Glowing Grill, BMW Restoration

To begin, I am restoring a 1969 BMW 2002 (Model) after I was rear ended and had the body repair and a complete paint job done over the last year. I got my car back from the Paint and Body shop mid-summer and have been working to put it all back together. New seals, new interior, new head liner, etc.

One of the other ideas I had was to give the front of the car a bit more visual impact so that people can see my car better at night. So, for a safety factor I think this will provide good light when running these lights during the night, but also not to blind anyone or other drivers, thus why I have pointed ALL the LEDs towards the center of the grill internal to the engine compartment.

With a quick search for LED strips, I found ones that are water proof, operate on 12VDC and have a sticky backing.

After seeing some of the other cool effects i wanted to add the cool feature to the front of my vintage car.

I had kept the grills off the front until I got the strip of LED lights mounted in the front top of the engine bay. So if you do this lighting feature you might want to start with the grill or front grills off of your car, so you can measure and fit check the LED string.

The power lead is hooked up (Spliced) to the head light switch so they will only power on if I have the head lights on, and the ground is hooked up to the ground of the vehicle via the battery ground.

You can add a switch if you want control of the LEDs at any time, but would recommend that they be connected to the accessory line so that if you shut off your car the LEDs go off as well, as to not drain your car battery.

After getting the lighting effect installed I really like the soft white glow, and the center kidney grill looks really good with a bit of light to highlight the over 50 years of the signature double oval grill!

Supplies and Tools:
Wire cutter/stripper

micrometer

Razor

pencil

Tape measure or ruler

3D printer or access to one to print the STL file (this file and be increased or changed to fit your application)

soldering iron

Solder

Wire cutter/stripper

Zip ties

Fuse rated for 3 Amp, quick blow

Wire splice

LED Lighting strip, length to be determined by your vehicle grill area SEARCH:White,12V Soft LED Lights Strip,Flexible Tape Lighting

2 wire speaker wire or power wire 14 or 16 AWG

After measuring the area you want to light up in your grill area, cut to length the LED strip as per manufactures recommendation and be sure to cut in the right location.

To verify proper polarity I used a 9 Volt battery to check and mark my wiring. The LED strip operates at 12 Volt DC but the 9 Volts DC battery has enough voltage to light the LEDS. But as you can see not very bright.

Solder on a power wire that will allow you to route the wire back to the fuse and switch, or if you are adding your own fuse and switch be sure to place these items with enough wire to accommodate the routing and covering of these wire. You do not want any wire that is not secured to the walls in your engine compartment AND should be covered by a protective vinyl or wire loom.

Measure and Determine the location of the holders in your engine compartment.

Print the STL file provided in the next step. you can edit the holder for the size and shape you need in TinkerCAD.

Determine how many mounting anchors you will need to hold your LED string. I needed three.

What is nice about doing these small mounts is that it is not permanent, won't damage your engine compartment with holes or drilled mounting components.

Looking on the inside of the compartment you can see each mount holds the strip firmly to the metal and allows the sticky backing to be pressed onto the metal, adding extra mounting surface.

Cut the excess zip tie and route the wire away from moving parts, sharp corners and secure the wire.

Temporarily hold the correct wires to the battery and make sure the LED string works and that none of the LEDs are forward facing.

Disconnect from the battery and make the connections to how you selected to permanently attach the wires.