How to make a glamorous DIY Hollywood sun-visor mirror for your car
It’s funny how we treat our cars as though they’re our own private spaces.With barely a second thought given to how ridiculous we might appear to anyone on the other side of our windows, we engage in all manner of activities best reserved for the bathroom. We pick food from our teeth; pump ourselves up with positive affirmations before an interview; fix our make-up, our hair, our collars; practise lip-sync-battle moves; attack that once-blind pimple that finally has a head…
All these tasks are best performed in a well-lit space. But what are you gonna do when you’re extra AF and your car is anything but? Easy: pimp your sad, basic sun visor with this DIY Hollywood-vanity-mirror hack featuring super-bright LEDs and extra bling. Of course, you could just buy an LED strip that’s already wired up, but where’s the fun (or challenge) in that?
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 12V LED strip in a bright cool white (preferably the non-waterproof kind – we’ll come to why later)
- soldering iron
- lead-free solder
- small-gauge electrical wire in two colours
- wire multi-tool (one that includes a wire cutter and wire stripper)
- scissors
- Stanley knife
- shrink wrap
- BBQ lighter
- small Phillips head screwdriver
- battery pack
- matching DC adaptor plug and socket with spring terminals
- bling (we chose a strip of diamantés)
- superglue (optional, to help attach your bling)
Step 1
Head out to your car and measure the LED strip to fit along the bottom edge of the mirror. Find the nearest marked cut-point on the strip and cut it there, using your scissors. Make sure not to bend or fold the strip as you cut – this can damage it.
Step 2
If you have a regular non-waterproof strip, you can skip this step; if you went the waterproof route, this is the step that’ll fill you with buyer’s remorse. To be able to solder your wiring to the copper contacts on the strip, you’ll need to remove the silicone coating that’s covering them. Use your Stanley knife to cut into the silicone just before the contacts, making sure you don’t cut into the strip itself. Peel the silicone back and carefully scrape away any residue from the contacts.
Step 3
Cut one piece from each of your two small-gauge wires, at equal lengths – long enough that each piece will reach from the base of your mirror and around the back of the sun visor. Don’t worry if they’re are a bit long: you can always trim them later. Use your multi-tool to strip 5mm of coating off both ends of each wire.
Step 4
Apply solder to the exposed contacts on the LED strip. Make sure to ‘tin’ the soldering iron’s tip first – that is, coat it with a small amount of solder. Ideally you should end up with a small solder ‘bubble’ on the contact that doesn’t go beyond its edges. Watch a YouTube tutorial if you haven’t soldered before, and practise a few times too.
Step 5
On each wire, coat one of the exposed ends with a layer of solder, trying not to be too heavy-handed. You want an even silvery coating, not a massive blob.
Step 6
Time to bond. Solder your red wire to the positive contact and your other colour to the negative. (It’s convention for red to be the positive wire. Just a li’l FYI.) Make sure both solders melt together to form a strong bond. It’s solde-stroying – and frustrating – if your bond is weak and the wire detaches. Trust us: we’ve been there.
Step 7
Cut yourself about an inch of shrink wrap – enough to cover the copper contacts and exposed wire ends once they’re joined. When your solder has cooled, slide the shrink wrap over the wires to cover the exposed connections. Hold a flame underneath the wrap – without touching it – and watch it shrink to size. Repeat on the other side.
Step 8
Match your wires to their corresponding terminals in the adaptor plug and screw them in without leaving any wire exposed. Attach battery pack wires to the adaptor socket as well.
Step 9
Back to the car. Peel the backing off the LED strip. Place the strip on the sun visor and gently press down to make sure it sticks and stays stuck.
Step 10
Grab your bling and stick it to the sun visor. We chose a diamanté strip and stuck it on with superglue, but you can attach any type of sparkly, shiny adornments around the mirror’s edge – whatever it takes to create the biggest wow factor.
Step 11
The moment has arrived: it’s time to plug in and turn on. Look in the mirror and marvel at your creativity and your sparkling, illuminated reflection. Strike a pose, go full trout-pout and drive off into the sunset, smug in your success. Just remember to affix your battery pack to the sun visor’s back first.
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