a new twist on lighting the bud vase, fiber optics

[58ragtop]

i thought the idea of lighting the bud vase was a very cool idea, i wanted something different as i just can't bring myself to putting a flower in my car, though i think it would be nice, it's just not worth the rash if sh!$ i will get from my friends lol
so i came up with this idea with fiber optics, it's prety inconspicuous by day, and it's like a night light by night in your car :-)

i'll add more pics tommorrow night, i can't finish it now cas i can't seem to find my darn glue gun......but heres a couple quick peeks.

[gilligan]

Man I hope your getting ready for a big flood of people wanting this or wanting to know how to do it. you Probably should do a complete do it yourself. very cool Idea.

[from Margaritaville...]

I'd be a player for that one...

[EvilinaDM101]

OOoooooooooh pretty!! Me likey! Me Likey! Me likey!

I'll stay tuned to this thread!

[dkarmann]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Volks...QQcmdZViewItem

[jdesigns]

Originally Posted by dkarmann

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Volks...QQcmdZViewItem

What a horrible photoshop job though.

[EvilinaDM101]

What that wasn't the real thing?! It was photoshopped. Hee hee hee

[58ragtop]

my first idea was to put a fiber optic flower in it...but i couldnt find anything i liked pre made, my other idea is to take a vw flower and add optics to to the edges of the leaves, but thats allot of work lol
this about a $6 add on to the led mod.

here it is finished

[58ragtop]

dam, and i thought i was being orginal
the optic kit in that auction is actually battery powered, i used the idea of the led bud vase for the light source, so if you dim your dash lights so will the optics.

im not sure about that rainbow effect.....

funny thig is, that seller has an auction for a compass for your bud vase. i had a compass on my dash and was thinking it would be kind of cool to find a small ball compass like that and shine the blue led up through the bottom of the bud vase and back light it..

[dkarmann]

58rag yours is definately a nicer setup. I was just browsing e-bay and came across that el-cheapo version. With the people liking your idea and for $6 I thought I would post the link.

[58ragtop]

ok,im hopping to do my best at this tutorial, if i miss something, please let me know.
you will need the following-
APC LED license plate bolt kit, if you do not already have it
1 ft fiber optics model # LG64-25 which is 64 fibers
which you can get here http://www.fiberopticproducts.com/Jacketed.htm
if you would like more optics order 2ft
a low heat hot glue gun
a clear straw
a bic pen for the tip
and filler for the vase, i used a clear plastic bag, I've also thought of using large clear or colored sand you can get from a craft store
a small saw to cut plastic
razor knife
first off you will need to remove the bud vase, then you want to cut about a half inch off the bottom of the vase, you only need the hole at the bottom to be large enough to fit your clear straw through. this is going to act as a stem to keep your optics together.
you then need to trim the length of the straw so it is level to the top of the vase but will stick out the bottom 1/4 inch, once this is done, hot glue the straw in place to the bottom of the vase.
now you will need to find your desired length for the fiber optics. once you have the desired length add two inches and make your cut nice and clean with the razor knife, if you want more strands then cut more lengths.
now you need to get ready to hot glue the optics inside the straw, before you do so you will need to remove the jacket/casing it comes in.
the objective here is to remove all but around two inches of the jacket towards the bottom end of the strands, this will keep your strands uniformed and tight together.
at one end of the jacket, mark off two inches, then mark off an additional two inches, this additional two inches should be all that is left to the jacket. when your cutting the jacket off be very careful not to cut through the optics.
now feed the bottom end of the strand/s through the top of the straw and hot glue the jacket to the end of the straw. you should end up with some thing that looks like this
note: keep in mind my ends were not yet stripped before i glued them in place...you can go either way on that part.

now take the tip off you pen, like this one.

they pretty much just pull off.
if you are using the apc led kit and the same bic pen, then the led fits into the tip nice and snug.

now you are going to feed the bare optics into the tip of the pen so you need to make sure that the whole in the tip is large enough to fit all the fibers, if not you will need to trim some of the tip off making the whole larger so they will fit. slide the fibers in until you feel them touch the led and hot glue in place.

as far as the rest goes, it's pretty much the led bud vase mod.
drill a hole large enough for the wires to feed through in the vase holder

feed the wires through and finish as illustrated here

http://newbeetle.org/forums/styling-how-tos/715-how-light-your-bud-vase.html

this is a first for me, so if i have missed anything or didn't make sense some where in this, please let me know


as soon as it gets dark enough in will post pics of this in place in the car.

[58ragtop]

ok, it finally got dark here, the pic is a little blurry due to the two full throttle energy drinks ive had im a little on the shakey side lol
but you will get the jist of it...

[gilligan]

Koooool!!! so basically take lengths of optic cable cut off the insulation above the vase and leave it on the other end and shove those into a bic ink pen end and shove a led in the other end of the pen part. wire according to the link. is there a certain type of led? Ive seen red ones but should I get a clear one? and how does it get the color of the dash lights? sorry I'm not good at this electronical stuff.

[iScott]

Very, very cool man. Great job!

[PhoenixRising]

Great job!

[58ragtop]

[QUOTE=gilliganIve seen red ones but should I get a clear one? and how does it get the color of the dash lights? sorry I'm not good at this electronical stuff.[/QUOTE]
great point gilligan, that's something Ive over looked, i used the same apc license plate bolt kit recommended in the original tutorial, i just got the kit in blue, the optics will shine what ever color light source you use.
please let me know of anything else i missed, i would really like to see what creations others come up with, the possibilities are endless

thank you folks for your comments :-)