I forgot to mention that while I was taking one apart and trying to figure out how to mod it I had the other one hooked to a battery to see how hot it got - warm enough that they definitely need the heat sinks but not so hot as to be dangerous. So the first thing I had to do was cover the openings at the back of the heat sinks and that would have to be fender washers. I thought probably 1/4" but I found two 3/16" fender washers 1.5" O.D. that were perfect. I had also decided that using the brackets from the old lights was the best option and the easiest way to adapt them would be to bend up a couple of pieces of metal...
Among the stuff I inherited from my Dad were some 70cm long pieces of 11mm x 1.5mm aluminum strip painted brown with 2 sided tape on one side (from the brown paint, I figure they were meant for screen door or window trim of some sort) and after rattling around for a couple of decades the 2 sided was coming off of one so it was ripe for making something out of. Not the strongest stuff but the lights only weigh a couple of ounces and it bent easily with pliers without cracking, the tape adhesive was easily washed off with mineral spirits and it cut & filed easily. I also have a bunch of #10-24 nuts and bolts with 11mm diameter heads left over from steel sheds. With the old lights removed and their brackets on the workbench I cut & bent the new pieces that would fit inside them and hold the new lights, then drilled 7/32" (5.5mm) holes for bolting them to the old brackets and for bolting them to the fender washers. Next I measured the centres of the screws to attach the heat sinks to the brackets, laid them out and drilled them, then bolted the new pieces to the fender washers and drilled them to match. I also drilled holes in the washers for grommets for the wires. Since the shed bolt heads were the same size as the strips I used a bolt as a pattern for filing the ends of the new pieces round (since its plating is now damaged around the edges the bolt I used is now marked for this use only).
I ended the day by cleaning up the old brackets, sanding everything to be painted, wiping them down with lacquer thinner, putting them on hooks and painting them with Armor Coat gloss black from a rattle can.
It was pretty humid so I let the paint dry for 36+ hours and I even warmed the parts with a propane torch a couple of times to help bake the paint.
NOTE: If you try this technique be very careful to just heat the parts enough to bake but not enough to ignite the paint (it is routine for me now but the first time I tried it I ended up repainting a few parts).
Here's all the bits & pieces ready for final assembly:
Back row - the silicone I used to seal them, Threadlocker (only used on the nut & bolt that attach the new piece and fender washer) and thermal grease (applied to the backs of the boards so as much heat as possible will be transferred to the housing so the chips stay as cool as possible)
Middle row (L to R): nut, modified fender washer, grommet, new piece, #4 x 3/8" pan head screws and shed bolt, old bracket with bolts, nuts, washers (not shown: inside star lock washers for under the nuts)
Front row (L to R): bezel (threaded to screw onto plate on heat sink), lens (has recesses to fit over LEDs on board), circuit board (after I took the pic I decided to add heat shrink to protect the wires where they pass through the board), 3.9mm bullet connectors (I later decided to use heat shrink instead of the supplied insulators to better support the thin wires), heat sink/front plate assembly.
4 Parts pre-assembly.jpg
I applied a thin bead of silicone inside the lip of the bezel to seal the lens, then applied the thermal grease to the back of the board (LED panels have aluminum on the back for this and the lens is designed so that it holds the board firmly against the plate), put the board & lens in place with the LEDs aligned so they would be horizontal when mounted and very carefully threaded the bezel on while holding everything in alignment (it only took 3 or 4 tries for each light), then wiped off the excess silicone with a rag & mineral spirits and painted around the inside of the joint between the heat sink and plate with silicone (silicone sealant is not a great conductor of heat so I didn't want it between the plate and the heat sink).
The next step was to bolt the fender washer to the new piece, being careful to keep the screw holes lined up, then butter around the edge of the opening where the washer would meet the heat sink with more silicone (working it into the extruded ribs that the screws go into), install the grommet, push the wires into it (with a dab of silicone on the inside to help seal them) and screw the new parts onto the heat sink.
After that all that remained was to repeat for the other light, add the bullet connectors and bolt the assemblies into the brackets
5 New lights modified.jpg
And bolt them onto the light bar. I aimed them to the right and down a bit so they should be noticeable without dazzling oncoming drivers. They lit up the garage very well so I need to find an excuse to go out at night and see just how much light they put on the road.
6 New running light.JPG
7 New lights installed.JPG
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