lighting mods in my car.

[rathies]

I've got some coolish interior lighting mods I thought I'd share with you guys. all the photos are taken with a phone camera but you can still make out what things are quite well.

On the exterior i've got windscreen washer led's that flash with the car alarm. tells ppl to stay the fuck away from my psycho alarm. I wonder if they'll get stolen.


Green neons in my boot (full of all my work tools and shit). cut the wires from the original light and spliced a couple of 8" tubes in.


Green floor neons, the neons are actually under the seats, they are reflecting off the two amps under the front seats and creating the glare in the camera.


Dash lights as they are at the moment. there are 2 gauges mounted  on the pillar (vacuum and volt). The blue thing on the right is the keypad for my bluetooth carkit. The blue thing above the steering wheel is a screen that reads out the air intake temp. the stock cluster illumination hasn't been modified because its green already. the porch lights in the middle of my windscreen are the neighbours house accross the road, that was probably the coolest mod they've done to thier house.


save the coolest for last, my disco flashing glove box. 2 led's that flash 7 colours at random intervals. looks insane but i can only show you one pic.


I wish I had some underbodys to show off. I found a place that sells the kit for $199. that'll be my next visual mod.

[cruizer]

I was planning to do the interior neons but limited cash has made me decide to save for bigger mods to get it away from granny spec 

It will get done eventually. Good job mate. Looks like a pretty good job, would'nt mind seeing it in person but I'm sure you don't live in SA. In your opinion...what colour neons is best for a black car - green, red or blue?

[rathies]

depends if you're talking inside or outside? just don't get blue. be really different and get red I say. then again green would be pretty nice too. Everyone has blue thats why I say don't get it.

I live in WA. come for a quick long drive and i'll show ya.

[cruizer]

I guess inside but maybe eventually outside, not sure and it'll happen along time away 

Nice job though. How did ya wire it all up?

[STU84W]

far out, thats some intense lighting...  looks great tho, especially the boot and dash shot

[rathies]

I guess inside but maybe eventually outside, not sure and it'll happen along time away 

Nice job though. How did ya wire it all up?

wiring? look at a bowl of spaghetti then look under my dash, they both look the same, only one is edible. Yer i'm also an apprentice electrician/security tech so i know how this shit works.

[Carbon-goodness]

good on ya man! looks schmiko! i'm all for neons if u want em! (and becos i'm asian, i'm allowed to!  )

hehe, i've got blue LED washers too. the only reason i got em was i becos was in two minds about it.... then one dya just said, "ah fcuk it! it'll put me mind to rest" and got em done. tho one day after washin me car the left hand washer doesn't turn on now. but i don't use em at all, so meh.... i'll let it sit....

I live in WA. come for a quick long drive and i'll show ya.

hehe, hey cruiser, if i get REALLY bored one week that i don't hav to work, i'll come pick u up in the way to WA and we'll go check it out!   

oh yeah, colour wise with neons.... i'm all for blue! but then again its me favourite colour and i'm slowly makin a silver/blue theme with me car. i rekon green neons with ablack car would look good.... depends what ur into i guess

[Budgie]

To be honest, I don't mind neons in the foot-wells or under the seats.  Giving off a nice low glow.  It looks good!

Its only exterior ones that piss me off

[rathies]

exterior neons piss me off when..
- you see some shit house vn commodore with one 8" tubes under  each side of the car and nothing else, and you can see them almost scraping on the road.
- i saw a pintara with 2 red tubes up the side once, it wasn't a very well looked after car. he turned off into a state housing area and turned his lights off as he drove in.
- people don't realise that if it isn't lit up properly it looks shit house so don't even turn it on.

i still wish i had green underbodys. if they don't look good i'll be buying more and putting them all over the place until it does. gotta make sure the front grille glows all pretty too.

