How to Rice your Fiesta [Light installation(s)]

[SirSlaughter]

So I had this exact topic made on the faction when I had my last car. Allow me to show you how to Rice your Fiesta.

The condensed intro is I like light. I like pretty lights. I like cars with lights. So I put lights on my car.
Here is a picture of the end result of my last Fiesta:

Now everything is great. It works, it functions and it fits. The problem with our cars is this:

You can no longer use the handle to open the rear hatch of your car. You have to use the key fob to open it. In a way, you made your car a little bit more useless. But whatever.


But now here is what is to come with the new Fiesta:
Most of you have already seen this one.
Koolertron Sound activated equalizer sticker:

[video=youtube;O1u66l4Xa0o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1u66l4Xa0o&list=UUyM8-62cNPtCMLho4mrSM4A[/video]

You can see I already installed the license plate holder there so that one has already been taken care of.

Next up you have to have lots of stickers. Sticker mean more horsepower.
But I'll spare you the sticker pictures, I have my build thread for that. This thread will be more for the lights.

I just won this item and it will be on its way soon. Once I have gotten this I will show how to install and where I installed. I've been taking a look under the car to see if I could find the right place to put the bars and I believe I have the solution. I will tell more when I get the kit:

http://www.streetglow.com/Lightstrike-LED-Undercar-Kit?sc=31&category=2923


After that I plan to do the wheel lights either inside or above...maybe even both.

So I will be back when I get the items and thanks for looking.

*Braces for impact*

 

[Hijinx]

As long as you don't cook your rice in my rice cooker, it's all good.

 

[dyn085]

I got flamed for telling a member that it was ok if he liked a set of wheels that weighed more than 16 lbs. This is probably the end of you, short of the others possibly having heart attacks and not posting.

Not my thing, but I'm not the one driving it. Rock on.

 

[Hijinx]

I got flamed for telling a member that it was ok if he liked a set of wheels that weighed more than 16 lbs. This is probably the end of you, short of the others possibly having heart attacks and not posting.

Not my thing, but I'm not the one driving it. Rock on.

I think that's a brazen summary of you guys debate, but whatevs.

 

[dyn085]

I think that's a brazen summary of you guys debate, but whatevs.

Definitely. I'm the same on this forum, other forums I participate in, and forums that I moderate-I believe that people should mod within their own tastes, wants, needs, budget, etc. Performance is only one aspect of a vehicle and if you want to improve it, great. If not, also great.

I can go on with a bunch of different reasons why lights are bad and hurt performance then give a long story and outline all of my experience, but it seems pretty evident that the OP likes lights and most likely nothing I say is going to change that. It's easier for me to not really care in either direction what he does with his car because it's not my car.

Ymmv.

 

[SirSlaughter]

I got flamed for telling a member that it was ok if he liked a set of wheels that weighed more than 16 lbs. This is probably the end of you, short of the others possibly having heart attacks and not posting.

Not my thing, but I'm not the one driving it. Rock on.

That's just it, I'm counting on the heart attacks to stop them. Weed out the non-believers. >:3

But yeah I figured I would get some flak, but hey. If we all did what person A said, we would all drive the exact same car. Granted we sorta do already, but I believe you get my point.

Besides, Life is too short to drive a boring car. Why blend in when you were meant to stand out. You should totally see my computer setup and my car I had before the Fiesta. '95 Hardbody Nissan with red on top, silver on bottom. 2 tone paint and it had racing seats and baby moon rims. Head turner for sure. Hell before that I had a '94 Nissan hardbody that was purple and pink which was bagged!

But like I said, I completely see your point. But time will tell.

 

[XuperXero]

I actually applied few layers of tint to my stock licence plate light... just in case.

 

[hotrodst7]

Amen to not driving boring cars!

sorry to jack your post, i really like the lights! and where did you get the stripe if you dont mind my asking?

 

[lildevilx]

looks great man!
how hard was do the LEDS for the back plates?

 

[SirSlaughter]

looks great man!
how hard was do the LEDS for the back plates?

It wasn't hard at all. It's a neon that plugs into your 2 wires to the lights above the license plate. You just tap into them and they turn on when you turn on your license plate lights. Sadly, this means that you can't turn them off when police come near so check with your laws regarding what colors are legal and where. I now here it should be legal as it is not above my headlight and even though it is blue, it is a super bright blue that does not flash or anything of the sort. If I am ever pulled over I will just re-route the cables somehow and put a killswitch to it.

