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Thread: How To install door LED Courtesy Lights

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  1. #1
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    How To install door LED Courtesy Lights

    I'll start the first post with the condensed version of items (Pics to come)
    I'm not going to go into ad nauseam on how to remove & mount door panels


    Things learned

    A little dremel was needed to make the light angle straight
    The front door bottom plastic is double walled and requires
    a little inside and outside the hole shaping to mount straight.

    Front door
    Remove door Panel and lay on table face down
    Light fits inside in between the bottom pockets
    Position light and mark plastic door panel with awl.
    Check fitment inside the small pocket and outside on height.
    Mark with awl. Drill in center of plastic door between pockets
    I cut away the door insulation where the lights mount for heat.
    (easily done with scissors)


    Rear door
    Remove door panel and lay on table face down. As above check vertical and hrizontal center.
    You can place the light at the outside end of the door or towards the center in front of the pocket
    Neither one is the "perfect" the exact same distance out. I choose the outside end of the rear door.
    Again, I took a pair of scissors and cut away the insulation on the door where the light is mounted.
    Also as above you may need to do a little arts and crafts with a dremel to make the hole straight.

    For both the front and back doors the retainer ring just barely caught and the set screw was in the back.
    Be sure the light is 90 degrees to the truck body then a little loctite blue or a glue gun will hold the ring in place.
    I actually had one light that I could use the set screw with. All of the others had the set screw in the back.

    Wiring
    There a a couple of different types of wire that can be used but in my case I used speaker wire.
    Why? It is flexible and that makes it easy to work with and it already comes as a connected pair.
    (It helps that one side has a white line so you can find positive)

    The back doors do not have power. Wires need to be pulled for the back door lights
    This was not as complicated or difficult as I had expected but it did take a little time.
    With the front and rear door panels removed, remove the inside center door pillar cover.
    Then remove the front interior step plate. From the back door go through the boot & down the pillar.
    Pull the wire forward through the front floor sill and come into the front door through the front boot.
    This way power for the front and rear doors can be connected together inside the front door.


    Installing the multi-function remote control
    This added an additional wiring twist. All four door wires need to come together in one place.
    This is the passengers kick panel. Connector C212. 16 pin connector. Pin 6. Black with Light Blue tracer.
    I connected the two drivers side doors together and then ran one wire from the left side to the kick panel.
    Then the connected the two pairs of wires from the right two doors to the one pair from the left doors.
    With the front door panels removed I glued speaker cloth over the inside of the doors to blacken it out.
    On the right passenger door I ran a wire from the kick panel into the door and another pair back to C212.
    This is my connection to the multi-function remote control. The remote is a very small receiver.
    I connected the remote to the right hand metal door panel to the right of where the speaker mounts.
    This allows me to use the remote by simply pointing at the inside of the passenger door.
    The speaker cloth covers both the the door speaker and the remote receiver module.





    As I stated in my first sentence I will post install pics soon

    But for now...here is the finished results! (click on pic below) ENJOY!

    Last edited by Merlin; 07-14-2017 at 01:55 PM.

  2. #2
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    Great Video! Looks awesome


    Quote Originally Posted by Merlin View Post
    I'll start the first post with the condensed version of items (Pics to come)
    I'm not going to go into ad nauseam on how to remove & mount door panels


    Things learned

    A little dremel was needed to make the light angle straight
    The front door bottom plastic is double walled and requires
    a little inside and outside the hole shaping to mount straight.

    Front door
    Remove door Panel and lay on table face down
    Light fits inside in between the bottom pockets
    Position light and mark plastic door panel with awl.
    Check fitment inside the small pocket and outside on height.
    Mark with awl. Drill in center of plastic door between pockets
    I cut away the door insulation where the lights mount for heat.
    (easily done with scissors)


    Rear door
    Remove door panel and lay on table face down. As above check vertical and hrizontal center.
    You can place the light at the outside end of the door or towards the center in front of the pocket
    Neither one is the "perfect" the exact same distance out. I choose the outside end of the rear door.
    Again, I took a pair of scissors and cut away the insulation on the door where the light is mounted.
    Also as above you may need to do a little arts and crafts with a dremel to make the hole straight.

    For both the front and back doors the retainer ring just barely caught and the set screw was in the back.
    Be sure the light is 90 degrees to the truck body then a little loctite blue or a glue gun will hold the ring in place.
    I actually had one light that I could use the set screw with. All of the others had the set screw in the back.

    Wiring
    There a a couple of different types of wire that can be used but in my case I used speaker wire.
    Why? It is flexible and that makes it easy to work with and it already comes as a connected pair.
    (It helps that one side has a white line so you can find positive)

    The back doors do not have power. Wires need to be pulled for the back door lights
    This was not as complicated or difficult as I had expected but it did take a little time.
    With the front and rear door panels removed, remove the inside center door pillar cover.
    Then remove the front interior step plate. From the back door go through the boot & down the pillar.
    Pull the wire forward through the front floor sill and come into the front door through the front boot.
    This way power for the front and rear doors can be connected together inside the front door.


    Installing the multi-function remote control
    This added an additional wiring twist. All four door wires need to come together in one place.
    This is the passengers kick panel. Connector C212. 16 pin connector. Pin 6. Black with Light Blue tracer.
    I connected the two drivers side doors together and then ran one wire from the left side to the kick panel.
    Then the connected the two pairs of wires from the right two doors to the one pair from the left doors.
    With the front door panels removed I glued speaker cloth over the inside of the doors to blacken it out.
    On the right passenger door I ran a wire from the kick panel into the door and another pair back to C212.
    This is my connection to the multi-function remote control. The remote is a very small receiver.
    I connected the remote to the right hand metal door panel to the right of where the speaker mounts.
    This allows me to use the remote by simply pointing at the inside of the passenger door.
    The speaker cloth covers both the the door speaker and the remote receiver module.





