Opera Lights: How do they work?

Hey guys... after months of searching junk yards, ebay, etc I've finally found myself a set of opera lights for my 84 Caprice. I know that they're electroluminecent strips that run off of 110 volts AC, but theres 4 wires coming out of the lights. One black, one white and two grey. The two grey ones lead directly to the electroluminecent strip, but I have no idea what the other two wires are for. Any information would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks!

I'm guessing those go to an inverter then.

back to the junkyard......

When I looked at a set of opera lights on a '87 LS, what I saw was a standard dash-type bulb into a light diffuser. No CCFL stuff, no inverters, no electroluminescent stuff, just a standard 12-volt dash bulb. The bulb goes into the back of the diffuser through the B-pillar.

Its definately not a bulb. I had a third opera light, but it was broken so I took it apart to see if I could understand it better, and it was just four wires and two of them were going into either side of the electroluminecent strip. The other two seemed to dissapear into the casing somewhere. When I get a new digital camera, and if this post is still going then ill post some pictures of the torn apart opera light.

thats weird, the ones i had were just like silicon describeb

Okay, what I did was a went to the auto parts store and they didnt have any electroluminescent strips, but they did have the electroluminescent strings.... so I used the dissassemblemd opera light and wrapped the string inside and that worked out.... its not the same as the strip, but you still get the same perfectly evenly lit effect. As I said, when I get a new camera I'll post pictures.

sounds cool, cant qait to see some pics

Alright, heres some pictures....

http://www.freewebs.com/petea/operalight000.JPG
Heres just the light itself... no trim or anything.

http://www.freewebs.com/petea/operalight001.JPG
Heres the back of the light. 4 wires.
Also that white stickers says "CAUTION 110 VOLTS"

http://www.freewebs.com/petea/operalight003.JPG
One of the lights put on the car (Passenger)
You can also see the chrome window visors that I got off the same car in the junk yard.

http://www.freewebs.com/petea/operalight002.JPG
Same light, different view.

http://www.freewebs.com/petea/operalight004.JPG
Heres the driver's side light with the 4 rows of electroluminescent string that I got from Advance Auto Parts. Brighter than it looks.
Its not a solid light as the electroluminescent strips are, but it looks almost as good (gotten some random compliments so far).