here's something different it's a neon license plate frame for your car this dates back to the
early to mid 1990s back when these were a fad a lot of people of custom modified cars would
put these on to attract attention to them and it not only attracted attention of the
general public but also of law enforcement because in most states these were illegal
some car accessories like the neon lights you see
could get you a ticket don lopez tells us all about it in her contact 8 investigation tonight
it's friday night and mike mccandless makes sure his car is spotless his music crystal clear and
look at this is a real attention grabber and how about this mike's neon light kit that goes
under his car only one thing that burns mike up an officer pulled him over and said the
neon light kit that goes around his license plate has got to go i'm stuck with one frame which is
you know once you've taken it out of the package and used it you can't send it back to them you
know they won't take a refund so you're basically you know you spent 50 60 dollars that you didn't
need to spend if you were put any type of even a rim around it that also is illegal a lot of
times officer walter havilland says the law just doesn't want you obstructing your license plate
or making his job any harder a lot of the neon covers actually do cover parts of the plate it
doesn't lend to being able to read the plate very well if i'm trying to stop a vehicle obviously
and for officer safety i want to be able to identify the vehicle neon light owners tell me if
this is against the law why are so many kits being sold in auto stores well when i asked store owners
that same very question i was told if there's a law on the books there's always a way around it
tom boyle says he warns his customers of potential trouble before they buy and that's what i tell
them you know if you'll take it mount it with your plate on top instead of having it with the tube on
top then that way it would be legal for you you just can't have the direct light on there because
it obstructs the plate officer havilland verified that for me and he says that's fine but mike
he's not taking any chances he moved his neon light to the front of his car he figures
why push the law after all you can see him coming and going
in high point dawn lopez fox 8 the piedmont news channel
so obviously i don't intend to put this on my car this is strictly a
show-and-tell piece and this is a real neon sign it's not an led made to look like neon
it's an actual glass tube filled with neon gas and it has a transformer in there that applies a
high voltage to it probably somewhere around 2000 volts which causes that gas to fluoresce and glow
neon signs were once very common for general purpose signage for businesses because they're
bright and colorful and they can be made in any
shape or form and you could create animated displays with them
but over time they got associated with seedy establishments like casinos and bars and cheap
motels and in fact some towns banned neon signs because they were considered to be an eyesore
and in recent years neon signs are rapidly disappearing due to the high cost of
maintenance and they're prone to getting broken due to weather and vandalism and
nowadays since the led neon style signs have gotten so close to the original
it's just not worth getting real neon signs repaired anymore even in historic districts which
are trying to keep the original look they're replacing real neon with the led neon signs
here's a neon sign that's still in use
unfortunately it's at a bank drive-through that's no longer in service so there's actually a green
open sign behind the red closed sign that's no longer ever going to be used
they'll just stay saying closed until it either breaks or they get rid of it
but hopefully this one's going to be working because it's still in its original packaging
even though it looks rather beat up i don't think this one has ever been
taken out or used it's by quest accessories it's the neon street lights neon license plate frame
some reason they need to say neon twice there
they show the warning of electric shock because this does have high voltage in it
even though it runs on 12 volts it's from 1993 quest industries miami florida made in china
and like i said these were illegal in most jurisdictions so this has a big warning
on it saying this product is intended solely for the purposes of decorative
and off-road use check laws and regulations in your state county
and or municipality regarding installation and use of this product
and this one you can either have the entire neon tube exposed or you can put this shield on it
which just shows little pinpoints through it it says includes starlight glare shield for unique
pinpoint neon effect around license plate but i just noticed this one says purple so
i guess instead of blue it's going to be more of a purple color i removed the
staples so here we go for opening up the package for the first time in 29 years
these are just holders to make sure it doesn't get damaged in the box
and there it is let's remove these protective foam things which are still flexible
okay so there's the neon license plate frame there's mounting hardware which i will not be
needing and here's that starlight shield thing which actually just
is that all it gets you because it looks like it also yeah they show little dots on
the sides too but it's completely blocked off on the sides so that's all that does
and then this just runs on 12 volts dc the little transformer is built into it see what it says here
use caution during installation always turn the on light off at filling stations
and during refueling yeah because you don't want high voltage sparks right next to gasoline
oh here transformer specifications input 9 to 14 volts dc output 1500 volts ac
so 1.5 kilovolts 350 milliamps i guess that's the input current because if it was
350 milliamps at 1.5 kilowatts that's a lot of current so that's probably input current
and it has a patent number i'll have to look that up so there's a 1.5 kilovolt transformer in there
and otherwise we just have to apply 12 volts dc let's see if this thing works i got my 12
volt lead acid battery and all i should have to do is connect the wires and it should light up
like that oh and it's instant response as soon as i connect it it lights up bright purple i remember
in the late '90s the ford explorer used a neon tube for its center high mount stop light because
that was before led brake lights were common so they used a neon tube i don't know if the camera
is doing justice to the purple color it's kind of hard to photograph i don't hear it humming so it
must use a switching power supply yeah listen what happens when i put an am radio next to it
it
seems to be the strongest in this corner because it's even making the tuning led light up so this
must be the corner where the circuitry is for the power supply is because obviously
that's where the wire goes in and if i connect an ammeter to the circuit it just about pegs the
meter on the 250 milliamp scale so it's about 240 milliamps of current being drawn from the battery
and as for this thing obstructing the view of the license plate
seems like in new jersey it should be fine because it doesn't block
either the letters or the state name i don't think they care about blocking the state
motto it's just the letters numbers and the state name that need to be visible
i looked up that patent number and it's from 1992 and that's actually for a shock absorber
contained within the license plate frame to protect the glass neon tube from damage
for example if your license plate is mounted on a trunk lid you don't want the neon tube
to get cracked when you slam your trunk closed so it has a shock absorber built into the frame
so that's about it for the neon license plate frame from 1993
a fad of its time you don't really see any more