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.

Man I wish I have the skill to do it....

hmm so many people want to do this but are afraid to....I'm debating whether I can make some money on the side by swapping out LED's for your choice of color

Might be a good business idea. ;)

lol Where are you located, I'll bring the car to you... or is that a whole nother ordeal of removing the kickplates from the car? I'm looking at a MB one so I'm thinking of going with blue since the whole black/blue is kinda my style :tiphat:

Im located in las vegas. I have not removed one from a car, I dont even have my 370z delivered yet to look at it either, I simply purchased the kick plates from the Z source.com and modified them before my car comes in.

I personally would think it is not a hard removal/install because there's a plug at the end, the only downside is you may have to get adhesive to put it back in.

OK I did it, for those that are not comfortable doing this, you can buy my white ones from Ebay. Trying to gauge interest so the price is a little low to start.

I am willing to do anyone's on here for $200 if you don't send me your kick panels.

^^ someone else is also interested in a blue and has offered to pay right now. With that said, i'll get it made ASAP (2 weeks im thinking because of snail mail), and then post pictures to see if your interested.

Also I looked at the kick plates today, there's a plug not more than 2 feet from the kick plates that disconnects, meaning you dont need to take out any wiring harnesses. I do think you might need some double sided tape to replace it back on.

^ what red LEDs would you use? the ones i showed you from kingbright?

i've got the kickplates sitting here, but i've no time to do a proper job on it >_<

^^ possibly, im going to look around and see if that site has the prices right.

^^ so far haven't seen better prices, especially if you order enough to not hit the handling charges :p

so do i get a discount if i send you just the LED boards? ;)

Just ordered Red, White, Blue, Green, and Yellow LED's.

So as soon as I order the kick plates, i'll start making up all the colors and getting pictures.

If the blue ones look BA, consider a set sold... Will save me having to add additional cost to the loan. (Not that $220 matters when its a $35k car but still lol. :icon17:

Do you do anything else besides just the doorsills... i.e. floorboard lighting, or other interior sections?

:tup: Awesome! Can't wait! I think blue is going to look great at night. ;)

Glad to hear!

about other stuff...I cant comment on that, I dont have a 370Z yet (still being made), but i'll post DIY's for anyone who wants to do it themselves and might also offer to build up some for anyone who doesnt want to DIY. but then again, I might not do anything more than these kick plates, Time will tell.

I'm in the same boat you are... well almost I haven't actually Ordered one yet... But Nissan has one as good as sold... They just don't know it yet :stirthepot:

Since vegas isn't That much of a drive, I could see maybe working a deal out where you could use mine as a second testbed if you like for maybe a deal on the construction costs/teachings??

I'll def send you mine when I get my Z (still a year off :( )

The LED's arrived, the size of the LED's are a bit smaller than the stock ones, so hopefully I don't lose any of them by dropping them, hehe. Fortunately, the illumination is much much brighter so we should have some very solid colors. The only one I'm worried about is Yellow - im not sure how bright or solid yellow those will be.

Im working on getting 10 illuminated kick plates, most places only have 2 or 3 in stock, so hopefully I will have my 10 by the end of the week or on Monday. Then soon after that comes pictures! :) im excited to see the outcome of all of the colors.

If you get the blues modded up, pics up, and it looks BA, expect to be workin a deal out. Have you tried installing the plates once the led's are in to see if it benefits you to get them already installed? or are the basic ones easy to tear out/wire up?

are you refering to the non-LED ones by saying "basic" ones? Or are you talking about going from stock orange to my modified ones?

The completed product does not look modified, There is no difference that is noticable, except the color when its illuminated. The stock wiring is still there. As a matter of fact, when you purchase a color set, I include the entire wiring harness and plugs necessary for a complete install. (minus double sided tape).

The benefit of having them already installed and then installing this, is you do not need to run all of the extra wiring to the stock wiring harness behind the console. The ones already installed have a plug about 1 foot away from the kick plates that you can just unplug and then plug these into.

So your saying to get the illuminated ones from the dealer, then get the modded ones from you and just swap them? Cause if so, I'd send the ones that came with it to you as like a 'replacement' deal... So you're not spending so much out of pocket =)

Or do all of them come with the plug and if you get the non-illuminated ones, it's still there?

^^ to be honest with you im not sure if they all come with the plug thats right next to the kick plates if you didnt order it stock.

If you have not ordered the set as an option from the dealer yet, I don't recommend you ordering it, because they charge 200 bucks, and my cost for the colored set is pretty much 190+10 dollars shipping - ends up the same price anyway. If your car does not come with the plug, the set I have has that extra harness and it is not hard to wire it - its pretty much plug and play, except you gotta find a place to run/hide the wire from point A to point B. (the instructions say to install it behind the pedals/console.

but of course for some people its worth just losing a little $$ to avoid having to run that wire. Either way you choose is great for me.

hmm, im felling a red illuminated z logo since the dominant color in the z is red when the lights are on

Sounds like best option is to NOT get it installed from the dealer, and come spend a weekend up there...

^^ Just let me know when you get your car and your ready, so I can have leave a weekend open. :)

I have another guy interested in Red as well, So That color will be coming ASAP as well as Blue.

It won't be for a while I'm afraid lol at least until my car gets here from Germany and I can trade it in... Just spending money and modding a car I don't even own yet lol.