Tutorial: Installing LED Floor Lights + Bonus

If you go back through all of my articles, you may find when I originally changed out my interior (and a couple exterior) bulbs to blue LEDs. Thanks to that awesome reader who actually purchased it for me, I became hooked on light effects.

* As far as the bonus, I decided posting an update on my car is better in a tutorial. I'll post some nice pictures at the end, too, and a little of what's next. That's the bonus. Hey, I can't give out money! 

Just focus on the nice color because I need to clean my car. Why if it's not done, right?!

Today I installed an awesome kit that, actually, Scotty Kilmer of YouTube fame even recommended over any other one on the market. I just bought it because it's cheap! It's $19.99 online somewhere and again, I wish I got paid for telling you about this product but I'm not (hint hint... If you're reading...). I'm going to edit this page as soon as I find the box! Promise!

The kit comes with the following items:

- One main unit with a sort of antenna that has four wires coming out, each one connected to a strip of LED diodes.

- The power source is a unit that goes in your cigarette lighter. At first, I didn't like that but I realized it's better. It plugs into the main unit which is an inch by inch and a half big.

- A remote control.

The remote control lets you change the settings and colors that come out of the LED strips. This is the best thing about it. It even responds to music so it can change colors to the beat.

For my setup, I purchased:

- A cigarette lighter extender that came with a USB port so you can charge your phone. Why? The original cigarette lighter power source is very short so you're probably going to need to extend it. 

All it does is plug into your cigarette lighter in your car, through an extension or not, and that is what provides the power. It's actually very handy because you just unplug it instead of having to disconnect it from your battery.

I'm going to give you a quick run-down of how to set these up and hide the wires. Personally, I didn't hide the main unit but I did tuck all of the other wires. You're going to want to hide the wires for these LED strips. I'll show you how.

First, just sit down for a few minutes or sleep on it before you decide where you're going to put the main box. Remember, this is the unit that provides all the power and also has an antenna. It's also where all four wires come from so it has to be close enough to each light's final location.

I used zipties to hold mine onto an air-conditioning vent in the back. I decided to put my unit in the back but you can put it in the front. For me, I like the look of exposed wiring to a certain extent - which a lot of people have hated on but such is life - so I didn't hide the main unit. If you want to, a good spot is under one of the seats. If you run the wires right, you won't be able to see any at all.

You see, this allowed me to tuck most of the wires. See how they're sticking out all over the place?

By the way, it's very important to decide where you want this unit first so you know how to run the wires! I think I mentioned this. Anyway...

That's the end result. As you can see, that unit would actually be hidden if it was mounted on the side of the center console or under the seat. So that's up to you. Like I said, I dig the look, and you can see the wires run down under the console but that's it. 

At the top of that small black box (again, that's the main unit) is where the cigarette lighter power source plugs in.

We'll get to that but let me explain how to hide the wiring. You can see the wire poking out from under the whole center console. Well what you do is tuck the wire in under it all the way to the back. Just push it in there.

When you're getting close to being finished, you're going to have a length of extra wire to tuck. In this case, plan where you're going to mount the strip, roll up the slack of wire and strap the wires together using a ziptie. Now you have a bundle you can tuck into certain places.

In the photo above, I've completely tucked the wire for the front strip into the corner of the center console and I am showing you where I put the zip-tied bundle that belonged to the strip for the back.

Again, if you look at the finished product, the wire is tucked into a crevice. That's the best way to put it.

I wrote this guide this way so you know the idea behind setting these up and hiding the wires instead of me just showing you how to do it for one specific car. This way, you can do it in any car.

The main unit, by the way, will eventually be housed in something respectable. All of my lights will have the switches in one place but right now I have one running from the car's battery and another (this setup) from one cigarette lighter.

Eventually I will need to hook up maybe two more accessories so it's at that point that I will set up switches that are completely hidden. Not necessary right now. 

Above you can see how I have the plug-in unit plugged into the extender which is plugged into a cigarette lighter. Simple. Eventually there's gonna be a VIP table here so you can charge your phone and set it down. That will also give the dangling wire a place to hide besides the pocket on the back of the front seat.

I may create a VIP table myself so if I do, I will definitely post a tutorial. I didn't even think about it - that it was possible to make a nice VIP table. I stumbled on a video where a man did just that so you may see me do it in the future.

Also if you look, there's all the pieces in the above picture. You can see the main unit with everything coming out of it. If you didn't get a good idea yet, that should help you. This is honestly very simple.

And it's on! This is when I first installed it at the park and drove home. It looks nice even in the day. 

Just to give a little insight into the future of my car, the back will be dark in the daytime. Yes I am getting curtains. With my almost-illegal tints. At this point, all the VIP people are scratching their heads. Don't worry, it's just a party car.

I also have a few LED bulbs that I never successfully installed so I'm going to get on that! It's just the trunk and the little light for the vanity mirror on the passenger side. 

Now that you got this far, here's the bonus. I came to a conclusion about this car.

The conclusion is... This Lexus is not conforming to crap. Is that even supposed to be in a Lexus?

How awesome does that look? This is, for sure, my favorite light mod yet. By the way, look at the box that's connected right out in the open... You can't even see it at night.

Actually, it was exactly when I was deciding where I want the main unit that it hit me. I'm supposed to be having fun with this. I'm probably eventually gonna hide it like I said but those wires really don't bother me. The red light for the cigarette connector? Well you can just hide that in the pocket on the back of the driver's seat.

Now look closely. The next two pictures are with the doors shut. Even through the tint, the LEDs are bright and sharp.

Looking into back window on the passenger side.

And this is from the driver's side.

My plans for the car evolve as time goes on. I'm honestly having a lot of fun with it. It's good medicine for depression if nothing else. But really, I've gotten a basic understanding of relays, diodes, and the basics of electronics which I really had no idea before. At the same time, I wasn't sure what direction to go with the car.

I've always known that this is a chauffeur type car so I've always tried to think of something for the back and I think it's time I get some beige curtains. Beige? Being different again... Actually it looks nicer than black to me in a white on beige car.

People... Thank you for reading. Hope it inspires you to work on your own stuff.

- Rokas Kirvelis