Hello Vette Fam,


I am currently working on the interior for my 2004 C5 Corvette. I am doing a 100% custom interior throughout and trying to carry a "deathly" feel theme to the car. I am currently working with a few people to make custom purple switches and gauges however, my map, cargo, foot wells, door switch, DIC etc still needs the lights. I am on my, I don't know what number of sets that I have attempted, however everything is too pink for my liking.

A vendor recommended that I spray a tint over the led bulb, but was unable to recommend a project. I thought about switching to UV but another member said they always turned out to blue for him.

Can anyone make a recommendation? Some already requested auto illumination, but the guy is an *******. When I sent him pictures of the car he said "looks purple to me, don't buy from us because I don't want to deal with your return".

 

superbrightleds.com is where I have bought purple LEDs in the past. I have them in my 1977 Lincoln.

 

Try some vinyl tint to darken it. I've used Vivvid vinyl for this type of work in the past and been satisfied, but never tried the purple:

 

Could either of you explain to me, how to post a picture? I am trying to submit one so you can give better opinons.

 

Bivar makes several wavelength purple leds from 385nm to 405nm, UV is bad for your eyes. Here's the link, you might ask them for free samples of each wavelength; https://www.bivar.com/product-catego...on/uv-ir-leds/.

 

I am going to be biting off into a whole new apple now haha. I do think that I can get everything accomplished with this!!! Thank you so so so much.

 

If you get multicolor led’s you <will> have a purple built in but there’s usually a few spots on the remote where you can program in a custom color and get the shade you want. Another thing to try is to have a supply of red and blue led’s and try combining them in a number that leans to the color you’re looking for. You might contact Mark, owner of “The Grape Ape” and see if he did anything with the lighting.
If you have a black interior, remember black absorbs the light and it won’t show as well. I did blue lighting in my Z06 and tho’ it did show, the red in my coupe which has a taupe interior shows much more.
One other thing is if you’re looking for “some real effect” from the lights, you will need more that what you think. I learned my lesson with that too. I have 12” strips in both my footwells so I get the color I want. In the rear compartment I have a white strip around the entire hatch area so I have sufficient light when I open it.

 

​@mstromquist

 

Thanks for thinking of me. I actually did do some purple lighting inside my car. If you're looking for any type of function with the purple/black light theme then you won't be getting any of that. I chose form over function because it does look pretty cool at night. I can't recall where I bought the light strips from off hand but they're the UV version and not so much the purple. I love the black light/UV light. These pictures look more blue but they are in fact the UV lights. I also made my bought some connections for them to plug into the factory sockets so I didn't have to run more wires and switches. I left the window switches and DIC buttons white because I did want to be able to read those.

This is the harness I made for the rear compartment. Made 1 for each side and they attatch with double sided tape.













This is the front, also made 1 for each side.









I also changed out the mirror map lights.

 

Mark, when it comes to purple you da man! So the mirror bulbs are festoon style-(I watched the video. Those are the only bulbs in my car that are not LED. Trying to decide if I want to go with red or white.

 

I did not know Mark was on here, I have followed your YouTube for sometime now, beautiful car. I tried to send you a message on there in regards to your shifter wiring. IN the picture you posted here, for the cargo light housing, that bulb socket that you have ties in, where did you find that at?

 

In my experience, Superbrightled’s, Oznium and Diode Dynamics will have what you need.

 

Yep, I believe I bought them either at super bright or maybe even the auction site. I’ll have to look when I get home in the morning.

Thanks also for the comments on my car and youtube channel.

 

What question did you have about that wiring? I didn’t get the message, I try to make sure I respond to all questions if I see it.

 

Hey there! I've placed a couple of links below to our LED Footwell Strip Kits and interior bulbs. Check them out, and feel free to shoot us a PM with any questions (or a free shipping code). Thanks!

-Collin

Map Lights: https://www.diodedynamics.com/map-li...ette-pair.html
Footwell Strip Kits: https://www.diodedynamics.com/rgbw-m...l-led-kit.html
Single Color Footwell Strip Kits: https://www.diodedynamics.com/single...twell-kit.html

 

You can get the male connections on amazon or ebay. Cheaper on ebay but quicker shipping on amazon.

 

Mark, here is where I am at currently. Now granted all the interior is out now but the bulbs are still the same. I have so many questions smh. One thing I want to ask is, on the picture of the cargo light housing, I am assuming you simply wired in a 194 harness like you just sent me?

Yes everyone, I know it looks purple but it's not, it is more like magenta, or a pinkish color

 

I feel like what you have would be perfect if you could add just a little more blue to it. There are a lot of people who would consider the light in that picture to be purple, but I totally understand what you're saying. I used to be a theatrical lighting designer. When dealing with the additive property of light, you'll get the shade of purple that you're looking for if you can add just a little bit of blue in there. I'm not sure how many LEDs you have in each cluster. If they are all the same magenta color (as apposed to different colors mixed together to create that color), you might be able to wire a single blue LED in with each cluster to get the results you want.

There is another option that you might be happy with. As I mentioned, I used to work in theatrical lighting. The old school way to get the color you want is to use color filter "gels". This is more like tinting film than actual gel. You could switch everything to white LED, and then wrap them in color gels. You can get a gel sample book (that will contain MANY different color gels). You can then try test each one by holding it over a white LED in your car. Once you get the exact shade you want, you can then order a sheet of that specific gel color. Some companies that make these theatrical lighting gels are Roscolux (sometimes called Rosco) or Lee. They come in fairly large sheets, and you can then cut them to size. It would be easy to install inside the reflector of your map lights. In addition, you could simply wrap some of the gel around the footlight LEDs. It might look a bit DIY if someone actually sticks their head up in the footwell, but it should give you the overall effect you're looking for. The one note I have about this method is that Purple is a HIGHLY saturated color, so the light intensity may not be as bright as you'll get with just a straight LED. However, I really do think you'd be happy with the result.

 

great post Mark! I was an Art Teacher back in the Jurassic period and one of the things I liked was experimenting with color. During that time I learned about ADDITIVE color and it was neat to see you refer to it. It’s definitely a different animal from pigments! The drama dept gave me some gels and I repaired an ancient Kleig light that was going to be thrown out, so we experimented.

Ripken, Everything Mark states is accurate. I’ve been experimenting with led’s since 2011 when I got my first C5. I did the entire interior in blue and to get some real ‘effect’ I had to use more bulbs than with white. At that time I also found that yellow/amber was very disappointing. This car is done in red and tho’ any color needs more of a source than white, the red shows up nice and actually “illuminates”. I used to have the multicolor strips in my Challenger and I can verify that getting the purple like you want is tough. I’d try mixing some red and blue ones together, meanwhile I’ll resurrect those multi-strips and see what I can produce for you.
I made a Chevy Bowtie emblem out of a 1 1/2” thick piece of clear acrylic and decided to light it up using individual LED’S in red white and blue. I can attest to the fact that blue and red in proximity to each other became purple, at least at a distance.
A regular ‘square’ 9 volt battery will give you enough juice to experiment.

 

Yes, those are the conections I used to plug my harness into the 194 sockets. Lots of great info in this thread. Lots more info then I thought would work.