If you ever work on your car at night and need underhood light......check this out!

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Ok this was so amazingly ingenious i'm proud of myself....lol

I find that a lot of times, since i don't have a garage, i'm stuck working on my car past dark, and thus i'm either forced to find a work light, or rely on that pethetic little bulb that's on the underside of the hood. Well not anymore! I've replaced that wimpy little bulb with a halogen headlight bulb!! This sucker is so bright it lights up the entire engine bay...

So here's what i did. This may seem like not a big deal, but if you're like me and you work at night, it's amazing. The housing that the little bulb is built into can be seperated by drilling out 2 little rivets, then the whole thing falls apart into 3 pieces; the bracket that attaches to the hood, the white socket part with the wire comming from the bottom and the metal socket part that the light screws into.

I'll get pics up as soon as i can....it's super late and i've been up for 23 hours...this'll make more sense when i get the pics, but here goes.

I used a small drill bit and drilled the holes that the rivets when through, to open them up a SMALL bit. Then, using the bracket and the light socket, the halogen is placed between the 2 pieces and i used 2 little computer case screws to hold everything together. The halogen is a one wire light, since the body of the bulb serves as the ground. From there, simply connect the wire to the solinoid as usual and there ya go....daylight. And it almost looks OEM.

BUT, here's the problem. Aparently, the little "open the hood=on, close the hood=off" function of the underhood light is contained in the little socket part with the original wire....which we discarded (or at least, didnt use). So i think i'm going to run a wire with a toggle through the firewall and under the dash so it's invisible, that way i can turn it on whenever i need it.

The down side is, the bulb burns REALLY FRIGGAN HOT so it'll burn the crap out of you if you touch it after it's been on. I'm not sure if it runs any risk of scorching the paint on the hood, but i doubt it since they don't burn hot enough to melt the plastic headlight housing.

Tomarrow, i'll run the toggle switch and test it out, take some pics and see what you guys think. Do you see any potential problems with this? The halogen bulb is a 12v bulb that would run just like a headlight, so it's not pulling more current than it should.

If this works out, i'm getting another one of the bulbs and another one of the underhood light setups and i'm putting another one on the other side of my hood......talk about seeing in the dark

 

[88mustangGT]

i dont have a light under my hood . awsome though i cant wait to see pictures. why not make it easyer and more convinet and have the swich for the light right next to it?

 

[HISSIN50]

did you retain the original wiring for the 5 watt bulb (that is a joke - i dont know the real wattage)? if so be careful - you might scorch some wires.

but in your situation, that is some nice work. ive done similar things with old driving lights. i just put alligator clips on them and connect them to the battery when needed. rig a magnetic base to them and you can hang them under the hood.

BTW, the toggle switch is a nice idea. i put them on all the stock hood lights. nice when trying to charge a battery and you are discharging some of what you are putting in it with that stupid light.

i hope i did not come off as discouraging. you did a nice upgrade that will help you out. i tossed out the driving light idea in case you need more light or if that might work for ya (to be able to move the light, kinda like a trouble light).

i might take a look at my stock bulb and play with it, thanks to your ingenuity.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

The toggle by the light would be cool, but i'm trying to clean as much out of my engine bay as i can so that's out....good idea though. I'm trying to make it as OEM as possible, i really wish it would work with the hood action like the original did. I like the idea with the magnets....i may steel that one from ya. I have these super strong magnets that are about quarter size that would be great for that, but i also don't want something that's removeable....if that makes sense? I could just buy a work light and be done with it, i'm just trying to make something not so good better, ya know?

I guess this is only beneficial if you have a stock hood....since i dont think many people are attaching lights to their fiberglass hoods.


My next project with these little halogens is to drill out the back of my stock headlights and figure out a way to retrofit the halogen bulbs inside so my lights are brighter.

 

[TheUser]

wow dude that's awesome because I work in the dark outside as well. I was actually planning to buy some some lights on a stand or something and probably still will, but I like this idea too. I can't wait to see pics.

