Interior Door Handles

[Fairfaxexplorer]

Anyone every have passengers at night that cant find the interior door handle when they get out of the vehicle?
Seems like a lot of my friends take a minute to get out because they cant find the handle. I usually end up turning on the interior light so they can see it.

What I'm getting at is I am thinking of installing a low led light in the area directly above the handle to illuminate the handle. I was thinking I could tap into the lights on the window switches.

Anyone ever done or thought of this before?

...Any other input?

 

[Curtis]

The lights on the window switches turn off when they are locked from the drivers master switch. Something to consider.

Maybe the wired with a relay for the headlights as they are only in use when its dark anyway.

 

[Togman]

Wow, what a great idea! Please post a photo if you can.

 

[fixxxer]

I've had mine wired to light up my window switches for the past year or so, I do have mine wired to the parking light circuit with a master on/off switch. I drilled a small (3/16" i think) hold in the seam above the switches it's nearly invisible when they are off and the led's (purchased at Radioshack) fit nice and snug, with a little hot-melt glue on the backside to keep them in place. I doubled the resistance value to keep the brightness down to a minimum (I think they were 1K ohm 1/4watt resistors)

 

[Fairfaxexplorer]

Thanks!
I was mainly wondering what size and ohm LED to use.
Thanks again!

 

[rrgone]

I've had mine wired to light up my window switches for the past year or so, I do have mine wired to the parking light circuit with a master on/off switch. I drilled a small (3/16" i think) hold in the seam above the switches it's nearly invisible when they are off and the led's (purchased at Radioshack) fit nice and snug, with a little hot-melt glue on the backside to keep them in place. I doubled the resistance value to keep the brightness down to a minimum (I think they were 1K ohm 1/4watt resistors)

Do you have any pictures up anywhere of this? Like to see 'em if you do...

 

[AERTON]

Hi, I like the idea of installing a l.e.d by the handle where can I tap for power. Pics if you have done it please.

 

[Fairfaxexplorer]

Sorry for the delay. I did this mod....took about an hour...and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I bought 12v LED's with diodes from Radio Shack and wired them into the lock/unlock button so they dont turn off when I lock the windows.
I did have to do a little bit of modification inside the door handle to accomade the LED.
Will post pics soon.

-C

 

[Curtis]

Sorry for the delay. I did this mod....took about an hour...and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I bought 12v LED's with diodes from Radio Shack and wired them into the lock/unlock button so they dont turn off when I lock the windows.
I did have to do a little bit of modification inside the door handle to accomade the LED.
Will post pics soon.

-C

Looking forward to those pix!
Hopefully you took pix of the wiring and inside the panel?

 

[macknos94]

I wanna see this too. I thought about something like this but I was gonna use a small bulb like a 194 to make it easier to focus the light. almost like a flashlight reflector. so what did you tap into for power

 

[Hitchhikingmike]

good idea, not only can my passengers not find the door handles too, but when they do find them they can never get out because the explorer automatically locks the doors and then next they have to figure out where the manual lock is and can never find them! I never remember to unlock the doors before the people in the back grab the handles its just annoying at times.

Let us know what you come up with!