Firebird Glovebox Fix
Thread Starter
Copy & Paste Moderator
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 9,761
Likes: 206
From: Eastern MA
Firebird Glovebox Fix I fixed the droop in my glovebox and improved lighting in it.
Added cabinet bumper to bump that pushes plunger to turn off the light. This makes it more reliably turn off and stay off when the glovebox door is closed.
To fix the droop, I added a magnetic catch to the right side of the glovebox. I replaced the rubber bumper with a steel bolt and mounted a magnet to the dash directly above where the bumper would strike. However, there is no plastic or metal exactly where the magnet needed to be so I to use a strip of metal to be able to attach it. The magnet is screwed to the metal strip and the metal strip is held in with 3M Trim Tape and a screw. The screw ties into the plastic behind the dash cover in that spot. I'm thinking of painting the bracket black because its not the prettiest right now.
That ipod is an older one that has been in the car for years. A few years ago, I swapped out the hard drive in it to an SD card via an adapter so I'm not worried about the magnet being two inches from it.
This is packaging of the magnet I bought at Home Depot. I bought this a while back for my custom center console. Since it is a 2 Pack, I used one on the console a while back and still had a 2nd one around which I used on the glovebox.
I replaced the bulb with an LED and noticed it was aimed towards the front of the car away from what's in the glovebox, so I used aluminum tape to make a reflector to reflect the light back down into the glovebox.
The reflector may not be the prettiest, but its also not particularly visible from the seat especially with stuff in the glovebox.
I did this all with stuff I had lying around. I got my car back from storage last weekend and have been slowly doing small mods and fixes that have been waiting.
Added cabinet bumper to bump that pushes plunger to turn off the light. This makes it more reliably turn off and stay off when the glovebox door is closed.
To fix the droop, I added a magnetic catch to the right side of the glovebox. I replaced the rubber bumper with a steel bolt and mounted a magnet to the dash directly above where the bumper would strike. However, there is no plastic or metal exactly where the magnet needed to be so I to use a strip of metal to be able to attach it. The magnet is screwed to the metal strip and the metal strip is held in with 3M Trim Tape and a screw. The screw ties into the plastic behind the dash cover in that spot. I'm thinking of painting the bracket black because its not the prettiest right now.
That ipod is an older one that has been in the car for years. A few years ago, I swapped out the hard drive in it to an SD card via an adapter so I'm not worried about the magnet being two inches from it.
This is packaging of the magnet I bought at Home Depot. I bought this a while back for my custom center console. Since it is a 2 Pack, I used one on the console a while back and still had a 2nd one around which I used on the glovebox.
I replaced the bulb with an LED and noticed it was aimed towards the front of the car away from what's in the glovebox, so I used aluminum tape to make a reflector to reflect the light back down into the glovebox.
The reflector may not be the prettiest, but its also not particularly visible from the seat especially with stuff in the glovebox.
I did this all with stuff I had lying around. I got my car back from storage last weekend and have been slowly doing small mods and fixes that have been waiting.
Last edited by VIP1; May 2, 2020 at 01:55 AM.
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 34,605
Likes: 2,508
From: Schiller Park, ILL Member: #317
This is interesting, after owning several of these cars over many years I've never encountered a problem with the operation of this light. I wasn't aware this could be an issue for some. I sometimes see folks complain of battery drain events that don't seem to have any obvious culprit - I wonder how often this might be the explanation?
