Clearly I was tired last night...tonight's attempt was ALOT better. Attached in this shot is the results.
Now...the only issue I have run into is the plastic casing. I wanted to get the two strips to butt up against each other. So, I cut both ends about 1/2" from the solder joint and peeled it back. then took one of the plastic end caps that come in the reel packaging and cut the one end off, and was going to put silicon under where the two strips meet with the new little cap over top of them. all would be good, but I can't for the life of me get the flex strip to slide within the plastic casing.
How do I resolve this, do I get some sort of lubricant and slide on the back of the strip and slip it in then, use baby powder, or something else like just wiggling the strip back and forth until it goes in? Anyone run into that problem, or did I use all my energy with the soldering that my other skills of inserting strip into plastic covering won't come back until I recharge in the morning?
Progress at least!!