You wanted to know how, here it is =)

I updated my pics. I have more pics of my car, pics of how the ICELEDs were mounted (for those of you that were curious about how to get it mounted to the bottom of an eclipse), pic of my sub mounted in my home made fiberglass box, and some glow =) Click the linky in my sig =)

Check out www.glowfx.net There is an Eclipse sponsored by MTX that has a crapload of LED lighting in it!! It was at NOPI in Sept, and has some cool pics on the site. Scroll down to enter the glowfx site, then go to photo gallery.

It is a friend of mine here in TN.... pretty cool pics. Just thought I'd let you know.

Dave

Your rear is very creative. Nice job

Very cool. Great subwoofer setup and Iceled is cool as usual.

that really is a good install for the underbody.

The LED setup in the Eclipse on www.glowfx.net is single tubes with reflectors built in (the tubes are 6.5mm) and one single LED on each end of the tube. You can mix and match the colors to create some really cool effects. The first time I saw this Eclipse, I was floored!! The LED lighting with the really cool graphics is killer!!!

Shoot them an email and tell them Dave sent you.

seems kinda spamish... but not to bad...

i've seen those led things, and they look cool, but are not too bright IMO

Mav... i'm impressed with the fiberglass enclosure... how much time that set you back?

The lights are pretty bright... ecspecially to see in person, and coming from a tube with only 2 leds..., but maybe the pictures just don't do it justice... the eclipse will be out on the show circuit this year again, and more lights are coming... so he says. I didn't do the fiberglass, another audio shop in TN. did... I can, that is my specialty, but I didn't do the enclosure. The paint is a totally different story... The paint was done at another paint shop called Kreative Kustoms in Ashland City, TN. by a guy named Tim Armstrong, I believe. The lighting was all done by GLOWFX.net. I am a friend of the owner of the eclipse, and a fan of glowfx.net. Just thought I'd share it with the world!!

Dave

about 5 days.. but I'm a novice.. and I didn't work on it consistently.. I wanted to make sure I gave it enough time between coats etc.. It was a pain in the ass though. I'll never do it again. Not even for a friend. Far too much work, too messy, not worth my time. It's worth it to me to pay someone else to do it next time =P They'd do a better job than me too I'm sure.. =P

My trunk is completely different now though.. same sub enclosure, but the floorboards were completely changed. It looks so much cleaner now. It's also much more supportive. It has 2 plexiglass panels instead of 1, and it has 3 light up cooling fans to circulate air over the amps since I had a heat issue with them before being completely enclosed. Just need to get some more batteries for my digi now =P

I'll try to get some up soon. I wanna get some pics of my interior to have photochopped to play with some color schemes for leather interior.. I'm having second thoughts about doing the black and red.. I'm thinking maybe just doing a 2 tone thing with black and gray, or black and midnight blue or something since the dash seems to be a very dark blue color and the floorboards are black carpet...

to the glowfx dood... i've seen those LED "tubes." they can easily be made by anyone. all you need is some solid lexan tubbing and some LEDs. all you have to do is mount an LED, or more, to each end. it may look cheap or homemade, but that's cuz it is...

oh yeah, and i think A2I's right. it does seem a little like

Well, whatever they used, and however they did it (glowfx), I think they did a pretty cool job on the Eclipse on the website... and for only a few LEDs on some lexan tubing, it does look good.
But hey, not everyone is into the same things... me, I'm not into Ford Escorts, but props to you for doing lights in one. Ultimately, we all like LED lighting, and that is what counts... .
I will probably get some of that lighting from GLOWFX.net and try it out. You said you had seen them before, do you know of anywhere else to buy the LED lighting like that on GLOWFX?
Well, good luck with the Escort...

Dave

Phil used to sell something similiar to that.. one LED on each end of the tube, lit the whole tube. You could get color combo's like red/blue, so half the tube would be red, fading into blue. I don't see them anymore, and I know he didn't think too highly of them, so he probably took them down due to their poor light output. When I saw it online, I thought it looked pretty cool too, but then when he told me it only had a single LED in each side lighting the whole tube, I decided against it.

In this situation, the LEDs are producing the light, not the tube. Therefor with the light being indirectly spread out from the tube, it will be a very poor light source. If you notice on GlowFX, they were very clear about the lighting condition when they took the pictures...

Here is a qoute taken directly from their website... "Notice how only 2 tubes highlight the paint.... very cool use of the lights!! All of these pictures were taken by the owner, in a garage, with no additional lights on at all. Turned out pretty well!!"

Absolutely no lights on at all... that's because they are a VERY poor light source, and you have to have no other light even remotely near it to get results like that. I have UV cathodes in my trunk that aren't very bright at all, but when you turn all of the lights off in the garage and close everything up etc.. those UV lights look bright enough to light the area that they did... I think the light output on UV lights are **** too (Thus is why I'm getting 2 more pairs of UV cathodes for my trunk... I'm gonna have six 12 inch cathodes in my trunk, just to light 2 small amps.. that's pretty sad.

