DIY - ABL using EL wire, and 3/16" tube

[TAG UR IT]

You can guess what comes next....

[Mindz]

Sure can. How long did you say shipping would take?

Remember, IBM for mine...



Looks so much better Doug. GREAT JOB!

[TAG UR IT]

Originally Posted by Mindz

Sure can. How long did you say shipping would take?

Remember, IBM for mine...



Looks so much better Doug. GREAT JOB!

Heck, I can overnight stuff...lol

IBM works just fine. But, you gotta supply the parts and $$$$$$$$$$$$ for labor!

Thanks...a pain in the rear, but is coming along fine.

Lots of work to do today...

[camarorick]

Looks killer Doug

What type of paint did you use ?

[tightchevelle69]

tag, what did you do to the panels? im assuming you sanded the silver off, but did you polish the plastic some or what? id love to see a write up on what you did and see some finished pics! Looks GREAT!

[TAG UR IT]

Originally Posted by camarorick

Looks killer Doug

What type of paint did you use ?

It's my wave blue metallic...my new "favorite" color...lol. Actually, it's the blue from my bow ties and pin stripes. I wanted to continue with that color. Just wait till it's all finished....going to look BAD @SS! Working on the El Wire tubes right now. One thing I found out....use a HOT GLUE GUN....NOT THE D@MN SUPERGLUE!!! I already had to polish the front side from the superglue dripping over onto the faceplate. But, I'm a pro at sanding now...it only took two minutes...lolololol....800 grit, 1,500 grit, buffing compound and the old handy dandy drill, and then polish and the drill (with special extensions, of course)...seriously...two minutes...lol

Originally Posted by tightchevelle69

tag, what did you do to the panels? im assuming you sanded the silver off, but did you polish the plastic some or what? id love to see a write up on what you did and see some finished pics! Looks GREAT!

took them apart, sanded them completely down, sprayed them with paint adhesive (on the backs), had them taped off, of course, spray painted them with my wave blue, taped them off again leaving my ridge line for the ABL area I wanted sanded, instead of sanding, used Paint THINNER and simply rubbed the paint off the top which left me with the most KILLER clean line I've EVER seen...., put the 3M replacement tape back on, added the backing back on it, added mirrored finish tape to the back, then hot glued my El Wire acrylic tube to the back. Trust me...it's freakin nice...a lot of work....but, it's NICE.

Now....working on the passenger side. This side is going MUCH easier...


Oh, and there WILL be a write up!

[TAG UR IT]

And the passenger side was a BREEZE. Got that learning down from the driver side (much rather screw that one up as the insert is only $42 compared to the passenger side being $92). Man, the looks of this thing are KILLER! And, to top it off, the El Wire tube ACTUALLY FITS behind the insert!....unlike the light pipe. Man, that thing was a pain in the @ss. Now, I have to go back to the beginning and see how they wired up the inverter to the connectors. I have a red/black coming from the car...to two black wires (one w/ a white looking strip. Need to find out which one connects to which.

AND...need to find out which wire from the inverter to the El Wire is soldered. There are two. So, back to the beginning I go.

Dude..this is so much fun.... I can't wait to see how it looks....and I didn't even get to do the doors yet...lol

[TJ91]

wow Tag, that sounds awesome! Cant wait to see the finished project!

[TAG UR IT]

HELP RICK!!!

Ok...I followed the youtube "how to solder El Wire" to a "t." But, when I connect the wires from the male connector to the El Wire wires (main wire and corona wire), the El Wire ONLY lights up on the part that is exposed.

I am at a LOSS....and have been at THIS part for well over an hour. Otherwise, I'd be finished.

Did I do something wrong?

To my knowledge, the inverter that I'm using...think it's the 0 to 120hz (0 to 4ft), should do the trick. I got another for 4 to 8 ft. I cut the wire so I'd only have 6 inches of El Wire (for the driver side) and nada...same thing. The entire wire will not light up....only the exposed 1 inch that no longer has teh protective coating on it.

What am I doing wrong???

I know the pos/neg between the car jack and the inverter are right (red to the black wire with white writing and black to black). I have the inverter on "full." I tried switching the wires one way and the other way to the El Wire before turning it on. Still....only one inch of the El Wire (exposed part) will illuminate.

HELP....PLEASE....

[camarorick]

Originally Posted by TAG UR IT

HELP RICK!!!

Ok...I followed the youtube "how to solder El Wire" to a "t." But, when I connect the wires from the male connector to the El Wire wires (main wire and corona wire), the El Wire ONLY lights up on the part that is exposed.

I am at a LOSS....and have been at THIS part for well over an hour. Otherwise, I'd be finished.

Did I do something wrong?

To my knowledge, the inverter that I'm using...think it's the 0 to 120hz (0 to 4ft), should do the trick. I got another for 4 to 8 ft. I cut the wire so I'd only have 6 inches of El Wire (for the driver side) and nada...same thing. The entire wire will not light up....only the exposed 1 inch that no longer has teh protective coating on it.

What am I doing wrong???

I know the pos/neg between the car jack and the inverter are right (red to the black wire with white writing and black to black). I have the inverter on "full." I tried switching the wires one way and the other way to the El Wire before turning it on. Still....only one inch of the El Wire (exposed part) will illuminate.

HELP....PLEASE....

WOW, lets see from process of elimination.....

1 - Have you checked to make sure the corona wires have not broken off where you striped the outer skin ? These things are super thin.

2- There are two corona wires, you need to solder to both ?

3 - Check the other end of your EL wire, and make sure the corona wires are not touching the core wire.

4 - Did you try the other inverter ?

5 - Solder yourself another wire, it could be that there's an internal break of the corona wire on the piece you're working on.

Let us know...

[tightchevelle69]

Originally Posted by TAG UR IT

Oh, and there WILL be a write up!

sweet. i cant wait to see it finished and see the write up!

[TAG UR IT]

got it all figured out. I thought the scraping of the phosphorous off the main cable was ONLY if you were going to solder the lines together. Well, I was merely testing the connection and had not yet scraped all the phosphorous off the cable for the soldering part. I figured it would still work even without scraping. Well, it didn't. sSCRAPE FIRST!!!

[camarorick]

Originally Posted by TAG UR IT

got it all figured out. I thought the scraping of the phosphorous off the main cable was ONLY if you were going to solder the lines together. Well, I was merely testing the connection and had not yet scraped all the phosphorous off the cable for the soldering part. I figured it would still work even without scraping. Well, it didn't. sSCRAPE FIRST!!!

Excellent.... Glad you figured it out

What was that paint adhesive called ?

[TAG UR IT]

Yeah...dumb move on my part. Oh well...live and learn. That's what DIRECTIONS are for...lol

The clear paint adhesive is called Bond-Tec Mul-TIE Adhesion Promoter and Tie Coat. It says Transtar Autobody Technologies INC 1033 on the red/black can. It goes down like a clear coat, but makes the paint stick to the panel. Also, I can bend the inserts and there is no spider webbing....YET...which I why I do my absolute best to keep it straight!