In regards to staying legal... as long as you remove all evidence of the third brake light being there, what cop is going to know?
Not all vehicles come with third brake lights... so I wouldn't expect the fuzz to give you too much hassle if they couldn't tell it was there to begin with.

Juss sayin' .... I'm a big fan of doing what I want and waiting to see what happens... but I feel the chances of getting pinched are slim to none.
Now I can appreciate if you want to try and figure out a solution so it's 'safer' and you're more visible, but led bolts are definitely not going to do that.
Another option is you could affix something to the roll bar on either side on the inside so it would shine through the window... there's no law saying that the third brake light has to be centered, and the wires would be easy enough to hide.

 

I don't worry about getting pulled over. What I really worry about are the state inspections and mine is coming up next month.

I also would like a little extra "safety" since my tail lights are niteshaded and I would feel safer having one more light to show people that I am stopping.

I ran without a third brake light on my first cherokee and it did not bother me, since the stop and turn markers were separate (red/amber).

EDIT: I am not going to be using LED bolts. I found some water resistant 4" LED strips that I will be splicing into an extra tailgate harness that I have laying around and I will be taping it right above the new swag offroad plate. I am also going to niteshade those LEDs and they will be pretty discreet when they are off. Just hope it holds up to the winters here. If not, then I can always unplug it since I use the stock harness.

 

No worries at all.

 

I got my swag plates. They are bare metal. Right now the primer is drying on them. I plan on hitting the inner plate gloss black and the external plate a flat black.

Hope I don't screw it up!

Thursday: My custom Dynamics KnightRiderz non sequential/non flashing smoked LED should come in. Hope it works with the stock tailgate wiring. I plan to stick that on top of the exterior plate as a third brake light.
You can see it here: http://w w w .customdynamics.com/knight_rider_led_light_bar.htm
(scroll down to the dual intensity one - I got the smoked one)

 

Paint is done. The inner plate is gloss black (pretty good for a cheap rattle can job with engine paint I had laying around and no clear), the outer plate is a near flawless flat black color.

Waiting on the LED to come via the Brown Sleigh today. I will tackle the light and installation either tomorrow morning or Saturday.

 

Heres my body work

 

Dang man. I really like that. Very very nice

 

Thanks thats been a brainstorm for about a year finnaly got around to it.

 

All done!

Here is the finished product. Not bad for a rattlecan job. I will have the colors reversed and professionally painted later. The LED is a Custom Dynamics motorcycle LED. It is bright as heck.
EDIT: I want to thank Troy at SwagOffroad for an excellent job replying to my emails and having the product sent out right on time.

 

The rattle paint was too soft and was flaking off due to improper prep work. I got it professionally painted.

Here is the FINAL product.