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Hi there, for a new special project of mine I want to take the dive and attempt to fit a battery/circuit and lights to make a vehicle extra special. I've never done this before and tbh, the idea is quite daunting (I don't want to ruin the vehicle in preparation or melt/burn it with screw ups).

I've bought 3mm bulbs, wire, a soldering kit (never soldered before), resistors, 9v battery connectors and switches.

I'm not sure how I should proceed.

Anyone have any tips or guides about how to set up vehicle lighting?

Thank you.

Well first off watch some videos on YouTube on how to solder that's not something ou just wanna go ham at, also need to know some basic electrical stuff if you are using resistors, but don't even think you will need them to be honest.

I'll see if I can find a really good guide I found once. Basically you just take a hand drill, drill out the slights and pop the led into the whole and bam, done.

It's pretty straight forward.

I have put leds in a number of things over the years. Here are some of my tips.

1. You don't need a 9v battery. They can operate using just 3v. That's two aa, aaa, c or d cell batteries.As long as you have room for them. Even 3v watch batteries will work.

2. Led's have a polarity. Meaning that have a + (positive) and - (negative) to hook up. Very important to know which is which. The leds will have a flat spot on one side of the ring just below the bell part of the bulb. That will be - (negative). Also one of the wires on the led will be longer than the other.

3. The wire doesn't have to be thick or fat. This is all low voltage wiring. So you can use smaller wires.

4. Smaller switches work best. http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/microswitch.html These are the bomb. The this website also sells wire, battery housings and such.

5.Any wiring that can be seen can also be painted. Don't worry to much if the wire is exposed. You can paint the wires to match whatever you put them on. I have leds on my terrain and nobody can really see them because they blend in.

6. 3mm led are about 1/8" size for drilling. Use some step up bits when you drill. Dremmel tools make a nice kit that sells for about 8 bucks US. The largest one is 1/8". It's a nice set to have for pinning also.

I hope this helps. You could pm me if you have any questions.

Here are some of my projects.

You can also lookup http://poweredplay.net/ for small kits all included.

^^ What he said.

I'm always recommending them to gaming mates who don't have the electronics hobby background that I do (I was tinkering with electronics in my early teens, gaming didn't come around until I was 18-19.

It's all plug and play, no soldering required. No electronics knowledge required.