Cabin and glove box LED lighting pre-1980 - anyone added this to their interior?

tvmaster

tvmaster

True Classic
I was thinking firstly of just the glove box, wondering what the best way to have an LED light the inside of the glove box, and then thought why not add the footwells too.
Would tapping off the instrument cluster switch work somehow, or would an independent, mini-toggle switch discretely hidden be a better idea?
 
As part of my complete interior redesign I used tiny individual LEDs held in place by small bezels. Placed two or three of them on either side under the dash pointing downward (toward the footwells), one at the top of the center console storage bin, and another one at the top of the glovebox (inside). I wired them to the three-way switch on the dash (normally used to control the dash lights). The wiring connects one position of the switch to the door pins (comes on automatically when the doors are opened like the stock courtesy lights did), the second position turns them on manually anytime (like a "map light"), and the third position is completely off (disabled). I removed all of the stock interior lights for a cleaner look. As usual I don't have any photos but if I remember I'll snap a couple. But the lights are similar to this:

s-l300.jpg
 
Dr.Jeff said:
As part of my complete interior redesign I used tiny individual LEDs held in place by small bezels. Placed two or three of them on either side under the dash pointing downward (toward the footwells), one at the top of the center console storage bin, and another one at the top of the glovebox (inside). I wired them to the three-way switch on the dash (normally used to control the dash lights). The wiring connects one position of the switch to the door pins (comes on automatically when the doors are opened like the stock courtesy lights did), the second position turns them on manually anytime (like a "map light"), and the third position is completely off (disabled). I removed all of the stock interior lights for a cleaner look. As usual I don't have any photos but if I remember I'll snap a couple. But the lights are similar to this:

View attachment 56097
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Cool. What year? And if a simple wiring schematic isn’t too difficult to draw, it may help more than me. There’s really not anything about this car that wasn’t thought out, and we rarely drive it at night, but those few times we do, just this tiny amount of extra lighting would be useful more than anything else :) And is it the factory switch doing double-duty, or did you mount an independent switch?
 
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tvmaster said:
Cool. What year? And if a simple wiring schematic isn’t too difficult to draw, it may help more than me. There’s really not anything about this car that wasn’t thought out, and we rarely drive it at night, but those few times we do, just this tiny amount of extra lighting would be useful more than anything else :) And is it the factory switch doing double-duty, or did you mount an independent switch?
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1979. No schematics, other than the factory ones. I rewired the entire car from scratch so all of my custom changes were incorporated into the new harnesses. The factory switch was no longer connected to any of its original components, again due to everything being custom. So no double duty, just repurposed.
 
dllubin said:
For the glove box, you could mount LEDs on the sheet metal above the box.
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I'm looking at small, micro-switches to install inside the glove box that trigger the lights "on" or "off" when open/closed. But where to get power from. If the 'flattened color wiring schematic' from the Wiki is correct, then are there open fuse box connections where the high/low beams are fed? The minute amount of power needed wouldn't tax those fuses, would they, or would you just run direct power/ground from the battery...
 
For the amount of current you are talking about, you could likely get it from somewhere in the center console like the cigarette lighter.
 
Good idea - actually, now that the ciggy lighter is gone, I could use its dedicated light feed for something, except it's always on (the illumination ring light), or is it only on with the headlights possibly - I'll have a look into that.
 
Be aware that some of the circuits in the fuse box are "constant power" while others are "switched power". The choice will depend on your intended design, if you want the light to be able to go on any time or only when the key is on. Also there are some circuits in the fuse box that are dedicated to other functions and you do not want to cross them with any additional components. Review a fuse/circuit function listing to see which ones do what.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Be aware that some of the circuits in the fuse box are "constant power" while others are "switched power". The choice will depend on your intended design, if you want the light to be able to go on any time or only when the key is on. Also there are some circuits in the fuse box that are dedicated to other functions and you do not want to cross them with any additional components. Review a fuse/circuit function listing to see which ones do what.
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yup, thinking because of this I'll avoid the fuse box for now - the instrument cluster light switch has two settings, low and high - I suppose just connecting to the "high" setting could be good. If you want glove box or floor lights, they piggyback off the 'high' setting. If that doesn't imbalance anything
 
tvmaster said:
Good idea - actually, now that the ciggy lighter is gone, I could use its dedicated light feed for something, except it's always on (the illumination ring light), or is it only on with the headlights possibly - I'll have a look into that.
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The lighter circuit is fused at 16 amps right to the battery. That would allow your light to work with the ignition off.
 
dllubin said:
The lighter circuit is fused at 16 amps right to the battery. That would allow your light to work with the ignition off.
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Finally getting around to this. lol. Besides the glove box, which I‘d use un-switched constant power to power the reed swith with, I’m adding footwell lights. The best idea is to piggyback on the courtesy light switch, so the footwell lights come on when door opens, or when the panel switch is used.
Purple/Black seems to be a ground; white/black for power?
But when I tried to piggyback on those, no power.
Any ideas - is it WHERE I‘m splicing in, or the wrong wires being samoplrd
 
You want to get your power from the Bianco/Nero (white with black stripe) just before the switch (cutting the wire from before the switch) and then attach from the end of your string of LEDs back to the switch cut end of the white with black wire junction where the nero (black) wire and the bianco/nero wire attached to he switch. You will want to run all LEDs as the LEDS will likely not pass enough power to get an incandescent bulb to light up in the overhead fixture. Alternatively you could get your power from any constant source and then ground into white/black wire near the switch.

As the ground is either the door switches or the IP switch as long as you get into either that black wire or the white with black wire at or near the switch you will get the results you want.
 
kmead said:
You want to get your power from the Bianco/Nero (white with black stripe) just before the switch (cutting the wire from before the switch) and then attach from the end of your string of LEDs back to the switch cut end of the white with black wire junction where the nero (black) wire and the bianco/nero wire attached to he switch. You will want to run all LEDs as the LEDS will likely not pass enough power to get an incandescent bulb to light up in the overhead fixture. Alternatively you could get your power from any constant source and then ground into white/black wire near the switch.

As the ground is either the door switches or the IP switch as long as you get into either that black wire or the white with black wire at or near the switch you will get the results you want.
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It seems the purple/black from the switch is attached to a common tunnel ground screw?
 
tvmaster said:
It seems the purple/black from the switch is attached to a common tunnel ground screw?
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Yes. Basically the switch is just a means of going directly to ground vs the door switches being the grounding point. When the switch is ‘open’ there is no ground through that path. If the doors are opened then the door switches are the ground point. If you ’close‘ the switch you are then grounding to the aforementioned screw and the lights will stay on until you ‘open’ the switch again so no ground.
 
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