Step one. Bought the van.
Hello Everybody, First post. I camp a lot in tents but after spending three days straight in a tent in the rain at Dolly Sods I swore I'd make a change. Here it is. Bought it Wednesday. Dro...
Forum Discussion
Das Boot Lights
I'm sure you've had the experience where you're driving at night and when stopped want to look at something in the cab unfortunately knowing that once the overhead light is turned on it will ruin your night vision. Hence the need for some overhead red lighting. I call them Das Boot Lights after the movie since that's what they used in submarines to preserve night vision. With the headliner taken down this was a perfect time to do this project.
This is the overhead light fixture from the headliner. I had previously removed the incandescent bulb and replaced it with a square led light.
This is the back of the led light. It originally came with a double stick foam backing but the foam didn't last long in the fixture before it came unstuck. I've cleaned the old foam tape from the back of this led. Notice the exposed electrical contacts.
Because of the exposed contacts I'm not going to reuse the metal part of the original overhead light fixture. Use this piece of acrylic instead since it's non-conductive.
Use strips of 3M VHB tape to secure the led lights to the acrylic.
The center square of surface mount leds is the white light. On each side are red leds. The red ones aren't as bright but I'd ordered two of them just in case and there's room enough for all three squares in the fixture.
Use VHB to secure the acrylic to the cover.
You can see that the hump in the headliner that gives room for the fixture.
Also gives room for a switch.
The fixture is held in place by this metal bracket attached to the headliner.
The wires for the white overhead light used to be glued to the headliner.
Instead I've taped them to the Reflectix.
The white light still works from the headlight knob and when the doors are open. The power for the red lights comes from the house batteries. I'll cover that more in the next project posting which is also about adding new led lights.
Up Periscope!
I'm sure you've had the experience where you're driving at night and when stopped want to look at something in the cab unfortunately knowing that once the overhead light is turned on it will ruin your night vision. Hence the need for some overhead red lighting. I call them Das Boot Lights after the movie since that's what they used in submarines to preserve night vision. With the headliner taken down this was a perfect time to do this project.
This is the overhead light fixture from the headliner. I had previously removed the incandescent bulb and replaced it with a square led light.
This is the back of the led light. It originally came with a double stick foam backing but the foam didn't last long in the fixture before it came unstuck. I've cleaned the old foam tape from the back of this led. Notice the exposed electrical contacts.
Because of the exposed contacts I'm not going to reuse the metal part of the original overhead light fixture. Use this piece of acrylic instead since it's non-conductive.
Use strips of 3M VHB tape to secure the led lights to the acrylic.
The center square of surface mount leds is the white light. On each side are red leds. The red ones aren't as bright but I'd ordered two of them just in case and there's room enough for all three squares in the fixture.
Use VHB to secure the acrylic to the cover.
You can see that the hump in the headliner that gives room for the fixture.
Also gives room for a switch.
The fixture is held in place by this metal bracket attached to the headliner.
The wires for the white overhead light used to be glued to the headliner.
Instead I've taped them to the Reflectix.
The white light still works from the headlight knob and when the doors are open. The power for the red lights comes from the house batteries. I'll cover that more in the next project posting which is also about adding new led lights.
Up Periscope!
