OCC rear door panel lights

So I was a little surprised when I bought my new OCC to see that it had door panel lights under the front door arm rests, but only block-off plates under the rear door arm rests. Looked cheap. My Roady had them both front and rear...and I know, this is NOT a Buick, but it's a fancy Oldsmobile and the lack of lights looked cheap to me.



On taking the rear door panel off to replace the window motor, I noticed that there was an open wire-plug in the door. which I fugured was for door lights. GM went to the trouble of installing the wire, but not the light....haha. Also, the light area under the arm rest was still there, just covered with a block-off plate that snapped right out.

SO this morning at the salvage yard I nabbed a set of rear lights from a Roady sedan. The only issue was, they came from a brown car. On getting home I took the lenses off and painted the housings Satin Black with Krylon Fusion for plastic paint. I fugure since the trim around the door handles/pulls is satin black, so the trim around the lights could be too.

Since I had the front door panels off too, for the new speakers, I popped out the front door panel lights and painted the housings on them black too....so it'd all match front and rear.

Well it's dark and my phone camera sucks, but I think it came out great and looks factory. It's the little things that make me happy!





- Mike

Those look really nice. I wonder if the wiring for them would exist in my Caprice wagon? I have to get into one of the back doors to fix a power window, so I might look for that wiring while I'm there. I rather doubt it exists, but if I find it, I may just put it to use.

In this photo you can clearly see the black female plug for the door lights. It's pointing straight up in the dead-center of the door. The male plug from the Roady sedan lights I nabbed at the salvage yard clipped right in.



Neat and easy mod.

-Mike

Here's a few better "after" pics. Neat mod!




Painted the housings black on the front doors to match the rears.

Those do look really sharp--and the door panels look to be exact clones of the ones in my Caprice. Now you've got me hoping that I'll find that wiring in there! I was kind of thinking the other day (while wiring in my garage) that "gosh, it'd be nice to have some lights in the doors".

I didn't even notice that my doors also have the carpet-lined little compartment at the bottom!

I like them a lot Mike but I am going to paint my trim the same color as the rest of the door.Thats
a very easy mod.
Thanks Buddy

Hmm. I Have a pair of those in grey in my parts bin. I wonder if my car has the plugs in the doors too....

Flasheroo wrote:

I like them a lot Mike but I am going to paint my trim the same color as the rest of the door.Thats
a very easy mod.
Thanks Buddy

If I'd had the right color blue SEM handly I would have, but since the panels were off I wanted to get the lights mounted, and I had that can of Satin Black Krylon Fusion on the shelf.

Such fun!

-Mike

I would have went with blue instead of black. I am sure you will find a set of TBI blue lights. Did you find handles yet. I cold check on that TBI Roady sedan tomorrow for lights and handles before leaving for 2 weeks.

uxwbill wrote:

Those do look really sharp--and the door panels look to be exact clones of the ones in my Caprice. Now you've got me hoping that I'll find that wiring in there!

Cadet57 wrote:

Hmm. I Have a pair of those in grey in my parts bin. I wonder if my car has the plugs in the doors too....

Very doubtful as your cars are Caprices. I had to run the wires to install my rear door courtesy lights for my 95 Caprices.