I've always had a problem digging for stuff in the bottom of my trunk at night. There is no light down there and the dome light does not extend that far... even with 30 LEDs in it.





So I set out to installing 2 12" cathode tubes under my amp rack.



I wired it to a switch on top of my amp rack that way whenever I need the light, it's just a flip of a switch away.

And I tucked the tubes back far enough, that unless you're a 4 foot midget, you'll never see them




I also want to add that I did this completely for function. I'm not much into pointless lighting just to show off. I gave this a try to purely help out with trunk visibility at night and I think it came out pretty handy.


Will have better pics later on
Thoughts?

 

I like the idea and functionality is def. important. Nice job.

-Brian

 

Nice work man, I never thought about doing that..... another great move by GM!

 

As always, nice work.

 

That looks great! Nice job!

 

good idea

 

Cool, idea. I have the same problem.

 

I have two things to say...

1) Hell yeah! Great idea !

2) F@ck your car...



...is CLEAN !!!

 

Much Brighter Brian! Functions well..........I need to do this as well, I constantly have problems seeing anything down there at night!

Good work man!


-Justin

 

That's a GREAT idea! I should do that, I have a spare cathode lying around here. It is green though, but at least it wouldn't be dark anymore back there.

 

Does it turn on/off when you open/close the trunk? I would be afraid of forgetting to switch it off if it was something I had to do manually... since most cars already have that feature

 

Looks great! The only problem is that with up lighting, is if you have junk in your trunk, the junk will most likely cover the Light! Leaving you with dappled or no light. If you do the same from above you will always have light falling upon your Junk. Sorry to rain on your parade. Again looks great as long as nothing covers the light

 

Ive considered doing this for a while now with a red tube.

 

awesome.....another great idea that gm DIDN'T have was putting lights under the dash when the doors are open!>!>!>>! but i fixed that one!

 

Sell 'em. I want one.

 

good idea

 

I contemplated getting power from the dome light and switching it on/off with power of the thatlight, but there's sometimes that my trunk is open for a couple hours at a time when working in my garage and the switch wouldn't have power then. So I just gotta remember!

 

This is very true but it's better than nothing. I really really didn't want to mount it up high where you can see the tubes. With me, sometimes I have a lot of little things like ratchets or pliers layin there for whatever reason and you seriously have no lighting down there at all.

 

Nice Work.

I have cold cathode lights in my trunk too. I mounted them to the angled part of the side panels right under where the mat/cover rests and made some reflectors out of aluminum with vinyl on the back-side to blend in better. I tapped into the dome light for power, but still have a switch to turn them on/off because normal fluorescent ballasts don't like to be dimmed (they will be damaged). That way I only turn them on when I need them (but of course the dome light has to be on), but if I forget, the car's power saver feature will turn them off....unfortunately in that case, the "theater dimming" feature may damage the ballast. At least they were cheap.

I'll have to post pics later.

 

hell yea dude, that looks real good! Once I finish my exhaust and get my 5% tint we need to talk