North American Turbocoupe Organization



Interior Lighting
Rob H Offline
Senior Member
#1
Just wondering if anyone of you has come up with a way to address the abysmal lighting in the interior of the car.
Those god awful map lights project the light to two distinct spots, and not much else.
I often go to the car at night to do stuff, and man does it suck even with a flashlight.
Obviously there are options we could take. Just wondering what sort of nifty, clean looking lighting options some may have taken.
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anasazi4st Offline
Senior Member
#2
(07-12-2020, 04:15 AM)Rob H Wrote: Just wondering if anyone of you has come up with a way to address the abysmal lighting in the interior of the car.
Those god awful map lights project the light to two distinct spots, and not much else.
I often go to the car at night to do stuff, and man does it suck even with a flashlight.
Obviously there are options we could take. Just wondering what sort of nifty, clean looking lighting options some may have taken.

I am writing this twice, as the system apparently will not allow you to open another browser page without kicking you out of the first one.

Yes, there are such options. Several months ago I wrote a posting on this very subject, in which I described converting ALL the lamps to LEDs. I included a list of LED numbers so you could order what you wanted (I got mine from Amazon).

No pun intended—it really is like night and day. I still can’t believe the difference it makes.

That post is Here.

I
t covers nearly ALL the lamps except headlights. The post says I had not yet converted the System Sentry lamps—since then I have, as well as the EATC lighting. It is #37 lamp or LED.

The list includes the Map Light lamps, as well as the pesky Dome Light, which is rare to see correctly listed.

Yes—you are welcome.
Another proud dues-paying member.

1987 Turbo Coupe w/T5OD, 8.8 axle, grey smoke; most options. Got it in 1991 with 41K miles: 3 turbos, 2 heater cores, 3 T5OD full rebuilds, 6 clutches, 1 head gasket, 2 Teves II ABS units, etc. later....
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Jeff K Offline
Administrator
#3
Several years ago, I picked up a LED plate, roughly 2" x 3" that has about 40 LED chips on it from Ebay for a few $$ and hard wired it to the dome light. Probably 20X as bright as the OEM incandescent dome light bulb. Also replaced the opera lights and map lights with LEDs, and wired the opera lights to come on with the dome and footwell lights. Also put in LED footwell lighting. At night, and even on a cloudy day, or in the garage with the garage door shut during the day, the interior is BRIGHT BRIGHT!
Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 24 psi, forced air IC, water injection, BPV, Ranger cam, subframes, etc., etc.
86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP N2O, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.
11 Crown Vic Interceptor
14 Toyota Camry (wifes car)
95 Taurus GL Vulcan winter beater
67 Honda 450 Super Sport - completely customized
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Rob H Offline
Senior Member
#4
I did see your article about you switching all your bulbs to LED. I was talking more along the lines of supplementary lighting for the purpose of brightly lighting the interior.
A dome light would be great, I guess you don't get one with a sunroof leaving me mainly with just those map lights. I did replace them
I like that idea of wiring the opera lights to come on and footwell lighting would help.
Seems there are more options with LED lights being so cheap now, ill just have to keep my eyes open for something that fits in.
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anasazi4st Offline
Senior Member
#5
(07-12-2020, 03:29 PM)Rob H Wrote: I did see your article about you switching all your bulbs to LED. I was talking more along the lines of supplementary lighting for the purpose of brightly lighting the interior.
A dome light would be great, I guess you don't get one with a sunroof leaving me mainly with just those map lights. I did replace them
I like that idea of wiring the opera lights to come on and footwell lighting would help.
Seems there are more options with LED lights being so cheap now, ill just have to keep my eyes open for something that fits in.

Replacing the bulbs in the ends of the armrests and the ones just under the dash with LEDs makes a CONSIDERABLE difference.

[Image: 2020-07-12%2012.26.05.jpg?dl=0]

The above photo was made just moments ago inside my dark garage. There is some light, as the garage door is partly open to allow for air circulation—and the camera on the iPhone opens up its lens for better exposures—but this gives you an idea how bright the under-dash courtesy lights are with LEDs. Imagine if it was pitch black in there!

There is also a lot of lighting from the armrest courtesy lights and the dome light. Rob, I forgot you had a sunroof and no dome light. That really cuts down on how much lighting you can get.
Another proud dues-paying member.

1987 Turbo Coupe w/T5OD, 8.8 axle, grey smoke; most options. Got it in 1991 with 41K miles: 3 turbos, 2 heater cores, 3 T5OD full rebuilds, 6 clutches, 1 head gasket, 2 Teves II ABS units, etc. later....
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Rob H Offline
Senior Member
#6
Now that's what I'm talking about. Wow that is seriously impressive!
Im going to definitely have to look into those footwells as well as maybe better leds for the map lights. The ones I bought were cheap ones off Amazon.
That would make a huge difference.
I'll check with that list again of bulbs, thanks for doing the legwork on that list it will come in handy.
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