Lenses for (long-discontinued) "Guest" 12v interior dome lights?

I've been replacing interior bulbs with LED festoons and have a couple of fixtures that could benefit from new lenses. Can't find replacement lenses anywhere.

Anyone know where replacement lenses can be found? Or, failing that, have a couple of similar fixtures you've pulled out and might want to sell

These are the dome lenses with two small (4-40) screws that hold them into the fixture.

Thanks in advance!

Bruce

(PS - the Perko replacement lenses are a bit too large, and are held inside the rim of the fixture rather than screwing onto the outside edge. Tried and failed).

I found when replacing the bulbs with LEDs that two of the fixtures were corroded at the point where the bulb bracket meets the housing.

I would suggest you replace the entire fixture rather than preserving the old ones. It's almost as cheap to buy a new fixture as it is to buy an LED.

I have replaced one complete single-bulb fixture ("Meta") on my '88, with an Alpenglow light. Not cheap, but they use a low-amp technology and the quality is excellent. The teak frame goes very well with the Ericson cabinetry.

There is one change you will need to make: above your vinyl headliner is a plywood pad, held in place by a couple screws into the underside of the balsa.
This pad is probably rectangular and about the same width as your present light fixture. It has a wiring access hole in the center and a channel routed in the backside for wire routing. Nothing very technical, but what this did was allow the fixture to appear to "float" on the vinyl surface with no change in surface level. Nicely done, Ericson.

When you change to a larger fixture footprint like the Alpenglow, to name only one of many choices, you need to remove that piece of plywood and insert a larger one to match your new light. That is what you screw the perimeter screws into for your new light frame.

I did this for our new light over the galley. The Alpenglow has hi/low red night lighting, and hi/low white for general illumination.
https://www.alpenglowlights.com/overhead-light-info.html

Yup. This will likely involve removing a trim piece and then about 50 staples or so to gain access to the back side of the headliner...... unless you have a headliner zipper located very near.

OTOH, if you like the challenge of refurbishing the old fixture, go for it. After three decades, though, all these parts do start reaching the end of their reliable lifespan.

Regards,
Loren

mfield said:

I found when replacing the bulbs with LEDs that two of the fixtures were corroded at the point where the bulb bracket meets the housing.

I would suggest you replace the entire fixture rather than preserving the old ones. It's almost as cheap to buy a new fixture as it is to buy an LED.

Click to expand...

Yeah, these fixtures are pretty pristine (hey, this was Thelonious!).

And as an aside, I wish I understood if there is a real difference between "Dr. LED" bulbs and others. In broad terms,
-- a new LED fixture is about $55
-- a Dr. LED "conversion" is about $30, but
-- a 42mm "warm white" festoon bulb from MarineBeam is about $9.

So far, the MarineBeam bulbs are working just great.

bgary said:

Yeah, these fixtures are pretty pristine (hey, this was Thelonious!).

And as an aside, I wish I understood if there is a real difference between "Dr. LED" bulbs and others. In broad terms,
-- a new LED fixture is about $55
-- a Dr. LED "conversion" is about $30, but
-- a 42mm "warm white" festoon bulb from MarineBeam is about $9.

So far, the MarineBeam bulbs are working just great.

Click to expand...

Marinebeams=Great!

It is true that LEDS draw hardly any juice.

But for me the thinking went this way: in the slip, with a crowd drinking and dancing, the boat is lit up gloriously with old incandescent bulbs---all of them on, in winter.

Very warm, and burning 110.

At anchor (or more likely a Catalina mooring), one or two LEDS is all we need. A kerosense lamp lends ambience. The, er, stars shine above, etc. Phosphorescent jellyfish light the sea as in Life of Pi. And my wife falls asleep at nine p.m.

Ergo, who needs a lots of LEDS belowdecks?

It is one way of looking at it, anyhow.

LOL. Changes in latitude? Long winter nights reading a book on anchor --> lots of LEDs.
110V lights seemed like just a redundant system that is not needed any more.

I did go with the long strips of LED's, which turned out to be relatively expensive and the adhesive craps out after a year or so. So now I'm gradually pinning them up there with plastic Romex staples and #4 screws. I screwed a little strip of mahogany scrap in front of them to hide the hardware and deflect direct glare.

Anyhow, they're on dimmers, and I put strips of red LEDs over the chart table and the galley for "night running." One of them actually turned more yellow after a year. ? My aging eyes can't actually read charts by the light of those red LED's anyway. When added to the white ones, they do make the light "warmer" though. It all makes a nice even light through the boat. When dialed up to max, it's around 4 amps.

Recently, I picked up some LED reading lights for my guest room at IKEA. The power cords all terminate in USB plugs that you plug in to a wall wart, but could equally plug in to your 12V adapter. They were $15 - $30 and look like they could easily be adapted to boat use.

bgary said:

Yeah, these fixtures are pretty pristine (hey, this was Thelonious!).

And as an aside, I wish I understood if there is a real difference between "Dr. LED" bulbs and others. In broad terms,
-- a new LED fixture is about $55
-- a Dr. LED "conversion" is about $30, but
-- a 42mm "warm white" festoon bulb from MarineBeam is about $9.

So far, the MarineBeam bulbs are working just great.

Click to expand...

So, 42mm is the right size for the Guest dome lights?

GrandpaSteve said:

So, 42mm is the right size for the Guest dome lights?

Click to expand...

These have worked great for me: https://store.marinebeam.com/42mm-1-11-16-festoon-led-bulb-6-led-power-cluster/

$9.50 each in the "warm white" version.

GrandpaSteve said:

So, 42mm is the right size for the Guest dome lights?

Click to expand...

Thanks. Good luck finding your lenses. My dome lights are in great shape, I did have to replace one socket, but the sockets are readily available. I am going to try LEDs from EBAY - http://www.ebay.com/itm/251647337668. At $4.00 for half a dozen there is not much risk if I don't like them.

White * Off * Red

The OEM lights came with an On * Off switch to control dual festoon incandescent bulbs, which certainly made the interior bright but also sucked juice quickly. A winter project completed in '12/'13, successfully, was to rewire the OEM fixtures with a switch permitting On * Off * Red.

Marine Beam helped with the 'how-to explanation' and provided the red & white LED's. The most time consuming part of the process was locating the 2-pole switches (7) to fit the OEM housing. The attached pic, with commentary, includes a diagram that helped while wiring.

We can now run in pitch black conditions with the cabin fully lit in either red or white and the 'draw needle' barely moves. Minimal expense and maximum satisfaction.

GrandpaSteve said:

At $4.00 for half a dozen there is not much risk if I don't like them.

Click to expand...

One thing I've heard (I'm no expert, just passing along what I've heard) is that some LEDs have circuitry that allows them to be more tolerant of fluctuations in voltage, and some do not.

MarineBeam's blurb is here: https://store.marinebeam.com/constant-current-1/

Have no idea if that is 'real' or 'marketing', but might be useful info.

bgary said:

One thing I've heard (I'm no expert, just passing along what I've heard) is that some LEDs have circuitry that allows them to be more tolerant of fluctuations in voltage, and some do not.

MarineBeam's blurb is here: https://store.marinebeam.com/constant-current-1/

Have no idea if that is 'real' or 'marketing', but might be useful info.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads-up.