The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Interior light upgrade

Saw this on another board. Looks like a good idea and an easy swap.

Clever idea although a question has arose on his grounding wire. And, why if you go to this extent wouldn't you take the time to clean up the light? Too much corrosion for me.

Have you addressed the 6v/12v issue yet?
Oops, never mind, I see your a long way from a stock '50, 3600.
DG

This is a neat idea. Unfortunately, I run 6 volt.

I'll bet he has a lot of light in that cab. He can probably read the small print on a Chinese map. lol
I swapped to LED lights on my front park lights and brake/tail lights. Much improved! I also added LEDs under the dash and door poppers. The effect is awesome.

And if you’re not really interested in ruining a $50+s&h AD interior light, there is always this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/27-led-portable-worklight-flashlight-67227.html

These are powered by three 1.5v AAA batteries so if you really want to stuff it into your $50+s&h
housing, no problem, just add a small dropping resistor in series to drop a couple of volts, same thing if
you want to drop it from 12v:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/141528423
I prefer to use the, quite adequate magnet on the back and just stick it where ever I need light in the cab.
And if you’re stuck under the hood out in the boonies, it even has a nice hook folded into the back that
pivots every way but loose. And it’s only $3.99 at HF right now.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/141528424
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/141528425


Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Dang Denny, you should be selling used cars! lol

Aw, C'Mon James, I'm just lookin' for a cheap way out and tryin' to preserve those vintage parts.
I made a set of bed roll lights from a couple of those buck and a half nine LED lights a few years ago.
http://www.harborfreight.com/35-inch-9-led-mini-flashlight-65020.html
These are some of the few items that are worth the money at HF.

DG

Denny, don't tease us. You know you've gotta post some pictures on how you did this!!

But, but, but, Robert C., that's the point, I didn't do anything. Cept buy a $3.99 LED
flashlight from HF. Point was if you want more interior light you don't have to butcher
up your original dome light, they are quite expensive you know. If you want to light up
your interior this LED flashlight with it's magnet and or hook is just the ticket. When I'm
out at night and need to light up the inside I just reach up behind me where the dome
light is and push the button and its portable if need be and you can hide it in the glove
box when the judge comes around.

DG

Now Denny, you're not using that little light to text while driving are ya?

I like your backup light solution.

You stop in the middle of the street, get out of the truck, go back to pull out the flashlights in the bed curls, turn them on, put them back in, get back into the truck, and proceed to back into the driveway or parking spot.

Interesting

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but has anyone ordered stuff from Hong Kong? That is where the light panel is located according to the Ebay listing. I have recieved a few things from Canada, but I have always been a bit leery of ordering from other countries.

Not me; I would have to be out of options to do that.

Jimmie D, come on mon, my fingers are getting sore from typing. You don’t have to wait for it to come
from Hong Kong, they’re already here and for only $3.99. That’s what I’ve been trying to say, just pull
the light board out of the HF unit that I've posted all the pictures of. Only change you have to make is go
to a little higher value resistor and you got it made. The HF board has a 4x6 light pattern which will fill
the lens better than that 3x8 board anyway:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/141551944/large
If’n you had a mind to do some experimenting these boards could even be adapted to fit in tail light
housing by wiring different resistors in series for the tail and stop circuits. In fact, now that you got me
to tear one apart I might just do some spear minting with this one and a hand full of resistors to see how
that would work.

Dennis, no need to leave your easy chair for the bed roll “flashlights”, here they are hooked into the 6v
stop light circuit, or they could be connected as turn signals if you wanted that of just left as additional
tail lights:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122737326/large
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122737355/original

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I've bought stuff from China on ebay before. You just have to look at the feed back and stuff, just like with sellers in NorthAmerica.

In fact, with the help of a friend in Beijing, I bought stuff from Taobao, which is like China's ebay.

I was buying stuff for my bike, which is Chinese, and awesome.

http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd45/HomeCrafter/IMGP2169.jpg

To add truck content to this post, I have spear mint gum in my glove box, also gloves which smell oddly like mint...

I have trouble paying $100.00 for a set of bed roll lights, how did you make yours?? red49.

Same here Red, and that’s why I’m playing around with these LED flashlights as light
donors. LED’s are as cheap as dirt now days as are LED arrays on circuit boards. What
you pay for is the adaptation of the boards to fit in the light housings or in this case a plug
for the AD bed roll.
Again, this is just a couple of the heads off of those cheap little LED flashlights that you
see on the counter displays all over. The plug is made from a PVC plumbing reducer
turned for a snug fit in the roll, and the red lens is cut out of a reflector using a hole saw.
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122737145/original scroll [next] for more pictures.

All that’s needed is an inexpensive film resistor (Radio Shack) to drop a couple of volts
in the 6v system and of course a higher value resistance for the 12v systems. There are
tons of web pages devoted to the use of LED, here’s one for example:
http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_lighting_leds.html

If you don’t want to pay big bucks for LED lighting, then you need to do a little
experimenting and innovating.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I thought I would add some information to this thread. While on Ebay the other day I ran across a seller (digi-accessary) and purchased a 3 x 4 white LED dome light for $5.99. It comes with three different adapters to fit various applications. I had it in my mind that the bulb in the 52 was smaller than it was, so I wound up soldering the leads to a 1156 bulb base. It works great!! These LED's are 12 volt so no fooling around with resistors. I think he also sells the array in 6 volt. It was a quick and easy upgrade.

Well always glad to hear other options Jimmie, but why don't ya post a link to
his store for us, I personally can't find my way around ebay.
But.........is this the guy? Looks like he's got a ton of lights, I thought I saw
a number like 23,739 kinda hard to find the one you bought.
http://stores.ebay.com/digi-accessary

DG

Hi Denny, yes that is the link to his store. I should have posted the link, but I didn't know how much interest there would be in the upgrade. I couldn't find an item number for the item I bought, but if you use the link and type in dome light in the search box it takes you right to the one I purchased.