[bigpud2012]

for us who understand electronics could you just give us a quick debrief of how / where u wired this setup 

[rathies]

ook... boot lights are connected to the same 2 wires that come from the stock light. which is already connected to a swtich so they go on and off when you open and close boot.

as for the interior neons. the wires from each neon (1 pair of wires per neon) meet up behind the head unit. they are then all spliced together and connected to power stolen from the back of the cigarette lighter socket. there is also another wire from there connected to a switch on my dash. your switch should always interrupt the positive wire because your electrical system is negative ground. the lights turn on and off with the ignition. or if you prefer you could tap into constant power so that you don't need the key to light them up.

as for the glovebox. I had to get a pinswitch simliar to what is used for the bonnet in car alarms and make it fit in place where the stock button is. I then connected the positive to the switch then from the switch to the led's. while the negative went straight to the led's.
both neons and led's will only light up when the polarity is correct (negative and positive match up).

the flashing washer led's are connected straight to my alarm box behind the glove box. i had to run a wire to the engine bay and connect those two led's plus the one that was already on the steering column in the car. so thats 3 led's that flash with the alarm.

[bigpud2012]

THANKS MATE your a champ

[Jono]

Good job mate, I like the washer nozzle/alarm idea and also the multicolour LEDs in the glove box

wiring? look at a bowl of spaghetti then look under my dash, they both look the same, only one is edible. Yer i'm also an apprentice electrician/security tech so i know how this shit works.

Now I don't mean to offend you, and I don't mean anything against you but some of the messiest and/or dysfunctional wiring in cars is done by apprentice electricians and auto elecs...

Nice sub box btw, I see you have a JunkButLoud sub 

[brentmcd12]

[Jono]

Hint: Hide your neon tubes, it looks a lot less tacky.

[Carbon-goodness]

hey brentmcd12: (don't wanna b mean....but) man, that is probably the most tacky use of neons i've seen for a while. first off - and i agree with Jono - it'd might be an idea to hide the neons so that all u see is the glow - which i'm also applyin to the green neon above ur sub. second, i can understand the want for havin neons in the footwells (i'm thinin of hookin up sum meself  ), but the centre console?!?! 

anywho.... its ur car.... perhaps it looks better at night in person

[rathies]

nice use of photoshop at least 

some of the messiest and/or dysfunctional wiring in cars is done by apprentice electricians and auto elecs...

i've seen much worse mate, at least mine doesn't hang down. i don't want a defect. i got my jbl sub for free, swapped it with a mate for my shitty cheap kicker. cos the jbl wouldn't fit in his 'rolla. i built the box purposely to fit the u12 and give me the max boot space. just gotta cover it with carpet one of these days.

[brentmcd12]

hehe the middle center console ones flash with the music....

and the green one in my boot u cant see only if ur layin on the ground lookup up at it....

and the footwells thers no other place to bolt them on so meh u get used 2 seeing the tubes...  its brighter that way

[SoniCat]

Hi, I thought I'd bump this old post along a bit with a question about interior festoon led lights.
I bought a ford corsair a little while ago and it's been missing its interior light bulb. I found a white 36mm, 12v led festoon at dick smiths recently except that it only gave off a very very dim, greenish glow. The car manual recomends using a 10w bulb and I have no idea if this 12v led is right or not. I emailed someone online selling led festoon bulbs who said they giv off about 0.5W. Have any of you guys used these types of bulbs in ur cars and could offer your opinion? Thanx.

[Jono]

Wattage readings are to do with how much power the bulb consumes, not how much it puts out. LEDs are alot more efficient at turning electricity into light so you get alot more light per watt.

[rathies]

Led's aren't rated in watts if you are measuring light levels. they are rated in MCD, which i'm not sure exactly how the system works. as mentioned by jono wattages reflect consumption not brightness.
i.e. using house lighting as an example: a 36w (or maybe it was 15w, but it was really low) fluorescent tube provides the same amount of light as a standard 100w filament light bulb.
Light levels are mesured in degrees of Kelvin. sort've like degrees celsius.

[Jono]

Light levels are mesured in degrees of Kelvin. sort've like degress celsius.

That would be the colour of the light, not the amount of light.

[chr1S]

Intensity is amount/brightness of light

Kelvin like Jono said is the colour or Temperature really which gives it it's colour...

[SoniCat]

Very interesting points guys and don't wanna seem ungrateful... but does anyone know why it won't work in my car??? Don't you guys use led bulbs in your pintaras/corsairs? 

