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so, i went and bought some nice smoked- clear, clean sidemarkers to put on the inside of my door, towards the back of the car- to use as road hazard lights or whatever. i plan to paint the top half red (just like the jettas have) i was told i can use some sort of lens paint, anyone heard of this stuff?

anyway- what i need the most help on is- wirring. i dont know much about car wirring- but i do know that the entire body is the ground (black / - ) wire, right? so technically, i dont need to run 2 wires from my door, into my car, just one- the hot (+) one, right? the other (-) i can just attach to the body.

wheres the best place i can intercept the dome light circuit? its okay if the lights fade out like the dome light does, thats cool.

thanks

 
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Look in the door sill.. theres a rubber covered button. That's the door open switch that trips the dome light. Take off the rear interior panels and you should be able to see it. There should be a power and a ground attached through the switch. Get a voltmeter or a test light and check. Just make sure you splice the power from between the switch and the dome light otherwise the markers will be on all the time.

 
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diy

 
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Goto Walmart and goto the section where they have all the model cars and accessories and look for the paint "transparent candy apple red" that's what we used to paint half of my friends clear lights it worked pretty damn good.

 
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this is exactly what we did in my buddies 4runner, and exactly what i will do, and exactly what you should do.

theres only one wire, civics are ground switched. this means, when teh door is open, the circuit is completed, sending a ground through the wire. SO:

step 1, find a 12 volt source, your cig lighter will work fine. tap it, send a wire down teh sill to the qurater panel.

step 2, install your light physically however you plan to, ground at teh closest spot and send the second wire to teh same spot as that you sent the 12 volt source wire

step 3: get an automotive relay. this is like a traffic light for your current. the door opening is like a green light, which will let current traffic down to teh light. this also means it will only turn on if a door is open. if thats perfect for you, it was for my friend and was for me. if you dont want it that way, follow this procedure, just chage how you work the coil part of the relay. to continue:

heres how the relay works: there are 5 pins. 3 of those pins think of as a switch, singlepole double throw (SPDT). imagine a knifeswitch like in frankenstien movies. you have this knife that can sit in one end or the other. when it sits in one end, current can flow through teh knife into that terminal, and same with teh other. now imagine that same switch, but there are ONLY 2 positions. the INSTANT it disengages one terminal, it engages teh other terminal. there is no period of no contact. this is how that switch works.

but we dont have a phisical **** to flick! how do we change the switch setting? with current! the remaining two leads is a coil, and will activate the switch. if you have 12 volt source on one side of the coil, and ground the other side, then the switch is activated!

by now if you have minor electronics experience youll see where im going with this. you take your 12 volt source, and put it to one side of the coil (like the light bulb, it doesnt matter which side) and you ALSO hook the 12 volt source to the "knife" or center of the switch. 12 volts will pass through one of the switch leads, but not teh other. you will want the lightbulb itself hooked to the one where its off.

now we have the relay live, ready to go, and the light bulb ready to be lit! but the coil only has 12 volts, we have to ground it! this is where your door switch comes into play [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG] using a scotchlock or t-tap, you can just tap into teh wire, leaving teh entire system intact, no cutting, but giving you a wiretap off it. this you hook to the other side of the coil. if your door is open when you connect it (its perfectly safe to do this) then the relay will make a clicking sound, and your light will light up [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

now if you push the door switch with your finger, teh light should go off, and the relay will again click. now all you have to do is make sure every wire is nicely insulated, and tuck it back between your interior and exterior quarterpanels. if you want to make your install look really slick, even tho noone will see it, you cna bolt your relay to teh frame f the car inside the panel. brownie points when you take the panel off with spectators to do something at some later time, to see how clean its installed [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

with the quarter panel reinstalled on the inside (did you remember the screw above the oh s h i t handle back there?) your done!

this works with ANYTHING you want switched with basically anything. neon light under the seat? same way. you want to use teh dome light instead, but its a 12 volt source? reverse the lines on teh coil, ground one end and attatch the other to the dome light. now itll click on when the light gets its 12 volts.

hook the coil to teh ciggarette lighter. now the light will be on as long as the car is on.

hook the switch to 12 volts and then through a switch, and ground the other coil. now its only on when teh switch is on.

light bulb? works with light bulbs, neon lights, nuclear reactors, stereo systems, electric motors, solenoids, flaming exausts, spark plugs, and even those toy dogs that flip and bark at you. your limited only by your creativity where you pull teh current from and what you power!

 
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yeh! kick ***! we should all do this mod [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG] thanks everyone, and thanks to white rabbit for the nice detailed explenation- very much appreciated

here,

[IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/beer_yum.gif[/IMG]

its on me!

 
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i painted my lights with that candy apple red stuff froggylx reccomended, came out great!
check it out

[IMG]ftp://uhaweb.hartford.edu/rico/newpics/p1010001.jpg[/IMG]