Date:         Fri, 2 Jul 1999 15:03:18 -0400
Reply-To:     Steven Shane <s.shane@POBOX.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steven Shane <s.shane@POBOX.COM>
Subject:      Reading Light Install (AKA: Please welcome a Newbie.)
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Greetings fellow Westy warriors and VW Volks.

My name is Steven Shane, I live in Columbus, Ohio USA and am the proud owner
of a Blue 87 Westy.

I have been lurking on your list for several days now, and have enjoyed many
of your postings via the Archives.  I guess it's time to say "Hello."

I'm not much of a Mechanic "yet" but being a AVID MOTORCYCLIST I do know a
few things.

For my initial contribution, I just wanted to tell you of my recent
installation of a passenger side reading lamp for those late night cross
country jaunts. It was really quite simple, and unbelievably inexpensive...

I found a dead soldier (God rest it's beautiful water boxer soul) and I
snagged the interior light. Measuring twice, I traced the area I wanted the
new light to go on the passenger side of the cabin.

Using a Dremel head on my cordless drill, I carefully cut out a small
section of the ceiling material and made sure the light fit in place.

Pulling the Interior light fuse, I then unscrewed the three screws holding
the ceiling material in place by the vanity mirror / sun visor.  At the same
time, I also unscrewed the Visor and tapped POWER and GROUND from the vanity
mirror wires, and ran them up behind the ceiling material to the open
cut-out space.

Using some heat shrink, I connected the tapped wires to the used light,
replaced the fuse, popped the light in place and BINGO!  You have a over the
shoulder reading light for your passenger (in my case a cute young
girlfriend - thus my inspiration - yea yea, it all comes down to that) or
just more light in general besides that small dash light. And it looks just
like the other side, matching factory measurements.

Any comments or other suggestions are always welcome.
mailto:s.shane@pobox.com

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, and I look forward to joining
your community.

- Take care my fellow Vanagoners.  :^)

Steven Shane