Well I've just finnished putting neons under a mates car so here's the lowdown:
Needed:
Neons (well LED tubes actually) ~about $50 a side.
Switch ~$5 from autobarn
Covered female spade connectors (needed for the switch) ~$3
Male and female bullet connectors ~$6
Electrical tape
Solder
Soldering iron
Trolley jack
Drill
Needle nose pliers
A shitload of cable ties
Process:
Find an entry/exit point between the cars exterior and interior. I found a drain plug in the footwell which is great because they're rubber which means they seal around the wire and its a relatively easy prospect to put a hole in them as opposed to drilling the firewall.
At this point its going to be pertinent to remove a whole lot of trim in my case: floormats, sidesteps, trim under the steering wheel and pull the carpet up.
Knock the rubber plugs out (one on drivers side one on passenger) grab a bit of wood and the drill - knock say a 5mm hole.
Feed the wire from the battery, the drivers side, front and rear neons through the drivers side plug. Just the passenger neon through the other one. Leave these aside for now.
Find somewhere suitable for the switch to go on the piece of trim from under the steering wheel. Drill about a 10mm hole (depending on the switch) Mount switch.
Now its a matter of wiring as follows:
One wire straight from the battery to the drivers side footwell (follow the path of existing wire in the engine bay to avoid it getting cooked, the follow the brake lines before going up through the plug).
Route the power wire to near the fusebox, connect a covered female spade to the wire.
Now run a wire from near the fusebox to where your switch will be - it will need a covered spade on both ends. If the switch is a three blade (eg +, - and ACC) then put a T junction at the switch end of the wire eg the power wire goes into the female spade then out again and into another.
Run the wires for the neons up through the plugs and to the switch twist the positive wires (all four of them) together and chuck a female spade on the end.
Twist the negatives togther and attatch them to a good ground.
Now using ingenuity, cable ties and tube clamps attatch the lights under the car. Run it up on the jack for ease of access. On my mates lancer I found the easiest way of doing the sides was to unscrew (one at a time) the screws holding the sideskirt on and use the screws to hold the tube clib thingies on.
Now its just a matter of plugging everything togther and putting the trim back in.
Chuck a 10A fuse (or as low as you can get away with) into the two female connectors in the power wire (near the fuse box). Plug the wiring into the switch.
Power it up to make sure evrything is working.
Now try and remember how to put all the trim back in.
............
Total time: probably a day - an afternoon if you knew what you were doing.
Total cost: say $250 which covers parts and leaves room to spare (and add to that in my mates situation a case of strongbow dry for my labour).
Net effect: looks better than I thought it would, abit ricey but still fairly tasteful (unlike say a garish pink paintjob and 19" chromies).
