Vannin' Home Forums General Discussion Upholstery and Interior mods Stock fluorescent lights in a van?

Ok,

not actually stock since my van in a conversion van but, last week while I was cleaning out the van for Friday night with my friends I happened to place my fingers over the edge of the accent panels above the seats in the back. To my surprise I felt what I can only describe as fluorescent lights. There are three of them. two on the driver side for the middle and back rows and one on the passenger side for the back row. I friend of mine, whom I consider to be an expert in the automotive world, tells me that they have to be AC lights as fluorescents will only work on AC. Can anyone else give me any info on what I may have found? I haven't really begun taking things apart yet to get to them, but I hope to soon. Mostly what I'm looking for is, are they AC or DC lights and if they're AC where would the inverter most likely be hiding.

Thanks,

Mike S.

Florescent lights can also work on 12vdc. Your automotive genius friend's statements must now be taken with a grain of salt or 3

Yup. There are fluorescent 12vDC lights these days, but if you have an older van you most likely had LED rope lighting (or even incandescent rope lighting). Your friend might know a lot about wrenching, but he is not an automotive lighting expert.

Well, I took the panels off yesterday and spent the day today figuring out what I was looking at. Turns out the DC is concerted to AC at the light itself. Some sort of electronics board and a coil. They DO work. I figured after all this time the original electronics would have failed. They look pretty cool too. I'm still trying to figure out how the whole picture thing works and when I do, I'll share some progress pics. Thanks for the help y'all,

Mike S.

If you want something really cool, do what I did in my old van and install a switch to flip between your van's interior white lights and your (soon to be?) fluorescent ultraviolet lights... ;0)

You *can* find small fluorescent black light bulbs. I prefer their look to the UV LEDs which are also widely available. Try checking with a place like www.bulbs.com for starters. If you look on the glass near the ends of your bulbs the data about their size and wattage may still be in place.

Sounds like your fixture does use an oscillator/inverter to obtain the high voltage AC, the same way the higher voltage is derived in laptop LCD screen lights and cold cathode lights.

You've just got to love that old electronics; even when they made things cheap, it often kept on ticking and ticking. You can't bank on that anymore; cheap parts now are more like a lit fuse!

Hey guys,

I just figured out how to post pictures so I thought I would share with y'all.

This first picture is of the electronics that run each fluorescent light.

This second picture is of the new light bulbs in place without the panels reinstalled. I do have them installed, but haven't grabbed a picture yet. Will in the next few days hopefully.


Cup holder I built and stained last night.


Enjoy,

Mike S.

Looking good

Wow! You DO have fluorescent tubes in your van. I have never heard of that before. Looks pretty cool, as does your cupholder. Nice work!