Today was super nice out, and I got my car into the shop at work. Got the trunk auxiliary lighting installed, all the connections soldered, heat shrink, covered in 1/4" loom and taped. Had to pull out the rear package tray, and the side panels in order to run the wire to the factory trunk light. There was no @#$% way to snake wire through, I tried every trick in the book to run it under the rear package tray, but finally ended up taking it out to run the wire, and it made life so much easier.
<BR> Measure the width of the mounting areas, I had to cut about 5 inches off of one strip, and about 3 off of the other. You can cut the strips in between every 3 LED's. Measure the center of the shortened strip, this will allow you to center them, so that they look symmetrical, and it doesn't look like a 5 year old did the work.
<BR>Holding in on the center, peel the backing from one side of the strip, and carefully stick the tape down.
<BR> Should look nice and even like this.
<BR> Like a kid in a candy store, I had to jam the wires into the plug for the factory trunk light to see what it was going to be like lit up, this is only one strip.
>BR> From inside the trunk.
<BR> Both strips lit up.
<BR> I ended up shortening the wires I added to the one strip and "T'd" them into the other wires, which will get connected to the factory trunk light wiring.
<BR> To make a T or Y in wiring, without cutting the wire, carefully strip a section of jacket material, and strip the other wire you are going to join. Slide a piece of heat shrink tubing over the wire, twist them together and solder your connection. Slide the heatshrink over the cooled solder joint, and then hit it with a heat gun.
<BR> Had to remove the rear package tray to fish the wire up through the small hole at the very back on the driver's side. Tied it to the factory wire with tie-wraps and tape.
Trunk liner pulled back, can you tell which wires were added?
Nice work! Also looking forward to seeing what else you do.
<BR> Tools of the trade: Solder, soldering iron, heat gun, heat shrink tubing in various sizes, electrical tape, wire cutters, wire strippers, olfa knife and 18 gauge primary wire. 
<BR> Strip back about 3/4" of the insulation of the wires you are joining. 
<BR> Install heat shrink tubing over the wire, and twist the bare ends tightly together. 
<BR> This is what the wires should look like when twisted together tightly, with no loose strands, resulting in a connection that you can pull on slightly without the twist coming apart. 
<BR> It is important to clean the tip thoroughly between solder joints, a damp sponge works well for this, I didn't have one but heating the tip up and applying new solder to it before making a joint cleans the tip as well. 
<BR> Apply the clean, hot tip to the wire joint, and let the heat from the tip warm the joint, once the joint has reached the correct temperature, apply solder. In order to make a nice joint that isn't cold, the wire should melt the solder, not the tip. 
<BR> After letting the completed joint cool ( should be nice and shiny, not dull which would indicate a slushy, cold solder joint ) slide the heat shrink tubing over the joint, making sure it's centered and apply heat from heat gun. The completed joint should look nice and smooth, and if you used the correct size heat shrink tubing there should be no gaps between the tubing and the wire jacket.
<BR> Barely visible, unless you are crouched right down. The tape is 0.120 inch thick, so just a hair less than 1/8th". 
<BR> Looking up from the trunk floor. This last picture was taken in the dark with no other light, no flash. Sweeeeeet..... now to install the JL Stealthbox, amp, wiring, and underhood lighting I have planned. 
