to light up the interior of my car at night when the headlights are on.

Keep in mind that I have made this decision despite the fact that I don't know squat about neon sticks but want them nontheless (as a girl I think it will be "kewl")

I am leaning towards the color purple...doesn't match but oh well......what in the same hel1 does match a blond interior anyway? (blond meaning the seats not any passenger I may carry)


are there any particular brands of lite sticks that I should purchase?
or any concerns I should have about wiring or my battery?

I want to have them in the front and in the back so I was thinking for the front to attach them to the center console on both sides....or is that a bad spot? should they be directly underneath the dash?

for the back I want to attach them to the bottom of my seats (which won't be a problem cause I don't have passengers too often)


also keep in mind that I am not asking for criticism for joining the ricey side (dark side for you star wars fans) I just want to be able to see my feet when I drive and scare the toe monster away (he keeps nibbling my toes and I know he is afraid of lite which is why he only nibbles my toes when I drive at night ---- oooo that rhymed )


if you have pics of your neon lite interior please provide a link or pic please

thank you,
your favorite maxima drivin' librarian

 

1)you have an odd sense of humor......nibble monster.

2)www.liteglow.com and www.streetglow.com

3)as far as worrying about battery drain, as long as you don't leave them on when you leave the car, you'll be fine. i had 4 in my old max, 2 under the dash and 2 under the seats and they did fine.

4)my 2 color choices, and this is strictly what i like....white gives a nice clean color, and black light, not neon purle, but a black light. you want that club look. i think those look better than neons

5)i shall repeat again, you and your nibble monsters have issues.

 

I had just finished reading where the wild things are which used to scare the crap outta me when I was younger...the book brought back.....sniff ....memories of the nibble monster



i'm quite sure late at night you have felt teeth on your toes.....just don't want to admit it....but now...that i'm older I'd prefer that the nibble monster was a man working on nibbling his way up my body


black light is an interesting choice....I don't know about the white since I'm not going for purity as you put it...it's more of a mood lighting for me hence my choice of passionate purple

 

well in that case, it's a matter of preference. the neon light will light everyting up purple, would that be too much for you.
the black light, well you know how that works, and you end up glowing yourself because of the black light, so that may be a "cute" advantage to it.

whatever you do, i'd like to see. haven't really thought about interior lighting with the car, but a black light under the seats might be a nice add-on for myself.

good luck!

 

I've got 2-20" tubes in the front, 1-9" tube under each seat, and another 20" tube in my bandpass box in the trunk. The neons hardly pull any power (I've got this all running on a 2amp fuse). Here is some advice I would give:

1) Use zip cords to attach them to the car.
2) Make sure you can't actually see the light bar - just the light (gives it an OEM look if you can beleive that).
3) Use the 9" mini-tubes under the rear seats - you won't worry about rear passangers kicking them or hitting them with the vacuum.
4) Hook them up to a power source that goes on with your parking lights (I actually tapped into the corner light on my front driver's side).
5) They don't have to be mounted strait, the light will project all over the place and look even as long as they are big enough.
6) PM or e-mail me with any questions.

I've got pics on my home page Clicky. Look at pages 2&4 - either I suck or my camera does because it looks MUCH better in person.

I used blue neon and I love it. The install is fairly simple if you are familar with 12volt stuff. Just a power, ground, and switch if you want to. I originally had them on a toggle switch, a .Org member told me about the parking light thing so I put the power from the battery to the parking lights. I can still turn them off from the switch, but they go on automatically when I have the parking lights on (and off when I turn them off). Trust me, it got to be a pain to use turn them off from the switch every time I parked.

I spent about $100 for all of them (Street Glow) from cardomain.com and the install was fairly easy looking back. I am so happy with them that I will need to have neon in every car from now on.

 

I'm going with this setup:

Black light rods for the interior, 2 under the dash and 2 under the seats to light up the front and back areas. I will also be changing almost every light inside the car to a blue LED including one of the map lights (I need a real light sometimes) dome light, courtesy door lights, and the light inside the trunk. I will also be getting blue light glow for under the car. This setup will look really hot, I just hope none of the rods get cracked when I get my car lowered going over speedbumps and whatnot.

To all of you who think lighting is 'ricey,' to each his own.

 

Dont get Neon light.. Those neon light dont look good on any car.. I dont know why people get neon light and want to show off the light on the car.. Also it for ricer.. Ricer mean too much stickers, body kit with big *** wing, neon light, chrome rims, and APC stuffs.. So dont get it... Well it up to u...

 

j/p, Some of those lights you mentioned arent gonna be easy to find in LED.

 

Hey Newbie...why don't you try reading the original post:

I don't think that anyone really cares what your opinion is. If you have useful information why not limit your posts to that?

Oh, you may also want to take a class in proper English, your post is obviously one from an uneducated dullard. Specifically pay attention to the lecture discussing when to use and not use plurals.

 

Yeah, there was a guy back earlier but up 9 segment LED bars with 16' of cord for about the same price as Neon(Reference Link) . I PM'd him and have not heard back since. I thought that was a neat idea and good execution but no response so...

I am "thinking" about doing this also. BUT (hehe) I am only going to hook them up to my "entry" light system, I.E. they only come on when the doors are open.

I have a couple of questions:
1) Do Neons need to warm up like florescent(sp?) or can they be toggled on/off like and incandescent(sp?) light?
2) Does toggling them on/off hurt them (neon) like HIDs?
3) Anybody know the draw of a neon? Can I run a supply wire to a relay box for juice or can I just "tap" a wire from a "switched" light for all 4 tubes? I dont want to overload a "circuit" or wire and cause a hazard.

Thanks!

 

I was looking to do some blue LEDs for my 2k3 but I'm having a hard time finding the ones for the driver's side window controls. The 2k1 can use the regular ones from Radio Shack.