Now with the older fiestas they ran 3 wires to the bulb, but with the ST there were only 2.
Also, bear in mind that you MUST modify the bulb housing to allow the cable to route up or else you will either cut the cable when putting the housing back or break something else.
As shown here, you take a dremel tool or something to grind down a small dip into the housing:

Once you have done so, you are now able to route the cable behind the housing and up into the hatch area:

It's a little tough to see, but you can see the cable back there.

EDIT: ANOTHER STEP! You must use the dremel on the car! I know it sounds horrible, but hear me out. The spot where the cable routes up needs to be opened up a little to allow the cable all the way in without cutting it. This way you do not cut a hole into the housing exposing it to liquids and such and the cable still remains clear to go through. Nothing major required. Just a small cut is all. Not visible.

 

[SirSlaughter]

Hello people I have returned. I'm still waiting on the Streetglow underbody kit. But I did receive something else in the meantime:

Yaaaaaay! I got my tuner styled lug nuts in! I always wanted these and was excited to get them. I was also surprised at how light weight they are compared to the stock ones we get. They seem to be machined aluminum VS whatever those blobs of metal that our stock ones are made of. I don't know if that's good or bad yet. either way the moment I got them in I went and started the swap.

Before:

AFTER:

 

[rodmoe]

Them puppies gonna whistle while you drive lol

 

[SirSlaughter]

Ok I got the lights. They are awaiting installation and they are glorious.:

These are the 3 million color model lights. managed to snag an unopened brand spanking new box from ebay for $150. The guy bought them new and didn't use them so he stuffed the on Ebay.
So now that I saved about $250 by not buying a new one from the site at $400, it's time to slap these suckers on the FiST.

Now as you guys know, there are NO SPOTS TO ROUTE CABLES THROUGH THE FIREWALL! In my last Fiesta there was a grommet that was unused and we cut a hole in it and routed them through there. But because this is not only packed with more goodies, but also a 6 speed manual, this car has no empty spots for me to go through. So, my father and I did a thing:

in the engine bay behind the area where the battery is, you will see a bunch of cables that go through the firewall. We will be running the cables alongside those that are already there. We have already cut into that rubber housing and have made a slot to slide the cables in. From there we will hook it all up once complete.

That random metal thing there is a coat hanger that was bent to allow us to use it like a "fish" (term people seem to use in networking when wiring internally in a wall) and we will pull the cables from the control box inside the car to the engine bay. for the light bar wires, we will do it in the opposite direction.

Now for mounting the actual control unit....uhh...I still have to figure out where everything is gonna go. The box is rather large and is recommended to be place in a flat position. From there, this kit also came with a rechargable controller and must be hooked up to a dock in order to charge. So where the dock with go...I have no clue yet. But I just want the lights in before I worry about how pretty the dash will look.

I plan to get this done today so expect a super mega large post tomorrow or tonight. Or if all fails horribly you will see my post about how I caught he neighborhood on fire in a blind rage.

Now with the side lights: They will go to the spot between the body kit and the line of metal that you put your jack stands on. They are short enough to be between the jack points thus resulting is extremely low risk of damage when putting your car up.

The front light: There is a gap under the car you can see where you front bumper is. I will hopefully mount it there like my last Fiesta.

The Rear: There are 2 mounting spots where you would put your trailer hitch. I plan to put it between there far from the exhaust heat. The problem is I will have to make some kind of custom mounting setup or use a shit ton or Zip ties and daisy chain it down until it reaches the bar to keep it steady and secure in the middle. We will see soon enough.

So far the car seems perfectly capable of underglow provided it's the right size and the tubes aren't massive.

 

[SirSlaughter]

OK people. I HAVE DONE IT! It was a painful process and it took most of the afternoon to install. But it is done and it is glorious.

So first off, I had to mount the lights. because of the body kit, the side lights are mounted a little oddly.

Then the rear was mounted:

Now the front:

So to install the wires, you cut the hole in the rubber pieces above the clutch.
From there you just route your cables through the engine bay. (BE SURE TO KEEP YOUR WIRES AWAY FROM ANYTHING STUPID HOT OR ANY MOVING BITS)
After you have done that, be sure to zip tie any parts that may sag or cause unwanted slack. I bypass much of this by routing a lot of cables through the actual frame of the car in the undercarriage. There are a lot of holes underneath the car for who knows what and much of the frame is pretty hollow so I just used it to route the cables through there. The cables are secure, away from anything stupid hot or moving, and no need for insane amounts of zip ties.

