Custom lights and LED strips have been a staple for car upgrades since the Fast & Furious days. Whether it’s a strip of blue, green or red lights in the footwells or a complete custom amp rack or center console, lighting can add personality, style and flair to your vehicle. Let’s look at some options for adding lights to your car, truck or motorcycle.
A Subtle Approach to Lighting
Sometimes all it takes is a small strip of lighting behind a switch panel or around an amplifier to make a relatively simple upgrade look fantastic. Integrating lighting into your vehicle isn’t as simple as running some wires. The locations for the lights and how their output will be diffused to provide a smooth look is part of the design and construction process. The end results are typically worth the effort.
The team at Avant Garde Design in Palm City, Florida, built a custom center console for a 1969 Camaro. The team engraved the name of the shop that built the car into the acrylic plastic.
Dave Koz and the team at Signature Audio in Scottsdale, Arizona, built a trim panel for an Escort Radar controller with white backlighting to show off the laser-engraved Hennessey logo.
Alan Lindgren from Speed of Sound LLC in Memphis, Tennessee, built this amazing custom console for a resto-mod 1967 Shelby GT500 project.
Doug Ehrenwald from Advanced Coatings and Trim in Indianapolis, Indiana, upgraded this 1972 Cutlass 442 with a full interior swap that includes a Lexus dash and custom lighting.
Cameron “Chimpo” Powell from LIS Audio in Spring Hill, Kansas, created this amazing trunk that features the Spawn logo on the back of the subwoofer enclosure, with storage compartments on either side for detailing supplies.
Brian Mitchell from Liquid Trends in Modesto, California, built this custom truck bed for his local Snap-On sales representative.
Lighting in Audio System Components
The most common place where lighting is added to cars and trucks is when a custom amp rack or subwoofer enclosure is being built. Highlighting the equipment or adding a little style to the install with RGB LED lighting is a great way to make the vehicle stand out.
Sean Duquette from Lomas Glass and Tint in Albuquerque, New Mexico, added lighting to show off the Zapco amplifier and Audiofrog subwoofer in the trunk of this vehicle.
Fadi Khalid from Sweet Wheelz in Mississauga, Ontario, added lighting to this custom subwoofer enclosure and amp rack in the back of this SUV.
Jay Vonder from BPG Motoring in Vancouver, British Columbia, sent us this photo of the accent lighting his team added to the trunk of a Lexus sedan. Each lighting element is addressable, so it can be any color under the rainbow.
This is the trunk of a Cadillac built for Shaquille O’Neal for a TV show. A team of industry veterans, including Fred Lynch from ARC Audio, JT Torres from Automotive Entertainment in Huntington Beach, Tom Miller from Musicar Northwest, Bryan Schmitt from Mobile Solutions and Gary Bell from Define Concepts, brought this project together.
Fred Lynch Arc Audio commissioned a custom subwoofer enclosure from MTI Acoustics to fit in the back of Chip Foose’s Ford F-150. Subtle LED lighting behind the Foose logo gives the project a little extra style.
Joel Joseph from Joseph’s Auto Toy Store in Mesquite, Texas, integrated a piece of back-lit acrylic plastic into the top of this subwoofer enclosure that they built.
Exterior and Under-Vehicle Lighting
Thankfully, the days of real high-voltage neon tubes under cars and trucks are long behind us. Compact LED light pods and RGB strip lighting can be fit into tight spaces, and their compact size helps to protect them from damage. In terms of durability, LED lighting is solid-state. There are no glass bulbs or lenses to worry about. LED lighting also runs cool, so there’s no risk of heat damage.
Dan Schultz from Auto Additions in Springfield, Illinois, sent in this photo of a stunning ’34 Ford that they worked on.
TC Holliday from Nu Image Audio in Salina, Kansas, upgraded this Harley-Davidson with bright red LED lighting.
Jim Rogers from Audio innovations in Conway, Arkansas, added green LED lighting to this four-seater side-by-side.
Shopping for Lighting Upgrades
It should come as no surprise that lighting upgrades vary in cost by the complexity of the project. A strip of solid-color lighting under a dash or seat is a lot less work than cutting acrylic with a laser and integrating a housing for a light strip in a custom console. If these amazing photos have motivated you to add lighting to your vehicle, drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer and ask them about your project.
Thanks to Adam Coffman from Tampa Autobody and Audio in Tampa, Florida, for the photo of the custom Slingshot we used as the header image.
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