Reverse Lights

Background
When I got the Corvette, it not only had front and rear fiberglass bumpers, but it also had a bubble light conversion done to the tail lights.  For people that don't know what those are, you can get a set of bubble lights from a number of Corvette or car catalogs (from Eckler's for example).  The original tail lights are only slightly dome shaped and have chrome rings on them.  In addition to being the rear brake lights and turn signals, the two inner lights have a clear center that functions as the reverse lights.

Personally, I like the look of the bubble lens over the originals.  However, by converting to them, you lose the reverse lights.  When I noticed this, I looked under the bumper and discovered the reverse lights had been zip tied up.  Since not having reverse lights is a bit of a safety hazard, I decided to investigate ways of adding reverse lights.  I've seen a couple pictures of C3 Corvettes that have lights added to the bottom of the rear bumper.  My inspiration instead comes from C4 and C5 Corvette reverse lights.  On those body styles, the reverse lights are on both sides of the rear license plate.  Looking at my bumper, there was a little bit of room on the sides of plate for lights.

I went to my local AutoZone to check out their selection of LED lights.  I found that they have a decent selection of LED accent lights at about the same price you can get them for online.  The lights I ended up picking were the ones that I thought would mount the easiest and look less like I just threw something on there. These Pilot Automotive Grille Lights were my second choice, but I didn't choose them because they weren't going to mount as nicely as the ones I picked.


Required Parts

• White LED Reverse Light (blue version of what I used...)
• Black & Red 16 gauge stranded primary wire (18 gauge would also work if you can find it)
• Heat shrink tubing (small enough for chosen wire size)
• Two wire connectors (trailer hitch connectors work really well, I used clipping ones from Radio Shack)
• Cable/Zip ties
• Electrical tape
• Quick wire tap/splice connectors (size depends on wire chosen)
• Automotive attachment tape, aka 3M trim tape (the thinnest, smallest available)
• Stainless steel wire (this may not be necessary depending on your mounting method)
• Weatherproof BA15S bayonet base white LED light (optional)

Tools

• Soldiering iron
• Lighter or preferably a heat gun
• Drill
• Rotary tool (battery powered Dremel works well)
• Screw drivers
• Wire cutters/strippers
• Pencil
• Tape (blue painters works well)

Procedure

NOTE:  I'm in the process of redoing this to be less "bubba" by creating a new mounting base and securing mechanism using aluminum stock.  Not that using stainless steel wire doesn't work with the plastic base, it just doesn't look very good and seems goofy...

1. Align the lights to the desired position on the sides of the license plate recess in the bumper and marke the edged with a pencil. Use pieces of card board and tape to keep everything in place and equal distances. Take your time doing this and double check your work.  Once you start cutting/drilling, there's no going back and you'll notice if your measurements were off.

   

   Trial run before I did any cutting

2. The following steps should be followed if you want to use the plastic mounting base in addition to or instead of the automotive mounting tape.  If you don't do this method, make sure you have a good way to get the light's connector inside the bumper...
1. The lights I chose had a small plastic mounting base that allow the light to swivel.  If I mounted those to outside of the fiberglass bumper, there would be a fairly large gap between the light and the side of the license plate recess.  Instead, at this point, I removed the plastic base and aligned it to the marks I previously made and drew another outline.
2. Before taking the plastic base away, drill the holes into the bumper for the screws.
3. Next, using an oscillating cutting tool and the Dremel, cut out the space for the plastic base to poke through the bumper.  A little extra space around the top and bottom is necessary for passing the wire through.  In addition, it may be necessary to sand down the fiberglass from inside the bumper to allow the plastic base to poke through enough.
4. Test the mount to make sure it fits like you want and you can fit the wire through so it moves easily in and out.  At this point you're probably wondering how you'll be getting the screw back into the mount.  The answer is, you won't be.  There was no way for me to get the screw back in, we'll cover my fix for that later.
3. Prepare the wiring (this will be done twice, once for each light).

1. Cut four 12" or longer pieces of primary wire (2 red, 2 black)
2. Strip a small section from each of the 4 wires (about 1/4", it can always be trimmed if it's too long).
3. Strip the same amount of wire from the leads coming from the light.
4. Cut two 3/4" lengths of heat shrink and put it on one red and one black primary wire.
5. Twist the stripped leads together with the stripped lead of the primary wire (matching red to read, black to black).
6. Solider the twisted leads, making sure that the soldier is smooth.
7. Slide the heat shrink over the soldiered joint and use the lighter or heat gun to shrink the tubing.
8. If you chose to go with the trailer hitch connector:
1. Most come as a loop, cut the loop into equal sections.
2. Perform the same soldiering procedure that was just performed on the two unused sections of primary wire to lengthen the leads on the hitch connectors.  Once soldiered together, I used electrical tape to keep the wires together.
3. With the leads attached to the lights, for the soldiering with heat shrink to the other side of the connector (making sure the colors match up).  I also used electrical tape here to keep the wires together.
9. If you chose Radio Shack clip connectors:



Old wiring harness, hope yours looks better.

1. Strip the other end of the primary wire just attached to the lights.
2. Solider or crimp the pins to the stripped sections on all four wires (I prefer soldier).
3. Slide the pins into the clip connectors, making sure the wire colors will match when connected together.
4. Like with the hitch connector, electrical tape can be used in spots to keep the wires together.
4. Locate the reverse lights. Using the quick tap/splice connectors, connect the primary wire leads to the reverse lights. It should be fairly obvious which wire should be taped (just start with black to black). When tapping, make sure to stay as far away from the light socket as you can (meaning close to the wire wrap).
   NOTE:  I'm redoing this without the tap on my new harness.
5. Feed the connector through the hole in the bumper.
6. Screw the plastic mounting piece in place.
7. Feed the wire through the bumper until the light can be in the plastic mount.
8. Drill two smaller holes. One just above the plastic mount and one just below.
9. Take a piece of stainless steel wire and force it through the mount and the two holes just drilled.  These can be twisted together or held in place with a screw (either method works and will hold the light in place).
10. For extra mounting stability, use the automotive adhesive tape to tape the light in place.  Just not that this may show more than desired. I actually removed it because I didn't like how you could see the colored tape. After the car is painted, I will likely try taping again.
11. Connect you lights with the other side of the connector you soldiered on earlier.
12. Use the cable/zip ties to secure any excess wire to the rear wiring harness.
13. If you don't like the color of the original reverse lights mixed with the new ones, you can either simply remove the old lights from the socket or replace them with a LED replacement.  I personally couldn't stand the two different colors, but actually really liked the glow underneath the car so I replace my reverse lights with weatherproof LEDs (that two different colors is pictured below).

The lights are not blue...  They are actually very bright and also very white.