Is there any realistic way of making your own legal lights, such as side markers?

I ask this because I don't see lights on the market that really fulfill what I'd like to do. Remember that movie Tron: Legacy? That's the aesthetic I'm looking for, but in SAE compliant colors. Maybe it isn't a good idea, but it's one I've been thinking of for awhile. And I figure if there's anyone who could tell me why it can or can't be done, it's the members of this forum.

Off the the top of my head I can think of a few things necessary to achieve it; being able to cast the necessary plastic parts in the correct material, creating an LED light source, doing both of those in a way that would be compliant, and then actually having compliance testing done.

For lighting "Tron style" for primary road lights you would have to submit lights to SAE for testing and compliance certification which would have to probably include them installed on a vehicle as there not going to buy a vehicle and install them .
As a matter of "decorating" a vehicle most vehicle & traficc laws which vary from state to state prescribe the light colors that can legally "be affixed or displayed " basic safety on all vehicles marker lights in all states is headlights white and marker lights Amber front(turn signals, amber on side, red to rear(STT) and side, White for reverse.
Now you can light a vehicle any way you want in any color you want on private property but has to be deactivated and incapable of operation well operating on any public right of way .
If your really intent on doing this there are companies that already make waterproof LED style "rope light"12 volt stuff that could accent whatever vehicle( it's not really rope but heating it with a heat gun allows for bending in limited amounts like corners and such) ,the two that come to mind are "Chrome Glow" and "Show me by the foot" . They couldn't be used as primary lights ,and I think it would be a "money pit" for you to try and design lights and get them approved ,for a single custom vehicle ,automakers generally change up designs about every two years ,depending on the model (they are also fond of "borrowing parts" from other models ( the Prowler,Viper are cars that everything was borrowed from other currently selling vehicles of the era and combined on different body) so much like resto mod classic cars you will never get the money you put into out ,if you try and sell it , so if you really love the vehicle and have time and money to burn jumping thru hoops designing and fitting and submitting for approval you could make one of a kind vehicle for yourself,if you would be happy with accents like Tyron look into the above products ,i know you can get two colors interleaved but three can be a crapshoot (the only products I know for sure that are three colors only come in 12 1/2 inch sections with a maximum of six being able to bolt together (straight line no curves).

As far as making them ,you would probably need to work a deal with an American manufacture or off shore it to China to actually make it ,just the equipment to hard coat the lens from cataracts due to UV radiation is 20+ million.
Getting a company to reset all there equipment to do a one off special run to your specifications,is a multi million dollar negotiation with no guarantee it will be approved as lighting. They can make it and you can have it rejected on a technicality ,and your back to square one with paying millions more to correct it .auto makers have entire departments of researchers,patent experts,consultants & lawyers dedicated to this one area of compliance.

milehigher said:

you would have to submit lights to SAE for testing and compliance certification which would have to probably include them installed on a vehicle as there not going to buy a vehicle and install them .

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There is no such thing as submitting lights to SAE for testing and compliance certification. That's not something SAE does, and it's not how things work. The maker of the equipment is responsible for doing their own homework, they have to do the necessary tests (or send the light out to a properly equipped test lab) and then the maker self-certifies that the lamp meets all applicable requirements. Those requirements are contained in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, which includes some provisions from some versions of some SAE standards -- the SAE standards themselves are not legal regulations, and building a lamp in compliance with any particular SAE standard does not guarantee it's a legal lamp.

Also, throwing random extra lights on a car ("rope light", etc) is not OK, even if the colors are white front, red rear, and amber side. It's easy to obscure or otherwise impede the function of required lights. Often-seen example violation that's almost never enforced: truck owner-operators put a bunch of extra marker lights on their rig, so instead of the intended light signature at the front and rear -- one left and one right clearance light, and a central group of three identification lights -- they have a line of lights across the front and a line of lights across the back. Or more than one line! The legal requirement is that the identification lights must be a group of three spaced between 6" and 12" apart from each other, and whatever their spacing from each other, any auxiliary or supplemental lights must be at least twice that distance away.

the Prowler,Viper are cars that everything was borrowed from other currently selling vehicles of the era and combined on different body

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Uh...no.

Getting a company to reset all there equipment to do a one off special run to your specifications,is a multi million dollar negotiation with no guarantee it will be approved as lighting. They can make it and you can have it rejected on a technicality ,and your back to square one with paying millions more to correct it

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It's not clear what you think "rejected on a technicality" might mean, but yeah, designing and building vehicle lights doesn't mean just sending a spec that amounts to "I want it to look like this" to a manufacturer. There's actual engineering involved -- a whole lot of it -- and unless one is prepared to spend a corresponding whole lot of money ("I want it to look like this and I'm hiring you to do the necessary engineering"), then it's not happening.

Original poster Interceptor_E: homemade car lights are a flat no, unless your home happens to contain multiple millions of dollars worth of special equipment, and you have the knowledge and skills to use it effectively. This is not something you can just guess and assume your way through.

