Starting my interior lighting project!

[SimpleGreen]

Had this on paper for a while. Finally started the last couple days. I personally made this harness all one piece, custom measured to fit the car. It runs under either side of the dash and down the center console to the rear seats. All heat shrunk connections inside. Loomed so it looks clean and is safe.

I made it to do numerous things at once.

- Convert my 12V outlet to hot all the time so that I can leave things in my car to charge. I already did this mod to my car, but this harness will take that job over so I don't have two sets of wire in the dash.

- Add foot well lights front and rear. These will be controlled through a toggle switch that will allow them to turn on with the dome light OR turn on by themselves if you just need floor light.

- Add a glove box light that is controlled by the glove box door.

- Add a center console light that is controlled by the lid.

I have all the lights picked out, I just haven't decided if I want useable white light for foot wells or a colored light for a custom look.

[OmniCamaro]

Nice!

[serows1]

Originally Posted by SimpleGreen

I have all the lights picked out, I just haven't decided if I want useable white light for foot wells or a colored light for a custom look.

Why not go for the RBG LED strip lights under the dash so you can have both?

Love the glove box and console lights idea. What are you using for switches?

Paul

[SimpleGreen]

Originally Posted by serows1

Why not go for the RBG LED strip lights under the dash so you can have both?

Love the glove box and console lights idea. What are you using for switches?

Paul

Just a common Chevy truck door switch. It mounts pretty much flush which is critical for the center console lid.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1988-1996-Si...eeee93&vxp=mtr

I have a couple laying around from trucks I parted out (I daily a '93 Chevy 1500) The switch itself can be had from Rock Auto for like $3 each, but the connector that goes to it is $20. However, I can simply solder a pigtail onto the back of it and not worry about that.

As for the lights, it seems orange is very uncommon color so I'm looking at going with red for the interior lighting. I think that will still work nicely with the inferno orange which already looks red in some light. I also want to add a single LED to light up the door handles and the door pockets as passengers always seem to need assistance to find either one at night.

RGB is nice but I'm looking to keep this simple and inexpensive, so I won't be putting them in my car. Some club members are interested in me doing this on their cars though, so if they want RGB I can do it.

The center console lights are going to be flush mount bolt style LED's that won't protrude into the space. I know the console is so small it doesn't really need lights, but I thought it would be nifty anyways, and might add $10 to the whole project.

[c5Legend]

Great job, Im waiting for my footwell lights to be delivered and this looks like a great idea. Where are you running all that off of? Fuse box opening? The console and glove box is a good idea also, but if it were to be on at all times would it affect the battery?

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

[SimpleGreen]

Originally Posted by c5Legend

Great job, Im waiting for my footwell lights to be delivered and this looks like a great idea. Where are you running all that off of? Fuse box opening? The console and glove box is a good idea also, but if it were to be on at all times would it affect the battery?

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Thanks!

As for power, this is a picture from where I wired my old '12 V6 car to have a constant hot 12V outlet. I put an 'add-a-fuse' in the interior fuse panel and ran a new wire to the outlet. I simple put a piece of heat shrink on the old switch powered outlet wire. My current car is done like this as well.



With this new harness I made, the glove box and center console lights will also piggy back off of the constant hot 12V outlet wire (also added by this harness). Both doors will had a door switch that will turn the lights off when the lid/glove box is shut. The lights should only turn on (and use power) when they are open. If the switch failed and the light stayed on though, the LED's pull so little power that I doubt it would create a battery problem unless you let your car sit for a long time. I personally drive mine a few times a week.

The foot well lights get their power from either the dome light power (turns on with the doors) or from the toggle switch. The toggle switch feeds the foot well lights from the original 12V outlet wire, which is switch hot. This prevents you from running the battery down by accidentally leaving the foot well lights on.

All the grounds come from the factory ground bolt on the left side of the console just under the dashboard.

That was long, but hope it makes sense

[c5Legend]

Got it, thank you.
I will do the add a fuse route also, can you post pics of the setup?


Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

[SimpleGreen]

Originally Posted by c5Legend

Got it, thank you.
I will do the add a fuse route also, can you post pics of the setup?


Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Here ya go, here is a thread I wrote on it back in 2012. The 'add a fuse' is like $7-10 at a local auto parts store but you can get 5 of them for $11 shipped on Ebay, so if you think you will ever use another one, just get them on Ebay.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259250

Any other questions, just ask!

[CamaroI]

Why not do RGB for footwells and change as you want


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CamaroI]

I have all mine wired to constant power and controlled by switches.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SimpleGreen]

Hey Camarol, I believe we met at C5 Fest in front of the Comfort Suites on Saturday evening

The tubes I want to run aren't available in RGB, but no worries, I decided I want red anyway. That's a really awesome setup you have there, BTW!

I'm wiring most everything in a manner that looks or operates like factory, mostly because my car gets driven a lot and all the storage space counts!

If I get too carried away one day I would like to make a switch panel that goes under the radio where the junk tray/4 pack gauges go.

[Low Saturn]

Where do you plan on mounting the lights for the rear footwell lighting?

I've been planning out an almost identical project. White LED front a rear footwell lighting that works along with the dome lamp, glove box light and separate aqua LED front and rear footwell ambient light to softly illuminate the floor that would come on with the dash lights at night.

I plan on using LED bolts from oznium. I used them on my previous car and really liked them.

http://www.oznium.com/led-bolt

[SimpleGreen]

Originally Posted by Low Saturn

Where do you plan on mounting the lights for the rear footwell lighting?

I've been planning out an almost identical project. White LED front a rear footwell lighting that works along with the dome lamp, glove box light and separate aqua LED front and rear footwell ambient light to softly illuminate the floor that would come on with the dash lights at night.

I plan on using LED bolts from oznium. I used them on my previous car and really liked them.

http://www.oznium.com/led-bolt

My initial plan was to make some hangers that would hook onto the carpet under the rear seat and hold them tight in the corner where the floor and seat meet. Haven't worked out any concrete details as I don't have lights on hand yet.

Sounds like a great idea you have.

I am actually looking at the 6MM Oznium bolts like those for the console (two inside) and the 16MM for the glove box.

[sjmautoprod]

Another idea... Before we had RGB strips for foot-well lighting, we used some of our light pipes to extend the light from single, ice blue LEDs across the foot-well area.

http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=181339

Worked great for subtle illumination!