Clear Dome Light Cover
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 106
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From: Carrollton, Texas
Clear Dome Light Cover Has anyone ever found a clear dome light cover, either plastic or glass, or tried to sand the original plastic one smooth to get it clearer? Really annoys me how little light it lets through. I'm not sure if sanding it is going to work at all, so hoping that anyone who's got some bodywork experience or something can tell me if it's worth a shot or not.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 106
Likes: 0
From: Carrollton, Texas
I've already installed a red 9 LED festoon in it, just trying to find ideas to let more of the light pass through, since red doesn't go through the hazed lens much. For now, I was at least able to make it slightly better by using some bare copper 20 gauge wire to "hang" the light off the posts to turn it to face downward.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 106
Likes: 0
From: Carrollton, Texas
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I think this would be way too much work for I think no gain. I am not trying to discourage you at all, I'm just speaking from what Ive dealt with using LEDs, creative ways to reflect it and light diffusion. Clearing the lens may actually make the output worse imo as more of the light will be focused right under the source. My suggestion if you want a good chance to pump up the brightness and aren't afraid of a bit of fabbing is to to get some thin, like 1/16" abs plastic sheets and use a heat gun to try different options making a reflector. Paint your fabbed reflector gloss or satin white, ~or another option is to get aluminum tape to create actual metallic finish. If you did that leave the aluminum surface how it comes and don't try to polish it as chrome type finish on this type of small lamp is not going to be optimal.
I think your key is gonna be in a good reflector to fully optimize the light you already have.
I think your key is gonna be in a good reflector to fully optimize the light you already have.
Last edited by LT4vert; Mar 4, 2014 at 08:54 PM.
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You could also try led strips. I took Alpena MAXLED 24" Red lighting strips and cut them down to fit. You can get 2 strips of 3 led's to fit for 6 total and They. Are. Bright. The package for these say "80%" more light output" and "do not look directly at them" and they're correct. I was seeing spots for a good 20 minutes.
I bought the red ones at Advance Autoparts. Your local Advance may have them in white but Amazon does for sure.
I never tried a red festoon led because the board is always parallel to the lead loops, which when mounted, would direct the light out the back of the car... horrible design.
EDIT: As you can see from the pics, the non-clear dome cover actually conceals the wiring. Also the red came out yellow in the pics, trust me, they're red.
I bought the red ones at Advance Autoparts. Your local Advance may have them in white but Amazon does for sure.
I never tried a red festoon led because the board is always parallel to the lead loops, which when mounted, would direct the light out the back of the car... horrible design.
EDIT: As you can see from the pics, the non-clear dome cover actually conceals the wiring. Also the red came out yellow in the pics, trust me, they're red.
Last edited by TallgeeseIV; Mar 5, 2014 at 10:54 AM.
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 106
Likes: 0
From: Carrollton, Texas
I know red isn't good for light output by any means, but it matches up to the rest of my car. Everything in the interior is red, wouldn't look right with one random white bulb.https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-exterior.html
I know red isn't good for light output by any means, but it matches up to the rest of my car. Everything in the interior is red, wouldn't look right with one random white bulb.https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...-exterior.html
Thread Starter
On The Tree
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 106
Likes: 0
From: Carrollton, Texas
Yeah lol it's a good chunk of change to try and do all at once. Definitely worth it in the end though, and I'm digging your LED strip setup for the dome light. That'd be a piece of cake to wire up. 
Oh yeah, it's easy. Took me 15 minutes with a philips head, wire cutters and a couple wire butt connectors. I intentionally bent the inner metal piece wings flatter so the side led's would face down as well. The worst part was the price of the strip. Almost $40 and I only used 1/3 of it. Felt like a waste, though I'm sure if I hadn't bought it on impulse I could have found it online for half that.
Haha, yeah, most of the time they aren't that bad. Advance had another brand's 24" red LED strips for $20 and they both had test buttons. There was no comparison in terms of brightness, I had to go with the $36 ones.