[chr1S]

Try getting hold of a Luxeon 5W LED Globe.. It needs a heatink but you can use the roof as one, which means your whole car is going to dissipate the heat.. It should be ok.. And they put out a crapload of light.

[SoniCat]

How do I use the roof as a heatsink? Do I make a connection from the bulb endcaps thru to the roof using a conducting wire or something? Is there an easier way or a simpler led bulb that can work in this kind of car? I don't need the best out there, I just want light in my car. For some reason my 12v dickies led worked real well in my bf's 2000 lancer which recomends using an 8W globe, yet barely lit up in my corsair which recomends using a 10W. Should 2W make so much difference?

[chr1S]

It doesn't give off that much light.. It's just a rating for how much power it uses.

Just try what i said with a diffuser (it has one already, the cap for it.), It won't be on long enough to start burning something...

If this is too much trouble, just get a globe....

[SoniCat]

I don't know why, but I have a feeling your making the purchasing and fitting of an led festoon bulb sound alot more complicated than it really is.
Incase u havent noticed Im a GIRL I don't know what a headsink or a diffuser even is. Do u know how frustrating it is to ask the same question 3 times and never get a simple straight answer? I'm sure alot of people go out to Jaycar or supercheap or JB Hi-Fi and they buy an led bulb that pops into their light fitting and works just fine and not havta worry about it burning the car down.

I would have just loved for one of you to tell me something like "Hey, just make sure you buy something 2W and up, u can usually pick them up at this place for about $6." or "I used this bulb in my corsair/pintara and it worked fine, I bought it here" It'd especially would have been cool if someone told me why my dickies led might not have worked in one car but worked in another. For all I know I had it the wrong way around, but no one thought of that did they. You start offering me tedious and probly expensive solutions like "Try getting hold of a Luxeon 5W LED Globe" instead of looking at why the one I just bought didnt work & what specifications might I need when I buy the next one, rather than only one specific brand that I could look all over brisbane for. Most you guys would own a similar car, you must know what to look for.

Anyway, I'm sure when I go to Jaycar in the morning, they'll explain why the dickies one didnt work, they'll give me a simple led or even just a globe that'll work fine in my car and I'll leave the dickies one in the bf's car.

I was just kinda hoping you guys could offer me some advice on why my dickies one didn't work and what I could try to get it working since I'd made the effort to go out and get it, but I guess that was too much to ask... 

[chr1S]

Ok, I'm sorry your a girl..

Girls arn't smart, they can't be !!

What the hell is a dickies ??

I said, if it's too much trouble just get the standard globe.

[rathies]

I don't think many people on here have tried changing thier roof light. jaycar sell a kit that allows you to make a LED roof light using the end caps off your existing globe. if worse comes to worse you could always get a couple of small jaycar ccfl tubes, only problem is they're $20 each.

[Jono]

I had a couple of 25cm neons in my last car as the interior light, they looked like dogs' balls but put out heaps of light.

@ SoniCat:

So you've tried the same LED in another car and it works fine? And I'm guessing you've tried turning it around in the fitting too. The only thing left to make a difference is the voltage that's getting to the bulb.

Here's some things to try:

Try switching the light to 'ON' instead of 'DOOR'.

Are the contacts in your dome light nice and clean? If not, scrape them clean with a screwdriver or sand paper or a scourer or something.

Have you got a multimeter? Set it to DC volts and check the voltage across the light contacts, then check the voltage in your bf's car. If you find your car has a lower voltage than your bf's car then there's your problem. It should be around 12-14 volts.

[rathies]

25cm is pretty big lol. I was referring to the little Peewee ccfl tubes that are about 12cm long. I haven't seen em in the night time but i bet they're bright little fuckers.

[SoniCat]

Dickies is short for Dick smith electronics where I used to work, I mentioned it up above and oh, I now work as a 3d animator at the Brisbane THQ studio. I bet if I asked you what a biped was and how do you edit the envelopes after skinning a mesh on top you'd look pretty dumb also.. Heck, you probly don't even know how to strip the ends off a coaxial cable and add two sockets to it! I may not know much about cars but atleast I'm trying to learn.

