jikhead

EL wire, CCFL's, and Cold Cathode kits High Quality Low Prices!

NOTE: I'm redoing my cupholder again as I speak. After fixing the previous problem with the converter/wire shorting out....I ran into another problem a few weeks later (just now getting around to fixing it). The two most recent wires that I bought to fix the short didn't have the cut-end sealed up. My previous red (aka orange) and previous orange (aka yellow) wires were both melted/sealed up by the dealer/seller. I'm not sure why these didn't get sealed up. Anyway, the sweat from the drinks in the cupholder made its way into the wire and it damaged the phosphor element. It doesn't really light up anymore (even driving home last night it looked like it was simply not on, but could see a faint light on spots of the wire).

So what you want to do when you receive your wires, check to see if the end is sealed up. If it is not, you could order the end caps that these guys sell but it may push the end of the out and patrude out of the cupholder lip a tad bit. Instead, you may opt to do what I just did tonight: I dipped it in clear silicone. I've given it two coats/dip and I think I will give it one more coat before bed. Squeeze a small blob of silicone on something, then just dip it lightly and use your finger to smooth it out around the wire. The very end should create a good round bubble like seal on it.

If you ever need to redo it and need to clean up/scrap off the old glue...I used some sanding/grinding bits for a Dremel to clean everything up. You're going to obviously scrape up the original finish of the inside of the cupholder; but nothing you can really do about that and you'll never really see it or notice it anyway. I would also wear some latex gloves and/or also use a small flat head screwdriver to use to press the wire up snug and tight in the lip of the cupholder.

One last note: I may have previously mentioned this in an earlier post...but take your time gluing the wire to the cupholder and glue in half-inch to one-inch segments at a time. Do not attempt to glue the wire at once...you will regret it. I'm also laying down my bead of glue in a dot/dash form smalley spaced apart from each other instead of laying down a long straight bead of glue.