Interior Neon Lights Installation
From Nissan 350Z & 370Z Wiki
I will teach you how to do the two front foot wells for simplicity sake. If you also plan on doing the additional two behind the seats, PM me and I will give you the additional info required for those. Same thing for the rocker switch with a light on it, if you plan on using one of those PM me and I will tell you the additional steps.
Contents |
Materials
- the neon tubes (2 or 4, if using 2 place 2 in the footwells. If using 4, as I am, I placed my additional 2 behind my seats at the very bottom of the mesh behind the seats on the little flap.)
- a simple rocker switch(no light- if you want one with a light on it let me know, but there is an extra step involved),
- a fuse and a fuse holder
- roll of 16 gauge double band(red/black) wire.
Tools Needed
- crimpers
- snippers
- strippers
- blue connectors
- 2 female connectors
- 2 ring connectors
- a metal coat hanger
- electrical tape, drill
- (a dremel if you have one)
The Procedure
I'll start with the power line because its probably the most difficult to run. You need to find a gromit in the firewall. Look underneath the steering column for a big rubber piece that goes into the engine bay (that is a gromit), or a thick band of wires wrapped in electrical tape and follow those wires to a gromit(there is a gromit in the passenger footwell that opens up right behind the battery). When you find a gromit, use a straightened metal coat hanger and push it through around the edge of the gromit until it is in the engine bay. When the coat hanger is through, split a decent length piece of the double band red/black wire and snip it off of the roll, and tape the red piece to the end of the coat hanger. when it is secure on there, snake the other end of the coat hanger until the wire is in the engine bay. Attach the fuse holder to the end of the red wire (with blue connectors and crimp) so that it is within 18 inches of the battery, and use a ring connector wrap around the bolt on the positive terminal of the battery, and then tighten the bolt down. DO NOT PUT THE FUSE IN THE FUSE HOLDER YET THOUGH. Now you need to drill the hole for the rocker switch so that you can connect the other end of the power wire to the switch. This is the part no one likes. You have to drill into your dash. Find where you want to mount the switch and drill a hole into your dash with a good sized bit, probably the biggest you can find. Then you can use a dremel to widen the hole until it fits the switch, or just keep using the drill until the hole is big enough (but not too big, so be careful) to fit the rocker switch in it nice and snug. You dont want to put the switch in it just yet though, just make sure it fits. On the opposite end of the power wire now, attach a female connector and attach that to the back end of the rocker switch. Now you are done with the power wire.
First of all, you should be using 12" or 15" neons for your footwells. 20" are too big and will not fit, and 10" will fit, and are decent, but 12" or 15" provide better lighting. You want to find a place where these can illuminate the entire footwell wihtout anything infront of them, cannot be seen from the seats or outside of the car unless youre really TRYING to see them, and cant be kicked easily. Sounds impossible, but it can be done. One you have found your spot, the best way to mount these up there is by using wire ties. Just stick them through the end, wrap them around something secure in the footwell, and lock them, and snip the excess. Once you have them mounted, you will notice that the wires on both of the neons lead to a cigarette lighter plug in. You have to snip that off on both of them to get access to the wires(there are two of them per neon- power and ground.) The power wire will be a solid color, and the ground wire will be a color with a stripe in it. Usually its black for power, and black with a white stripe for ground. Run the wires from the passenger side one through the center console so it pops out on the driver side, and the join the two solid colorwires together in a blue connector. If they dont fit well, use a yellow connector, it is larger. On the other end of the blue/yellow connector, strip a black wire (the one that you snipped from the roll and use the red half of for the power line up top) and run the other end back up to the switch and attach a female connector to it. That is the remote switch. It sends the current from the switch to the neons when you turn it on so they are not always on.
Now you just have to ground the neons and you are finished. The remaining wires from each neon, probably black with a white stripe, join them together and crimp them into either a ring connector or a fork connector. Then you have to look in the footwell for something metal that you can use as a ground. Bolts that are already in the car work great. Take the bolt out, put the ring around it, and screw it back in, or if its a fork you only have to take it part of the way out and then back in. If there are no bolts, sand down an inconspicuous place deep in the footwell so there is no paint over the metal and drill a self-tapping screw into the metal, and then place the ring or fork connector around that screw, and that will be your ground. Oh yeah, and when youre all done go back and put the fuse back in, and make sure that the power wire is out of the way and not somewhere will it will get melted by something in the engine, like the headers or something.