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Old 10-20-2018, 08:56 AM   #1
Gen6Trek
 
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Inexpensive LED Interior Lights DIY

I have a 2017 black 2LT without the convenience option -but have really wanted to have the door LED’s, because really, WHO WOULDN’T want some additional bling?



Unfortunately, after checking online and seeing that the spectrum LED kit through GM retails for $795, I decided I could live without it. And then I went on eBay... No, I didn’t find a cheap spectrum kit, but I DID find a pair of door panels from a wrecked 2016 SS that had the door sill plates with the LED’s and light pipes in them. And both doors were only $200. That got me thinking...



Moving the LED sill plates over to my doors was easy enough. This forum has several posts with how-to’s on taking the door panels off and there are also numerous ones on YouTube. The official GM instructions say that you need to replace the plastic clips on the door once you pull the panel off, so I went to my Chevy dealer in advance to get replacement clips. They quoted me approx $8 PER CLIP! (for a tiny plastic tab!!!!) so I told them ‘no thanks’, and that I would come back and get them if I ended up needing them. So let me tell you now, don’t worry about replacing the clips. I had to pull my panels off several times during this project as I tinkered with things and I am still using the original clips with no issues whatsoever.



My initial thought on the project was that I would move the sill panels over as well as the wiring harness, hook it in, and then get the BCM flashed at the dealer. In fact, I called the dealer and asked about this, and they said “sure”. HOWEVER, after looking at Hyper1SS’ post on installing the expensive package: https://www.camaro6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=444999 I realized there was a lot more involved than just having the LED’s in the door and flashing the computer. IE, lots of wiring and an additional module. So I decided to analyze how I could light it in a simpler fashion. I decided, the color I wanted was white, because all of the night-time interior lighting in the door and dash and radio light bar are white -and since my car is black I thought white would make a good accent for the LED’s as well. I tried applying 12 volts to the spectrum LED to see how it would light, assuming white would be the default, but I got no response from the chip at all, so at that point, I decided the best course of action was to get it lit myself rather than rely on the GM electronics.





For this, I turned to Gen5 Concepts whom I discovered on YouTube.


Scott, the Gen5 guy has created an LED door and dash kit for non-LED Camaros using their existing equipment. Was about to buy his door kit when I got the eBay idea. I thought his kit would probably work well with what I needed to do. His existing kit involves using a light pipe that is mounted in a gap created under the door’s knee pad and secured using rubber bumpers to create an ambient glow. The light pipe is powered by two LED’s (red or blue) that you wire into the 12 volt power supply at the trunk release button. Thus you get the functionality of them powering on with car entry and headlights as well as the cool fade-off when you first get in or get out of the car. I contacted Scott via facebook (Gen5 Concepts) and asked if he could create a kit using white LED’s (he previously only did blue and red) and custom made jumpers for my two door panels. He was up for the challenge and had the kit sent to me within a few days. (Kudo’s to Scott who had a family emergency but worked overtime to get the kit done and delivered in the timeframe he’d promised).



These jumpers had the LED inside of a flexible rubber sleeve designed to slip over the end of the light pipe. First, I had to remove the GM fitting so that I could get at the light pipe in the sill.



I cut away the chip holder and part of the protective pipe covering -it didn’t look pretty when I was done, but the goal was to get at the light pipe (without breaking it) so I could attach the new LED.



After attaching, I ran the harness (which was much nicer than the GM harness -ha!) and tapped into the trunk release switch (red wire to GM yellow 12v, and black wire to GM black ground).





And did the same with passenger door, except this one I tapped into window switch (also yellow and black wires).



I also added the Gen5 Concepts dash kit, which Scott made for me in white to complete the look. This involved 3 separate light pipes and LED’s placed in a small gap under the dash panel to create a cool looking ambient glow across the bottom of you dash. A long one on passenger side, a small one between climate controls and steering wheel, and a small one between steering wheel and drivers door.



Here is how it turned out for me:











Overall, I’m very impressed with how it turned out. All said and done, the project cost me about $350. However, I plan on getting some of that money back because I am re-listing the door panels I bought (now with non-LED sill plates) back on eBay.



So I estimate this will bring the project cost down to about $200 once those sell! If anyone wants to do LED’s in their Camaro ‘on the cheap’, then I think this would be the way to go. Also, the Gen5 Concepts kit is a VERY inexpensive way to get a very cool LED glow in your cabin -even without the sill plates, on both doors AND dash -Scott has a cool way to light the door, so I recommend you check that out on his Facebook page/YouTube.

Next project is to attempt to install the cup holder light pipe (GM Part 84013236) with a white LED in that as well. Part has been ordered. We shall see how that goes!

