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Door courtesy light mod- more light!

nakman

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Another item on my long-time list of things that would be cool to do someday is to find a way to add more light to the foot area, when the doors are opened at night. Upgrading to George's LED's gives you more light, but also in a much more focused area. The result is you can read a map that's right under the light, but if you toss the map down on the floor mat you're going to have to feel around for it in the dark! Not no more!

Like most fun mods, it all starts with a trip to superbrightleds. :rolleyes: For this one I chose the ALM-OB Accent Light Module , a very small 4-LED unit at a whopping $6.95.
Comes with about 3' of wire, which is exactly the right amout for this project.
 

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nakman

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Install...

Pop off the door panel, then take out two of the screws that are holding the "door panel trough thing" on. You want to be able to pry it out from the panel itself, just enough to poke a hole in the fabric and run the wires through it, to the inside of the panel. The wire feeds through the crack between the "panel trough" and the panel itself, I used a stubby screwdriver as a third hand to keep them separated while feeding the wire.

Then secure the LED to the edge of the trough using a couple screws, and tap into the power of the existing door light. The blue wire w/ the yellow stripe is the positive. Button everything up, then pop the panel back on.
 

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nakman

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What you get is another set of lights that illuminates the floor area when the door is open. As a test, the light of the LED was enough to find all the screws that I took out to remove the door panel... would have been impossible to find them without it, without a flashlight.

When the door is closed, the LED just barely fits between the "trough" of the door, and the kick panel. The LED does actually move the kick panel a little bit when the door is closed, it's doubtful that this will have any long term consequences as those little lights are pretty tough, but I guess if the worst happens I'm out $7 and an hour.
 

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