Nissan 350Z Custom LED Reflectors

 Introduction
I recently purchased a Nissan 350z and have already planned many modifications for it. My first project with my car is to put LEDs inside of the reflectors on the front bumper.

Empty Clear Reflectors

Removing the reflectors and taking them apart
 First i took off the bumper to get to the reflector. There are 10 bolts at the bottom of the bumper and 3 inside of each wheelwell. There are also 6 bumper clips to take off from under the hood.

350Z Front Bumper Removed

 The reflectors are attached with two screws. I already removed one.

Behind Reflector

To take the reflector apart, i simply used a small flat-head screwdriver to carefully pry the clear lens and housing apart.

Clear 350z Reflector

Reflector taken apart with 5mm White LEDS

Building the Circuit
I built the circuit it two sections because the 7805 heats up very easily and can create problems in the long run. So to play it safe, i split the 20 LEDs into two sets of 10 LEDs, connected to one 7805. I also chose to use a 7805 voltage regulator instead of a resistor because the car voltage fluctuates from 14 volts down to 10 volts. If a resistor was used without a voltage regulator, the brightness of the LEDs would fluctuate with the car battery voltage.

Finished Voltage Regulator

For the LEDs i used a long piece of pcb. I cut the pcb into three pieces to allow the board to bend to the shape of the reflector. If you use thinner or cheap pcb, the board will easily bend.

To make the LEDs stand out individually i painted the reflector black along with the pcb.

Reflector Painted Black

 After soldering the LEDs and connecting the voltage regulator, I reassembled the housing.

Finished product

Parts List (One Reflector)
(2) 7805-$1.00
(2) 68 OHM-$0.50
(20) 5mm White LEDS-$2.00(For a bag of 100)
(4) 104 Capacitors-$0.50
(1) Wire
(1) PCB-$5.00(Pack of 10)

I bought all the parts off of ebay