Rear dome light conversion

I did it & it was WELL worth the effort !! Having the sunroof might actually make it easier . I followed the How-To and just removed the rubber trim stuff around the sunroof opening (inside the car) , ran the wires around the sunroof , then just fed the wires back to the hole where the light will be . Easy as pie . Without a sunroof , you must run the wires a longer distance above the headliner to the rear . The hardest part of all was getting up the stones to cut the headliner . Remember , you only get one chance , so measure twice - cut once

! Cut a small hole first , then enlarge it to fit the square hole in the roof brace .

Do it , you'll be glad you did .

Y2KMondeoSVT:
I did it & it was WELL worth the effort !! Having the sunroof might actually make it easier . Without a sunroof , you must run the wires a longer distance above the headliner to the rear .

How far from the back is it to clear the opening of the sunroof? It's surely easier with the sunroof cuz you just have to dropthe headliner. Why did you said that you need longer wires w/o the sunroof? That sounds weird to me, should be the inverse, longer wires with sunroof to bypass it.

Nic.

Some take pics of this. I've been wanting to do this forever. Ih ave the printed out instructions on my bulletin board now. Just need the time and courage to cut that hole.

Nate'sTour:
Some take pics of this.

Who got pictures?

Nic.

You misunderstood what I was saying ... It's not the LENGTH of the WIRE itself , it's the DISTANCE you must RUN the WIRES above the headliner from the rear of the sunroof . Around the sunroof (with the rubber trim removed) you can tuck the wires in , right around the sunroof . From there (at the rear of the sunroof) , you must run the wires to the back (23 inches) . Without a sunroof , you must run it clear from the light up front , all the way to the rear light (which is 43 inches) . See what I'm saying ??

Originally posted by Nate'sTour:
Some take pics of this. I've been wanting to do this forever. Ih ave the printed out instructions on my bulletin board now. Just need the time and courage to cut that hole.

I shouldn't type when drunk

"Someone" take pictures of this mod. I'd like to see the finished product!

Y2KMondeoSVT:
You misunderstood what I was saying ... It's not the LENGTH of the WIRE itself , it's the DISTANCE you must RUN the WIRES above the headliner from the rear of the sunroof . Around the sunroof (with the rubber trim removed) you can tuck the wires in , right around the sunroof . From there (at the rear of the sunroof) , you must run the wires to the back (23 inches) . Without a sunroof , you must run it clear from the light up front , all the way to the rear light (which is 43 inches) . See what I'm saying ??

Alright, did you solder the wires or use harness?�?¨

Nic.

I bought wire & connectors & made my own harness (taped it up ,etc.) . It's really not that complicated that you need to look for a factory harness .

If noone comes up with a pic , I'll try to get out & take a pic of the finished product for you . It's covered up in the garage (don't drive it that much

) .

I helped someone do it on his Contour with the sunroof, wasn't bad at all.

HTH
John

Alright i'm gonna check the price for that. If you can have pix that will be fine.

Nic.

Originally posted by Nic_ContourSE99:
Alright i'm gonna check the price for that.

Check the price for WHAT ?? The harness ?? Don't bother , make your own ! The light itself is cheap , wire is cheap , the result is GREAT ! Do it !!

While you're in there ... do the LIGHTED MOONROOF SWITCH MOD

. Another cool & quick mod .

Y2KMondeoSVT:

Originally posted by Nic_ContourSE99:
Alright i'm gonna check the price for that.

Check the price for WHAT ??

I was talking about the lamp assembly. I already do the lighted moonroof switch.

Nic.

heres a pic

Sparker:
heres a pic

Thanks man, is that standard the two buttons on the headliner?

Nic.

Originally posted by Sparker:
heres a pic

what part# is that light? i ordered the mystique light from the how to when i did mine and it doesnt look like that.

looks like my 96 front light roof assembly thing...

That's pretty cool! I never even thought to check if the front light assembly would fit back there! I just grabbed the rear light and wiring harness from a junkyard Mystique and put in mine. So is the housing for that unit the same size as the hole in the roof sheetmetal? 'Cause if it is, I might hafta change mine...

And any of you worried about cutting the headliner -- just make sure you start with a small hole below the cutout in the sheetmetal and enlarge it to the edges of the cutout. Don't worry if the cuts aren't perfectly smooth, the light housing will cover the edges of the hole. Just don't get too sloppy! For wire routing, I just ran them from the light, to the driver's side, and then forward along the roof support above the doors, to the A-pillar, and spliced them into wires there like they did on the Mystiques. If you get the stuff from the junkyard, you can even snag the clips they use to secure the wiring to the car. Just be careful removing them, 'cause they're really brittle.