    As I stated in my first sentence I will post install pics soon

    But for now...here is the finished results! (click on pic below) ENJOY!


  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheDoubleAA View Post
    Great Video! Looks awesome
    Not too bad for 5am and a crappy iPhone3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Merlin View Post
    Not too bad for 5am and a crappy iPhone3
    I'd say not, This is what I did on my wifes Explorer yesterday

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    Thumbs up

    Very nice Merlin. Good job and great explanation on wiring for the back doors and remote. Thanks.

    Mods=L&S Oil Sep, Blackwood trim & mirror caps, Navi ant' base, E-brake pedal, CAI, C&L Intake & Plenum, 95mm MAF tube, SBTB, 170 T-Stat, Predator+RWTD custom tune, 8# lower, PG Ti900.7 amp, JLA XR570-CXi & Stealthbox, FTVB, Finned Trans Pan, Line of Fire LED, J-Jent Grille, RotorPro Dimpled & Slotted rotors, LED taillights, chrome door strikes, billet locks & coat hangers, ChickenEars Engine Billet package #1&2+door sills, Metco billet aux idler bracket & pulleys, LFP E-Fan, Xenarc HID heads, clear corners, Roush HID fogs, Bedrug, L' 3rd, Kenwood DDX-7017 DVD+TV+Sirrius+RevCam, Lotek dual pillar pod with AutoMeter boost gauge & DynoJet WBC, fog switch mod, UPR billet window switches and door locks, FAST overlays, LFP 58" bars, Hotchkis TVS, Bilsteins, DblG Panhard, Cervinis Cobra R hood, BFG T/A KDW 2 tires, Hawk Ceramic pads, MGP caliper covers.

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    Wink

    Quote Originally Posted by Merlin View Post
    Not too bad for 5am and a crappy iPhone3
    5am on a Sunday morning?

    Dang, don't like sleeping in on weekends!?

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by cayman150 View Post
    5am on a Sunday morning?

    Dang, don't like sleeping in on weekends!?
    It's screwy...workdays I go to bed early and don't like getting up.
    Weekends I like getting up early go for a Dunkin' coffee and enjoy.



    Shhhh...don't tell anybody but...it took about 3-4 hours to do.
    I didn't get done Saturday in time to do a finished product video.
    I saw a post on LR from this guy who said he got it done it 20 min.
    Maybe so with a Lightning, 2 doors and easier access to a 12v power.
    It's not hard to do. It takes time to line up the two logos on each side.
    One door on each side not so much. Two doors and they need to line up.
    This means time to line up the two images. Door panel on, door panel off etc.

  8. #8
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    Yeah, my 4x4 didn't take long at all since it already had the lights in the door for the power source.

    It's door panel is not as thick at the bottom where everyone is complaining about the HD one. I must say, getting the retaining ring to catch on the first few threads is a PITA since the panel is curved and there's no room to screw the ring on. Once I got it caught, I just aligned it and snugged the ring on to the light and made sure the set screw hole came out to the side and put the set screw in it and tightend it down.

    I guess with your remote you can make them blink and fade in and out?

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    older lightnings had the light in the door already to tie into so no wire to run just tap into the courtesy lamp on the door and Bam done.


    Quote Originally Posted by Merlin View Post
    It's screwy...workdays I go to bed early and don't like getting up.
    Weekends I like getting up early go for a Dunkin' coffee and enjoy.



    Shhhh...don't tell anybody but...it took about 3-4 hours to do.
    I didn't get done Saturday in time to do a finished product video.
    I saw a post on LR from this guy who said he got it done it 20 min.
    Maybe so with a Lightning, 2 doors and easier access to a 12v power.
    It's not hard to do. It takes time to line up the two logos on each side.
    One door on each side not so much. Two doors and they need to line up.
    This means time to line up the two images. Door panel on, door panel off etc.

  10. #10
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    Hey Merlin, where did you get your door sill HD plates??? Nice job, you da man!!

  11. #11
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    Actually it was one of the few mods the person I purchased the truck from had done. (and yes I have the stockers)
    A couple of folks that have been on here longer than I recognized them and being silk screened on the kick plate.
    After the years they are starting to look scratch up and I tried polishing 'em and low and behold it started coming off.

    Now for the good new...

    I've been talking to TheDoubleAA about making some lighted kick plates that would illuminate with the courtesy lights.


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    I took my front door panels off and got the location of the light sorted but chickened out when it came to the wiring.

    Damn NFL and Nascar got in the way after so I gotta get up my electrical courage again to go out and snake the wires to all the right spots. Did I say I hate electrical!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Merlin View Post
    Actually it was one of the few mods the person I purchased the truck from had done. (and yes I have the stockers)
    A couple of folks that have been on here longer than I recognized them and being silk screened on the kick plate.
    After the years they are starting to look scratch up and I tried polishing 'em and low and behold it started coming off.

    Now for the good new...

    I've been talking to TheDoubleAA about making some lighted kick plates that would illuminate with the courtesy lights.

    On ur courtesy door lights where did you get u power from on the front doors

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    Cool post merlin. I installed the lights on my front doors only because of the lights already on the front panels, my question is, is it not too many lights to be running off of one same energy point?? Another thing i realized is that even though theres no lights on the rear panels, when you open a rear door all the interior lights come on. So there must be a power wire on those rear doors. Did you happen to find that wire so i can tap into it when installing the rear courtesy lights.

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    Hey Merlin, when you connect the power wires to the C212 does the laser lights come on and goes off when you open and shut the door or do I need to get a switch or remote too

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