But ohh well (and tell your opinions too, if it makes me r*ce, or ghey, or whatever!)


Ok, I have an open-element Formula hood on the Bird rightnow...it has a honeycomb style metal mesh covering over it (facing the windshield - Formula owners know what I mean), but it's opened right into the engine compartment. I considered the idea of setting up a neon bass light right there, behind the honeycomb, facing the windshield, while keeping the bass sensor inside, of course...almost like a Knight Rider scanner, of sorts. I think it would be great to see from inside the car, it would stay moderately safe, and not nearly as noticable to police - plus the on/off switch would be inside, anyways. The only forseeable problem would be splicing a long enough wire to put it through the firewall..but still, nothing too major. Comments? :lala:

 

I wouldn't do it. I don't think it's r<x>icey... I just think it'd be distracting and annoying.

If you do it, try to do it so that you can't see the bulb itself.

 

It's actually a long light, much like the KR scanner idea, and isn't always on - only pulses to music. The bulb wouldn't be visible, only the glow..along the lines of the person who had those neons in their T/A hood vents.

 

I liked the T/A vent neons, that looked good.

I dunno, I think I like a constant subtle glow more than something that pulses to music, it's too "busy" that way. If it were a constant glow it might not be too bad, but I dunno.

 

Neon lights under the hood of your Honda, Yea OK:lala: :lala:

 

Yes! The narrow-minded and slow-witted arrive so a senseless and winner-free debate can uprise!


...



Thanks for your opinion, but it was really more of an uneducated statement...

edit: The light has adjustable brightness, pulse, etc., all the importy-r*ce type features that people love to hate!

 

:sillylol:

Neons do not equal r<x>ice, r<x>icers just abuse them. Will nobody ever see that?

 

you said it was open to the engine compartment... do you think the heat in that area would totally skrog the neon? most neons i have seen have a plastic housing... and i know it gets kinda warm under the hood.. but i like the idea... i am for anything that comes from stepping back and just thinking differently....

 

I had considered that, actually, and found a heat-sheilding type coating that can be applied to it...worst possible scenario with that is I melt an inexpensive light.

 

Just curious, where would you mount it so that the bulb isn't visible?

 

as long as it dose not distract you while you are driving, Id say go for it. If you dont like it you can always move it.

 

It's difficult to explain, but I'll try to describe how I test-fitted a friends...the light wasn't so much pointing out at the windshield, moreso pointing upwards towards the hood - the light, however, was still VERY visible...real bright or just a subtle glow depending on the settings. The best way to anoligize it would be to consider a live volcano...from a distance you can see the glow from the fire inside, but don't see the actual lava...I think that made sense.

Oops, I realized I said 'facing the windshield' earlier, I meant in regards to the glwing itself)

 

Ahhh, so you're not putting the neon itself inside the actual cowl, but rather below it... but you see the glow from the cowl.

 

Affirmative.

 

I think it could look good but I still think a constant glow would be better than bass reactive. Just my humble opinion though.

That, and another thing to be concerned about is are you willing to add something to the appearance of your hood from the inside while it's closed but take something away from the appearance of your engine bay when it's opened? I think that a big bright neon sitting there in the engine bay would kinda stick out like a sore thumb.

 

It would be mostly encased, and if I liked it, painted to match the hood colour (the encasing...it's really ard to explain) Yeah, I don't want a polished plenum being upstructed by ugly plastic and dangling wires....

 

:: nod nod ::

Nothing wrong with doing a "test run" to see how you like it for a while, and then if you do, making it more permanent.

 

wouldn't that distract you while your driving?
make sure you use blue and red ... but don't come to me if you get arested J/K
It would look sweet in a SS hood!!

 

I was thinking about doing a subtle glow from my Ram Air II hood when I get it. But I dunno. I'd rather see it first.

 

Be about as distracting as a tach shift light....I won't be staring at it (well, maybe the first few nights...) too much...and it won't be overly-bright. Good thing to consider, though.