Anyway, you definately won't regret having light back there. It is SO much better!

Marty

Yea , I never gave thought to the front light being used back there either

. It's interesting with the aim-able eyeballs too

, although noone sits back there on mine

. It's an interesting change though .

but does it have a tan bezel?

they do look stightly different colours in the picture, but the both came out the same contour. Im not sure if they are the same colour as the other bits in my mondeo, but it looks it. In order to get it to fit, i had to cut into the metal in the roof. I just took my time and eventually i got it the right size.

You have all said that you didnt think abt that mod, but is that not what the title in the post meant?

And incase you are wondering why i didnt just get it out of a mondeo. I bought something else at the same time, so it worked out a lot cheaper than buying it here in the UK

So to fit the lamp assembly with the eye ball you have to cut metal in the roof?

Nic.

yes...it is a pretty labor intensive process because you HAVE TO TAKE YOUR TIME!!! but the results are soooo worth it. that mystique like looks like crap! i used a junkyard bezel and light out of an early model with no sun roof.
be advised, i found no ggod way to attach the light itself to the metal part of the roof. the only thing holding the light in place is the headliner. if i had cut the hole in the headliner too big, the light would just fall out.

mine is nice and tight in with the metal

Sparker:
mine is nice and tight in with the metal

How did you fix it it it doesn't fit with the actual roof setup??

Nic.

not sure what you mean abt the sunroof setup

i just cut the hole in the metal to the right size. Was a tight squeeze to get it in, but it will come back out if i need it to

Sparker:
not sure what you mean abt the sunroof setup

I meant the holes and stuff in the roof to fix the lamp assembly. Suppose that the regular mystique lamp assembly fit with no cut in he metal and the lamp assembly with eyeball, like in he front need to be fit by oversizing existin holes. am i right??

Nic.

If the light you are talking abt is the one that i had in mine as standard, then yes you are right.

Sparker:
If the light you are talking abt is the one that i had in mine as standard, then yes you are right.

That is the one that i'm talking about, thanks.

Does it worth the time to oversize the holes in the roof to have the one with the eyeball like the front or the one with fix lamp is still good enough?

Nic.

Originally posted by Nic_ContourSE99:
Does it worth the time to oversize the holes in the roof to have the one with the eyeball like the front or the one with fix lamp is still good enough?

Nic.

One fixed light is enough. It gives off plenty of light and no one ever sits back there anyway. It's nice when unlocking the doors at night, the whole passenger compartment lights up.

I'll pull my SVT out of the garage tomorrow morning & shoot a pic of the Mystique rear light . IMHO , the Mystique rear light is MORE than enough , unless you're planning on having people sitting back there reading maps/books

. Having a light back there (whichever kind) is really nice . No dark back seat when you're trying to find something

The light with the map lights is more p-i-m-p tho.

No doubt , Kremit , no doubt

.

I pulled the SVT partway out of the garage & shot a couple pics . Not the world's-greatest , but it's hard to get a decent pic up there

.

PIC ONE

PIC TWO

BTW - I don't remember if it's mentioned in the How-To , but with the Mystique rear light , there's a clip on the light itself that snaps into the (already exhisting) square hole above the headliner . That's what holds that one in place . I just sold off an extra rear light that I had lying around ,or I would take a pic of it

.

Just an FYI - To get the headliner down to look at the square hole , pull down on the round clips in the headliner with your fingernails (the 2 of 'em near rear window) . That will pull out the center "peg" of the clip (it's a 2-part clip) . Then you'll be able to pull out the clip & pull down on the headliner to see where you need to cut .

my rearson for using the maplights in the back is so that i can have the main light blue, and iv always got the white lights if i need it. Iv got 24blue LEDs in each, so its very bright. I can also have the blue and white lights on to make the white even brighter

BTW - I wasn't rippin' your "eyeball" light install , I think it's cool to do it differently

. Keep it up !

Thats ok mate. I dint think you were. It was just the statement abt there being no advantage to it unless you have people in the back of the car, so i thought id give a reason. Oh yeh, soon i will be able to switch all the interior lights in the car from blue to white with 1 button. Good for being able to see, plus it stops the old people (parents) from moaning abt the "funny light" lol