Interior Ambient Lighting Project
 

Edit: Oops, didn't see the cosmetic modification forum until I posted this. Can a mod move it please?



Last weekend I tore my car interior apart to do a sound deadening project using mostly Second Skin products. Mostly CLD tiles everywhere, MLV/CCF on the floors and trunk area and CCF/thinsulate acoustic in the doors and wheel well areas.

During that project I decided to tackle another endeavor that has been rattling around in my head for a while - red ambient lighting for the interior!

Basically, my goal was to emulate the fancy shmancy ambient lighting that some luxury cars have, without going too overboard (although the speaker grill lights might be pushing it lol).

I ordered some mini high density LED strips off [ame="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSNZV2U/ref=pe_385040_128020140_TE_3p_dp_1"]amazon[/ame]. High density just being a fancy term for a butt load (technical term) of lights per meter. 120 leds per meter I believe.

I planned the locations for the lights and cut them all to size and did a proper soldering and heat shrink tubing job on them.
I placed strips in the following locations:

• Under each door arm rest
• In the door speaker grill panels
• behind the door handles
• in the center console cubby hole
• Under the rear of the front seats (for rear footwell lighting)
• down the sides of the rear seats/rear armrest (no photos yet of those)

The result turned out really nice I think!

http://i.imgur.com/04veQe4.jpg

The center console cubby hole light is probably my favorite. It just looks so stock.
I went all out and added 2-pin quick disconnects to each strand of lights for easy replacement/servicing.

I wired it up to my subaru footwell lighting kit, so the lights automatically turn on/off with them (the headlights).
I also ran it to a toggle switch that I installed in my dash, so that I can turn them off if I ever start staring at them too long and drifting into the other lane ;)

Being wired into the footwell lights also means that their brightness can be controlled to some degree by the interior brightness dial switch.


I made a quick spontaneous video showing the lights in a little bit more depth the day after:

https://youtu.be/yOW6qsGQLtA

The speakers are a bit much...but other wise it looks good. I like that you wired it into the toggle switch so you can turn it off. I can see leaving it on while doing some in town cruising...but for long hauls I'd certainly want it off.

How much did the whole project set you back?

I was worried that the speakers were a bit much as well, but I came to like them pretty quickly. They also add a TON of light to the ground when I open the doors, so its kinda nice.
I ended up doing a 3 hour drive from Portland to Seattle literally right after I finished up the project, and ended up turning off the lights for at least half of it.
Not really because they bothered me, but just because I felt like I didn't need them on for that long.

Between the cost of the lights, the quick disconnects, wiring, shrink tubing, and super glue which I used to help ensure they stuck to the car properly, the whole thing cost me just under $100.
Pretty damn cheap if you ask me! My guess would be that a similar job of the same quality would cost upwards of $500 if done by a shop.

I borrowed my brothers soldering iron and heat gun, so that saved me a little bit of money.

You leave them on while you drive? What the fuck?

lol is there something wrong with that?
I like to keep my radio on sometimes too, since I enjoy listening to music.
To get even crazier, I sometimes even use my heated seats when its cold outside ;)

There are lots of things that are not necessary and that have little to no utility value, but that make a more enjoyable driving experience.
The added lights only come on with the headlights, and due to their positioning and brightness, are no more distracting than the lights from the gauge clusters.

Plus the long drive served as a nice first test to see if all the connections were secure.

Man this looks killer! Great job! Very well done and very clean/neat looking.

So for the door arm rests and for the door handles did you have to do much drilling? And I'm guessing you had to drill into the cubby as well?

I like the recessed lights, especially in the cubby, but they strip on the door card looks too exposed to me personally.
Overall though I like it.

Thanks man :)

Drilling was very minimal, thankfully.
The door handle lights actually did not require any drilling whatsoever.
As with anything though, its usually best to start with a smaller hole than you need, then slowly round it out larger, so the wires fit nice and snug.

http://i.imgur.com/5HZDMWw.jpghttp://

I just fed the wires right through where the retention spring is. There is also a small opening right below it that I could have used for the wires, but I figured the fewer twists/turns the better. Even though its unlikely, I don't want any connections in the wires getting damaged from bending them too much. So I made sure to leave a little slack for the wires to bend when the handle gets opened.

https://photos-3.dropbox.com/t/2/AAA...8tgBBN97n_C6UEhttps://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/brz/a...Rw1-pUGe-ujBiAhttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...e%20thread.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/RQwvrqN.jpg

As with all the lights, you would never know they are there unless closely inspecting in places you would never ever look otherwise.

The cut-outs for the door arm rests were a little difficult to do, since the handle cover is slanted and there isn't much space to work with the wires.
You can't really tell from the photo or without taking the covers off, but the hole/cut-out is actually quite large on the actual handle piece. The reason it seems to fit the wires perfectly is because of the angle that the wires enter it.
I started with a hole, but ended up cutting out a small section right at the edge of it. So this way the wire actually runs under the handle instead of through it. Makes it easier when taking off the handle, so I don't have to worry about jerking around the wire.



Pay no mind to the left over glue residue under the lights. I still need to do some clean up ;)

https://photos-6.dropbox.com/t/2/AAA...7ADq25eBDD12Uchttps://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/brz/a...J5EJCVMis2akwQhttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...dle%20hole.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/e9CYQKy.jpg

The cubby was crazy easy. I just drilled a hole in the curved side of the cubby ceiling.
The only hard part was feeding the tiny wires through from the inside out. Takes a little bit of patience and tweezers haha

https://photos-1.dropbox.com/t/2/AAB...BbxyeXn4VEi9Yshttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...bby%20hole.jpg
https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/brz/a...8KQFC-G3DbuPWA



Ya, I too wish there was a little more room to hide them better. Mostly because in some certain angles you can tell there are individual LEDs.
But unless you are 3 feet tall or less, you can't see the actual strips.
Even sitting in the car, you can only start to see them once your head is as low as the E-brake when its in the up position.

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/brz/a...4RsRSdAMnAZ8aQhttps://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...20hidden02.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/LA4MCxx.jpg

https://photos-1.dropbox.com/t/2/AAA...K5dNnDQu6oBXo8

Nicely Done! I was thinking of doing something similar, might steal a bit of your beta.

Not really my thing, but it does look pretty damn cool. Nice work!

Well executed. But I don't like a lot of light in the car when I drive. Toggle was brilliant.

Very cool