While I'm at it already, I'll post my tail end mod that I did recently.
I really hated the tail light. It looked like the GS was taking a bright red, rectangular poo; so I finally decided to do something about it. At first I tried just turning it upside down to keep the upward flow of the tail end, but that wasn't very good and the white to light up the license plate would then be shining straight up in the air.
(http://i.imgur.com/LlUH4l.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/wDkBDl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/T1u6dl.jpg)
I was unsure of exactly what I wanted, but LED was in order. Searching, I found this LED taillight thread saying to grab an oval tail light for use in trailers.
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=56642 (http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=56642)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41TP2S6cXaL.jpg)
I grabbed the LED trailer tail light from Wally world for $16ish. I wanted it thinner so I busted off all the red plastic. It is sealed in epoxy inside that VERY sturdy red lens so it is still water-tight. For lack of any other ideas, I drilled two holes toward the outside of the light and zip-tied it into position.
(http://i.imgur.com/EfIHFl.jpg)
To wire it up, I cut off the plug from the stock light with some leads to attach the new light. You connect the running light to the harness' brown wire, ground to Black/White, and brakes to White/Black. I guessed the first time round and ended up blowing the 20A main fuse.
I clearly needed to give it more protection and make it more visually appealing since the board is beige, so I got some 1/8th" plexiglass I had from another project to make a lens. I knew it would be interesting once I saw the rear plastics had a curve for that opening.
(http://i.imgur.com/yjjnEl.jpg)
I googled away and whaddaya know, you can simply heat it up with a propane torch and bend it. I actually made a wooden form that I sawed and sanded into shape from a 4x4 and a 2x4 glued together (great fun with a hand saw). I cut out the rough square shape and later cut it to fit the window in the plastics. I found out you need to heat it quite a bit; but if it is just a little more than that, bubbles will form in the plastic. It happened to me but it wasn't too bad.
The wooden form was super helpful to have something solid to hold the plexiglass to while I was cutting. Here it is all cut out. You can see some bubbles to the lower left. The stuff all along the bend was from heating it and forming it on wood. It heated the wood up and it oozed out some. I got rid of almost all of it when I sanded the surface later.
(http://i.imgur.com/37hQHl.jpg)
I also made a little metal piece to hide the bottom of the lens (shaping didn't leave the cleanest edges).
(http://i.imgur.com/C2hUYl.jpg)
The thread was right, this thing was super bright!
(http://i.imgur.com/8ZtQwl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/leamql.jpg)
More ideas! Black-out the rear! I got VHT Niteshades spray paint from O'Reilly Auto Parts for $12.
(http://www.midwayautosupply.com/images/PRODUCT/medium/VHT-SP999.jpg)
It turns out that I suck at spray painting. I ruined the lens I made partially by spraying on the Nite Shades way too thin; but the nail in the coffin for that one was that I grabbed the satin clear coat on the shelf instead of the gloss (why don't they make those words BIGGER). Luckily, my riding buddy is very accomplished at spray painting and I wanted another crack at making that lens. I cut out another one, bent it even better than the first, then I found this tool on a drill to be IMMENSELY helpful in doing the final shaping to make it fit just right.
(http://www.metals4u.co.uk/resources/files/SL583244.jpg)
I kinda used these directions to figure out how to do the tinting.
http://www.silveradosierra.com/how-to-articles/how-to-tint-your-tail-lights-using-vht-nite-shades-t1372.html (http://www.silveradosierra.com/how-to-articles/how-to-tint-your-tail-lights-using-vht-nite-shades-t1372.html)
We roughed up the plastic with 2000 grit paper, then did three coats of Nite Shades. This stuff is SUPER thin so be really careful for runs. We painted the inside of the lens and figured that it would keep the gloss look no matter what. We did three coats for the blacked out look (per the instructions) and left it in the sun to dry. Unfortunately it was about 100o and in blazing sunlight which resulted in the paint, getting spider-web cracks all across the surface. We think it dried too fast because of the sun so we did another coat and let it dry in the shade.
(http://i.imgur.com/Je60Bl.jpg)
You can see how reflective and black it is in this one pretty well
(http://i.imgur.com/Wtql2l.jpg)
It certainly did darken that up. It may actually be a little too dark but we will see what happens. I love the new look especially with the back grab bar off (the gf hasn't said anything so I figure she doesn't miss it).
(http://i.imgur.com/hS0Mfl.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/CmA9Il.jpg)
Oops, forgot the taillight integrated the white plate illumination! Ebay to the rescue with this little license plate bolt light. I only wanted one, so I put it in the middle of my custom made fender eliminator and wired it up to the leads on the plug for the second brake bulb (Black to Black/White, Red to Brown).
(http://i.imgur.com/T1DxNl.jpg)
Super shiny!
(http://i.imgur.com/1P4Xll.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/z1K30l.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/SR2yll.jpg)
Next, is to do something about the rusty old license plate bracket/indicators mounting plate I made a while ago. I'd also like to get different signals that are smaller, blend with the rear, and are hopefully brighter (wish the gallery was up). What do you guys think?
Seems a little dark, but very nice work though.
If you wanna stick to LEDs, I'd suggest a plate holder like this one (http://metallichorses.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=126), which can hold the signals (http://www.shin-yo.de/artikeldetails/details_203-590.html).
I'm loving it! Looks great. It did look better upside down (the red poo) but the current set up is waaaay better. Good job. Looks dark and sinister. :rstar: :rstar: :rstar: