Hey guys. When a previous owner installed the new headliner in my car, he saw fit to leave out the dome light. He did otherwise do an excellent job of putting it in, so I'm in no hurry to risk screwing it up. I think instead of a dome light I might use a rear view mirror with map lights, and/or some courtesy lights in under the dash. Or hell I might change my mind next weekend, pull it all out and install a dome light. Either way, a wiring diagram would help me. Anybody got one? I think it's all there. The switches for the dome light are in the doors, they're wired, and I assume the headlight switch can turn it on. I just need to figure out what wire to tap if I want to have a properly functioning dome light. Thanks!
my light is the same...the wire is up there somewhere... what i am going to do is..take the driver door seal loose at the top...peel the headliner loose above the door and find my wire and push it to the center where the domelight mounts. from there i can mount my light and fish the wire to it... reglue the headliner..replace the seal and we should have light ...the wire for the dome light is in the driver side kick panel... ...Frank...
Deb's 93 Mustang convertible has a glass mounted mirror that has lights on the bottom of it. You can manually turn them on as map lights and they also come on with the door switch. I'm thinking about using one in my Mav instead of the regular dome light. I don't know if they came in anything besides the 'verts, but may have....
Interesting. Thanks, Frank! Never would have guessed it was done that way... Maybe it's all still up there. About the mirror thing, that's just what I had in mind. Although I'm not opposed to using a GM one if I have to, at least I know where to start looking for a Ford one.
Well. Took me over a year to get around to it, but now I finally have interior lighting in my Mav. I just didn't think about not having a dome light most of the time, because when I get in it at night, I'm usually in my garage or a lit parking lot. Those moments when I say, "gee, I wish I had a dome light" just weren't frequent enough to get me moving. Finally though, while strolling through the junkyard last week, (a common place for me to babble incoherently when no one's there) I say to myself: "Dude. You have power locks with keyless entry, you've modded the headlights and taillights. Not a single wire under the hood is original. You have added gauges, relays, wired a stereo, intermittent windshield wipers, added a cigarette lighter, a trunk light, you put fricken' AC in the car from scratch. Electrical work is clearly not a problem for you, and yet you still don't have a damn dome light. I am ashamed to be you. You fail." I hung my head. I knew myself was right. And so the project was on. I never did work up the nerve to cut my pristine headliner, so I got a rear view mirror with map lights. I probed around, looked at diagrams, and finally tapped the black+blue wire on the driver side door switch. I fished the new wire behind the dash, then tucked it under the windshield gasket all the way up to the mirror. Completely out of sight and I didn't have to touch the headliner! Pretty cool I thought.
the guy that installed my new wiring harness kit, ran the new wire for the...dome light w/map lights...for me... ......
I second the motion! We need pics! Also, what mirror did you use and how is the fitment? I tried to use a GM rear view mirror with the map lights (they're everywhere in junkyards) in my '76 F-150 when the old dry rotted plastic dome light fell apart in my hands. Unfortunately the lights would have been shining only on the top of the dash, not the floor / seat areas. -Scott H.
I hear ya!! Same story here and I do it for a living. I'm the guy that gets the car after its been all over without getting fixed and yet up till a week or so ago I had no dome light in the Mav. Finally the mockery will stop.
All mustang convert have map light mirriors in them and will mount on mav windsheild mount when using this unit get as much wire as possiable ... Thats is the one I used.. Jay
I used a GM one, mainly because it was a similar size and shape to the stock one and the lights are well hidden. I didn't want anything too "curvy" or thick, or something that looked obviously out of place. I think it came from a Lumina... I will get pics.
Should have taken a pic of the original mirror beside this one. Other than the wire above it, which I don't see any way of getting around, this mirror looks very much like the one I took off, except for the 2-way glare filter thing, (that I never really noticed was missing in the original) and of course the lights. Same shape and size, even close to the same thickness. The lights and switches are well hidden and it's not all bulbous and modern looking. Doesn't look too "new" to be in the car, nothing calls attention to it, it just looks like a mirror. And I know somebody's gonna ask what that thing is hanging from it... The story is, it belonged to my best friend from high school through young adulthood. He died at around 22 years old when he tore his Crown Vic in half on a tree doing about a hundred miles an hour sideways. Either it was suicide or bad judgement, really could be either one. It may have even been mechanical failure. The throttle cable had bound up on that car before. The only person who really knows can't tell us. All we know is he was sober. He never drank or did drugs and the autopsy didn't suggest he'd changed his mind that night. He shouldn't have even been driving. I had planned to pick him up at his parents' place that night but my alternator went out so he took his own car. I've hung that from the mirror of every car I've had since 1999. Times when I've had more than one car, I hung it not necessarily in the one I drive the most, but in whichever vehicle is most likely to get me into trouble. (Although with few exceptions, the dangerous car has always been the daily driver.) It always goes in my favorite car. At first it was to remind me not to be stupid behind the wheel, but it's become something else. It's like that object being there does more to say "this is my car" than the title does. Like when people get married, the marriage license may satisfy the state, but the ring is what actually means something.
Looks great! I also have one of the GM mirrors, but haven't put it in anything yet. You could also add lights under the dash as you mentioned earlier. I did this on my F150. It adds more light than you think it would.
That looks just like the one I have sitting on a shelf. I think it came from a square body S-10. Thanks for posting the pics! I just might have to dig mine out and see how I like it on the Comet. Do you remember how it was wired up? I almost forgot to add this. Look in the Chevrolet S-10, Monte Carlo, Cutlass, Grand Prix, Camaro, and Pontiac Firebird for your under dash lights. They have shielded plastic housings that attach to the underside of the dash with one screw. I used the ones I found in a T-Top Cutlass under the dash of an old '72 Nova I had a while back with good results. -Scott H.
