[GarryGraves]

Long time ago I test drove the new Camaro's, and what I think about the car is a different story altogether. One thing donned on me though that I loved and was impressed with: they have EL Wire running along the dash and door panels brightening up the car subtly but tastefully at night time. Over the past few days I've been driving myself insane thinking about this because as far as the door panels go, we have a nice little area we can shove it in there. I was wondering if anyone's ever done this before and what do you all think about the idea? The drawbacks are as follows: I'd have to drill 2 holes in each panel to run them cleanly, I'd have to use superglue to mount the strips so I'm basically marrying myself to the idea and there's no going back (unless there's another way to mount them not permanently which I'm not able to think of). Now the end result I believe if pulled off correctly would floor the general population including myself. Then I may look to designing the dash. What do you all think of the idea?

 

[BrickPig]

I'd have to use superglue to mount the strips so I'm basically marrying myself to the idea and there's no going back (unless there's another way to mount them not permanently which I'm not able to think of).

If electroluminescent wire (I had to look that one up) can withstand some degree of high temperature, can use a hot glue gun to secure the EL wire in a semi-permanent fashion.

Hot glue can be removed after it has cooled and set (with some difficulty and a lot of patience).

Another possibility is double sided foam adhesive tape but it would be hard to get a clean "professional installation" look.

 

[zinger]

I had to look it up too. I think it has some cool applications. I found this tutorial at instructables.

One think I would worry about is that it seems the wire runs on 110AC. I don't know if I would like household current live inside my car. The guy in the video says the EL wire gets hot and so adhesives don't work with it. (Would it melt hot glue?). I like his idea of using wire and shoving it in the panel seams. Another concern is that he says it gets really hot inside the car with the EL wire turned on. I suppose that depends on how much you use though.

Keep us updated! Think of the cool designs you could put on a headliner. That's a huge blank canvas.

 

[Dale]

The wire you are talking about (EL for short) was used in the space program to give light inside the capules. These lights don't take a lot of current and don't weigh alot. The idea was something like we have today (LED's).

 

[Greg S]

If you get EL wire that has a flat edge to it, like this 2M Long Blue El Wire Neon Waterproof Glow Light Strip for Bar Auto | eBay then you can just wedge the flat portion in the groove to hold it in place. You'll still need to drill a hole to run the end of the wire through but the rest will be press to fit. I think the look would be great and have contemplated it before myself. What has always held me back is the inverter noise. EL inverters give off a high frequency whine when in use and I am one of those people who can hear it quite clearly so that has always made EL a no go for me. If you can't hear it or can hide the inverter well enough then I would say go for it.

 

[GarryGraves]

I've worked with EL Wire before and know for a fact that it does not get hot or pull alot of power. I do sort of like the idea of hot glue, but I haven't worked enough with hot glue to be 100% that I can do a clean enough install with it. Now I do dig the headliner idea because I'm just about to recover my door panels and headliner so then would be the perfect time to design something to use and the wiring wouldn't be too difficult. Thing is I'm trying to go clean and subtle, so idk if EL wire in the headliner quite says that. I guess it depends on the design.

 

[richard cheese]

What would you do with the battery box? Are you thinking about tying it into the headlights, so the EL comes on with the headlights?

 

[GarryGraves]

What would you do with the battery box? Are you thinking about tying it into the headlights, so the EL comes on with the headlights?

I'll probably wind up tapping the cig lighter, adding a fuse or maybe even into my subs. Definately there'll be a switch in there somewhere.

 

[GarryGraves]

I'm just about ready to place my order on eBay for the EL Wire, I kinda dig the idea for a design on the headliner so before I order enough wire just for the doors, anybody have a design idea for the headliner?

 

[Greg S]

I'm just about ready to place my order on eBay for the EL Wire, I kinda dig the idea for a design on the headliner so before I order enough wire just for the doors, anybody have a design idea for the headliner?

If you are going for clean and subtle I would probably just trim out the edges of the headliner with the EL and possibly frame out the sun visors. Nothing too much but enough that it will stand out.

 

[GarryGraves]

If you are going for clean and subtle I would probably just trim out the edges of the headliner with the EL and possibly frame out the sun visors. Nothing too much but enough that it will stand out.

Funny you should say that because as I was browsing through the interwebs earlier I came across this and really dig it. Pretty similar to what you're describing. I may actually do this.

 

[zinger]

Yeah if you want clean and subtle I like that too.

I think a geometric design would be cool, but not subtle.

 

[GarryGraves]

Today i found some old El Wire laying around and even though its the wrong color, I wanted to see how it'd look so I prototyped a few things per se and got an idea together of what I wanna do. The wire size I have which is noodle thickness fits snugly in the creases of the door panels, so its likely I may not have to use superglue to hold it in. Its not as bright as being on the surface, but you can see a thin enough outline and the glow effect is just insane. The headliner idea I came up with is outlining the dome and map lights for a subtle yet cool effect. (Headliner fabric is still being debated, but if I go black suede with a thick blue suede stripe down the middle, that'll be lined as well) Now something I was a huge fan of when playing around with this stuff is lighting the O SHEET handles. I probably wont use the wire for that, but I'll definitely find a way to light em while maintaining function. With the headliner and door panels being lighted, I wanted to shift focus to the dash. The only tasteful cool way I can see to light it is outlining the vents, and lighting the passenger cubby. Needless to say I think it's going to look in-friggin-sane when it's done, but to give you all a sneak peel, here you go.

 

[Greg S]

Looks nice!

Question, why are your curtains so low? Did you use a set for a 1st gen?

As for lighting the dash you can either do a ring around the vents or light up the inside of the vents. Once you have the dash off it's actually easy to add leds drilled into the vent tube to light them up. Same for the panel above the passenger cubby.

The grab handles are a bit of a pain since they are smooth and spring loaded. What I came up with was a short 9 led strip recessed into the inside of the handle so it lights up the headliner.





In this pic you can sort of see the light from the leds I put above the passenger cubby, it would be brighter with anything other than the UV ones I used.

 

[GarryGraves]

Actually Greg I got the idea of lighting the handles from you lol I just never seen it in real life so that's what really sold me on the idea. I think I'm going to do it a bit different though. The curtains are actually universals from China, I mounted them lower like that just because I thought they looked funny being too baggy.