead of the taillight. as soon as i find some cheap led 2" white ones they may go in somewhere else for back up lights. lookin good

[jaw41272]

Nice job, woulda been easier with a hole saw tho.
License plate lights can always be installed and there are tons to choose from
Gas cap, now all this requires is a tethered cap like those on a late model ford or gm 1 ton, then just drill the appropriate size hole in your filler neck trim bezel and your good to go

[kenny kustom]

Reverse lights ?

[uatimrose]

do the 2- 4" lights in the bumper count? Haven't wired them up yet...but that should help with backing up.

[kenny kustom]

Originally Posted by uatimrose

do the 2- 4" lights in the bumper count? Haven't wired them up yet...but that should help with backing up.

Jees... .now where did i put my glasses.

[Solus]

looks good man, I'll be doing the same thing soon as the weather gets a little warmer

[BlackRhino]

Looks good. I think I'm gonna go with some elongated clears when I do mine.

[richharr]

where are your shocks? Nice write-up.

[uatimrose]

haha yea my buddies Jeep came to him with a bunch of stuff and done all the wrong way. Including the rear axle/shocks/etc. Those'll be fixed soon too.
This is his first Jeep, but he's already spending most of his time playing with it.

Whoo hoo....we got another one addicted.

[Richmond88yj]

Nice write up.

But you need shocks and a RR bodymount bushing.

[timatoe]

Originally Posted by BlackRhino

Looks good. I think I'm gonna go with some elongated clears when I do mine.

Make sure you have red reflectors to the rear if you use clear lenses.

[HOLLYWOOD6973]

Can't go wrong with LED lights. They look great
Nice job!