New Car Interior Lights

[idontknow]

I'm interesting in pimping out my car with some cool interior lights, like neon lights or a black light. What's the best kind of lights to buy? What's legal & what's not? (for the state of IL if it matters) What's the best/cheapest place to buy such lights?

[SixTen]

My friend got his at Circuit City. They are neons, he has them under his seats and above the pedals. They look kick ass. I think they were about $20 for two lights and that thing that plugs into the lighter.

[Gerudo]

colors?
neon purple all the way... i learned the hard way that you can NOT have red, blue, or yellow... i'm not sure about the other colors, but purple is your safest bet... and you will wanna (as you said) keep them inside your vehicle...

as for where you can buy them, almost any auto store (Advanced Auto, and AutoZone are personal preferences).

depending on what you buy, it could be $15+

[SixTen]

My friend has blue and green. We are sure to keep them off when the piggies are around.

[moocow]

Just whatever you do, for god's sake, please hide your bulbs. There's nothing more annoying than getting in someone's car, and seeing their bulbs sticking out everywhere, it looks so ghetto. Same if you do under glows. Bah.

[Trevelyan_06]

In Illinois you can have no colors except white and yellow(amber, your turn signal) visible from the front while the car is in motion. From the rear, it can only be red, yellow, and white when reversing. Neon underlights are illegal when the car is being operated upon any publicly maintained roadway. As for the inside, you can have your neons on but they have to be a color besides blue or red. In Illinois only authorized emergency vechiles can have have have these lights, well expect for taillights. No strobes of any kind are allowed when the vechile is on the roadway. Also, your taillights have to be RED, none of that pink shit the ricer kiddies use. The turn signals have to be amber, that is the normal color they come from the factory, no funky colors. As for as the headlight, you CAN use the super-whites and the ones that look kinda blueish.

Now all of these laws are appliacable only when the car is ON, yes that includes parked, on a publicly maintained highways, that is, any road that is not personally owned, like your driveway or the parking lot of a store. In the Illinois Vehicular Code book "Highway" is defined as "Any publicly maintained roadway" So the little alley behind your house that your park your car in? Yeah, that counts as a highway and you have to follow all of these rules, even when the car is parked. Now, if the vechile is on your personal driveway, feel free to light it up like an epileptic techno rave party.

[Hennerfeind]

In Illinois you can have no colors except white and yellow(amber, your turn signal) visible from the front while the car is in motion. From the rear, it can only be red, yellow, and white when reversing. Neon underlights are illegal when the car is being operated upon any publicly maintained roadway. As for the inside, you can have your neons on but they have to be a color besides blue or red. In Illinois only authorized emergency vechiles can have have have these lights, well expect for taillights. No strobes of any kind are allowed when the vechile is on the roadway. Also, your taillights have to be RED, none of that pink shit the ricer kiddies use. The turn signals have to be amber, that is the normal color they come from the factory, no funky colors. As for as the headlight, you CAN use the super-whites and the ones that look kinda blueish.

Now all of these laws are appliacable only when the car is ON, yes that includes parked, on a publicly maintained highways, that is, any road that is not personally owned, like your driveway or the parking lot of a store. In the Illinois Vehicular Code book "Highway" is defined as "Any publicly maintained roadway" So the little alley behind your house that your park your car in? Yeah, that counts as a highway and you have to follow all of these rules, even when the car is parked. Now, if the vechile is on your personal driveway, feel free to light it up like an epileptic techno rave party.

I believe it its the same in Ohio, but its not really enforced.

btw...i have blue neons under my dash, one red/blue neon in the trunk to light up my subwoofers, and 3 blue LED's in the head liner that illuminate the back seat.

The funny thing is though i never turn them on anymore :shrug:

[Riku]

My g/f is getting a blacklight and has a strobe that she only puts on when she is parked. It looks nice, she needs neons though.

[idontknow]

ok, well now what kind of bulbs/lights are they called exactly and how do you install them? are they just like strands or rope lights that you just hang? Are they replacement bulbs for the already-installed overhead lights inside your car? Are they difficult to install?

[Hennerfeind]

Oh were to start ???

If you've ever been inside autozone you will see there are many types,sizes, and colors. there are mainly 2 types though, Neons and LED's (light emitting diodes). Neons come from 3 inch accent lights to 3-4 foot long underglows. There are many different styles too. Just look around and you will find what you like. LED's only come in 1 size though, they are very bright,very small, but if you dont know what you are doing you can burn them up easily.

Most of the lights out there just plug into a cigarette lighter(which is the easiest), all ya have to do is put the light were you want it, but if your are planning to instal multiple light's you should wire them to a switch. It isn't hard to do. Run a wire with an in line fuse(with the fuse at most 12 inches from the battery). Run that wire through an excisting hole or new in the firewall to a switch somewhere in the dash(or where ever you want to put it) then from the swich to the power wire for the light. Then use the ground wire on the neon or light, and ground it to a metal point in the car.

With most LED's (and some small neons) they don't like 12volts which is what your cigarette lighter is. in the plug or somewhere in the wire(if it is in the wire you can see a little bump in the wire) there is a small transformer that takes the voltage from 12 to around 6. You can hook them up to a battery, but there has to be a transformer between the battery and the light[or else you will hear a loud POP and smell something burning(which i have done before)] if it's in the wire just wire it like the neon.

It's not complicated at all. Really you just have to dig in, because the best way to learn is to just do it.

btw...im a bad speller so if you feel dumber after reading this, sorry :rolleyes:

[AtmaWeapon]

I use a power inverter and just bought a bunch of Christmas lights from Wal-Mart. I can make them stay on, flash, and do the neat little chasing thing, plus they play music. I am the pimp king.

Joking above, but you would not believe how many people in my town actually do this. The lights are usually accompanied by big Mexican flag fringes on the windshield and of course a Honda Racing sticker, unless you are driving a Honda then you have to have Toyota Racing Development.

[moocow]

I believe it its the same in Ohio, but its not really enforced.

btw...i have blue neons under my dash, one red/blue neon in the trunk to light up my subwoofers, and 3 blue LED's in the head liner that illuminate the back seat.

The funny thing is though i never turn them on anymore :shrug:

OH YEAH?! Well.. I have pedals that light up blue, but they're still in the package in my trunk. YEAH and, my cd player changes light colors. From blue to red. So pretty. :D