cool car shit

so, recently, i did a thing…

…and i’ve done it to literally all my cars, but this one had a twist. there was a two wire connection between the quarter panel and trunk lid lights i’d never dealt with before. the overall effect was as planned:

but the two wire factor wasn’t. none of the other kits like this that i’ve installed have a “connecting wire”. they’re all just plug ‘n play into the factory wiring harnesses. the extra two wires ended up being an extra hour and a half of installation time due to the pinch factor. the kit came with instructions…in mandarin. but the same kit i got on eBay is also sold on amazon, but they have four versions. two each in red lens or smoked lens. the difference? the animation on start up…and a slight variation in price. without animation? amazon will charge you $389.99. but with the animation? $779.99! for double the price i’d expect an actual cartoon to come to life and ride shotgun, not just some chasing led shit!

(for the record i paid about $365 all in on eBay)

according to to the instructional video on amazon you’re supposed to take the extra two wires, which are infinitely longer than the others, and pull them THROUGH THE TRUNK SEAL between the rubber and the metal edge, from there passing them under the trunk liner and up through the hinge. but when you tuck wires between the trunk rubber seal and the metal edge it sits on, then shut the trunk, said trunk lid presses on said seal, and presses the wire down across the metal edge, and after about four or five trunk shuts you’ve severed that wire and lights go out. not realizing it was just the animation effected, i set about to make it work, which required drilling the body panel (OUCH!) behind the light and running the wires into the trunk that way.

not ideal, but effective.

and as a result…

IMG_2374

(for some reason you have to click the above to see the animation)