Also, if anyone gets impatient with you because they want to play board games like Alternity or D&D or Warhammer, you send them your I'm busy face:

Now once you have scared off your friends from bugging you, it is now possible to complete your project with no more interruptions.

Once everything is said and done, you wire it to your battery and turn it on for the first time and hope nothing explodes:

Any previous rice you already had will now enhance the effect of your underglow kit and insure a guaranteed 100KW to your wheels. Your boost will also spool faster and you can now go against Supercars like the Lamborghini or Ferrari at your major city cars and coffee.

Congratulations, you are now a full ricer. Any more rice and you begin Advanced rice. That will be covered in the future. But for now, relish in the fact you have the worlds most Riced out Fiesta...Oh wait, that's just me! Suck it! Worlds first right here! None here shall outrice me! NO ONE!

[video=youtube;Mdk6G4ylObE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdk6G4ylObE&feature=youtu.be[/video]

That's it for now, I still have to figure out where to mount that damned controller box and remote charger dock. My dash is gonna have so much shit when I am done.
Wireless controller for my LED kit.
COBB Access port (future mod)
Boost gauge (Future mod)

Anyways! I have to sleep. I have cars and coffee nashville to go to.

 

[Ghostwhite]

Holy rice cakes. That thing is hotter than a thousand gallon rice cooker

 

[SirSlaughter]

Bringing a small update to this.

now that you have installed the lights...where do the cables go to finalize your riceyness? Well in the dash area of course.
Oh but wait...Ford has stuffed so much SHIT IN THERE IT'S NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO DO THINGS! NO ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES.

That's ok. All you have to do is break one interior panel (the one with the plastic flat head screw in the left hand side where your normal cables route into a box)
And you can lift your floor carpet enough to route the majority of the cables under there. After that, route enough cables giving enough slack to allow the box into the dash right underneath your steering wheel above the air bag. But be warned, you will need enough slack so the steering wheel motor thingy isn't blocked by the box thus keeping you from lowering it.

Once you have done this, tape/ziptie the cables in the proper spots and you should finally be done.

So you go from this:

To this:

And with that, you now have a screwed up back, your knees are killing you, but the glorious rice will now be a part of your car.

Now the true test begins...what catches on fire first.

 

[SirSlaughter]

Hi guys...Yeah it's me again. I added something new.

More lights!!! Yay!
I decided to finally install the Laser projectors that i've had lying about for the past month or two.

Now for how I did it. I must say that this took longer than I care to admit to install these. Not because It was difficult to install or anything. Mostly because I didn't know which wires to hook up to. So I was at first trying to wire into the courtesy light of the side mirror. DO NOT DO THIS! Not due to any kind of danger. Mostly because it will only activate the light when the courtesy light goes on. I mean you could, but it would be odd.

Now what I ended up doing for the time was I tapped into the the power cables that goes to the power windows.

Now when I turn my car on, the light turns on. There are 2 issues with this:
1: It only turns on if the car is on.
2: This means that the logo stays on even if the door is closed. It's counter intuitive to what I wanted it to do originally.

The only reason I did this was because there is a special car meet I plan to go to an a week or two. It will be held in Nashville around 8PM to 3AM. I'm excited to go and finally have the chance to really show my car off.
When I get more time and materials, I will have the lights wire to either to my courtesy lights in the headlight area this way it turns on when I unlock the car and such, or preferably: my dome lights.

I have a question for you guys while I'm here: where are the cables going to the dome lights in the USDM Fiesta ST? If anyone could just straight tell me and show me a picture, I would love you.


Also lastly, I have to re drill the light on the driver side. When I put it in originally, I put it too close to the car compared to the passengers side which is more central on the door panel:

Sadly I have to make another hole, but you know what. This car has been one huge experiment as well as learning experience. Hell my last car didn't receive as much experimentation. I am unsure as to why, but this car is just screaming at me to tinker with it. I think I might just end up installing my own sub setup instead of taking it to someone to do it.

I plan to pick up another set of these to install them into the rear doors as well.