Just a quick question. I have painted my cathodes and led fixtures: http://autolumination.com/images/aut...led_strobe.jpg with stained glass paint. The directions say to bake the painted items in the oven after you finish painting them. Should i do this? will it effect the cathodes at all? i guess what i want to know is, will the lights still work after i bake them? i dont want to stick them in there and the tubes explode and all the wires melt and all that. any help you can give me would help me so much. Thanks!

 

i would not do it ! but thats just me. i would think i would melt. depending on temp and time

 

hey thanks for the reply, i was leaning towards not baking but we will see. i will let everybody know which way i go.

 

update from oznium:

" wouldn't recommend baking the cathode tubes. It could compromise the integrity of the product."


I guess that settles that

 

hehe, yea, don't do that. those things are thin pelxiglass, which melts at about 200 (or less). at 4 bucks a set, it's much cheaper to just get the color you need

maybe you could try to cure it with a hairdryer?

 

now i guess i'll ask the question before anyone else asks..

why [did you paint]?????

 

try using a heat gun a little at a time

 

why on earth would you wanna do that?

 

Most LEDs and cold cathode aux lights have a monochromatic output (unless they are white). Putting a coating of most any other color on them (blue on red, for example) will almost totally block the inherent color of the source, while the source does not itself emit any of the other color. This is ESPECIALLY true of LEDs.

The result of trying something like that is usually a light output between "zero" and "very dim."

Hopefully there was some other reason to coat those devices other than attempting to change their color...

Tom

 

i know everybody wants to know why i painted all this stuff. its an understandable question for sure. i am on a quest to get an orange output that i am happy with. i know that randode sells those hot lava cathodes but i didnt know that when i bought all my stuff so thats out. also, he charges 20 for four tubes and thats a little much for me. I also know i could have used stage gel taped to the outside but i decided to try the transparent orange stained glass paint. i am going to post pictures as soon as i get everything buttoned up and that should be sometime this week. thanks so much for everybodies input. i currently have an all blue setup and i am switching to an all orange including, cathodes under the dash/seats, leds in the cupholders, vents, grocery hooks, and finally the led fixtures behind the grab handles. i currently have cathodes behind there but they just get in the way. i will keep you updated!

 

i hope your not trying to get orange glow from blue LEDs/cathodes...

 

no no no, sorry, i am confusing everybody. i got all new stuff, white cathodes and white led clusters. i have two coats of the transparent paint on them and it looks really nice, i just need to get everything put in.

 

OK, I feel better now. :D

Hope the lighting turns out exactly the way you want it to.

Tom

 

 

yeah sorry about that, i just read over my other posts and they were super confusing. i hollowed out one of my grab handles tonight and the led cluster fits right in, much nicer than the cathodes. but thanks for all your comments and i will post pictures when i get a chance.

 

okay i didnt get everything installed but im going to include a few pictures of where i am at.
First, the paint i used:

Then the cathode painted, looks like a piece of stick candy, mmm:

The led cluster:

The cathode in action:

Different view of cathode:

Vent with led inside:


All in all i think it turned out pretty okay, i am happy for sure about the color of the orange. let me know what you think!

 

i'd like to see that that would be hella funny too see

 

Looks good, Tommy! :D

Tom

 

hey thanks for the support, the blue tube doesnt look bad painted orange, doesnt it? just kidding

 

im glad it worked out for you.