Okay, yes. I am killing time while serious body work is getting done,
but I thought I would share another little modification I have made.
I decided that I wanted to install some courtesy lights in the
interior and boot of my BT7. I wanted to do so without having to
drill any new holes, and I especially did not want to drill holes in
the door jams for switches to activate the lights. The following
describes my solution. I am sure others have done this but I thought
I would pass along my approach in case anyone was interested.
I made a few simple brackets for the lamps themselves that were
purchased from Victoria British. Most all of the parts houses carry
interior accessory lights, it is just a matter of what you like. I
went with the Victoria British lights because the housing for the
bulb also had a mounting bracket that was close to what I wanted. I
mounted the lights in the footwells of the interior where they
provide plenty of light, but are not seen.
To avoid swiches in the door jams, I purchased a keyless remote. The
one I acquired from Pyle was about $40.00. It included two remote
clickers, the control module, and the wiring. I grossly
underutilized all that the Pyle system makes possible, but I was
after simplicity. I just cut off all the extra wires, but I can
imagine a few other very practical uses. For example, the fuel pump
could be wired in and the remote could be used as an anit-theft
device by controlling the activation/deactivation of the pump.
The button on the remote to unlock the car (obviously not needed on a
BT7 roadster!) is now pushed to activate the interior/boot lights. As
I approach the car at night I can click the remote and my interior
and boot lights will come on for about 30-40 seconds and then they
extinguish on there own with no other action required.
I wired in a toggle switch located under the dash (unseen by others)
which will overide the remote that I can switch on if I want the
interior/boot lights to stay on.
The wiring schematic can be found here. Just click on the image to
get a larger picture:
http://homepage.mac.com/linwoodrose/PhotoAlbum36.html
All very simple, clean and unobtrusive. Now if I can just figure out
how to disguise that much-to-modern looking remote to look like a
british key fob!
Lin Rose
1960 BT7 in restoration
1959 Bugeye
|