Neons Neons everywhere

I dont know about you guys but im into neons BIG TIME:D
I had some neon cable left from my old car and have installed it aournd the dash and gearstick areas also around the front GRILL! and to finish off, ive got Blue LED jet washers. These are definately not road legal so they are controlled via a dash mounted switch. The only problem is that my web/digi cam is crap and cant take pictures in dull light as ive just tried, so you'll have to wait till i get my mates digi camera before i can post the pics.

Anyone else into the lighting scene? would be interesting to see what others have done.

I like lighting too, especially blue lighting. I have 2 (about "18) blue light spectrums installed in the front under the wheel and passenger seat. These come on when the door opens. Then I have 2 more (about "14) blue light spectrums that are under the seats that also go on with the doors. It makes the floor look blue when the doors are open. I've got a blue bulb up top where the main light is. (what do they call that light?) Thinking about buying those windshield washer lights in blue but they are very "played out." I have a very cheap digital cam, but If i can get one from a friend, i would love to take pictures.

i think neon lights look about as good as sponsor stickers. horrible!!!!! i can't stand them. the only place i think they look good is in a sub box. :apuke:

mines are not neons fyi. they are just blue. im also want to get blue bulbs for the clear side markers (when i get them). anyone know if the bulbs go on sizes?

Originally posted by greekman
i think neon lights look about as good as sponsor stickers. horrible!!!!! i can't stand them. the only place i think they look good is in a sub box. :apuke:

True, but i suppose it depends a lot on how you use them. Obviously, clagging (covering) the whole car in and out does look cheap but a little tasteful neon here and there does add to the cars appearance. Anyway, where i come from, its sort of a new thing, we're a bit behind the times. But that sub box thing HAS been done to death! and that looks cheap and nasty:apuke:
You them in cheap sub boxes that have a 10" woofer that claims to be 400 watts max! and cost £50 thats around $70 USD The only bit worth having is the NEON!

true, true. i've seen a lot of subs where the neon is worth more than the sub. i agree that if it's done too much it's horrible. all of the cars i've seen w/ neon always over do it. something i did see that i liked was on my friends old accord (before it got stolen out of san diego). he had green side markers and green bulbs on the inside of the doors so when you opened the door there was a green overtone, but it wasen't like you were looking at one big green light. nice.
btw i saw some neons behind the wheels on a civic the other night. bad.

I like Neons when they are used correctly. Personally I think they look stupid when they are put inside of a sub enclosure. And heres why I think it looks dumb..

9 times out of 10 when you find neons inside of a sub enclosure, whomever the owner is placed a neon inside of a bandpass box behind the plexi-glass. And heres why it looks stupid.. besides just looks, bandpass makes subs sound bad. Yeah yeah, it doesnt work out well, but I hate bandpass dag nabbit.

One cool thing I've seen is wiring up neons in the trunk (not in the sub box!!) on a mercury switch. If you dont know what a mercury switch is, dont worry, neither do it. All I know is that the switch is designed to turn on the lights when the trunk is open, and then turn them off when you shut the trunk. From what I could figure out by looking at it.. the switch operates on the angle of the mercury.. I believe when the trunk is open, the mercury touches something and activates the switch. Its pretty cool stuff.

smackd0wn: How did you wire up your lights in the footwells in the front to turn on when you open the doors? I'd like to try doing that. Once I get my subamp back from Phoenix I'm goin to wire up a 15" blue neon tube in each front footwell. They are gonna be basslights.. but if I could rig them up to also activate when the doors open, that'd be sweet as hell.

Should be easy enough to get them to come on when you open the door. Just run a relay off the interior light door switch lead, which will get a voltage passed down it when the door is open so that the interior light will come on.

True.. but where is the interior door light lead? Cause I sure dont know, and I'm not about to hook it up to any wire and blow my car up.

A mercury switch looks like a little glass bulb with two pieces of wire/metal coming out of one end. When the switch is held one way the mercury is opposite of the contacts and therefore in the off position. When you flip the switch the other way, the mercury flows down onto the contacts and causes a complete circuit.. ;)


Did I ever mention that I have a degree in Electronic Engineering? and also another degree in Telecommunications Management?

yet I dont use either in my profession, go figure!!

smackd0wn: I too would like to know how to wire neons that come on when you open the doors. I currently have 2 7" blue neon tubes the are under the steering wheel, and under the glove box (you can't see them) but you have to turn them on via cigarette lighter. I want to have it so that when you open the doors, the floor is lite with blue neon, thanks!

The easiest way to wire the neons in with the doors is to have the neon on a constant live (fused) and on the door pin switch.

How do you find these? here goes.......

LIVE.

Locate a perminant live from the fuse box, preferably the cigarette light fuse or courtesy light fuse or even the audio fuse. You can splice the wire coming out of the rear of the fuse and connect it to the live of the neon with an inline 10 amp fuse.

EARTH.

Locate the driver side door pin switch. Remove the trim behind it on the interior of the car so you can access the wires coming off it OR remove the pin switch via the screw, feed a cable from the inside and out thru the hole the pin switch sits in. Splice the cable onto the pin switch (if theres more than one, whichever is ok cos they all do the same job) and feed it back to the earth on the neon.

Its as easy as that. Basically, there is always a Live going to the neon but it wont come on till the door pin switch give it an earth.