footwell lighting

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

> read your little write up on seat heating. nice. i might
> scrounge around the junkyard to see if i can find something
> that might fit better, but as long as it works.... anyway, i

Thanks..

> noticed that there was footwell lighting as well. is this
> something that you installed? if so, where did you hook it
> up and what all was involved? just curious. thanx.

I grabbed two "trunk lights" from junkyard MkIIs, bought bulbs for them
and sawed holes in the covers above both footwells. Nice to have some
light down there when you drop something on the floor.

The most difficult part was fabbing up metal reflectors so that the hot
light bulbs would not melt wiring under the dash or start a fire. I think
I trimmed an old Altoids tin with tin snips and folded it in to a "pup
tent" shape then glued it in place above the light assembly on each side.

(haha, I guess I have a knack for electrical stuff that presents a fire
hazard!)

The wiring was initially connected to just the door switches, but I later
ran a wire up the a-pillar to the dome light. I put a ring connector on it
and put it on the switched end of the light bulb (which is a glass
fuse-type bulb). Running the wire through the roof was a bit tricky but
now I have control of all three dome lights from the switch at the main
light. I can turn them all off, all on, or all automatic (door switch
control).

IIRC the wire started at the dome light cutout in the roof, I took the
driver side sun visor off and pulled it through those mounting holes, then
fed it through the a-pillar by pulling the door seal partway off to get
access to the metal under the headliner. I dropped it down to the hole for
the door pin switch and then fed it in to the fusebox area in the driver
footwell.

The circuit for the dome light had plenty of "fuse capacity" left for the
two additional bulbs.

I went to all the trouble because I wanted to be able to leave the door
open while working on the car and not drain my battery because the
(footwell) dome lights were on. Also, it didn't make much sense to have
footwell lights if you HAD to open the door to turn them on.. what if you
drop something on the floor while driving?

HTH,

-Toby