Angel Eyes How To

To start with, we ordered 8cm computer fans with built-in neon lights from Silicon Valley Compucycle's website. When they arrived they looked like this. If they are out of the color you need, you can also check their cold cathode fan grills. The outer ring is the size you need (80mm) and the smaller ring (25mm) is a bonus you can use elsewhere.

There are four screws holding a plastic piece to the fan. This is the mount that holds the neon to the fan. Remove the screws to get this.

Here is another view of the notch, also at the 7 o'clock position. Here is a trial fit looking at the front of the mask. This is the neon fastened in viewed from the back. To fasten them, drill a 1/16th inch hole that will be under the neon tube. thread the wire through the hole, around the neon, and back through the hole the headlight sits in. Twist the wire to hold the neon, too tightly and the neon will break. Tighten it just enough so the neon doesn't wiggle. Note the wires at 8 & 12

Out of the package your fan will look like this.

After removing your headlights and opening them, you will be working with the headlight mask. After removing the eyelids, I needed to cut a notch for the cables from the neons. The notch is at the 7 o'clock position. To attach the neon tubes to the headlight mask I used very fine wire. The best I found is from unused twist ties. This is what it should look like in a trial fit from the back of the mask. This is the view from the front when they are fastened in. Almost invisible are the wires at 11 & 3 o'clock positions.

o'clock. Neons run on AC current. To produce an AC current from the DC the car runs on you need an inverter. There is one supplied with both the fan and the fan grill. It also comes with double stick mount tape. This seemed to be the best place to mount the inverter so the leads from the neons would reach. Putting the inverter where we did also made it easy to drill a hole to run the inverter power leads out of, next to the power hookup for the headlights. The yellow wire is 12 volt, the black is ground. While the headlights are apart is a good time to remove the amber lens from the corner of the headlight, if you want. Here is the mask without the amber lens. Here is the headlight ready to reinstall. Ground the black lead coming from each headlight. The yellow leads go to a switch with the other side of the switch connected to 12 volt.

Here are aLbino Chicken's eyes after dark.

This is another view of the mounted inverter. Note the sockets on the front that the neons plug into.

This is the inside of the headlight mask with the neons ready to plug into the inverter. As you put the headlight back together make sure the leads aren't pinched so they are easy to get to. Here I have filled the hole behind the amber lens to give it a cleaner look. I used black plastic. Make sure you remove the light bulb that is supposed to light the corner light. Here are aLbino Chicken's eyes after installing them in daylight. We all three have neon eyes installed at about $30 each. (There was some additional work done on the red to adjust the color. Seems in the computer world, pink and red are the same color. Use this link to see how to color tint a neon tube.)