Noobie here making first mods

Howdy, I have been lurking for a bit, I got my 2012 AVA LTZ in Nov 2013 and I finally decided to do a few small mods.

• Amber DRLs
• Flashing Third Brake Light
• Cadillac horns (old style A, C, D, F)

The Amber DRLs when done at the same time I did the horn mod, turned out neat, I really like the look.

The Flashing 3rd brake light is a small microprocessor I programmed to blink 3 times and then stays on steady as long as the brake is pressed. I originally made it for the trailer hitch 3rd lights I have always used on my other vehicles, they really are eye catching and since the LTZ AVA has a really nice large 3rd brake light is it really cool, I installed the circuit board behind the red lens. The circuit board is really small(3/4"x1" only 3 wires), I've started thinking about maybe programming it to do the Night-rider scanning lights! I used to sell them on eBay and even had someone stop me at the parking lot at a Bass Pro and offered to buy it on the stop, yep I sold it, and made another one 

I finished the horn mod today, I purchased the caddy horns('90 DeVille A,C,D,and F horns) on eBay for $80 including shipping and I used a piece of 1"x16"x1/8" I bought at Lowe's. I drilled the holes and twisted the bar 90 degrees and then bent the bottom 4" 90 degrees, painted it flat black and installed it. I did take a few pics of this project hope they may help someone, BTW, I did NOT use a relay or extra fuse, I have honk it a few times for approx. 5 seconds, so I think it should be OK, if a fuse blows in the future it will be a simple matter to install a relay. When I pulled the headlamps our for the Amber DRLs, the passenger horn is easily accessible so I just clipped the wire and left a bit of a pig-tail in case I decide to go back to the original horn.
Cheers! -Big Art

I have been enjoying my AVA, been wanting one lots of years



http://www.freewebs.com/scm1021/AVA_Horns6.jpg[img]
[img]http://www.freewebs.com/scm1021/AVA_Horns10.jpg

The Horns sound great, kinda like a train horn.

Sorry for the extra posts, not sure how to get all the info in just one post 

very cool horn setup. nice job

Rumgod said:

Howdy, I have been lurking for a bit, I got my 2012 AVA LTZ in Nov 2013 and I finally decided to do a few small mods.

• Amber DRLs
• Flashing Third Brake Light
• Cadillac horns (old style A, C, D, F)

The Amber DRLs when done at the same time I did the horn mod, turned out neat, I really like the look.

The Flashing 3rd brake light is a small microprocessor I programmed to blink 3 times and then stays on steady as long as the brake is pressed. I originally made it for the trailer hitch 3rd lights I have always used on my other vehicles, they really are eye catching and since the LTZ AVA has a really nice large 3rd brake light is it really cool, I installed the circuit board behind the red lens. The circuit board is really small(3/4"x1" only 3 wires), I've started thinking about maybe programming it to do the Night-rider scanning lights! I used to sell them on eBay and even had someone stop me at the parking lot at a Bass Pro and offered to buy it on the stop, yep I sold it, and made another one 

I finished the horn mod today, I purchased the caddy horns('90 DeVille A,C,D,and F horns) on eBay for $80 including shipping and I used a piece of 1"x16"x1/8" I bought at Lowe's. I drilled the holes and twisted the bar 90 degrees and then bent the bottom 4" 90 degrees, painted it flat black and installed it. I did take a few pics of this project hope they may help someone, BTW, I did NOT use a relay or extra fuse, I have honk it a few times for approx. 5 seconds, so I think it should be OK, if a fuse blows in the future it will be a simple matter to install a relay. When I pulled the headlamps our for the Amber DRLs, the passenger horn is easily accessible so I just clipped the wire and left a bit of a pig-tail in case I decide to go back to the original horn.
Cheers! -Big Art

I have been enjoying my AVA, been wanting one lots of years

http://www.freewebs.com/scm1021/AVA_Horns6.jpg[img]
[img]http://www.freewebs.com/scm1021/AVA_Horns10.jpg

Click to expand...

Tell us more about the third brake light mod!  That sounds awesome!

Great looking truck and some classy mods 

Thanks!  I'm trying to come up with what should be my next 'mod'. Lately I have been thinking about some sort of organizer for the center console, it seems to be just a big ol' 'hole', need some sort of compartments or dividers. Any suggestions?

