I got an unexpected surprise when the LED controller I ordered from China, through Amazon, showed up. It was due to be delivered between 8/17 and 9/2, but it showed up two weeks early!

This let me wire up the LED ring I built for the subwoofer. In earlier pics of the subwoofer you can see that there is a rubber gasket/trim piece that seals the speaker to the cabinet and hides the mounting screws. It has access holes for the screws in the rubber ring. I took 3 LED segments of long LED strips, the smallest trimmable increment, and soldered them into a ring. I alternated yellow and purple LEDs and spaced the segments so an LED fell directly under each access hole.

At first I tried controlling the LEDs with an RGB controller. I connected the LED strip to one of the three colors. This worked OK, but it kind of faded in and out. I think that controller kind of fades between the three colors, and having just one strip looked a little weird. I had the hardest time finding an inexpensive controller designed to power just a single colored strip of lights. This one doesn't auto adjust for varying volume levels as nicely as the RGB controller does. But, it's good enough, and a real bargain for less than 4 bucks.

I mounted the controller with velcro on the floor under the left rear seat, and ran temporary wires, to test functionality. At first I had it mounted to the subwoofer enclosure itself, but that location shielded the microphone from all sound frequencies except deep bass. In tracks without deep bass, the LEDs wouldn't come on at all.

Here is some video of testing in the dark.

 

Just a couple pretty pics.

 

A nice tint job will really make those colors "pop"

 

Next step in the project: graphics!

I ordered samples of various purple types of car wrap vinyl from MetroRestyling.







I ultimately chose Arlon Ultimate PremiumPlus Gloss Candy Tropical Pink, which happens to be the same shade that Burzpaw used to wrap his car.

One of the other mentors on the robotics team has a vinyl cutting machine. I used it to cut out graphics for the front and back of the car, using design elements from our team logo. Cutting and applying graphics on curved surfaces is a learning experience, and not for the faint of heart. You have exactly one shot to get the graphics down smoothly, without wrinkles, or the graphic is ruined. Much more difficult than wrapping, where you can continue repositioning and smoothing until the wrinkles are gone. Here are the first pics of the front and rear of the car. Unfortunately, the windshield banner is kind of hard to see in this angle.





It's going to look even snazzier with the side graphics applied.

 

man todd that looks sick. i wish i had (free) resources like u have around me.

 

Here's a shot of the front graphics at sunrise in Yorktown, VA.

 

I'll just leave this here...

 

The rain finally stopped, so I took some pics...

 

Sharp!

es

 

Applied right side graphics this morning.

 

Phase one of the vinyl graphics is complete.

 

I've added a few accessories during the past few months that didn't merit their own posts.

This floor mat for the trunk arrived from China rolled in a shipping tube. At first it was smelly. Leaving it unrolled and weighted down on the front porch for a few days helped it lay flat and got rid of most of the smell. Now I don't even think about it except when I take it out of the back and shake off the dirt.



Someone at the east coast fit meet had a Broadway mirror. I decided to try one out. My wife hates it, but she doesn't drive my car much anyway.



I picked up a purple milled aluminum oil cap because it was cheap. Sooner or later I'll figure out how to put a Triple Helix logo in the center.



This super low profile USB drive holds more music mp3s than you can shake a stick at. No picture because you can't even see it under the socket cap. You just plug it in and forget it's there.

This power inverter works great to power my laptop. I used it for a while to charge my cell phone, but it has a fan that runs all the time when it's powered on. The noise was annoying, so I replaced it with this 4 outlet USB charger. Plugged into the lighter port, it's a cost effective phone charging solution, but it loses power when the car is turned off. I'm replacing it with this USB cable, which can be wired to an always-on 12VDC hot wire. It also has a right angle plug which works better with my phone mount setup. It's not installed yet, but pics will come when that job is done.

 

There will be more images from this photo shoot forthcoming...

 

I haven't done any work on the car in a while. But, I've been doing photo shoots whenever I can.

 

Careful the lovely lady doesn't dent the hood haha. Apparently the Fit has some rather thin sheet metal.

 

Yep, I'm careful that they keep the weight up near the upper edge of the hood or on the plastic trim piece.

 

Got started on dressing up the engine compartment. One down and 3 to go. About an hour with car wrap vinyl, heat gun, credit card, x-acto knife blade, and tweezers.

 

Normally I avoid puddles. But, sometimes...

 

Finished the purple on the engine intake manifold. Also added some dressy purple and chrome .

 

I want to haul my kayaks, bikes, and windsurfing gear, but don't want to install a clamp-on roof rack. I'm worried about damaging the paint, and denting the thin sheetmetal. For years I've been buying cars with factory installed eurorails and attaching Thule roof racks, but that option isn't available on the fit.

The alternative is to use a small trailer to haul the gear, so I installed a . Using ramps under the rear wheels made this an easy install, with my wife as a second pair of hands.