has anyone messed around with any type of underhood lighting? i think it'd be nice to add some lighting for when you pop your hood at nite... not just to show off but for those unexpected stops on the side of the road as well... it'd make things hella easier to inspect. anyways if anyones done anything like that wha'd you use? do neons or CCFL hold up alright under there? if the CCFL holds up i'd much rather go with that - being that i can do like 2 12" tubes for like less than $30. cheap to replace too.

so yea has anyone done this or know what'll hold up to the engine temps? i'm thinking placement would have a lot to do with things too. (away from the manifold and turbo)

First off you could wire it to the factory hood pin (if your car came w/ a OEM alarm) or simply put a hood pin in. Then I would place the neon bulb(s) behind the intake manifold, either in front of the firewall, or on the hood. It should be fine heat wise there. You could also put the mini neons in the corners of the engine bay.

I saw a cool Chevelle running some clear LEDs under the hood of his car at a show a while back. They are small enough that you could put about 4 in an array and mount them to the hood. You could probably check in some sort of show car goodies webiste to find something similar. then you can just tuck the small wires behind the different ridges on the underside of the hood. This set up looked really sweet, but that might have also been because of the completely polished 350 he had. :P

ya i was planning on adding a hoodpin for security purposes but also to trigger an underhood light. did the LED setup provide enough lighting to illuminate the entire bay? i mostly want something that'll also be practical for inspecting/working on the engine in low light situations

The lights he had reminded me of those LED headband-mounted lights you can get at Target for about $20. They seemed to light the bay up very well. Even though the car was parked in a lighted parking lot, you could still pick up the bluish tint of the LEDs here and there. He also had one mounted on the floor in the back seat that shined striaght up on the ceiling, highlighting the SS logo he had ghosted in. From the floor, this little light (maybe the size of a quarter) made about a 2ft circle of light on his ceiling. I imagine the ones under the hood would be similar.