There is a GM center console organizer tray available on epay if you want to try that.

blu_fuz said:

There is a GM center console organizer tray available on epay if you want to try that.

Click to expand...

Part number 19166288.
I finally got around to getting one for my 2009.

Removed the double post....but still waiting on some more info on that brake light mod.  You selling them yet?  I'd buy one!

Nice thread going on here. What are your overall plans?

Hi! Just got some 3/4" led marker lights on eBay and have just finished putting them on the front grill, here's a few pics of what I did, they are adhered with silicon sealer and ty-wraps. I have a question about my final wiring, I want to wire them so they go on and off with the headlights. Can anyone give me a wiring color code where I can connect this to? I will add an inline fuse in addition, any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks!

I just decided to go ahead and splice the amber grill leds to the driver side marker light, works good and looks pretty neat. It was a bit of a pain as I had to remove the headlight in oder to get to the side marker lamp socket, they(GM) didn't make changing bulbs easy

Cant you see the zip ties and wire from the front of the grill?

Hey there Blu_fuz,
The photo is a bit misleading, the grill in the photo actually "U" shape, and where the zip ties are fastened do not show, they are actually against the bottom of the upper piece that holds the grill. I'll try to get a couple more pics to help out.

Here's a few pics of my grill_leds mod I just finished, it really looks great at night. I used black and white wire, IF I had used all black wire and black zip ties, it would have been all but impossible to see any of it
(it is hard to see now). Whenever I have to pull off the grill again, I probably will just spray paint the wiring with black plastic paint!

I just wanna go ahead and say that I was the first one to start the grill leds on this forum 
Me first, then wyotonka, then Dakotawilk, then more and more people 

OK, you can claim the grill leds, but I'm claiming the custom micro-controller third brake light and the Cadillac horns!
hmm, still need to get a night time 'gif' pic showing the brake light and a 'how I did it' description..

BTW, your AVY looks good, I have enjoyed checking out your build and all the others here

Thanks buddy! means a lot 

Here's the night time photos, looks lots better than my pictures (I still have to work on that brake lite mpeg file)

OK Avy friends, here's the video of my 3rd brake light. It flashes 3x when the brake is first pressed and then remains on until
the brake is released. I also have the same circuit in my trailer hitch led light and it works the same way, the regular brake lights work only as normal, I decided not to modify their operation. Using a microprocessor allows simple to make changes such patterns, SOS, multiple flashes and rates, blah,blah,blah...
Have some ideas? let me know and maybe I'll program another and try it out

Check it out here:
http://youtu.be/D2YaobIasFE

Nice I was concerned about a flashing brake light that one is legal. 

I have enough parts to make 3 more brake light flashers if someone wants one. Email me and we
can work something out.

!!! H O L E Y    M O L EY !!!
I just received my new backup bulbs from VLEDS and I'm still seeing spots! 
This was a while ago and it was still sunny outside, these are incredible. I hope they are legal.
I didn't know what to order and I couldn't find a part number searching here, but I knew I
wanted some really bright ones(great for camping and backing up on the trail/campsites). So
I dug around a bit on VLEDS site and figured 1000lm/bulb may be bright. They state for "momentary
back-up light applications only" I hope they don't burn out or melt the lens in normal use. I going
to keep the original bulbs in the glove box just in case, believe me - THESE ARE BLINDING BRIGHT!!
I decided to list the part number and description in case some one else wants something this bright.
================================++++++++++==================================
Description:
VLEDS.COM
5K WHITE HIGH OUTPUT 21 LED BACK-UP LIGHT 7440 1000LM | 1 PAIR

Part #: 7440_21_HO_5K

High Output Back-up Light
Introducing the all-new 21 LED Platinum HO bulb. This is the brightest LED bulb of its type producing 1000lm each!

This bulb is for momentary back-up light applications only.

Features:

    18 Radial-firing 0.5W LED's
    3 Forward-firing 0.5W LED's for direct light
    Improved LED placement for a more precise focal point in the reflector
    320 degree viewing angle
    Large, barrel style aluminum heat sink for better reliability and performance
    10,000 hour lifespan
    1 year warranty

WARNING! Using this bulb in any other application will void your warranty.

I think this is the last mod 'til after the New Year and I decide/see something else. Right
now I can't think of any else I want to do.