Footwell Lighting and Sill Plates Install

[the_evil_monk]

I have had a couple of people ask me about my LED lighting and my lighted sill plates, so I thought I would throw a quick thread showing out how I did mine. I'm a shade tree mechanic at best, not an electrician, or expert of any kind. But it worked great, and didn't take a lot of time.

Started with my sill plates and LED lights ordered off Amazon (sitting here on my stylish SpongeBob beach towel). The sill plates each had a red and black wire coming out of each plate, joined at a Y connector into a single red/black pair.



The LEDs came like this, four separate bars, each with a black wire coming out of it, all four black wires joined in the control box which then had a single red/black pair coming out of it. Since I didn't care about putting any LEDs in the back seat, I decided I was going to put one bar under the drivers seat, one under the drivers side dash, one under the passenger seat, and the last under the passenger dash.



The tools I started with, good old electrical tape, wire strippers, needlenose pliers, wire ties, and wire splicers. I ended up throwing out the splicers and using a soldering iron instead, but that was just because I was having a difficult time getting around the specific wire.



First things first, disconnect the battery wire under the hood. Mine is circled in red here.



I started by removing shiny factory sill plates. These are just high grade stickers, so I used a putty knife to get started peeling them up, and then carefully pulled back and away to ensure they came up cleanly. I kept them, and stuck them to the front of a cabinet in my shop.



I started on the drivers side, but the procedure was the same for the passenger side. I lay the new sill plate down where I wanted it (but did not stick it down yet). Carefully, I peeled up the weather stripping on the door sill (it is just stuck down with some heavy adhesive) and threaded the wire through to the inside of the door sill.



After this pic was taken, I ran some electrical tape around the wires where they crossed the metal part of the door sill and then pressed the weather stripping back down.



I tucked the interior wire up under the inside part of the weatherstripping and all the way up to the side of the dash where I ran it over towards the center console. I then went to the passenger side and did the same procedure, sitting the sill plate out, peeling up the weather stripping enough to thread the wire through, and again tucking the wire under the inside of the weather stripping up the door to the bottom of the dash and then across towards the center of the dash.

Now it was time to run the LEDs to the right locations. I gently peeled back the plastic cover on the drivers side and passenger side of the center console to expose the gap behind the console I was going to pass the LED bars through. Starting on the drivers side, I carefully pushed two of the LED bars through the gap behind the console (right above the yellow dot in this picture).



Here they are coming out the other side!



Now everything is laid out where it will end up, and I have the main wires for the sill plates and the LEDs in my drivers side footwell. So I took the black/red pair from the sill plates, and the black/red pair from the LED control box, and twisted them together (red to red, black to black). The black wires, I attached to the ground bolt circled in this picture. Just loosen it a bit, wind the wires around it, and tighten it back down.



I knew from reading the forums here that I wanted to tap the door sill and footwell lights into the dome light circuit, which was located on gray wire on the front-most gray connector pictured here. I have circled the wire I used in this picture to tap in to. It is the GRAY wire for the dome light circuit. Others have used other circuits to tie in to, don't ask me about the other connections, I went with the gray wire for the dome light.



I carefully pried the gray connector out of the socket so I could get some slack in the wires, and then ended up carefully cutting a couple of wire ties under the dash so I could pull the wire a little bit further down. My intent was to use the wire splices that I had in the picture above, but after many frustrating attempts, my old electronics background kicked in and I decided to just manually splice the red wire in with the gray wire. I used the wire strippers to pull back just about 1/2" of insulation from the gray wire, wrapped the joined red power wires from the sill plates and LED controller to it and added a dab of solder using my soldering iron. You might have better luck with the splicers, but I was sweaty from standing on my head in the footwell.

I then reconnected the battery under the hood so I could test to make sure the lights all worked before I tied everything down. Opened up the door, and boom...everything is bathed in a nice red glow! So, using my wire ties, I attached one wire under each seat, tied them up tight with wire ties and then tucked the wires under the plastic console pieces that I had pulled down to get to the back of the center console. The sill plate wires I actually tied up with the LED bars under each side of the dash. No magic here (and sadly, no pics as I was worn out after my day job and then starting this endeavor late in the evening), just tidy up your wires using wire ties and creative placement of the wires! Then go back and clean the area under where the sill plates will attach (I used a some cleaning wipes) and then remove the adhesive backing and stick down the sill plates.

Then, show off to your family and friends, and Camaro5!

[Dorwd71]

looks great, what brand did you go with?

[Matt8892]

Just did those exact door sills myself 2 weekends ago. Love them

[the_evil_monk]

Originally Posted by Dorwd71

looks great, what brand did you go with?

For the LEDs, I used:

(Link removed)

LEDGlow 4-Piece 7 Color LED Interior Underdash - purchased from Amazon.

For the sill plates, I bought this:

(Link removed)

iPerfect LED light Illuminated Door Sill Scuff Plate Cover for GM Chevrolet Camaro.

[the_evil_monk]

Originally Posted by Matt8892

Just did those exact door sills myself 2 weekends ago. Love them

Yeah, I have gotten tons of comments from folks on those...

[Dorwd71]

Thanks


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[OmniCamaro]

Originally Posted by the_evil_monk

For the LEDs, I used:



http://www.amazon.com/LEDGlow-4-Piec...b9wb180SYJQ_tt



For the sill plates, I bought this:



http://www.amazon.com/iPerfect-Laste...b9wb0KTEWH5_tt

Links are bad. Bad, bad links

[the_evil_monk]

Originally Posted by OmniCamaro

Links are bad. Bad, bad links

Whoops...sorry...will remove the links and just put detailed descriptions that anyone with a search engine can use...

[8balldeluxe]

Will I be able to search this if my search engine is only a V6?

[the_evil_monk]

Originally Posted by 8balldeluxe

Will I be able to search this if my search engine is only a V6?

Yup...engine size won't change the LED lighting.

[Skyguy06]

Okay, I am so frustrated.

I've looked at so many websites and images of people showing where the dome light wire is. It's supposed to be the gray wire that goes into the gray plug, right?

BUT, mine doesn't have a gray wire! My dome light works so I don't know what gives??

There was one wire that is brownish and I tried going to that one in case my eyes are just bad or playing tricks on me. But it still doesn't work.

PLEASE can someone help me find the dome light wire?

[OmniCamaro]

Originally Posted by Skyguy06

Okay, I am so frustrated.

I've looked at so many websites and images of people showing where the dome light wire is. It's supposed to be the gray wire that goes into the gray plug, right?

BUT, mine doesn't have a gray wire! My dome light works so I don't know what gives??

There was one wire that is brownish and I tried going to that one in case my eyes are just bad or playing tricks on me. But it still doesn't work.

PLEASE can someone help me find the dome light wire?

What year?


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[Skyguy06]

Originally Posted by OmniCamaro

What year?


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It's a 2012 LS (Standard)

[OmniCamaro]

Originally Posted by Skyguy06

It's a 2012 LS (Standard)

Look for a dark purple wire in the bundle just above the dead pedal. drivers side, far left side.




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