MCam

I like the look of the face lift (03-06) taillights however I don't like that Mercedes decided to combine an LED brake light with dual filament bulb running lights. I had upgraded my pre-facelift (00-02) taillights to the newer ones a few years back however recently after a lot of research I bit the bullet and bought the eBay LED taillights figuring they couldn't look that bad. The eBay LED lights perform great however in my opinion look somewhat over the top on a stock appearing w220. What I am considering doing is taking the two sets of taillights and combining them into one working unit. Utilizing the looks of the stock facelift housing and the performance of the new LED portion.

Two Routes:

1. (Easy but somewhat unlikely route) I can take/bake the housing apart and use the older front glass with the newer rear LED portion.
2. I can strip the guts out of each housing and modify the stock (03-06) housing with the LED internals.

Concerns/Considerations:

• The lower portion lens seems to be fluted slighty which makes sense because of mercedes attempt to evenly distribute the light in the housing. This could somewhat distort the LED look.
• I need to further inspect the stock housing upper circuit to see whether it would be possible to replace with the newer brighter brake light LED unit.
• The housing uses a plastic weld technique to hold it together, this could either be a huge pain or a lot easier to deal with but right now I have no experience with this.
• I want to keep the internals/ circuitry of the LED taillights 100% intact because I do not want to run into reliability issues.

Little background about me:

• I like lighting, I have taken on and completed a few projector headlight retrofits.
• When I modify any car I like it to look like a refined/stock/modern version (if that makes sense to anyone)

I would like to hear your feedback/considerations on this though. Please don't tell me I have to much free time! I think this would be a great update. I will keep this thread updated with the steps I take and pictures as soon as I start the project, and as long as people are interested!

IVXX

I have the 03+ tails and they look exactly the same as the OEM 03+ tails so i'm sort of confused. Do you have pics of your tails?

MCam

Sorry I should have been a little more clear with my original post I should have specified which ebay tail lights I was referencing.

This is the picture of the ebay style I was referencing. If you have seen these lit you know they are super bright but the looks dont fit the w220 in my opinion. (they look pretty good in this picture but there is something about them that just look strange at different angles)


So thats why take the 03+ tails and use the outer shell (looks) and that way you have the stock look with updated lighting. Heres a pic for reference.


I haven't started this project yet but would like to sometime in the spring, just looking for some people interested in the project!

IVXX

OOOO those ones. This shouldn't be a big deal then, pretty much cut and paste. Heat the tail light housing up in the oven, remove the lenses from both tails, swap the lenses. Pretty easy right? I wouldn't dig in with all the wiring and ****, lot of work and things to go wrong.

MCam

I agree... I will continue to update the thread as I dig into them!

Skylaw

It may not matter to you, but the tail lights in the upper pic in post #3 are the W221 style - for a body that is very different from the W220.

The lights in the second pic are in the style of the '03-'06 W220 - which has essentially the same styling as your '01, except for some small refreshes in the front end styling - and those tail lights (which, personally, I like).