Willys MB Jeep - MB365678

Of the many recent runs the jeep has been on, today has to be the smoothest and one of the most pleasant.
Off into the countryside early on a beautiful autumnal Sunday morning. Warm, sunny, with just a hint of breeze, close to perfect. Jeep runs smooth as silk and a veteran gentleman tips his hat to me with a big smile as I trundle by him Very satisfactory indeed.

For All Your Jeep & Dodge Needs
http://www.dallasautoparts.com/

Looking at other jeeps is often dangerous!
I noticed on a number of other jeeps and in some photos the panel lights on the dash were different to mine - longer! Not that I'm prone to extension envy, but when I looked into it there was a change made for the later jeeps which extended the dash light cover. Not sure why this was but it could be assumed it was to try to improve the visibilty of the lower instruments - the panel lights are pretty poor at the best of times.

So, that looked like a fix I could do myself. I thought I'd have to get a new set of extended covers but luckily James at Dallas Autos provided me with a set of extensions - Thanks James which allowed me to use the original short covers.

First photo shows the original covers "popped" off the dash. I did agonise about how these might come off but then just decided to rive at them and happily they succumbed quite easily.

The extensions themselves are very simple.

The bulb holders clip into the base of the cover, it needed a bit of prising with a small screwdriver to flip them out. Each holder has a 6V torch bulb in it (no wonder they're not bright!)

The bulb holders have to be grounded to the dash by a good bare metal to metal contact otherwise they will flicker or just stay off. I prepped the fitting holes and all the parts with a small half round file to remove rust and paint and expose shiny metal. This is what they look like when they're on. You can see I'm having to push the left hand one against the dash to make the ground (earth).

This is a pic of the extensions and the covers together.

I decided to paint the covers and extensions before re-fitting - Dallas Autos matt Olive Drab aerosol spray (my favourite!). To refit I did the right light by pushing the bulb holder straight into the assembled extended cover. The left light had a shorter wire so I did that by pushing in the extension first then fitting the holder into the cover and pushing that into the extension. They all fit together nicely but the cover to extension fit is very tight. Once assembled on the dash it looks a bit weird but a bit good too!

After fitting and testing I treated myself to a little tripette, just six miles but fantastic since work has kept me away from the jeep for over 2 weeks!
As they say in the adverts: This jeep Runs, Drives and Stops just like it should - looks nice too!

For All Your Jeep & Dodge Needs
http://www.dallasautoparts.com/