Almost bought a california
Not just a bit of fun! We stop in remote spots a lot so its usually very dark and often frequented by dog walkers and so, after a recent mishap whilst getting the screen cover out of the boot and soiling a shoe, I thought a bit of ambient lighting might be a good addition. I had a 10m waterproof LED string knocking around from Christmas and so printed some holders that trap the light string between the bracket and a command strip type removable adhesive strip to secure the lights up beneath the poptop.
The intention is to leave the lights in place and I have made a small (3mm ish) hole in the top rear of the bellows with a small soldering iron (very neat!) to feed the lights through and for now I have strung the extra along the roof lining, down the front and plug into the front USB outlet when required. If it proves successful long term I'll tidy this up although I must admit I quite like the lights inside!
The lights are not terribly bright but on a steady white do give a nice 360 deg ambient light around the van, the various lighting patterns available are fun and will help us to find the van at festivals but do have a bit of a chavy fair ground vib ;-)
As noted I have used the pull tab adhesive strips and so the lights can be easily removed without leaving ant sticky mess however the roof obviously gets hot in the sun and I'll report back if they fall off in the summer. If successful I may take the lights off and use some aluminium foil tape to try and increase the reflected light but I'm not too sure about this at the moment as the foil tape definitely won't be easy to get off if needed!
Bracket to hold LED string
The intention is to leave the lights in place and I have made a small (3mm ish) hole in the top rear of the bellows with a small soldering iron (very neat!) to feed the lights through and for now I have strung the extra along the roof lining, down the front and plug into the front USB outlet when required. If it proves successful long term I'll tidy this up although I must admit I quite like the lights inside!
The lights are not terribly bright but on a steady white do give a nice 360 deg ambient light around the van, the various lighting patterns available are fun and will help us to find the van at festivals but do have a bit of a chavy fair ground vib ;-)
As noted I have used the pull tab adhesive strips and so the lights can be easily removed without leaving ant sticky mess however the roof obviously gets hot in the sun and I'll report back if they fall off in the summer. If successful I may take the lights off and use some aluminium foil tape to try and increase the reflected light but I'm not too sure about this at the moment as the foil tape definitely won't be easy to get off if needed!
Bracket to hold LED string
