Another 12v blackout hood light conversion

[randyscycle]

I just finished converting my hood blackout light to 12 volts and here's what I did:

I bead blasted the assembly first, then cut the old wires from the original bulb.



After that, I crushed the old bulb and removed it from the housing.



Next, I enlarged the hole slightly, so that it would accept a 12 volt motorcycle headlamp bulb. They were just laying around......





I just dropped the bulb into the hole and soldered the base to the lens housing.



For extra brightness, I soldered the original harness wiring to both of the bottom contacts so that the hi and lo filaments burn at the same time.



With the rubber cover on the back it looks stock.



Now for some fresh O.D. and it will look as good as new!

[george walker]

that turned out good an looked easy to do , to be correct that part of the lamp should be flat black, only the housing and the hood are od on a new assy

[Elwenil]

That depends on the lamp. They were made about 4 different ways over the years. I thought only the newer plastic housing lamps had the black front.

[george walker]

the nos ones like that one i saw were black on the face

[randyscycle]

This one appeared to be OD all over as I stripped it in the blast cabinet. judging from everything else on this truck it was original......

The front blackout lights (the ones in the front sheetmetal) were also OD all over, but one was made by Independent and the other by Advance Wire. All the others are Independent. I assume it was replaced at some point.

The light on the hood was actually for driving, correct? What were the ones on the front and rear for? The lone one on the rear?

[Ronner]

Fronts are marker & the rear is marker/brake. Suprising how effective - especially on a dark night - kind of embarassing to lose your truck. lol

[randyscycle]

Originally Posted by BBM715

kind of embarassing to lose your truck. lol

Know that from experience.......?

[george walker]

the purpose of the shaped cutouts in the f an r b/o lights are for distance judgement when driving in a convoy under b/o a driver could tell approx how close he was to the veh in front by how he saw the 4 slits of light in the r b/o lamp of veh in front of his if he saw the 4 slits clearly he was within a specified distance of less than 10' (i dont remember the actual distances as per the tm) if he saw only 2 slits of light he was say 10- 20' away from the prior truck if he saw only one slit of light from the lamp he was over 20' away. the smaller single light in back is the b/o brake light it is clear to make it brightest so it isnt missed. the f b/o have less slits than r as they arent used for positioning as the rears are. the hood mounted b/o is the driving light its unique shape allows a horzontal wedge of light to be projected out front to see any persons who might be marching in the column or just objects that may come up the person or object will only be illuminated to the height of the hood on the lamp assy an only down a foot or so just enough to tell they are there as well the distance of this illumination is fairly short. One night go out to your truck turn on these lights an move around as you move further from your truck u will see the change in pattern of the lights an how they can be used for distance judgement.

[Ronner]

Originally Posted by randyscycle

Know that from experience.......?

Yes I'm sorry to say. On a very dark night in Grayling I was out running an errand for the CO and had to park and walk into his site. When I came back to "the tree" (among the 40 million out there) someone had moved my CUCV! Well, moved it about 20 yards away next to some other tree - they were tricky about it too - that tree looked just like "the tree" I had origionally parked next to. After that I always left the BO marker lights on so that trickster couldn't get me again! lol

[randyscycle]

Originally Posted by george walker

the purpose of the shaped cutouts in the f an r b/o lights are for distance judgement when driving in a convoy under b/o a driver could tell approx how close he was to the veh in front by how he saw the 4 slits of light in the r b/o lamp of veh in front of his if he saw the 4 slits clearly he was within a specified distance of less than 10' (i dont remember the actual distances as per the tm) if he saw only 2 slits of light he was say 10- 20' away from the prior truck if he saw only one slit of light from the lamp he was over 20' away. the smaller single light in back is the b/o brake light it is clear to make it brightest so it isnt missed. the f b/o have less slits than r as they arent used for positioning as the rears are. the hood mounted b/o is the driving light its unique shape allows a horzontal wedge of light to be projected out front to see any persons who might be marching in the column or just objects that may come up the person or object will only be illuminated to the height of the hood on the lamp assy an only down a foot or so just enough to tell they are there as well the distance of this illumination is fairly short. One night go out to your truck turn on these lights an move around as you move further from your truck u will see the change in pattern of the lights an how they can be used for distance judgement.

Thanks! That clarifies the operation of those lights quite a lot.

One thing though I don't understand is the function of the individual right hand light on the rear. Is it a stop light? The left and right bo lights have the normal red lens, then the bo lenses below. The other only has a clear (I think) lens.