Interior lighting - part one

Been camping too much - no time to blog.

Today, I did get some time to play instead of packing or unpacking from a trip.

The installation of a rear interior light was today's project.

First, I crafted a harness and slinked it in behind the small panel that backs up the shelf on the passenger side.  Three wires run within a sheath of heat shrink tubing which is run up through to interior light above the driver seat.  The wires are color matched to the rest of the car's harness, and does not match the light (oh well).

So the harness runs down the length of the car to the upper bed, runs up and over the fixed portion of the upper bed and beneath the mattress cover.  I was going to break out the router and make a channel for the wires to reside snugly, but decided against it after I laid my body across the bed and could not feel the wires through the mattress.

I measured out the headliner above the rear seat and marked off the center of the panel.  Then marked the center of the light to be 6 inches from the metal bar that crosses the passenger compartment.  Marked a relief area of 2 inches wide on ends, increasing to 3 inches in center, and 6 inches long to provide room for the directional lighting portions of the light.

Suppose I should show what the light looks like?

This is the light, without the directional portions installed so that I could repaint the piece to match the van's colors.  Cleaned well with bodyshop cleaner to remove any silicone residue, scuffed with a gentle pad to allow paint to adhere well.

Paint is a matte finish that I found at Lowe's.  Its pretty close to the real color in the van.  Not enough to have two pieces side by side, but since the closest part with same color is a couple feet away, this will pass.

After rebuilding the fixture, I went to work on drilling holes and jigsawing the panel.  This is what the hole looked like.

Wafer board cuts easy, but I would be lying if I said I was not concerned about my fat ass on the second floor.  Guess that is another reason to keep the weight below 190?

Actually I am not concerned, as it is such a small hole and I will be supporting from other side.

The light was installed with a couple 10-24's and loc nuts through a 6x8inch piece of heavy gauge sheet metal.  After centering perfectly, I used some 1/2 inch self drilling screws to fasten the sheet metal to the top of the bed support.  Obviously, I connected the wires to the fixture before fastening down the sheet metal using the white wiring as the power lead, the red wire connected to the ground tripped by the door switches and the the black wire connected to the ground on the van.  This ensures the directional lighting has power to the switches all the time, and the center light will only come on when the door opens. 

I also ran a harness across the headliner to the passenger side so that I can put a stock type light above the passenger seat.