I'm gonna start building a box for my car and in the middle I'm going to have a "3" cutout. I want to put flexiglass there and light it. Is the best way to sand it and scuff it up, or should I buy some of that spray on frost stuff?

drill LED holes in the sides oh the box at the corners, and put the lights in the holes. seal them up. not only will it light up the inside, it will also make the glass light up. looks sick too

I dont want the inside of the box visible though..i just want the 3 to light up

then do the same thing i said, but putting the LED's in the 3. paint whatever else the same color as the box

ask brad with the max...his box is done like that and looks bad ass

you mean ask tap lol

yeah thats what i meant

You have to get the lighting to pass through the edges of the plexi. I don't know if you have lights already, but the beam shouldn't be any wider than the edge of the glass. If you could score the surface a little deep, the light should stop when it hits it. I messed around with the same idea, but never did finish.

I was planning on putting a light on the back wall of the box facing the 3...I figured if the plexiglass was frosted when you turned the light on it would illuminate the whole thing

Can you throw a pic up ? I'd like to see what you're trying to do.

the number 3 has to be milled into the plexiglass, and then light it with LED's from the ends. The milled finish will be rough enough to reflect the light that passes out the edge from the milling process. Painting or scuffing or "etching" the face wont really allow the light to reflect. Adam had this doen to his GTO and it came out violent.

Okay. My idea is similar to lighting up the halo ring on after market headlights. As the light hits the little ridges inside the ring, it brings out the light. Here's what i mean. This done with a tiny led bulb.
Halo ring.

So your saying it wouldn't work if i frosted the plexiglass and put a blue neon behind it like so...

Hyland i can get you the plexi and have it eched for you just tell me how b ig you need it the best way to do it is drill about 3-4 led sized holes in the side of the plexi as the light travels thru the plexi it stops at the eching and lights it up like the MXIMA on brads box his box is also back lit with a white neon tube thats why the inside shines but the MAXIMA is in blue cause the box has LEDs mounted into the side of the plexi. Give me a detailed discription of what you want and i can get you the plexi you need or i can save you the head ach and have a whole box done for you with the plexi insert.

mine had 4 led's. 2 on each side and the back of the plexi was covered with black carpet

First off, the system might be getting put on hold...not sure yet... second...could you just etch a solid rectangle since the 3 is going to be cut out of the box? and you;d just put the etched part behind the cutout?

we will have to talk more in worcester about this idea of yours but kevin is really good and can get it done for me he did glens and adams plexi as well as brads and many other projects i have laid out before him

that sounds good...im in the chatroom if you wanna talk in there

i gotta get ready to head out and the chat room is not working for me right now a bunch of updates taking place

okdiokie

I did this with something similar before...

the idea is to put LED's arond the edges, and then use tin foil in between the LEDs all around the edges of the plexiglass. what happens is the light bounces back and forth each time it hits the tin foil until it eventually gets to the milled area, once it does the light is bent and reflected out so you can see it. The foil makes a MASSIVE difference

Also be sure that the milling is reasonably deep (dont just scratch the surface) and it also works best when the milling depth is rounded. It will reflect more of the light and will increase the contrast of the lit area vs the non lit area.

If you can't mill the design, you can use a piece of sheet steel and dremel the desgin into it like a stencil, and then use a sandblaster to etch the design deep into the plexiglass...

Good luck! Post some pics up!

And i got some Crazy Bright LEd's too should you need any more.






Oh, I just read your last question...

if you cut a 3 out of the box and then etch a big square in the plexiglass, that would work but is much more complicated.

if you are going that route, i would take a piece of plexiglass and just sandpaper the hell out of it until it's really rough...then put blue LED's inside the back of the box faceing the 3 and slide the plexiglass behind the 3 that's cut out of the box.

that would work best if you 3 is cut out of the enclosure.

i used 2 LED strips on the side of my plexiglass, each strip has 4 leds in them, it is bright as hell and looks great

just get some etching material at the craft store

Just ordered some suspension parts for the car so this is being put on hold for now

Wow, that looks great! how deep did you etch that?

Adam's glass looks killer it was etched by my box guy always quality work!