You will find yourself disapointed with products like that.

til it hz wrote:

Well, whatever they used, and however they did it (glowfx), I think they did a pretty cool job on the Eclipse on the website... and for only a few LEDs on some lexan tubing, it does look good. But hey, not everyone is into the same things... me, I'm not into Ford Escorts, but props to you for doing lights in one. Ultimately, we all like LED lighting, and that is what counts... . I will probably get some of that lighting from GLOWFX.net and try it out. You said you had seen them before, do you know of anywhere else to buy the LED lighting like that on GLOWFX? Well, good luck with the Escort... Dave

originally i wasn't really into Escorts either, but hey, i'm a teenager that got stuck with one, so why not make something decent out of it? i will say that there aren't many out there with a lot of glow. it's a crap car to start with so most people just focus on making it faster. a top speed of 120 is plenty for me. as for another place to get those LED tubes, i'm not sure. i do remember reading a "How To" on them somewhere. i'll look around and see if i can find it...

At least you are making something of the car.... and keep me posted about the info on those LED light tubes... Thanks!

Dave

alright... i didn't find exactly what i was looking for, but it's along the same lines. here's the link http://students.washington.edu/ashis/Creating%20Custom%20Angel%20Eyes.htm
it's actually for making your own "Angel Eyes" but i'm pretty sure i saw someone make a plain ol' LED light tube with the same basic idea...

Mav, what you said has some truth to it, but if you consider it, those tubes had ONLY 2 LEDs on them... so that in itself is pretty good. I think the owner of the eclipse has the fading thing going on too... As for the light output in a garage, consider this: how many times do you try to show off your LED lighting during the day in full sunlight? I am sure the site meant to show what the lights would look like in the context of how they would be viewed... at night. I agree that brighter lighting generally requires multiple LEDs to accomplish the brightness level that you can achieve with neon, however, some (certainly, not all) companies have "LED spots" as a direct result of stringing multiple LEDs together in a tube. So for accent lighting purposes, and to be viewed at night, the advantage of a single tube, with no visible signs of LEDs, and a clear tube that allows the viewing of te paint below to be highlighted when turned off is obvious. Another cool feature, from what I have read, is the ability to heat and bend the tubing to your desired shape, as well as cut them to length. You can't do that with circuit board led tubes, unfortunately.
So, I agree with you on the brightness discussion, but there advantages to every kind of LED lighting... it just depends on the situation you are going to use the lighting for: accent lighting, or direct lighting for a certain brightness level. There are always situations that will arise in buying a certain product, you just have to decide if the factors are right or not for your specific situation. Just be sure to make an informed decision... Ok, I am off the soapbox...

Dave

How often are you displaying your lighting in absolute complete darkness? That was the point I was trying to make.. displaying your stuff at night out in the moonlight is different from displaying it in a pitch black garage. At night outside, there is usually some ambient light around, whether it be a street light nearby, or lights from other cars etc... It's never as dark as it is in a blacked out room. When my car is out in this ambient light, the UV Cathodes don't look nearly as bright as they do in the garage with it all closed up. In every day showing off conditions, there will be some ambient light around, and it makes a world of difference.

You are right, it does... and funny that you brought it up. I just got done reading my post, and wanted to tell you that me and Billy had gone to eat after a cruise-in one friday night, and since the lights draw little current, even though he has several, we left them on. He parked under a street light too in the parking lot, and even through the tinted windows, you could see the lights. It actually was pretty cool!!! Maybe the pics just don't do it justice, but it really is a cool car w/cool lighting. Of course, the local cops had something to say about the lights, or maybe it was just the way he had parked in the parking space(s)... lol.
I am not bashing your choice of lighting, or your opinion, so please don't take it as such. If it comes across that way, I apologize. I just want you guys to realize that there are other lights out there as options for accent lighting. (and they don't cost 800 dollars ). Certainly, for the money paid out for some lights, they are very, very bright...as they should be... but there are alternatives. That's all.
Best of luck with your eclipse Mav. It is coming along well.

Dave

those led tubes are dim as ****. ive seen them. id just use the military grade glo stix. just shake it, crack it and damn

im jp. to each their own. any glower who does their **** themselves and is proud of it gets props from me. except a tube velcroed to the top of the dash thats an insult to lighting enthusiasts

I guess what I'm saying is you are probably pretty new to the lighting realm, and you don't have a good basis of comparison.. you call it bright, but after you see our stuff, you'll call it dim... =P When I have my windows rolled up (limo black 5% all of the way around except windshield which is at 35%.. yes.. it's tinted tooo *grin*), I can still see my lighting through it as well. It doesn't change the fact that 2 or 3 Leds arent' as bright as a Cathode... when those single LEDS are having their light spread across a 12 inch tube, and you are trying to use the tube as a light source... the cathodes will win hands down. You can light with what you want, as it's your car, but if you want it to be really bright, I'd recommend considering something other than a tube with an LED on each end lighting the whole thing...

very well summarized

dbismyname wrote:

except a tube velcroed to the top of the dash thats an insult to lighting enthusiasts

word... i see that **** all the time around here. it **** me off and makes me wanna go up to their car and smash the **** out of all their visable tubes...

Hey now - velcro can be a great thing to use if you don't want to do things like drill holes in your interior. It just needs to be done well - velcro placed only behind the flat parts on the ends of the tube, small pieces used so it's relatively hidden, etc. Otherwise, nothing wrong with velcro.

I think he was talking more about the tube sitting visibly on top of the dash, rather than the velcro.. the means of attaching it isn't such a big deal as long as it holds. It's the fact that the source of the light is visible, making it look like crap.. =P

Are you saying my cathodes look like crap?

no.. they look like **** *grin*

i really dont like the whole cathode on the headliner thing.

but as i always say, to each their own

i perfer duct tape over velcro...