I was thinking about this and was wondering if people would consider this a nice mod, or just plain rice

I was thinking of adding some blue leds to the top part of all 6 pillars in my car. front middle and back. each pillar having one or 2 leds each. When on, they would be pointing upwards. You wouldn't see the led directly, but only see the light it's projecting upwards.
This light would only come on with the dome light. So when you unlock your doors, these lights would slowly fade on, and when you start your car, they would fade out (over a period of... maybe 4-5 seconds). the same would apply if you were to switch your dome light on manually. Not something i would keep them on all the time.


rice or nice?

I thought it would probably look pretty cool.

 

its not rice - but it aint nice either

 

I was gonna put a few leds in the overhead console (the one w/ the map light) to illuminate the interior under the same situations. I think it would look all right if you did a nice job. I have leds in my handle pockets and everyone that sees them wants them. If you do please let me know how you wire them up - I haven't decided how I'm gonna wire mine yet. good luck.

 

if i go through with this. I just have to figure out where i will attach the main 2 wires. ie: to the dome light directly, or...

I plan on using a super cap, like .047 style... the kind they use as temporary memory backup. This would create a long fade in and out effect.

as a side note: I've added 2 blue leds in the front vents, they are really bright and look pretty wicked at night

 

I think it would look pretty good as long as you make the install clean where you dont see a bunch of holes all over the place.

 

How clean of an install is what makes most mods go good or bad.

SuDZ

 

exactly. I'd like to only be able to see the light... in a sense... reflecting off the roof of the car. This way you don't see the led, only the light it's giving off.... Kinda like you'd see down certain hallways (no example i can think of ), where the light on the wall is pointed upwards. You can't see the bulb, only the light be given off by the bulb.

I think the whole fade in and out effect would look neat in an of itself... hehe

 

Sounds like a cool mod to me, but I'm not sure how you'll manage to cover up the LEDs, holes, and wires? The places you're planning on putting them seem kind of conspicuous to me.

 

Yeah that's the tricky part... i'd have to have them come out of the plastic pillar piece just before the roof/ceiling part....
then i'd have to make a little something that can wrap around the pillar and contains the leds. i have an idea for that.... just actualy applying might be "trickier"...

 

Multiplexor, don't forget that the beam of light emitted by an led is pretty narrow. This will limit how well you get to hide the led's. I am even thinking of putting a few under the dash, similar to where people put the tubes.

 

i was thinking of that, then i realised i have some plexi-glass lying around. I could possibly melt a small hole in the piece of plexiglass that i have and put the led inside. this would atleast make the beam wider since the plexiglass would spread the light.

did i just confuse anyone on that one? hehe

 

Of course, then you have to hide a piece of plexiglass that's going to be bigger than just the led

It seems to me that even the narrow light that an LED puts out should be enough to do what you want.

 

yeah, i have to figure out how i'd hide it. I think a led without the plexi would actually probably do fine.

I ordered 10 leds from eled.com
they are blues rated at 2200 mCd's... pretty bright!

hiding the leds will probably be the trickiest part...
that and figuring out how to pass the wires to each pillar.
anyone know of an easy to do that?

 

Yeah, just pop your pillars off to run the wire up them. You will have to remove the weatherstripping and then just pop the pillars off. You can also get the power to the dome light from the drivers side windshield pillar. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

Also something to be put into consideration is maybe matching the dome light with the leds. I doubt your leds are gonna be the amber looking color so by having the same color all around would look pretty good if you do it right. I hope those leds are brighter or bright as the stock dome light cuz the dome light is pretty bright by itself and it may make those leds hardly noticable.
Q: How do you install leds in the handle pocket?? I guessing the power source is the power windows??
Anyways good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

hmm if my powersource is the dome light area, how would i get my wires from the dome to each pillar?

your saying i don't have to get the power from the middle dome light directly? the middle pillar on the drivers side has the wires that goto the dome light?

hmm that could be good.

 

handle pocket? you mean the area where the handle and the door lock switch is right? doesn't sound too too hard to get to there.

i was considering the dome light as leds... thats why i had bought 2 blue leds and 2 whites. but they just didn't seem to give off enough light. maybe 4 whites would do the trick... or 4 blues? hmm.

 

"I was gonna put a few leds in the overhead console (the one w/ the map light) to illuminate the interior under the same situations. I think it would look all right if you did a nice job. I have leds in my handle pockets and everyone that sees them wants them." Toolrocks
just wondering for sure how he did it.

 

Yeah, you got the area, buy the handle and lock. I used Radioshack led holders #276-079 (that hold 5 mm leds)and drilled a 1/4" hole in the handle pockets at the end closest to the front of the car (you'll know what I mean if you look at the handles). Put a resistor in series w/ one side of the led and ran two wires down to the door lock/ window module. At the module I found, on the circuit board, where 12 Volts was for the led inside the module. I then soldered these two wires into the appropriate +/- points. Now the leds in the handle pockets come on with the driving lights. They are even dimmed by the dimmer switch.
Multiplexor - yeah, the wires that feed power to the dome light are in the drivers windshield pillar. If I remeber right, there is a constant positive to the dome light and a negative switch from the BCU or one from locally at the switch, with it going to chassis ground through the switch. Once you have those wires identified, splice your wires in and run them along the headliner to the pillars where you're mounting the leds. The headliner is easy, just run the wires along the edge at the windshield, tuck them in, then along the edge at the door where you're pulled off the door weatherstripping, and then right down to the pillar. Hope this is clear. I've got writers cramp. hehe

 

if you have to ask..its probably rice