Let there be light...

[FRANKENTRUCK]

My 81 does not have a dome light in it. This is a royal pain in the butt because whenever I need to turn on the interior lights at night I only get an illuminated floor. No courtesy lights when I open the doors either. How difficult is it to install dome lights in option-less models such as mine?

 

[BigRuss]

could use one of the "Tap Lights" OR pick up a nice white LED strip that attaches with double sided tape and run the wiring down the B Pillar or A pillar which ever side of the cab you decide to mount it on and then wire it to a switch on your dash... I'm actually going to be making a custom overhead console with lights just for that purpose if somethings on the seat i dont want to see my shoes

 

[FRANKENTRUCK]

I was hoping to find some NOS or repro one to install like a factory one if possible. What are "tap lights"?

 

[Stroked]

It doesn't even have the hole for the dome light? I thought even the no-options trucks came with that. Now I'm gonna have to go look at my no-options 81 and see if it has one...

 

[BigRuss]

the are little round lights at Walmart and other stores like that, that you literally TAP the housing to turn it on... they had commercials for them YEARS ago

but LMC sells OE Dome Lights that are pretty boring but function
http://www.lmctruck.com/icatalog/cc/full.aspx?Page=180

and these are kinda cool and dress it up a bit
http://www.streetrodhq.com/dept/Truck/cat/330T/Interior_Sunvisors_Dome_Lights_Headliners_Door.html just scroll to the bottom of the page...

 

[FRANKENTRUCK]

That LMC light looks like what I need. But I have never seen anything that resembles mounting holes where it should mount. Even my 1978 Jeep truck has a dome light for crying out loud. Whoever the original buyer of the truck that was the donor for my cab was a real CHEAPSKATE when it came to option packages.

 

[8T6K5]

Do the interior lights turn on by turning the headlight switch the the left?

Seems like it would be kind of a pain to wire a light to function like OE, much less with it hot on its own switch.

I guess with enough wire and connectors you could wire just about anything up there.

Some low level under kitchen cabinet combination might work?

 

[HotRodPC]

I'll have to look as see if Kept it, but I might have a light and OEM harness for an 81 GMC Silverado. I know I took every wire out of the truck when I scrapped it, just not sure of the condition if I kept it on not, and I doubt it has the light lense cuz if it did, I'da used it one of my current trucks. But, at least the light fixture and OEM harness will be a start.

 

[FRANKENTRUCK]

Yes, please LMK if you have such a light set. I can probably forget having any courtesy lights because I have no place to install the door switches that I know of. My existing switch turns to the left to illuminate the floor.

 

[HotRodPC]

You should see divets where to drill for the door switches in the door jamb. I'll try to dig thru the bags of wirning harness parts off the truck. I don't see any reason why I woudln't have gotten it, but never know. Maybe fishing it thru the body was an issue, but I'll sure look..

 

[FRANKENTRUCK]

Time to revisit this issue. I have nothing which resembles dome light mounting holes anywhere on my cab ceiling that I can see. I found some rubber plugs in the door jamb area that are likely for courtesy switch mount holes. I hate the idea of drilling into my cab ceiling, but I may end up being forced to. I may even attempt to use a stick-on light of some type after all. I may also end up mounting some lights in my inner doors that attach to door switches. These lights would light up for me upon opening the door if all went right in the installation. I still find it unbelievable that a 1981 truck came unequipped with a dome light (?!?!?).

 

[jt1200r]

my lite is under the dash to lite up the floor

 

[HotRodPC]

How about doing a mirror dome light retrofit? Ever see those kind that have map lights/interior dome lights in the rearview mirror?

 

[Driver4r]

How about doing a mirror dome light retrofit? Ever see those kind that have map lights/interior dome lights in the rearview mirror?

I have one of those in my truck, it slid right over the lil metal peice from the original mirror. Its not fully wired in yet, but i think it looks better than the original.

 

[FRANKENTRUCK]

Today I bought a door jamb switch to install in my truck to begin the process of getting my courtesy lights operational. I took out a plastic plug in the door jamb that revealed a hole the right size for the switch. However the switch would not even pretend to try to screw into that hole. It almost seems that the hole needs to be "tapped" to have threads or something. I also seem to be lacking a certain rubber grommet that is shown in wiring diagrams. Anyone here ever install switches into a truck that originally came without them?