LED's in vents and behind SHO dash logo

[shoguy3.2]

hey guys, i was curious, i was thinking about putting some LED"s or other form of lights behind my air vents both drivers side below the headlight switch, middle below the EATC and the passenger side vent by the door and also putting them behind the SHO lettering on the passenger side of the dash??

i was curious how i would go about doing this and if possible could i wire those lights to the gauge lights through the fuse box so when i turn my headlights on, they light up as well ??

would i be running any risk of heat from the lights damaging the dash board near the SHO logo or other components ?

what would be your best advice to go about doing this ?

thanx for any help guys

 

[SHOOFF13]

I have 1 green led behind my sho dash symbol on my car. I am running through a switch though so I can shut it on or off whenever I would like to. It was very easy to install the led behind the sho symbol though.

 

[shoguy3.2]

I have 1 green led behind my sho dash symbol on my car. I am running through a switch though so I can shut it on or off whenever I would like to. It was very easy to install the led behind the sho symbol though.

can i run it right to the fuse box ?? or do i need resistors or something ??

btw any pics of that ?? iwanna see how it looks before i go and rip my dash apart to install them

 

[gotsho?]

You'll want the lights behind the dash symbol on a seperate switch for sure, Its cool for about 5 minutes then it can get a little annoying while driving, besides it attracts more attention from the cops. I drilled a small hole with a dremel and ran 3 LED lights to a battery pack with a switch in glovebox. easiest way to do it IMHO

 

[shoguy3.2]

You'll want the lights behind the dash symbol on a seperate switch for sure, Its cool for about 5 minutes then it can get a little annoying while driving, besides it attracts more attention from the cops. I drilled a small hole with a dremel and ran 3 LED lights to a battery pack with a switch in glovebox. easiest way to do it IMHO

hey mounting the switch in the glovebox not bad idea.....i wanna put LEd's behind my vents too ...anyone give me tips on how to do that ??

do i need anything else besides wire and the LED"s ??? like will this be a simpe install ?? anyone who can help out..i would really appriciate it

Also can anyone post pics of what that looks like ?? i mean the SHO lit up ..i wanna get a idea of what it will look like before i actually do it ???

 

[gotsho?]

What I did only took about 1/2 hour. I bought an LED setup that came with 3 lights already wired to a battery pack at autozone or a similar store like that, i cant remember but it only cost like $10 i think. I popped the dash symbol out with a small screw driver, there are two tabs on either side that hold it in place, just go easy cuz they are plastic and can break. once the symbol was out i just cut a small hole through the plastic inside there just big enough for the led's to fit through, I used a dremel but you could use a drill or whatever, anything that will cut through a thin piece of plastic just dont go too deep obviously. I reached up through the glove box and fed the 3 lights through the small hole 1 at a time. couple pieces of double sided tape to secure the lights in the right spot and the batterypack/switch in the glovebox and it was good to go . sorry i dont have pics for ya, i tried to take some a few times, but i have a cheap camera and there isnt anyway to turn off the flash so the lights never show up in the pics. I'm pretty sure other people on here have pics of the same thing though cuz thats where i got the idea from. as far as the vents i never considered doing those, sounds cool but it will probably be a little more work to get em all wired together. good luck

 

[RAYJAY]

Here is a LED Tutorial on how to wire led's from one of the ranger sites I'm on

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/296394/13

 

[NJSHO]

Add the forward voltage of the leds together (assuming you are doing them in series as in + to - to + to -.) Take your supply voltage (14.5V if you are running it off the car power) and subtract the total forward voltage from it. Take the number you come up and divide it by the recommended forward current for the leds. This number will be the ohms of the resistor you need. Multiply the forward current by itself and then by the number of ohms of the resistor and you have the power in Watts that the resistor needs to be. Get a resistor with lower wattage rating and it will get hot. Get a resistor with a higher wattage rating and it will get less warm.

Example:

4 leds with forward voltage of 1.5V and forward current of 20mA = .02A
1.5*4 = 6V.
14.5V (supply voltage) - 6V = 8.5 V
8.5V/.02A = 425Ohm
.02*.02*425 =. 17W so a quarter Watt 425ohm resistor will be fine.

 

[laxmax327]

ive done something like this. in the 2 airvents on both sides of the steering wheel. there are green leds wired up. when off you cant see them at all, but when they light up its awesome. cool, but unfunctional... so my buddy helped me actually make them usefull. they are now used as shift lights. its awesome. not exactly sure how he wired it up. dont think you really can normally. i think what he did was use an old tach. wire it into the tach signal. then basically destroyed that tach, and made it into a switch to turn the lights on and off. sure if your good w/ that stuff you could figure it out. but when its done its awesome. cause i really wanted a shift light, but didnt like the big pill up there.

 

[RAYJAY]

ive done something like this. in the 2 airvents on both sides of the steering wheel. there are green leds wired up. when off you cant see them at all, but when they light up its awesome. cool, but unfunctional... so my buddy helped me actually make them usefull. they are now used as shift lights. its awesome. not exactly sure how he wired it up. dont think you really can normally. i think what he did was use an old tach. wire it into the tach signal. then basically destroyed that tach, and made it into a switch to turn the lights on and off. sure if your good w/ that stuff you could figure it out. but when its done its awesome. cause i really wanted a shift light, but didnt like the big pill up there.

here is a light on e-bay that you could use as a trigger for vent shift lights

Item number: 8022807954 just posted this for a idea how too the e-bay person is nut's on shipping cost

Jeff

 

[MilTownSHO]

I used to have leds behind the SHO lettering in the dash. Best part was it turned on automatically with the lights!