OneHigh_focus , the wire was there for:
a) flexibility
b) soldering practice
Considering that I've NEVER soldered before, and that I had been warned numerous times that LEDs were fragile when exposed to the soldering heat, I left a lot of excess wire/leads. Also, I didn't expect to get a repair order (10 day fix-it period), so I rendered a quick solution without much preparation.
I didn't kill any LEDs... At least not through soldering
I created a new cardboard mockup already which contains zero speaker wire. All that remains is the last of the combined (-) leads and the last of the combined (+) leads from the resistors. All I need to do is shrink a few more mm out of it and the resulting LED/resistor clump should be closer to the volume of the festoon bulb I'm replacing.
Once could almost call it "ghetto engineering" but that might be insulting to the ghetto.
However, with a coating of superglue and/or epoxy all over it, it should remain quite weather proof.
The next main thing is to find a good glue to use. I need suggestions on clear epoxy/glues (preferably something I can apply from dispenser and not have to mix). For instance, I don't know how well Rubber Cement protects things, but it also isn't crystal clear. The Epoxy close to clear, but cumbersome.
Anyway, I just got myself 5 more sets of lamp housings
Edit: pic of prototype
