courtesy lights - bench seat cars?

[chippers65300]

Does yours have a clear lens covering the light? My 67 does not, it just has slits in the upper panel the light comes through. Do you put in a led bulb? That's nice and bright, mine isn't nearly that bright. I should replace that bulb and while I'm at it... replace all the flood light bulbs for the instrument cluster.

 

[chippers65300]

I've been perplexed by this issue with my '67 Sport Fury conververtible. This car has every factory option EXCEPT a 440 and tilt steering wheel. Buddy seat car with column shift. It has glove box light and trunk light. There is no ignition switch light or courtesy lights up front. Only the map light, which isn't very bright. I see where 69 had the courtesy lights in both corners under the dash near the kick panel. Mine, being a convertible, I would think it would have them. This the first Mopar C body I've ever seen that doesn't have an ignition switch bezel light, which this car really needs, Ignition is recessed in the dash and really hard to see. When looking at the FSM, electrical section, dash and gauges, they have a photograph of the back side of the dash illustrating locations of all gauges, lights etc. It's not showing ignition switch light or courtesy lights. I'm STUMPED. Guess I need a bezel with the light hole and the light, little bracket with pigtail.

 

[Blusmbl]

Does yours have a clear lens covering the light? My 67 does not, it just has slits in the upper panel the light comes through. Do you put in a led bulb? That's nice and bright, mine isn't nearly that bright. I should replace that bulb and while I'm at it... replace all the flood light bulbs for the instrument cluster.

Same as yours- just the housing and the slots in the panel that let the light shine through. I found my old map light with a butchered harness on it and it didn't have a lens either, and the NOS map light I bought didn't have one.

I useds these warm white LEDs in the dome light and map light location: https://www.amazon.com/BRISHINE-Interior-Trailer-Motorhome-Landscape/dp/B08P6RC439?th=1 they are substantially brighter, but they ended up being closer to neutral/cool for color than the incandescent bulbs. You can tell in the pic between the front and rear that the rear dome lights are much yellower because of the lenses, so since that pic was taken I swapped the dome lights to these https://a.co/d/7FdkOPv which are less yellow and more bluish for a tint, shining through the dome lenses the light color is much closer front to rear now.

I have new dome lenses that should be less yellowed and trim surrounds showing up next week too, hopefully after replacing those the light color will be a perfect match front to rear.

Edit: will also warn you with LEDs in those locations, if you try starting the car with the door open the LEDs will flicker as the voltage drops during cranking. I'm ok with that drawback since they brighten up the interior so much.

 

[chippers65300]

Thanks for the tip. Did you covert your 4 flood lights for the instrument cluster to led? I think I just need to clean them up and new bulbs even original incandescents will brighten them up.

 

[SuperDave]

My 73 Newport doesn't have the floorboard courtesy lights, but I am considering adding amber strip lights under the dash (& under the rear rail of the front bench seat) to light up the floor boards to activate with the dome light.

I would also like for them to come on DIMLY with the headlights/running lights, with a resistor to limit the forward voltage 6 to 8 volts to the floor lights, along with a diode so they don't backfeed to the running lights when the doors are opened or the dome light is turned on by the dimmer switch. I will most likely need to use a 5 pin Bosch type solenoid relay to toggle dim/bright to the floor lights as I believe the dome light power is constant and the door switches/dimmer switch activates by closing the ground wire: open the door (or twist the dimmer full CC) and the switch closes the ground, completing the circuit. Which is why the dome lights on our cars is two wires, one for constant power and the other for intermittent ground to the dimmer switch/door switches.

I am currently undecided on what value resistor needed to drop the supply power to 8v, as I don't have the current load demands of the LEDs just yet. I may just end up using a variable potentiometer in place of the resistor to dial in the desired brightness/dimness.

 

[bigfury3]

I'm not sure if I understand which light your talking about but my 66 fury III 2dr hardtop has a light under the dash not sure if it's what your talking about I might be mistaken.

 

[Blusmbl]

Thanks for the tip. Did you covert your 4 flood lights for the instrument cluster to led? I think I just need to clean them up and new bulbs even original incandescents will brighten them up.

My flood lights are still incandescent. It's reasonable for brightness after I cleaned up the lenses.

Bigfury3, some cars have lights on either side of the footwell area. That looks nice too though!