So here goes my first instructable :)

The story behind it:

On a sunny day my Mazda Demio from 2000 was very very loaded. When I got home my back left shock absorber decided to pop out of its place giving me a nice big hole in the left plastic cover.

So I decided to make the best of it and mount a car 12V socket/plug since I did not have one in the trunk.

Step 1: What Do You Need?

What I bought:

This lovely and cheap 12V car socket from AliExpress:

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initia...

What I had:

- A crimping plier set

- A multimeter

- Different small electrical pliers

- Insulating tape, or preferably heat shrinking tube (way more better)

Step 2: Mounting the Socket

Slowly but effective I rounded the hole with a cutter, little by little, so that the socket will fit perfectly and also with a little bit of force in order for it not to move.

Et voila, the socket is it its place in the panel! As simple as it looks.

The socket also comes with a fixing ring that is screwed on it underneath the plastic.

Step 3: The Electrics

I am sure that most of the cars have a light in the trunk that can be switched on and off, like mine has.

A small downside of this one is that because the light works even when the key is not in contact you have to be careful not to leave anything charging while the car is stopped or you will risk to drain all the power from the car's battery.

If you do not have such a light in your trunk try to find another source of current. A solution would be the rear lights, but here it depends if they always stay on or not. If not you have to switch them on in order to use the charger.

Step 4: Wiring

Back to the side-light in the trunk. When I measured it with the multimeter it showed me 12.85V with aprox 200mAh. Perfect!

In this case the blue wire is the (+) and the red one the ground (-).

I stripped them at somehow different levels to avoid even better the risk of short-circuit, and on each stripped wire I attached with the crimping plier 2 blade terminals: red for (+) and blue for ground (-).

On the other side, on the socket I attached on the wires cable lugs on both ends withe the same colors.

Because in the future I will most probably remove the side panel again, with these type of connector (or any other) it is very easy to do this. So soldering was not a solution for me, although it is somehow safer.

Because I did not had any heat shrink tubing with the right size I put instead insulating tape to be sure that there will be no short-circuit (it is very important for this not to happen since it can lead even to fire).

And finally connected them, testing it before mounting the panel, and it works! Yey!