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Old 10-20-2018, 11:28 AM   #2
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Looks good, Nice write up.
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Old 10-20-2018, 09:56 PM   #3
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Very inspiring! Is it me or there's a light right underneath the Dash pad?
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Old 10-21-2018, 09:05 AM   #4
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Smile

Quote:
Originally Posted by Camaro_QC View Post
Very inspiring! Is it me or there's a light right underneath the Dash pad?
Yes, I also put in the Gen5 Concepts Dash kit which involved placing light pipes in the underside dash crevices. See the second YouTube video referenced in my DIY above for installation instructions and you can see video of his dash and door kits in blue here:

https://www.facebook.com/42413443469...4922156469981/
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Old 10-21-2018, 09:54 AM   #5
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I like that a lot. Gotta start planning this up!!
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Old 03-22-2019, 06:39 PM   #6
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Will attempt this pretty soon. I got the light inserts few weeks ago and will attempt to make my own harness.

I bought some cree T5 LED from Amazon and they will do the job perfectly. Just missing the wires and few other things and I'll be good to go!
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Old 03-23-2019, 09:10 PM   #7
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Good write up. I also got some panels that were take offs from ebay. They were red which went better with my interior. It also had the pipes for spectrum lighting. What I did was I added rgb strips to right where the light pipes are. Then used a bluetooth controller which lets me use an ios app to change the colors. Each door originally has 2 led’s for spectrum lighting. One at the top of the pipe and one at the bottom. Thats because it allow you to do blended colors. I only used one side and later noticed there were 2. So you could use 2 controllers and get the same factory effect or even better.
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Old 04-06-2019, 08:56 PM   #8
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Just finished the install! It worked perfectly!

Made my own harness using the Amazon LED and some wires I had at home. Went totally different than OP by keeping the little plastic holder for the spectrum circuit board. I drilled a hole through the flat plastic cap to attach the LED there and passed the harness through. Everything was then sealed with silicone before we put everything back on the car.

Overall the install looks super clean and was quite easy. I had some help from my father and it took us 6 hours to complete the whole thing (making the harness was the most time consuming job).

Here are some pictures of how I've done it.

If there is any questions, don't hesitate to contact me as well!
Attached Images
    
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Old 04-06-2019, 11:01 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Camaro_QC View Post
Just finished the install! It worked perfectly!

Made my own harness using the Amazon LED and some wires I had at home. Went totally different than OP by keeping the little plastic holder for the spectrum circuit board. I drilled a hole through the flat plastic cap to attach the LED there and passed the harness through. Everything was then sealed with silicone before we put everything back on the car.

Overall the install looks super clean and was quite easy. I had some help from my father and it took us 6 hours to complete the whole thing (making the harness was the most time consuming job).

Here are some pictures of how I've done it.

If there is any questions, don't hesitate to contact me as well!
I like the analog gauge cluster better on yours over the SS 1LE one. The font of the numbers look more sporty. I didn't realize they used different clusters for different variants.
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Old 04-06-2019, 11:26 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TRZ06 View Post
I like the analog gauge cluster better on yours over the SS 1LE one. The font of the numbers look more sporty. I didn't realize they used different clusters for different variants.
Probably the USA - CAN difference...
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Old 04-09-2019, 07:41 PM   #11
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You know...This write up saved me some digging lmao....I'm bored at work so decided to look through DIY.

Bought some door panels for my 1LT that doesn't have the lighting package either and the doors didn't come with the underdash wiring harness....so me thinking it'd be easy was just going to tie the lights wiring into the doors locking button lighting so when the doors were locked the lights would be on


However, with the trunk release it seems to be a better idea however...I don't understand the desire to swap the lights?
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Old 04-10-2019, 01:47 PM   #12
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DArkFangz1100: However, with the trunk release it seems to be a better idea however...I don't understand the desire to swap the lights?

Answer:
The multispectrum LED's that come in the doors will not light up with straight 12 volts applied. They require extra OEM stuff installed under dash -a real headache and extra expense. So the easy fix is just to put in your own regular LED's and connect to 12 volt system in door at only a couple bucks cost.
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Old 04-17-2019, 01:33 PM   #13
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So I've been following this write up for quite some time and I tapped my controller into my trunk release. It's not constant power and tends to flicker when turning on, off and at certain brightness settings. I feel it's because that power source dims in certain situations. Any other spots I can tap into?
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Old 04-17-2019, 09:15 PM   #14
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Window switch would work as well.
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---------------------
Order WDGHKX
1100 - 5/08/2018 | 3800 - 6/18/2018
2000 - 5/09/2018 | 4200 - 6/21/2018
3000 - 5/28/2018 | 5000 - 6/27/2018
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