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Thread: Dome light fun

  1. #1

    Default Dome light fun

    Hi all,

    This is my first time posting so bear with my noobness. I just wanted to post on a little side project Ive been playing with, that I thought people might enjoy. I don't have an up and running M715 yet but I'm in the gathering pieces stage of the project, which kinda lead me to this mini-project in the first place.

    So the item Ive been interested in lately is a dome light. I know they really didn't have them stock but I figured my trucks gonna be far from stock anyway, so what the heck. I really wanted a clear and red lens option because I like to maintain my vision at night plus it looks cool (Who doesn't want to feel like there in a WW2 sub at night). Anyway, after looking around the internet I found one of those heavy duty armored dome lights (you've probably all seen them) and they were very cool but 100-150 bucks was a bit outrageous. There were also these marine cabin lights which cost about the same but lacked the military coolness factor. This got me to thinking, what if I could take an old spare tail light (red/ b/o) off my M38a1 and make it into a cool looking retro dome light. That's pretty much what I set out to do form that point on.

    Taking the thing apart wasn't too bad. Six screws and off came the face plate. I didn't mess with the bucket itself. I put it back on the shelf to be played with later. Next I took a look at the two lenses and how they were mounted. Both seemed to be pressed in with a lip of metal holding the lenses in place. I didn't mess with the red lens but took a pair of pliers and straightened the lips holding the blackout lens in. I'm thinking the housings must be made of pot metal because what didn't straighten broke. No matter, I had no need to re-crimp anyway.

    So once everything was all cleaned and ripped apart now the fun began. I decided to go with an LED red light and a common halogen clear. So I got online and ordered some 5mm LED's from superbrightleds.com. I think I ordered $20.00 worth because I wanted to play with different combos.

    They showed up in a little less than a week. Here's a pic for reference.
    http://img407.imageshack.us/i/p1000369m.jpg




    Once the LEDs showed up I played with them until I picked a configuration I liked based on brightness, beam width, voltage, etc. Hooking up these little dudes is really not hard. When the LED's are hooked up in series and have a total Voltage over that of the power source you don't need anything fancy. If the power source's voltage exceeds that of the LED's then you need a couple resistors (radio shack under 5 bucks). All the info you'll ever wanna know on this subject can be found on the net.

    So math aside, I needed a panel for my LED"s to fit into the housing. So I traced one out on some plexi-glass, cut it out and drilled some 5mmish holes. Then I stuck them in, added glue and twisted the ends together (to be solder later).
    http://img89.imageshack.us/i/p1000370h.jpg



    Next was the Halogen white light. I didn't have any parts laying around, so I ran over to Pick-and-Pull and yanked a dome lite out of a 90's Ford Arrowstar. I used the lens from the B/o light as a stencil and took a pair of tin snips to it. Below is a pic of the hack job I did on that poor dome light.
    http://img51.imageshack.us/i/p1000359o.jpg



    After some trimming, it fit snugly in the hole. To finish I bent the copper leads up so that I could pop some quick disconnects on them. Pretty easy really, I think the hardest part was finding the thing in the first place. The bulbs are the skinny tube looking ones available at any auto parts store. Easily replaceable is always a bonus.

    Last step was to drill a hole just below the b/o lens. Right about where the maker mark is. Mine was made by a company called Guide so I aimed for the space between U and I and drilled away. There was just enough space to insert a three way toggle switch. Then I wired it all together and there was light! I ran hots and grounds to both lights. I imagine you could probably ground to the housing and then to the truck if you wanted to.

    Here is the final result.
    http://img26.imageshack.us/i/p1000360m.jpg



    So here it is with the lights on.
    http://img228.imageshack.us/i/p1000361m.jpg



    Red light!
    http://img541.imageshack.us/i/p1000362m.jpg



    White light!

    Then I made a housing and a backing plate out of some aluminum and galvanized I had laying around. When i go to work I'll grab me some good marine grade aluminum and do this right. I was very tempted to shave a 1/2 inch ring off the bucket and use that, but I just couldn't bring my self to destroy the thing. Here is a pic of it in its housing.
    http://img843.imageshack.us/i/p1000367q.jpg



    Ive got it plugged into a 12v wall plug. Probably not the safest way to do it. I think its only about 2- 2.5 inches thick and one could probably thin that housing down to about 1/2 an inch and get it really thin. The only part that protrudes up from that that face plate is the leads on the toggle switch. But I'll play with That and see how it turns out.

    Well hope you enjoyed. Thanks for taking the time to read my post!

  2. #2

    Default

    Looks good! Nice work and a nice walkthrough of the build

    And here I still need to get around to building a mount and installing my APC dome light.

    Thanks for the post!

    --Wintermute

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Lindale, Texas
    Posts
    263

    Default

    great first post, and welcome.......al

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Mt. Prospect, Illinois 60056
    Posts
    2,299

    Default

    You sure have a nack for explaining your procedure. Pics were a nice way to show the progress. Well done for a FNG! Welcome to your new home.
    militarypotts Spec/4 Military Police, Vietnam Era, "Does the noise in my head bother you? Welcome to the Twilight Zone!"

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Fort Smith, Arkansas
    Posts
    911

    Default

    I have several of those lights around. You gave me a great use for them! I never can find my flashlight at night to see what my guages read, etc. This is a terrific idea. My second truck had some sort of dome light housing screwed directly into the top bows. The canvas and light housing were all rotten and crusty. Those holes created a rust starting point which made a weak spot in the bows, so don't attach to the bows if you can avoid it. (Especially if you are going to park it for 20 years)

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Fort Smith, Arkansas
    Posts
    911

    Default

    Thinking about it a little, any light at all inside the truck turns the windshield into a mirror. Just keep that in mind when mounting. A dimmer light might be better or maybe a momentary contact switch. I could see myself flipping the switch, blinding myself and then fumbling to turn it off while the Caddy like suspension is jostling me around! I bet that red will really be the ticket though.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Middleville, mi.
    Posts
    1,245

    Default

    My CJ-7 dome light was mounted on the bottom of the dash facing down. It never interfered with night driving. It worked surprisingly well at lighting the cab. It didn't look nearly as cool as yours though

  8. #8

    Default

    Looks good--got my ticker-tickin'

  9. #9

    Default

    I like lots of light when needed- added 4 of these RV swivel lights to my custom overhead console- then made them obsolete by building the rotating light bar (seen outside the windshield). When the HID's are cranked up, the cockpit's lit like a rock concert!


  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jun 2009
    Location
    Mt. Prospect, Illinois 60056
    Posts
    2,299

    Default

    Starting to look like an airplane cockpit their. Or maybe an over the road rig.
    militarypotts Spec/4 Military Police, Vietnam Era, "Does the noise in my head bother you? Welcome to the Twilight Zone!"

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