Underhood Lamp Mod - CCFL lamps

[Breadfan]

Well, I finally got around to doing this mod. I did it on my old Grand Am which had no underhood lamp and loved the results. So I'm back at it on the Marauder. I installed some cold cathode flourescent lighting. You can get these 12v dual lamp kits from most any computer store online. Newegg.com or SVC.com have a bunch, don't skimp on price. I think some sites sell these specifically for cars but they may cost a bit more and whats the fun in buying something for your car that's meant to go on it?????!??!?

My Marauder is fortunate enough to have an underhood lamp, so it made installation simpler having the 12v source already routed. You can also keep the existing light module to act as the on/off switch when the hood is opened/closed. I originally did this but am going to remove it and keep only the inverter there for a cleaner look. I'll have an on/off rocker switch to control the lamps. Anyway, during the day when the hood is up I don't want them on anyway.

But at night for evening cruise nights, this will get you some serious attention and really light up your engine bay. And in the unfortunate incident of an evening-time breakdown (knock on wood) it will be useful as it will provide a lot more light than the stock OEM under hood lamp and about 100% more light than not having any light.

Here's a link with text on how I installed them, and pics are below in this thread. http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/03marauder02.html

(Ignore the hanging inverter in this pic, was just trying them out...)
http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/100_0429009.jpg

(Inverter with OEM lamp assembly...too hard to mount both and make it look nice so that mess is going away...)
http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/100_0431011.jpg

Mounting...
http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/100_0424004.jpg

http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/100_0428008.jpg

http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/100_0427007.jpg

Again, this link has more details on how I mounted them and why I chose the postioning. http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/03marauder02.html

BTW I almost wish for bigger lamps. On my Grand Am 12" CCFLs looked alot bigger on that small hood than they do on this massive hood of the Marauder!

[DEFYANT]

Interesting mod. Thanks

[Drock96Marquis]

Very neat mod, and a nice clean install! :cool:

My only concern would be if the invertor able to cope with harsh underhood envirmoments (moisture, high heat, vibration, etc.) well; or if pre-mature invertor failure would occur.



Then using a small all (yes it's a tool...all (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000690LD6/qid=1153795484/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/102-0509839-3539344?_encoding=UTF8&s=hi&v=glance&n=228013)) it is an awl ;)

[jgc61sr2002]

Cool nice job.:D :up:

[Breadfan]

Very neat mod, and a nice clean install! :cool:

My only concern would be if the invertor able to cope with harsh underhood envirmoments (moisture, high heat, vibration, etc.) well; or if pre-mature invertor failure would occur.


it is an awl ;)


Thanks, I knew my spelling was off but couldn't prove it, awl is the one I didn't try. :D

The inverter should hold up fine. They're in cases that while not water proof should provide decent protection. Since the lights are only on when the hood is up, there should be good airflow around it.

I never had an issue with the one on my Grand Am. Being switchable on and off though, you only really end up using them when you want them, so that cuts down on the number of hours they run. I'm sure in an underhood environment the inverter will not last as long but I never had a burnout on my other car.

[SergntMac]

Very nice...I'm stealing this idea.

[Breadfan]

I left my Marauder at my folks house again, I took my Dad's Camaro SS again so I could do some more tuneup work on it this week. So, getting a night shot will be difficult until the weekend.

In the meantime, I do have a few pics from my Grand Am. This was with an old digital camera that didn't pickup light well. First is with flash, other one is at night, no flash, only the underhood lamps. The pic doesn't do proper justice to the amount of light. Nothing annoying - but it would give a nice view of the engine.

I am curious how the Marauder's engine bay will light up considering there's more real-estate to brighten - I'll get pics when I can.

http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/pics/IM001654.JPG

http://www.neuralimpulse.com/cars/pics/IM001653.JPG

[Breadfan]

OK enough pics of Grand Am's, I finally got the try the lamps out at night. :)

First off, the difference is amazing. With no light, you obviously, see nothing with the lamps off. With the lamps on, the entire engine bay is brightly illuminated.

At my folks house I was parked behind my dad's CVPI, in front of that was the closed garage door. The lamps lit up the entire front of the garage from over a car length away.

At the cruise-in, I turned them on. There is standard parking lot illumination there, so you can see the engine and blower, but there are a fair amount of shadows. The lamps got rid of any sort of shadows and made it like you were looking at the engine bay during noontime on a sunny day.

The pics may not do the best justice, but these are definitely brighter than on my Grand Am mainly due to shorter lead lengths due to having room for the inverter under the hood.

Sorry for the blurs, I messed up the pics at the cruise night, the one at home is better...

http://www.neuralimpulse.com/misc/100_0484.jpg

http://www.neuralimpulse.com/misc/100_0480.jpg




Obviously my digital camera doesn't capture the light correctly. At the cruise in the lamps looked like two small sticks of white light, quite bright and they really stood out. I was just stopping by on my way home from another show, and it turned into 30mins of me explaining the car and the lamps once I turned them on. :)

[stryker]

Sorry BREADFAN but the quality of the pics of the MM are disgusting, Very blurry I suggest you get a pistol and shoot that camera and later get a decent camera.


STRYKER.