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Glovebox Lighting AND Cigar Lighter Mod

2K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  nuke21 
#1 · (Edited)
I saw an old thread of a glovebox light mod. A lot of our cars did not come with a glovebox light. There is a parts list if you want to add that extremely dim factory light and pay for a lot of parts you don't need. Or you can follow my guide and feel a lot more satisfied with a project you did yourself. While you are there you can do this cigar lighter mod AND the lighting mod, for less than you would pay just for the dim factory setup.

This is what your glovebox can look like for around $20.00. This picture was taken at midnight with camera flash off and all other interior lights off. It is VERY bright. I think it has a factory look to it, even with the cigar lighter there on the left.


Remove the glovebox and panel on the right side of the radio.

If you want the cigar lighter plug, a great addition if you want a DVD player in your glovebox or want to charge your phone or something, just to keep it out of the way and looking nice. I put it in my glovebox so I can have my miricast dongle so I can mirror my phone while driving (Pictures at end of post)

I paid under $1.80 with Free Shipping for the plug. Search for "Motorcycle Cigarette Lighter Plug" on eBay


That cigar lighter plug fit perfectly for me even though I am sure ones a little longer would fit too.

I used the outer circle to help me draw the circle I needed to cut out.


I used this piece inside of the previous circle. This gave me the actual size I wanted to cut


This location of the plug is the only practical spot to put it. Trust me I spent a couple hours sizing and measuring for a lot of other places in the glovebox. Any other feasible spot I tried made it impossible to put the glove box back in due to it snagging on the metal frame.


What it looks like done (I removed the rubber cover because I didn't care for it.)


Those are shaving on in the glovebox incase you thought it was all scratched up.


I then made the wires for it using these plastic male and female connectors with plastic around them. I got these on eBay as well for $3 Free shipping. They were called "Female Male Fully Insulated Wire Crimp Terminalas Nylon Connectors Wiring Spade" I got the red ones because I don't need the blue or yellow (Which are for a lot bigger wires) Take a male and female and push them together before you use them. A lot of these are VERY tight fit so you take their virginity and make them a lot easier to work with when you don't already have a wire attached to them.


I added an inline fuse just incase. I used a 3A. Later on you see a picture where I cut one of the ground ends to add the light ground to it so you might want to hold off on doing both ends of the ground wire if you plan on adding the lighting.


I went to autolumination.com/strips.htm and bought one "12 Volt Super-Thin Flexible Pre-Wired Modular Light Strips" and color choice was "Cool White" It came out to $7 including shipping. Cool white is the brightest. Warm white has a yellow tint to it.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
I also bought "GM OEM Front Console-Switch 94580496" on eBay for $4 free shipping. You need this to activate the light when you open the glove box.


I cleaned the spot where I wanted to add the light bar. It comes with an adhesive backing. I used rubbing alcohol to remove hand oils and also drill shavings from adding the cigar lighter.




I pulled the wires up through the top and clipped one of the ends of the ground one. I cut the excess lighting ground wire length and then I wrapped the light ground around the wire ground so I could crimp them together. If you don't plan to have the cigar lighter then don't cut the length of the ground wire. Just add a red female connector end to it instead to plug into the connector located by the radio which you will see later on.




I then went into the car and clipped the orange wire that the trunk release is connected to. I could have found the pin and made it look more factory by adding it to the glove box connecter part but finding pins is a pain in the ass plus this will be impossible to see when the car is put back together. So I decided to just cut it and add one of the red connectors we bought earlier.




I then trailed the positive wire along the trunk release wires. I had to strip about an inch of the insulation from the light positive wire so I could fold it over. It is so thin you need to fold it over a couple if times so it is thick enough not to fall out of the red connector after you crimp it. You will also need a piece of scrap wire so you can connect the switch to the orange wire you just cut.



Now comes the hardest part. Pay attention to this because you can break the switch and/or crack your glove box if you don't do this right. The glove box will not easily go back now that it has the switch in place. There is a metal bar in the way (The one the blue wire is draped over.) If you have tiny fingers (Like myself) you can remove the connections from the switch, and laying on your back get enough wiggle room to get it past the bar then just connect the wires to the switch again. Don't put screws in the glovebox top before you do this. I left the screws out and you get about an inch of play without them because you are using the 2 guide dowels located on the glovebox (You see one behind the switch when you remove the glovebox).

Your second option if you have a helping hand is to have the wires plugged in and have someone kind of swing the glove box down to you while you guide the switch and plugged in wires past the metal bar. I am sure these two paragraphs sound very confusing, but it will make a lot more sense when you are on your back looking at it.


Connect the power wire and the trunk release while you are already down there on your back. Along with the 2 screws for the bottom of the glove box.
 
#3 · (Edited)
You will find this connector to the right side of the radio. In AUS, the Commodores have a DVD player in the glove box, and this is where they get the power for it. We are using it for the cigar lighter we just put in. (This panel is a pain in the butt to get back on with the glove box already in but you have to put the panel back last since you have to connect the wires. There is like a ledge on this panel piece and it likes to get stuck on the glove box when putting it back so if you may have to put some inward pressure when trying to get it to go up.
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The cigar lighter will act just like all the others do in the car. You will only get power to it when the key is forward. This is power side controlled, so the ground will always be connected which is why I tied in the lighting ground to this ground. The power wire for the light is constant so you will always have the glove box light when you open it regardless if the key is in the ignition or not. If you only did the lighting mod, then you won't have to worry about plugging in a red wire here, just plug in the ground.

If you have VIM, you can pull your wires through the same spot the lighting wires went through (Which is the inch hole on the top where the factory light would go. Make sure you do this before you add the glove box. I forgot to and spent 15 minutes fishing them through.


This is my current setup. This has my HDMI to RCA converter along with my HDMI miricast device, along with my back-up side arm.
 
#4 ·
You will find this connector to the right side of the radio. In AUS, the Commodores have a DVD player in the glove box, and this is where they get the power for it. We are using it for the cigar lighter we just put in. (This panel is a pain in the butt to get back on with the glove box already in but you have to put the panel back last since you have to connect the wires. There is like a ledge on this panel piece and it likes to get stuck on the glove box when putting it back so if you may have to put some inward pressure when trying to get it to go up.
Sensitive content, not recommended for those under 18
Show Content


The cigar lighter will act just like all the others do in the car. You will only get power to it when the key is forward. This is power side controlled, so the ground will always be connected which is why I tied in the lighting ground to this ground. The power wire for the light is constant so you will always have the glove box light when you open it regardless if the key is in the ignition or not. If you only did the lighting mod, then you won't have to worry about plugging in a red wire here, just plug in the ground.

If you have VIM, you can pull your wires through the same spot the lighting wires went through (Which is the inch hole on the top where the factory light would go. Make sure you do this before you add the glove box. I forgot to and spent 15 minutes fishing them through.


This is my current setup. This has my HDMI to RCA converter along with my HDMI miricast device.
Do you use a wifi network for your Miracast?
 
#6 ·
That's been my issue, but I couldn't find a screen cast without wifi
 
#7 ·
Netgear Miracast 3000 is what I am using but it is being finicky after I updated to Android 6.0. I am going to see if there is an update for the device before I downgrade my phone. I also heard that Microsoft makes a pretty good one but it is about 60 bucks
 
#9 ·
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