 

[KXT]

don't leave the light on for long or you'll have a dead battery.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

don't leave the light on for long or you'll have a dead battery.

Good point.....i actually didnt think of this one......


I couldnt resist trying to take a pic.....the flash from my camera killed a lot of the effect, but everything you see under the hood is from the light.

 

[HISSIN50]

sorry, i thought you were just trying to find ways to see at night (with no outlets available). that was where the driving light and magnets came from. i definately would not leave that in the car while driving. LOL.
i get it, you just want to mod the existing hardware.

you could get a 50 cent mercury switch for your light. hood tilts up, light comes on.

nice work.

 

[jadedinpa]

auto zone has a set of retrofit headlight assemblies for our cars - they let you use 9000 - series bulbs in the housings. i can't remember the manufacturer of them, but they were right with the other headlights. they have some silly illuminating ring on them, they try to look like the projectors i think.

 

[Michael Yount]

I'd be careful how long you leave that on - the current the halogen pulls may overwhelm the stock wire size/circuit and any switches/sockets along the way. To complete the job be sure the wire that's feeding it can handle the current.

 

[89MustangGX]

Something you may consider instead, or other people who don't want to do this.

The late 80's, early 90's Chevy pickups had these neat underhood lights. They were fairly bright but they mounted on the fender. They had a long cord that would up inside it's own "box" via a little crank. You can get them and put them on any vehicle, and they work just like a trouble light, except it's powered by your car.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

Here it is for now. I'm gonna run to Radio Shack and see what i can find there to maybe make this cleaner. The switch is actually from a 220w appliance, so i'm sure it can handle the juice that the bulb is pulling. The funny part is, after i finished this i decided to get my SSP fog lights working, and it turns out they use the exact same bulbs in them....go figure.

I really wanna redo this with some LED lights. I have one of those little Photon key chains and it puts out TONS of light with one little bulb. If i could make a little pod like housing with 5 or so LEDs, then put one on each side of the hood...it would probably be better, especially since they burn hot and draw less juice. I'd think they're less likely to drain my battery too.

Here's my little McGuyver switch i rigged up. I'm thinking about dremeling a hole in the bracing of the hood to mount it there. The hood's got a little rust and i'm probably getting a fiberglass hood eventually anyways so the hole won't matter.

 

[Michael Yount]

My dad's 1965 Nissan Cedric (specially imported from Japan for Datsun executives) and my wife's 1967 Datsun RL411 sedan both had little lights under the hood with wires about 6' long that coiled around them. As described above, you could unwind the cord and use it as a trouble light - under the car too.

 

[TT91]

A drop light works well too, but good job!

 

[larrendeuce]

I use reverse lights for my cars, they are brighter bulbs that plug into the stock light socket.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

A drop light works well too, but good job!

Much like a young Einstein, my genious is missunderstood....

 

[TT91]

Much like a young Einstein, my genious is missunderstood....

well my 5 inch cowl hood doesnt come with a hood light provision...so i use a drop light...lol...and always work inside the garage..

 

[Michael Yount]

Drop lights work great - except for those times you're stranded more than an extension cord length away from a power outlet. Nice to have an emergency standby that runs off the car's battery. Nice job 85SS.

Luckily the Volvo comes with a handy little bright light in both the trunk and under hood. Both have mercury switches so they can be set to automatically come on when you raise the hood/trunk, or you flip a switch on the unit itself and turn them on.

 

[88stangmangt]

Good point.....i actually didnt think of this one......


I couldnt resist trying to take a pic.....the flash from my camera killed a lot of the effect, but everything you see under the hood is from the light.

nice.................

 

[HISSIN50]

Much like a young Einstein, my genious is missunderstood....

when i read your first post, i thought you just needed more light to be able to work on the car in the parking lot. that is why i suggested the other temporary lighting - some of us missed what you were desiring to do (have a permanent source of decent lighting that was independant of other power sources). you straightened that out in a later post for me. but perhaps SS missed that. be easy on him - i think he broke his finger while wrenching last night.