I'm back from Jaycar, I got a similar festoon bulb as the dickies one except 6led's instead of 3 and main thing is this one works YAY! Looks alot like this barrel one, 3rd one down at this link http://www.ledshoponline.com/automotive_leds_festoon.htm. I'll try it out again tonight to see how bright it can get coz car's out on the street & too bright to tell. Anyway if anyone wants to replace your globe with an led, go to Jaycar ( I went to the brisbane, aspley one)

Thanx for your help guys, didnt mean to offend anyone, I just get frustrated easily, specially on forums (I think its all the waiting). Maybe a forum room for girls or newbies would be a good idea for people with basic car questions and won't be daunted by over zealous replies. If there was one, I'd definatly tell my friends about it, not that they all have nissans tho..

[Kranzy]

we do have a newbie zone which you can ask any sort of questions you need to.

And in terms of the biped and editing envelopes i know what your talking about...i did computer animation for a semester at griffith uni on the gold coast.

[SoniCat]

Oh Jono I missed you post, YAY for you! You said EXACTLY what I was wanting to hear, thanks so much.. Yeah I'd sprayed it with contact cleaner the 1st time I tried so that couldnt be it, and I swapped it around the 2nd time, but got nothing at all, it only worked on one side and very dim. The light was switched to on position, not door. I guess its just a mistery, but I like your multimeter idea. My dad's got one so I'll steal it off him just to settle my curiosity at the voltage differences and maybe determine why the new jaycar one works in mine and the old one only in the lancer.

[SoniCat]

I was more referring to chr1S' last comment, not so much directed at anyone else.

Griffith eh? Thats cool. I just finished an animation BA at the griffith southbank campus. I got my thq job towards the end of uni in november. I think it helped that I did some contract work at liquid animation for a bit 1st tho. Are you planning working in games? Fuzzy eyes is hiring i noticed

THats cool about the newbie section, spose i should have looked before complaining there wasnt one. Thats where I'll be hanging out from now on X)

[Kranzy]

I was hoping to coming out of school but have decided to go down another path.

I know you were refereing to chris's post but i thought id let you know that some people on here know a lil about animation:P

[chr1S]

Umm, Sonicat, I think you've taken me the wrong way lol, I was being sarcastic, I didn't mean any offense.. So let it all go what you took in, I don't like being on unlevel ground with people so lets start fresh ey.

I'm glad you got it sorted and is now working...

[SoniCat]

Thanks Chr1S, you made me smile n_n. Thats a good idea. Besides, I need to keep on your good side so you guys'll still wanna help me with things! XP

I think I might have been overly defensive thinking this might be a good place for guys to boast to eachother about their car stuff and a girl might get looked down apon a bit. I used to get that from customers at dickies 6_6. I took u guys the wrong way, you actually all seem very nice!

I gotta go now but I'll be hanging around here a bit coz i wanna get my little $300 corsair looking like something a bet more respectable if I can. In the newbies section tho of course =D

Catcha's!

[Jono]

$300 corsair

$300 and it still runs? Bargain!

I paid $200 for a run-down corsair that had a blown engine

[SoniCat]

Yeah there's a story to that.

It was my cousins cept he scraped the door, parker light and broke passenger door handle in two when he backed clumsily out of a shopping centre carpark. The insurer paid up $2000 and wrote the car off, but my uncle gave them $300 back in order to keep the car. He had just bought a new car himself and gave his old one to my cousin. My uncle told my mum about this extra car they had, she told me, and I bought it from them for $300. I hypoxy clued the parker back in place, my uncle cleaned off the paint scratch from the passenger door (most of it was from the shopping centre pole anyway) and it managed to pass its safety inspection!
Plus it has a nifty sony xplode sound system (probly worth the same as I got the car for), neons craftily hidden under the dash, a tacho on top and strobe lights in the boot! (dont ask my why). The duco & interior are in great condition, plus they'd spent $2000 on the engine the previous year. Apparently my cousin now has a better sound system in his new car so didn't mind giving me the old one.

LUCKY hey. I thought I'd be stuck using the train & riding my push bike FOREVER.. tho least I'm alot fitter than anyone else I know!