 

:: shrug :: probably not any more distracting than interior neons actually. So long as it doesn't reflect really bad on your windshield and make it hard to see or anything...

 

Sounds intriguing. Rig it temporarily and see how you like it. Just make sure you have a switch to turn it off in case you get pulled over.

Neon are pretty durable actually. When my car got repainted one of the underbody tubes was not reattached properly. It sat on my exhaust behind the muffler for a few days, driving to and from work. Those who forgot to reattach it shall remain nameless, but it was not me... well it still worked, it just had huge dents in the plastic case...

Anyway....the thing that strikes me. The tube's pulsating is controlled by sound. I have one of this style tube. Its going to react to the sound its closest to. So your bass will not control it because it is outside the car. It will pulse to your engine's noise. So it will probably not pulse at all. Just a thought. You make want to just go with a cheaper non-sound reactive tube...
Heck hook up the tube to you battery and start the car and see how the tube behaves. I bet in the engine bay it will not hear your bass...

 

He earlier mentioned leaving the bass sensor in the interior.

 

If I was going to put a light in there, I would somehow hook it up to the TPS sensor. That way the higher the throttle, the brighter the light glows. That would be kinda sweet.

(the TPS sensor goes from 0.1 (i think) volts to 4.0 volts, if you could somehow use that to control the light it would be cool.)

 

Heh wow, that would definitely be innovative. It would probably just look like you had a dying alternator though, lol

 

How did I miss that...

Mine I guess does not separate that easily. Its all built into the tube.

Adams idea sounds really cool! Could you imagine people's faces as your ram Air nostrils got brighter and brighter....

 

agreed!! kinda like the glowing eyes of a beast from a movie or soemthing.. they get brighter as he gets pissed off. it'd look real mean with the sound of the car from outside too (if you could see it). totally a cool idea.

 

Yes it is a cool idea...but like I said, if it just ends up looking like a dying alternator it will look like your car is in pain instead of having a cool effect. Then again I guess if your headlights and such stayed the same it'd be okay.

 

i put some lights into the scoops of by 87 tbird turbo coupe. it looked pretty cool. i wish i could have got a stronger glow, but i didnt mount them permanently because i thought there would be too much attraction from the police and i would have had to drill some holes for the lights. I also thought rocks would break the bulbs i was using.

i would try it. I also installed about 50 orange running board lights under the front end to the plastic splash guards and behind the grill. it looked SWEET especially when it rained. the bulbs kept burning out so i took em off. it looked like the front end was burning on fire inside and the glow out of the grill was very noticable. everybody knew it was me coming. it was very bright orange glow.

i think your idea is sweet, let us all know how it turns out. worth a shot. at worst its gona cost you what? 20-30 bucks to know if it looks cool or works..

 

Personally I think that many car customizers have ruined alot of good ideas for the rest of us. It's hard to do something tastefull that we think will look good without either fear of being harrassed and called r i c e r s, or being told that the customizing you have done is ghey.

With that said I think neons are abused heavily. I kind of like the glowing vent idea. I would never do it myself. Personally I like the stock look of the third gen cars most of the time. My only desire is to enhance functionality and performance.

My two cents is that although it might be cool, it may be something you get tired of. For all the time and effort you may put into it I think you might be happier doing something else to your vehicle.

Then again it is YOUR vehicle and do what you will with it. I know I do with mine.

 

REALLY like Adam's idea for the throttle-controlled lighting. I would think it'd work best on a forward facing opening though.

If I EVER get the RAI hood I want, I think I'll try that since I won't be making the openings functional anyway (MAF car)

At any rate, I'd be interesting to see even the original idea for the formula hood done.

 

i like the creativity. i say go for it, but like others have said, make sure u can remove it if necessary.

 

I say go for it i have a ram air II hood on my camaro and had a neon in there. i dont think it looks *****... but i got it wet or somthin and it stoped working a year later... it was a cheepo tho.... i have a pic but you can hardly see it.....

 

this is a good idea. i've seen neons in 4th gen T/A ram air hoods, looks great, not *****.