Other sponsors involved with this specific build:
The Retrofit Source..........E46 Projectors with etched lenses and HID kit
Diode Dynamics...............Switchback DRL LED Boards and RGBW Demon Eye Boards
Rigid Industries................LED Pods for the Headlights and Taillights
Recon Lighting..................LED Taillights
Ryan Lewin......................Painting....everything
This build was fairly intense, but pretty simple compared to what usually goes down at Trax Customs.
First off, I swapped the projectors....the OEM projectors are junk (as you can see from the comparison pics)....but the new 2016's Do come with OEM HID lighting...so that's a plus.....but it's no match for a proper E46 projector with 50 watt Morimoto builbs. I had to custom make brackets to make these buggers fit, as the 2016's have a different bolt pattern than the 2015's apparently.
I also modified the bracketry on the DD Demon Eye boards to fit the tight confines of the OEM Sierra mounting bracket...so the LEDs hit the perfect spot when activated.
Next up was the OEM DRL boards...those had to go. From stock, they are simply just White LEDs....no turn signals.....but since we are cramming in an LED pod where the OEM turn signal was, we needed Amber somewhere....so I replaced the OEM boards with the Diode Dynamic LED Switchback boards and WHAMMMO....turn signals are now relocated.
Since we no longer needed the OEM turn signal location, we decided we are stuffing the massive D2 Midnight pod in that location.....we were constricted both side-to-side placement as well as depth (due to the trucks frame being RIGHT behind the headlight in this location). So the dealership's techs fitted the headlights to the truck and placed an aluminum plate with as minimal amount of clearance as possible so I could mount the pod to it and hope for clearance on the front lens. This pod is about 1/8" away from the front lens...it's close....but we got it. Other builders/owners have done something similar but they simply cut a hole out of the OEM reflector and flush mount it to that....no problem.....minus the fact that now you LED pod is shining off to the sides of the truck.....which is kinda pointless.....with this setup, the lights are shining straight forward and a 'tad' about the cutoff line of the amazing projectors!
Then I trimmed and fit and trimmed and fit and trimmed and fitted the OEM lens for precise clearance of the pod.
Once that was done....then I had to rebuild the entire back side of the turn signal area, as we basically dropped it an 1" from where it originally was....so fiberglass/filler/sealant was used to achieve this task.
Then ALL the parts went off to Lewin for paint!
Moving on to the Taillights, I cracked the GoRecon lights up (teeeeeeeedious) and started cutting out plastic panels and whatnot to fit the Rigid Industries mini LED pod in the OEM Backup Light spot. This little light is a fun little thing and is very comparable to a higher powered LED Bulb that one can replace via the OEM plug....but it sure does look cool stuffed back up in there.
After this, all these parts were also taken to Lewin for paint.
Here are the build pics for this project....I was hoping for some up-close shots of them finished on the truck....but since this is a sponsor build, I'll wait until there is some professional photos taken for some better shots.