[Joel]

the boot lights look ace, and a great idea. wd

[u12-910]

ive done a similar thing in my bluebird neons in the dash cluster as my dash doesnt light up when you put the healights on. a neon in the passenger and drivers side footwell well hidden and one big one in the boot above my sub.

there all green.  the smaller ones in the car run off this little box thing that allows you to turn them to on, off, or to the beat of music which trip people out. theres alos a sensitivity knob that allows you to bassically select the timing of when they come on.

from autobarn. bout $15 each i think. the one in the boot $40

the boot is wired up to the light switch for the boot and the ones in the car are wired up to there own switch. just incase i need to quickly turn them off if i see cops

[JelloBello]

I've got 4 12 inch BLUE cold cathodes. In my footwells and under the seats... i also tapped into the back of my cig lighter and wired them up to a switch. I'll try n get some pics l8r on.

by the way... got them shipped from the US for $35 for all 4 (including shipping)! check out www.oznium.com

Edit: added pics





after seeing these pics i've decided i need to get new floor mats... mayb checkerplate like rathies . Cos the black absorbs the blue light like nothing i've ever seen before

[chr1S]

wtf

why are they so dim ? dude there is something wrong there..

CCFL's should be like 10 times that brightness...

and why did you get them for $35 from the US when you can buy kits locally from jaycar?  (ok it's more expensive, but still)

[JelloBello]

They are alot brighter in the flesh, ... my camera seems to be pretty fucked up when u don't use the flash for some reason, everything is ALOT darker than it should be.... during the day and night.... stupid cannon pos.

[rathies]

nice footwell lighting jamie. I just took mine out today and relocated them under the car. Pics soon.

[JelloBello]

ooo... hope it doesn't look too ricey?

I would do that to mine but it would draw too much attention.

[rathies]

well my mate with a trx has blue ones and now i have green. I was kinda jealous cos everyone was lookin at his car when we were driving around terrorising the neighbourhood last night. I already had 6 tubes in my car so i bought a couple more, siliconed them all up and made underbody neons on the cheap. its also cheap and easy to replace if for some reason one of them snaps.

[JelloBello]

nice. Looking forward to the pics

[rathies]

didn't get any pics last night. I will get some pics tonight fo sure. I'm quite pleased to find out underbodys are legal in WA.
http://www.dpi.wa.gov.au/mediaFiles/lic_IB-108B.pdf
I'll be keeping a copy of that in my glovebox too.

I also stumbled accross the laws for Queensland
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:E9FNePb1sboJ:www.transport.qld.gov.au/qt/LTASinfo.nsf/ReferenceLookup/AIS_codeofpractice_Section3%2520_Feb2004.pdf/%24file/AIS_codeofpractice_Section3%2520_Feb2004.pdf+underbody+lighting+law&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=1
scroll to section 21, page 85.

Other states I'm not sure of and don't care because i dont live there. but i'm sure the info is on the net somewhere.

[JelloBello]

Generally these under-body lamps will be acceptable providing the lights themselves do not
flash, and are not visible to other motorists, either when the vehicle is driven or stationary.

So this means that the 'lamps' can be on while driving, providing that other drivers can only see the glow and not the actual lmap its self? ...cool              -or have i totally misunderstood that?

[rathies]

you read it correct.

[eurisko]

In NSW its illegal to have any type of non-standard lights turned on inside or out while ur driving. This includes fog lights... unless theres a fog... lol

That means underbodys, led wiper nozzles and any other derivative are not allowed to be turned on while ur driving.

You can have them installed, but not on, unless ur car is stopped and turned off.

Interior lights also apply. Internal footwell lights and other forms of lighting are also not allowed unless ur car is parked.

Its pretty easy to add a switch for them tho... 

[rathies]

man thats tough..
but in the mean time! underbodys!

mine is the green one and my mates is the blue one. yes the camera makes it look patchy but I assure you its not in real life.

[bondy]

rathies you should install the xenon hid kit like noss, some nice white headlights would look good with the underbodys i reckon

[bigpud2012]

if i were to do mine i would have done them red.

that way matches the rear tail lights

[kebbo]

sick lights man the green looks siiick i got all blues in mine they look alright :-)