First - thanks to TeccBoxx and his consistent and quality good work. I was inspired to give this ABL stuff a go, and see what happened.
Second - this is my first post, so forgive my abrupt de-lurking.
I got my EL wire from SeattleLumin, who has already introduced himself in this thread.
A condensed replay:
Remove the dash panel over the fusebox on the drivers side. Start at the bottom of the panel and pop it off gently, working upwards.
You'll need to remove the aircon duct for easier access - it twists and then pulls out easily.
The trim panels are held in by spring clips: If you use pliers to compress the back of the spring on the first clip it will slide out, then you can gently pull the trim piece down and towards to to get it out.
The passenger side long trim panel is a bit trickier: I ended up removing the glove box and plastic cover above it to get better access to the spring clips holding it in, but turns out I didn't need to do that. Patience and a slow approach will let you remove the panel ( after using pliers to get compress the first clip and pull the panel out a bit ).
The longer trim piece was completed painted, and would allow no light to shine through the top. I did some delicate work with some light sandpaper to remove the paint only on the top area of the panel where the light needs to shine through. The shorter trim piece had no paint along the top edge, so you could see the EL wire with no additional work.
I used clear tape to test-fit the EL wire to the back of the trim pieces, thusly:
Not pretty, but it got the job done. I removed the tape after the test fitting, but there was enough adhesive left on the wire and trim to keep it tacky enough to hold in place for the install.
I put the trim pieces back on, using the upper lip to hold the wire in place. When the trim was back on, I powered up the wire and used a small jeweller's screwdriver to ->carefully<- push the wire further down until I could press the trim completely back in, holding the wire captive.
My last hurdle for completing this is finding the plug that will go into the existing sockett harness on the drivers side, above the fuse box. I went down to a Chevy parts counter today, and after about 15 mins of working with the parts guy, came up empty handled. I could just hack off the existing socket and re-wire, but I'd rather not.
Given the pictures of the socket below, can anyone help in identifying the appropriate plug?
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Here's my version of the "work in progress" view:
Standard low-light shaky idling-car quality image.
Here's the view of the driver's side of the dash with the access panel removed, showing the location of the fusebox and of the connector that seems to have been left there for ABL in the first place:
And a closer view of the connector:
Here's a view of the back of the long trim panel that you'll need to remove:
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So, that's where I stand now. TeccBoxx, I'm sure that you've done yours better, and I join the crowd in waiting for more details on how you've done yours!
HannoverFist