 

I have a couple of questions:
1) Do Neons need to warm up like florescent(sp?) or can they be toggled on/off like and incandescent(sp?) light?

toggled on/off....no worries

2) Does toggling them on/off hurt them (neon) like HIDs?

from what i've heard and done, no

3) Anybody know the draw of a neon? Can I run a supply wire to a relay box for juice or can I just "tap" a wire from a "switched" light for all 4 tubes? I dont want to overload a "circuit" or wire and cause a hazard.

dont' know the answer to that, but what i can tell you is on my 91 max, i rewired my fogs to my parking lights directly. this made my fog light switch available. i wired 4 of my neon tubs to that fog light switch and never blew a fuse.

hope this helps.

 

Neon's don't need to warm up for full light output like a florescent light, but sometimes they take a min to turn on at all when they are cold. Usually if you just touch the tube they will come on. Mine were doing this (the 9" mini tubes) so I returned them and the replacement set does the same thing as well. Once they are on for a minute then they will turn off and on instantanously.

 

Hmmm, this might not work for me then. I am only using them for "door" lights and will only be on seconds at a time. I wont have time for them to "warm" up. I really wish that guy with the LED bar would have contacted me.

 

why do you have to wait for that guy....just find any plain jane LED bar and wouldn't that work EXACTLY the same?
i guess if you clarified your use and mounting location, i could understand why a regular led bar isn't feasible.

 

Oh, it would. You are correct. But I try to help out .org members where I can.

This part of "modding" is fairly new to me so I dont necessarily know where to look for stuff. I would much rather put LED bars in than neon anyway. I am more familiar with LEDs and how they work versus the "unknown" neon.

Suggestions on where to look for LED bars, or just search the web with such a title?

 

It depends on your climate. The lights will do that *sometimes* when they are cold. The big lights dont' seem to do it that often, it's really the smaller lights. Once they are on though every time you open and close the door they will light up right away. A .Org member had this setup and he said it worked great.

I don't know if LEDs are the best thing for this job, I wonder how even the light would be? Neon is like florescent in that it really doesn't cast shadows (and no resistors to worry about!). Either way when you do it, please post the results!

 

well i looked at the thread, and i know you can get MUCH cheaper than 100 that he was charging. i don't know exact websites that could go to, though i would'nt mind helping you search.

http://www.showtimeautotrix.com/lightsled.html has 6" and 12" LED Bar.

http://www.ledlightingsystemsinc.com/lightbarorder.htm

edit: you can also use the clear LED bar that goes in the spoiler.
http://www.electrodyne.cc/Merchant2/...de=555111CLEAR

 

I appreciate the help and assistance!

I have to think about application (where to put) and see how these measure up. Might purchase a few of the small ones to check out light output and "projection/glare". That before investing 50+ a chunk...hehe.

And I want to do that clear spoiler LED...but drilling holes in my Spoiler makes me cringe.

 

i've fitted it on mine....you do have to drill a hole, but it's a small one, where the wire goes into, other than that, you can silicone it on or try to get the end tabs to reach. stock bar is 16", this bar is 15.5", so the end tabs are off by 1/4". you can probably screw it into the stock holes, but at an angle. pics of it are here.

http://www.enlyt.com/polo/ClearSpoilerLED/

 

GREAT pics! That really shows a lot. Does it look OEM installed?

But the super question, how is the light output of the clear/red (I assume they illuminate red) versus stock/red? As bright...less? Dont know? Man, I ask a lot of questions.

 

I can't really say I have any information that'll help you with your lighting decision, but as for nibbling my way up your body, that sounds pretty interesting, if you're hot that is.

 

well i think i may have worded it wrong. i haven't actually permanently placed it yet. i just put it there to see how the fitment would be so that when i do it, i know what work is expected. it's been too cold here in NY so i haven't had a chance to work on it.

 

I went to Target and got the 2 15" Blue Lite Glow brand neons for like 12 bucks. I mounted them both under the dash.

Here's some advice.
The neons won't hold that well with the glue or with velcro tape or with molding tape.
So, under the driver side I zippy tied them to the bar, and on the passanger side I zippy tied them to the tube under there. Yes the tube can come loose but you can easily put it back on.

I ran the wires hooked up from a multi-adapter and ran the wires under the dash pieces. They look really sharp and no wires are shown.

Hope this helps ya.

I will snap a pic when I get off work for ya.

 

Same here. To cold to do anything but freeze my tuckus off washin all the salt off my car by hand (Thanks god for neoprene gloves). I will look forward to pics when it gets warm enought to actually install. Thanks for all your help!

 

just food for thought. i used a couple streetglow sticks in my computer case and had one promptly blow within a week. replaced it with cold cathode tubes with no problems, plus the light output is markedly better.

you may want to consider the cold cathode route. a bit pricier however.

both types wire up to standard 12v connections so it shouldn't be a problem to hardwire.

 

Place to read up more on this option? I am looking for power draw, amp, life...you know that kind of stuff. I want to evaluate all options to make it look nice and not rice....

 

well, i don't know... i've seen em in different packaging.
this is from pcmods.com


Specifications
Length: 12.25 inches of pure light.
Diameter: .25 inches
Encased in a 100% acrylic shell, enabling 360 degrees of light
Special coated 12V inverter for safety.
Average Current Demand 350mA at 12VDC.
Average Power Demand 4.3W
High-Quality PCI Switch installs quickly and Easily
Long Lifespan

 

Are these the $7 Home Depot elbow lenght ones? I picked some of those up and they kick a$$. I was washing my car a few weeks ago and the water actually started to freeze on it! My hands weren't so cold with the neoprene gloves on

 

What's cold cathode?