-Virgil- said:

Original poster Interceptor_E: homemade car lights are a flat no, unless your home happens to contain multiple millions of dollars worth of special equipment, and you have the knowledge and skills to use it effectively. This is not something you can just guess and assume your way through.

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Fair enough! So with the equipment wildly out of reach, I'm curious as to what it takes from knowledge and skills aspect. Do many of those in this field have a degree in electrical or optical engineering? It seems like an awesome career.

Also to clarify what I meant as to "Tron" style lighting, I was envisioning a tractor trailer with its trailer's entire side outlined in a rectangle of light, (amber at the top, bottom, and front, with red at the trailing edge), or a flatbed wrecker with the side of its load deck lit up in continuous amber with a red marker at the tail. That kind of over-the-top "chicken light" style has always fascinated me, but there are no lights on the market (that I can find) that can be installed closely enough to make it seem like a continuous band of light.

Interceptor_E said:

I'm curious as to what it takes from knowledge and skills aspect. Do many of those in this field have a degree in electrical or optical engineering?

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There's plenty of work to go around. Optical engineers, electrical/electronic engineers, chemical and mechanical engineers...all those specialties (and probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment) go into making vehicle lights.

Also to clarify what I meant as to "Tron" style lighting, I was envisioning a tractor trailer with its trailer's entire side outlined in a rectangle of light, (amber at the top, bottom, and front, with red at the trailing edge), or a flatbed wrecker with the side of its load deck lit up in continuous amber with a red marker at the tail.

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That wouldn't be bad.

but there are no lights on the market (that I can find) that can be installed closely enough to make it seem like a continuous band of light.

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How close do you want to be able to get to the vehicle and still have the lights look like a continuous band?

-Virgil- said:

There's plenty of work to go around. Optical engineers, electrical/electronic engineers, chemical and mechanical engineers...all those specialties (and probably more I'm not thinking of at the moment) go into making vehicle lights.



That wouldn't be bad.



How close do you want to be able to get to the vehicle and still have the lights look like a continuous band?

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Sorry, I realize this is an older thread now but I thought of something else in a similar vein to the original question.

First though; I think anyone wanting to purchase the lights for a continuous look would want them as close as possible while still while still having them be serviceable. I've had a couple of ideas I've been trying out in my free time.

Now for the new thought I've had that's not really new; what are the legal obstacles to making Morette-style frame and bezel assemblies that use off-the-shelf lighting? I'm having a hard time finding anyone making anything of the sort these days, and I don't know if there's a DOT or SAE standard for the actual mounts or frames for lights such as sealed beams or their LED replacements, or if any manufacturer's adjustable bezel will do.

I figure a metal frame with a fiberglass or plastic bezel that's painted with conventional automotive paint wouldn't be a particularly difficult thing for an Average Joe such as myself, especially compared to the manufacturing process explained to me in previous posts.

The only requirements are the obvious ones: any aimable lamps (headlamps, fog lamps) must have a system for attaining and maintaining correct aim as specified in the regs. Any replacement lamp must provide at least all the required functions the original lamp provided, and all functions must comply with the applicable provisions in the regs. In your example of sealed beam sized headlights, you'd probably be fabricating bezels and fillers and structures, but the actual headlight mounting bowl with its retainers, springs, and aim adjusters you'd probably buy (as you say "any manufacturer's adjustable bezel"). So long as you buy a good one (original equipment of whatever vehicle, reputable aftermarket), so you'd be offloading the engineering -- just make sure your bezels and structures don't prevent the mount/aim hardware from working the way it's designed to work.

(Likewise, there's nothing stopping you from putting Chevrolet lights on your Subaru...as long as they're mounted and aimed and performing according to the regs and they provide at least all the same functions as the original Subaru lights did.)

In practical terms: let's say you want to make a modular tail light for...I don't know, let's say the last-design Ford Crown Victoria. That car's original tail light on each side provides stop light, tail light, rear turn signal, rear side marker light, rear reflex reflector, and rear side reflex reflector functions. So your new tail light has to provide all those same functions. At the Federal level it's not OK to "export" functions, like you can't make a taillight that doesn't have integral side and rear reflex reflectors and ship them with separate reflectors. But at the level you sound like you're talking about, building lights for your own vehicle, not creating a business to make and sell them, there's nothing stopping you from exporting functions: originally integral side markers, now separate, or vice versa? Fine, as long as the vehicle has all the functions it's supposed to have.

Whether you're doing headlights or various other exterior lights: use good quality, compliant light modules/units. There is good variety of good product on the market; unless your desires are really exotic, you should be able to find what you want easily enough. But there's also a lot of garbage out there, so tread carefully.

Use light modules that are actually designed to do the respective jobs you're getting them for. A stop light has to be a stop light, engineered and built and certified/approved as such -- not just a light that lights up red. A rear fog light has to be a rear fog light, not a stop light hooked up as a rear fog light, even though they're both bright red lights, and so on.

And make sure you really know and understand the rules and requirements that apply to the lights and vehicles you're working on. Don't guess or assume anything; don't think that a quick reading of your state's vehicle code provides all the info you need.

Ask questions along the way.