Interior Lights Wiring with Door Switches

This weekend I tackled the dome and interior lighting inside the bus. These had worked previously but I had never hooked them back up after I got it back from paint.

Here are what my goals were:

• Lights are always able to be switched on regardless of key in the ignition
• Driver, Passenger and Slider will turn lights on upon open. 
• Manual switch to turn lights on from drivers seat. 
• Support each dome light being able to be turned off and on. 
• Add under dash lights. 
• Run off of auxiliary battery

I looked around and couldn't find a diagram of the Bus Dome lights. I created this diagram:



I bought door switches (306-169) and rubber surrounds  from Mid America Motorworks. I installed them on the Driver, Passenger and Slider door. They ground out when the door is opened, hence turning the light on.

Here is a picture of the door switch on the Driver side:


I had purchased the Dome Lights a while back. MAM has those too (383-877)

Basically this was all pretty easy. I guess the "A-Ha" moment was when I figured out in order to do multiple switches, you were switching the Ground and not the power. Once I figured out that, it became a matter of running wires through the channel. I got lucky a couple times and wire veered through the hole.

After I got the dome lights in place, I decided I wanted to put lights under the dash. I had some 12v small LEDs that I got from SuperBrightLEDs.com and hooked those up. There are two support braces that go from the front wall to the dash. They support the Emergency Brake Lever. I placed two of these LEDs on either bar. One points down and one points to the respective side. Wired them up and went from there.

Here's a Picture of the installed and ON lights.


The light is AWESOME. So happy with this. When I get in the car I can see the floor. It's awesome. Also, I'm planning on getting some under dash trays. This will help significantly when finding things at night.

Another thing I added was a little Pull switch on the dash next to the headlight switch.



My dad informed me that VW put pre-cut holes in the metal for additional switches. I found one, used a razor to cut out the fabric and wha-la!  Basically this makes it so you can turn on the lights when you're in and the doors are closed. The only thing I may do is put in an override switch for the lights under the dash. The overhead dome lights have a toggle to turn them off manually (say if the door is open and you're sleeping). Right now, I think a good addition would be a way that turned them on manually. Like if you're driving at night and needed to see a tray.


For my Dome lights, I just ordered one of these each from SuperBrightLEDs.com



I don't know why I'm all about the LEDs. I think because I'm trying to conserve Electricity and these are so efficient, they don't burn out AND they're not really affected by vibration.

That's about it. I have to get some more pics up here to finish out this post. I'll take them tonight on my way home.

Casey