I'm starting to think that it would look better if I had the LEDs in the air vents further back and not just inserted in the bezel, but actually in the vents further back. This is because then just the red glow would be seen and not the red bulbs that can directly be seen when looking through the vents. It would also make it easier to take the bezel on and off if there weren't bulbs mounted to it. I'm also considering this because now I am popping the fuse about every 30 mins of driving... So I still have a crap connection somewhere in all of the jabumble. So I figure I will be extra careful and studious in putting the bulbs in their new location.

 

The Hot Rod is owned by Troy, Mi PD (thanks to a drug dealer).
PC089.jpg
GM loans Vettes and other performance cars to local departments just before and during The Woodward Dream Cruise.
PC002.jpg
This car is on loan to Hazel Park PD. Used as a tribute to fallen officers (one was a female HPPD officer).
PC018.jpg
PC019.jpg
PC021.jpg
My car I was just having fun. Don't drive it on the street like that (just at car shows/cruises). The door badges were real (they recently changed the design). Used it on my personal car (with blue dash light) when called out as a first responder in emergencies (to be able to get to a substation or the scene of the emergency).

 

Nice cars. It's always nice when the nice neighborhood drug dealers donate their belongings

Anways, back to my LED lighting:

I definitely have a short somewhere because I keep immediately popping the fuse now. I pulled the bezel off and don't see any bare wires or anything.

Couple of general electrical questions: 1) Am I allowed to run the ground for my load (in my case, the led single bulbs) to the ground terminal of the switch and have another wire going from the ground terminal of the switch to an actual ground on metal. It was working for a while, so I assume that it isn't a big deal. Or is the switch supposed to be cutting the connection for both the power and the ground? If so, I am bypassing the switch because the ground for my load and switch are connected directly to each other onto the ground terminal. I thought it would be okay since the positive hot wire is still isolated and cut off when the switch is turned off.
2) Would a bad ground in that wire going from the ground terminal of the switch to bare metal cause my short and my fuse to pop? My understanding is that shorts happen when you cross a positive and a negative wire. I don't think it is the ground, but it could be.


The LED tube kit is getting its power from the load wire coming from the load terminal of the switch. The LED tube kit's ground is just spliced in with the cigarette lighter wiring. No fuses pop when I have just the LED Tube Kit wired in as described here, but I pop fuses when I include the single LED accent bulbs.

There are two wires coming off of the load terminal of the switch: one for the LED tube kit and one going to the single LEDs

There is only one wire going to the power terminal of the switch and it is spliced into the cigarette lighter wiring.

So I feel like my short is either being cause by: The ground of the switch/load LED bulbs OR perhaps where I have all of the many positive and negative wires from each of the single LED bulbs coming together (soldered together and crimped in a quick connect). I'll include pictures later.

The majority of my connections are crimped quick connects wrapped in tape to keep them isolated.

I'd like to figure this out, but my focus had previously been on getting my O2 sensor replaced.

 

Okay so that quick fire and melting wires I mentioned a while back... It was that bulb (the one in the slot below the cd player) and it's wire leads that were causing my short this whole time. I have it all working now w/o any shorts. I went ahead and separated the grounds for everything just in case. The switch needs to be grounded in order for its LED indicator to come on. I have everything put back together and it looks pretty good. When I get time, I'll put a new bulb and wire in the place of the bad one that was causing my short. So the slot underneath my cd player will not be illuminated for now.

Here is a pic of it when I finished yesterday:
Photo0436.jpg

 

you only put the lights in the vents? no dash lights or any converting the speedo lights and can you post a pic of neons you got

 

So far I only have single LEDs in the vents and in the slots where the passenger air bag switch and 4wd selection would normally be. I have the 9" long tubes in the floorboards. I already linked to them earlier, but I'll do it again for you lol

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...4085&viewitem=
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...5502&viewitem=

As for the white neon tubes I mentioned that I'm going to be putting in the bed, I have no idea what brand they are. All I know is that I got them for free and need to work out a mounting solution for putting them up under the rails without the drop in bedliner getting in the way.

I'm waiting to do the speedo lights for now. I am brainstorming for how to do red bulbs without the result being purple due to the tinting of the cluster face.

 

nah i meant can u post a pic of them in ur truck..i wanna see how they came out...and are all these lights bright?

 

Oh. I already put pictures of the LEDs on my dash and floorboards. Are you wanting more? Or are you wanting pictures of the white neon tubes in action (that'd be an issue since they are still sitting in my closet downstairs lol)

All of the bulbs are plenty bright and the whole front seat has a nice red glow to it at night without blinding me. I will be adding single LED bulbs to the other vents on the far right and I'll be replacing the shorted one in the thin slot below my cd player. next I'll look into putting a single LED bulb in each of the door speakers. I'll also expand upon that LED tube kit from ebay and add something like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...=STRK:MEWAX:IT
to the backseat maybe under the front seats or under the rear seats somehow.

 

ah ok i missed the floorboard one haha my bad...just ordered a set of blue ones...cant wait til they come in

 

Anyone have any opinions where would be best to put more LED tubes in my interior for the back seat? I wonder how it would look to put some behind the back seat on the back wall so that the red glow comes out from the sides by the doors. It wouldn't show up below or above the seat because of the seat placement.

I'm going with behind the rear seats like I mentioned above and then below the front seats pointing backwards for the back floorboards.

Conti,

If you're going with blue, then changing the speedo over to blue LEDs will be easy. Just make sure you get the appropriate sockets as well. I believe the bulb type is 194

The LED tube kit from ebay is a nice little kit. I don't use the other settings except for ON. It also has fade patterns and music dancing. So rather than use the switch on it, I just have it all coming from the same switch I use for the single LEDs.