How I modified early model tail lights inexpensively.

[tcanin00]

My car is an '84, so I was having some problems with the bulbs losing contact and in my opinion the tail lights don't give other drivers enough reference as to how close my car actually is. I decided to mod the tails with some parts that I had on hand. Those parts were tail lights from a '99 Kia Sportage, but you could use any tail light made of plastic with a reflective surface.
Sportage tail lights prior to cutting:
And their harness which uses 1157 dual filament bulbs and sockets:
I cut out the reflective bucket from the Sportage tail to use in the center of my e30 tail since their is nothing in its place:
This will be made to fit in the center of the e30 tail:
Once that was complete and fitted the way I wanted it to, I spliced the Sportage harness into the e30 connector on the inside of the tail:
And cleaned it up a bit with zip ties:
This is a comparison of the factory lighting set up on the left, and my modification on the right:
And this is with the brakes on:

[siazul]

cool idea, i want to do something like this in the future

[sofargone561]

this is nice. i might do this instead of the crazy ass led tail light thing.

[illest318i]

Nice that's a good idea and it looks sick too.

[tcanin00]

Thanks for the comments on this! I was looking at the LED mod and I don't mind tedious, time consuming projects, but I don't have the funds to by 600+ LED's currently. This was pretty straight forward, and took about 8 hours to do, and cost about $50. I'm glad to have given an option to the LED mod.

[tonerrrr]

Great job! I too wonder if I'm seen on the road...driving in FL, probably not as much as I should by the old people. I'll have to try something like this out in the future!

[JasonC]

good job on the extra effort i guess. But most people wire in the rear fogs as extra tail lights or brake lights.

[tcanin00]

Yes tonerrr, that's the main reason I did this. It just seems like with the amount of research and development that went into our cars, the tail lights would be better. I have the owner's manual, and it actually points out what sections are for the brake and tail light.
JasonC, I did actually add a third 1157 bulb and socket in the furthest section of the tail light that had the plastic bar blocking it off. I never knew it was used as a "fog light." It doesn't make sense to not have lights all the way across the back.

[Mo Brighta]

Adding tail and brake lights

Um, yeah! This is a great idea, and here is another way to go about it, using BMW parts and the stock reflectors with high output bulbs. This is a project I perfected some years ago, there are several out there with much success. It basically employs the unused center section to add tail and brake lights, with a result of double the size and triple the output.

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=190578

I am happy to help anyone get the same result! I was asking $99 for the total upgrade, but can do it for less if there are enough people wanting it.

Andy

[tcanin00]

I read your thread after I posted this because I wanted to see other people's ideas and modifications. Your kit looks like it works really well and you obvisiously put a lot of time and research into constructing it. I like to use strickly BMW parts for the driveline and the major parts of the car, but I am not against using something custom or aftermarket in areas that could be improved upon.