Before we start. Feel free to use this as a guide. You are responsible for anything that you do. Don't blame me if you do something and mess up your car. I am writing this as a guide, nothing else. Read the whole thing.Take your time, watch what you are doing, and keep your mind on what you are doing. Don't have a bunch of friends messing around and distracting you. And whatever you do, don't drink and wire. My friend caught his truck on fire doing that. If you have any questions please PM me. Other than that, have fun and remember to post pics of your work.


I am not going to get into the basics of why a light turns on and what voltage and amps are. For that please go to this site: http://www.bcae1.com
There you will find all the info you need to get you started. There are links on the right hand side of the page that will explain everything you need to get started.

If you are more advanced than that website, you might want to visit this website: http://the12volt.com/
There you will find everything from car alarms, to car stereo. Sub box calculators, ohm load calculators. It is a great site if you are doing audio or security.

Now on to my DIY. In this DIY I am going to give you a crash course in running wire and installing lights. ((Neons, LEDs)) Also how to install a switch to turn the lights on and off. The use of relays will be covered as well. I am going to be installing two LED lights on the A/C vents, four cold cathode tubes under the front seats, a length of EL wire just over the cup holders, and a Varad Racerboy Shift **** to control the whole show. You dont have to use the exact products I use here, you will be able to use this DIY as a guide to install whatever you want to.

O.K. So our parts list is as follows...

Four prewired 12Volt Leds.


Two dual 12Volt Cold Cathodes



You will need a switch


Some zip ties, a few packs of quick disconnects (male and female), crimp on ring connectors, butt connectors, double stick tape, velcro, shrinktube, electrical tape, and the wire.

If you are going to be running wire under the car you will want to get a pack of wire tie mounts. They have them at Homedepot. They are only a few dollars.





Now to get together our tools.

Screwdrivers (large and small of both)
A cordless drill (corded is fine, but a 12volt cordless is better because you can use the battery to test all of your lighting and make sure that you have the polarity is correct)
A pair of Vice grips.(You will understand later)
A good work light(if you plan on doing this at night)
A pair of wire cutters(I have this pair
A good pair of crimpers()
Alcohol wipes. ((They have them at CVS, Wallgreens, drug stores...))
HVAC duct tape.((The shinny tape they have at homedepot for A/C ducts))
Finally a bottle of KY GEL. ((yes the sex stuff.))

O.K. that does it for the basic tools. Now there are a few weird tools that you will want to get. You don’t have to have tham but it make things go a lot faster.

A decent Multimeter.(I got mine at radioshack for $30)
A grabber tool ( Got mine at Homedepot for $2.50)
Panel clip remover
Pocket torch (Got mine at Autozone for about $4 and it uses standard lighters for refills)

Before you do anything, look at you car. Figure out where you want to put the lighting. I would go out to my car the night before with the lights and a battery. Hold your lights up where you are thinking of installing them and see if they give you the light you were looking for. You will be able to play around with placement and get the best results that way. Also going out at night you will get the full effect of the lighting you are installing.

You can make one by wiring one 9volt battery to two AA batteries. It will give you 12 volts which will let you test your lights. Just hold the battery and place the + and - leads over the terminals on the battery. Hold them in place with your thumb.

Here are some pics of the one I made.





Once you know where you are going to put the lighting, you need to figure out whre to put the switch or switches. When I look for a spot to put switches I look for the following:

1. Is it going to get in my way?
2. Is it easy to get to while driving?
3. If I take the switch out will it be easy to fix the hole?

So with those criteria in mind, let look at spot to put the switch.

We could drill a hole in the underside of the dash. However you might bump it with your knee while driving, and its hard to fix a hole in plastic. We could put them inside the glove box. This time its hard to get to. See what I’m getting at? Now, look at the inside of your car and you can probably find three or four empty spots to put your switch. Here is a good example:

This is the center console in my car. The **** on the driver's side is the bass controll for my crossover. The switch on the passenger's side is for my fog lights. Now just under each of them are two spots that you could mount a switch. Those little empty pullouts. If you put your switch there you can just replace the pullout if you decide to take the switch out. I find that they work really well. Also it is easy to work on the switch. You can just pull the pullout out and do whatever you need to to the switch without having to take any panels off.


::Just a side note::
If you are going to use a lighted switch, make sure that it does not shine into your eyes!!! Also make sure that is does not shine outside of the car.((remember that blues lights shining outside of your car while you are driving tends to **** off the PoPo)) Just a friendly reminder.

Now to figure out our wire. Most of the time you are only going to need 20ga wire when you are wiring neons or LEDs. ((Side note on Gauge. Gauge is the measurment of wire thickness. The lower the number the bigger the wire. For more on wire gauge stuff check out this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge)) However if you are running an underbody kit or more than 2 neons or LED tubes on a single wire you need to go with 18 or 16 gauge. Always use the same size wire for you ground as you did for the power. Again, never use different sizes for the power and the ground wire. O.K. for this project I used 20ga wire for all the wiring I did, except for the power wire going to the relays.((I only did this so that if I want to add something to the shift **** that draws more power later on I will be able to. You do not need to do this unless you plan on adding and changing your setup.))

So now we have figured out where we are going to put our lights and where we are going to put our switch. This is a good point to take a break and check to see if anyone has posted on your latest post.

I would then start taking all of the panels off