A period looking breakdown/hood light that works as the only interior light in the car.

Semmerling · January 16, 2023

Here is how I went about solving the problem of providing light in the case of a night time emergency. The result allows me to be able to payout enough cord to reach all four wheels and a just about everywhere else. When not in use it provides a very warm and diffused interior floor light. The finished unit hangs off of the passenger side interior panel and cant be see without getting down and looking under the dash. The light holds all the payout wire perfectly and is very stable.

The main light head is a small round chromed utility light with a real early faceted glass lens that looks about right and take a standard bulb that provides enough light without blinding me, something that I can't stand about LEDs. I found it on Ebay an early 3" mercury switch light that would most likely have come out from under a hood as motion fired off the on switch. The mercury switch was removed and I replaced the old bulb mount with a new version that could take modern incandescent or LED bulbs.

The.piece that makes this all possible is also readily available on ebay. It is a modern, small aluminum cell phone holder that has the unique characteristic of folding flat and still having two hooks to hang it up. I am confident those hooks were not there to do what I needed, but what a find. The hinge is excellent and remain quite stiff. Buy the one that looks exactly like this.

Fresh cloth wire to reach everywhere on the car and couple of new holes and bolts and it was all to together. This light can also hang from the Rumble Seat side wall giving that area great light as well. I finally attended to a rats nest of wire stretching back 3 generations and wire up a new toggle switch just in the series just for this light.

Nice, easy and fast project.