HOW-TO: Cheap signal mirrors

[rizico]

I dropped my CD mavica Camera about a month ago and it broke beyond repair, so until I get another one or borrow one, there will be no pics of this, but I will try to get some this week nd post them in my gallery. any way heres what I did:

Parts-
-(3) twin-packs of 2.1 volt 1,200 mcd yellow leds (they only come in packs of 2 at radio shack.

-(1) pack of 330 ohm resistors

-about 2 inches of 3/4" shrink tubing

-about 6 inches of 1/8" shrink tubing

-about 12' of primary wire

-about 2' of grounding wire

procedure:
1) Wire 3 of the led's in a series with one of the 330 ohm leds on the (+) lead side. place them in a row as close together as possible so you get something like this ( )( )( ). Hot glue between them and a thin "coat around them, and the leads that you soldered or twisted together (I recommend solder) so theat only the lead from the resistor and the (-) lead are bare. Put about 1" of the 3/4 shrink tubing around the led bundle and shrink it leaving about 1/3" of the top of the 3 leds exposed. Do this twice as you will need one for each mirror.

2)Run wire from the "hot when blinking" wire of each blinkerback to the door and leave about 2 ft to play with sticking out by the mirror. I tied in directly at the bulb socket at each front blinker using a tie in connector. for the driver side front blinker it you want to tie into the green wire with black runner (03') and for the passenger side it's the green wire with a yellow runner.

3) run a ground wire from one of the nuts around the area where you are working behind the door panel(see below), I used the one to the upper right of the nuts that hold the mirror on, it is partially covered by rubber, you'll see it.

4) The fun part! remove as many of the door panel screws as you have to to get to the 3 10mm nuts holding on the mirror. take the nuts completely off and remove the mirror (if you have heated or electric or both mirrors it will only pull out about 2-3 inches safely before the wire starts to get tight). be sure to put a towel or something under it where it will hang against your truck to prevent scratches. Now remove the mirros glass itself, this can be done by just pulling it soflty but firmly (on mine any way, they are electric mirrors, not sure about manual), it will just pop off from 3 different points. If you have heated mirrors mark the leads with where they were plugged in with a sharpy and inplug them. Now remove the 3 matching star bolts from the bottom of the mirrorthis will have the mirror in now 3 pieces. Use your best judgement to run the ground and "hot when blinking" wires from inside the door panel through the door and the mirror and up the the tube inside the mirrir to expose both wires with about 1' slack coming out from what would be behind the glass of the mirror. Now put it all back together with the exposed wires coming out from behind the mirror.

5)connect the pos & neg to the corresponding lead from the led bundle(however you would like to ,again, I suggest solder). Now attach the led bundle to the inside edge of the mirror on the top right corner (or wherever, just make sure it doesn't interfere with mirror movement). I used 5 minute epoxy and had them taped on untill it dried.

6)Test, and enjoy, any questions feel free to PM or E-mail.
If you do not want to fool with making the leds, or don't know how I will gladly make you a set for $20 shipped (U.S. only).