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Condoms can be bought here for cheaper than the ford ones:

http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....h_type=1805169

or you can replace the bulbs with LEDs, a better solution but more work.

http://www.k-series.com/tech_detail...._CON_LITE_SWAP

 
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i'm sorry.. but the condoms site seems to be down for me? is there any other places i may purchase them?

 
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Ford dealership sells them I think for like 30$ for a set... But I just clicked it, and it works fine for me :-? They're a pretty big store, they sell to home audio people usually, but they have lots of neat gadgets. I've ordered quite a bit from them, hope it works for you, I don't know of any other place that is cheap like that...

 
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im interested on that one... but im also a damn newbie... cant i just buy those condoms?

 
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i you buy those condoms ( from http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....h_type=1805169 ) ..... it's NOT gonna be BLUE ..... it's gonna be TEAL ...... i'll post pic if i can

 
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Don't get the condoms, just go to a music store that sells stage lighting, drop about $5-$10 on a "gel" which is like colored celophane, and then cut it out into pieces that fit where you want them to go ...

MUCH easier, much better results, and probably cheaper as well

 
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blue flame can you please post a pic
I don't want to do leds because i am a little scared pm me and let me know what color etc...

 
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could someone repost the pics please?

 
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which pics are you looking for? I have a bunch of pics of different stuff

 
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none of the pics in the first post are there...or is it just me?

 
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it's not you, I don't remember any pics... what is it you're trying to accomplish? if you just want to turn certain lights blue, get the condoms from parts express. look here: http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage....05169&desc=ASC or if you really want blue, you can go for LEDs instead of condoms. I don't like the condoms, they either distort the color or make it dimmer. LEDs are a pure color, you can get them pretty cheap, and solder a resistor on the anode (positive) leg of the LED. you can get the general idea of howto solder LEDs in place of Bulbs here: http://www.k-series.com/tech_detail...._CON_LITE_SWAP



Or just take the offending object apaprt (a/c *****, etc...) and order some bulb caps... prolly wanna try the bulbs, I have, and didn't like them.

 
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with the LEDs how difficult is the install? I have a very novice knowledge of electrical work, can you install the LED's to change the tint of where the speedometer and such are too this way?

 
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you know it's weird but the thing about girls commenting on the amber interior lights is so true. i wonder why that is....

 
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I wouldn't say that it's that hard, I didn't know much about electronics before I started tinkering with mine. I changed the bulbs behind my gauges to white LEDs, had to acetone off the orange tinting on the back of the face. Most people do them blue in that case, I was just going for the white/black theme.

Basically all you do is get to the PCB of the gauges or whatever (a/c buttons etc...) and there's two solder tabs where the bulbs would normally screw into, you figure out which is positive and which is negative, and then solder wires coming off of those. I used 24 SMD (surface mounted device) LEDs in strings hot glued behind the cluster for good coverage. The whole process for the gauge cluster took me about 6 hours to completion, but now for the rest of the life of my car I have the color I want... Cost me ~15$ in parts. I have a DIY on howto do the whole thing, I should post it on the forums, I was trying to get the whole thing hosted on k-series.com but that never turned out. Technically challenging, maybe, but definetly anybody can do it, just takes a little time and concentration.

I think alot of the reason people like "amber" is because it's the default spectrum of light bulbs, usually small dim ones, or if you dimmed a regular light bulb down to almost off you'd get the same spectral output. "Amber" really isn't a color anyways, there isn't a frequency on the color chart that denotes "amber" as you see in the picture below, incandescent light puts out a near 100% color rendering index, meaning it displays all colors of light, though incandescent bulbs put off a very warm color temperature, around 2500-3000 degrees kelvin.

The question really is, just because it was done in the past that way, now that we have a more precise, some might say better, should we continue doing it the same way? Before we couldn't display anything but "amber" now that you have a choice, do you like the way the bulbs look? Or would you prefer a different color. If you really want an "amber" color, there are LEDs that put out a much better imitation of the old amber/ fireplace glow sort of thing :-) It's really kinda funny to me, people have been familiar with "amber" fire color since we walked out of the jungles, now that we have semiconductor technology we don't wanna leave that color behind. Arguements could be made for either side, but I degress.


You can see in the above picture the visible spectrum, different colors have a certain frequency in nanometers (nm). LEDs put out a spike in one particular color, and very little in the others. Where as in the picture below you can see the straight line is an example of a regular incandescent light. Incandescent lights because they act by heating an object, give off a pretty smooth curve. LEDs, HIDs, and florescent lights give off a peaks because they are using certain chemicals stimulated by electricity, which give off specific wavelengths...


Above you see the smooth line is a incandescent bulb.


Here you see a curve of a green LED that peaks at 504nm, a very green color.



Below you see a typical curve of a white LED, which is a misnomer of sorts, they are actually blue LEDs with phosphors (like what lines the inside of a florescent tube), that glows to approximate a regular curve. The benefit is that you get a high color temperature I think 6500*K is typical, which looks real "crisp" or "hyper-white" if you will.


The nice thing about LEDs, is that you can pick your exact shade by the "peak" color of the LED... as opposed to incandescent bulbs you will always get a wide range of color. The problem with just using the bulbs, is that say you want a blue from a incandescent bulb, you go buy a blue condom top and stick it on, and it's now 20% as bright as it was before... reason being you're filtering out 80% of the energy the bulb is putting out on colors that you're blocking. So with an LED, you put 100% of the energy into the color you want.

I'll see if I can post my DIY on the 7thgen forums, feel free to hit me up on IMs or email if you want a hand figuring stuff out. Best, Bill

 
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wow man, thanks for all the info thats great! If you could post your DIY that would be cool, or if you need a post to put it up some place lemme know

 
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check out :

http://www.7thgencivic.com/forums/sh...hreadid=118566

 
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ill say it now, i think i love you! thanks alot ill try it out next time i have some free day. You are awesome!

 
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I looked through many pages and this thread and I am getting so confused lol. Just one basic question. Is there an easy way to get extreme blue or extreme green without soldering or using resistor stuff (anything that isn't plug and play). I read that condoms aren't as bright. Last thing, is there a way to get leds working without any soldering?

 
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no, you must solder, you cant just tape them on, you must integrate them to the circuit board. and LED's must use resistors.

 
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all the links dont work...

hankscorpio can you repost ur LED diy....cuz i think i wanna do the LED thing not the condom stuff....i can get those cheap...but i wanna go LED

 
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ok, not to go against the grain, but there are ways you can use LED's without soldering. You just have to get the pre-wired ones off ebay. Plug them into where the stock bulbs are and connect the wires to the appropriate connections. I personally used the gels (stage lighting lenses) and I like it because it's not so bright, and anyone who rides with me almost always comments on how good it looks. Especially combined with the LED's in the vents ...

 
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I don't wanna knock another method to do the lights, if anyone tries to do the LEDs without soldering let me know, I just don't think it's possible to attach the wires of the LEDs without soldering. soldering really isn't that big a deal, if you have any hesitation, try taking apart an old electronic gadget, like a old modem or some PCI card you're never going to use again, try your hand at that and see if it's too much, I think you'll find soldering is a piece of cake.