HOW TO... Replacing a Police Dome Light After 14 Years

A familiar accessory to anyone who has been around a police car is the snazzy dome light used in place of the vehicle's stock light.  It is known by many names... sun, ticket light, cop dome light, work light, etc.  The latest ones are LED and have both red and white lights.  But Vic 3.0 has the old clear-bulb version.  Wellp, somehow a crack had developed in the light's white plastic cover.   Earlier this month, I tried to push the crack in a bit, to make it look better, and instead I ended up with an actual hole.

Such a flaw is not tolerable.

So online I went, expecting to find tons of those plastic covers on Ebay.  I was surprised NOT to find many at all!  A few listings were what looked like cheap bulk lots.  I did manage to find a seller with NOS GM-bagged ones.  So they got my money, and I got the part.

While trying to pry the old cover off, it basically disintegrated in my hand.  On went the new one, and now things look a bit nicer.  

If YOU need to replace your dome cover, do a search for either "Signal Stat 77-570" or GM part number 10160922.  More digging will probably turn up a Ford part number as well.  

Sun Visor Guts

You may have read my earlier post regarding the sun visor replacement in Vic 2.0.  I decided to tear apart the old, broken one just to see what the insides look like.  Below are the resulting photos:

Floppy Sun Visor FIXED!!

Vic 2.0 is feeling a little happier now.  Last week I FINALLY just said "EH!" and went out to the driveway in the summer heat and cleaned the inside real good.  This included cleaning all the coffee off the cupholder.

The other day the windshield was replaced due to a small stone chip that grew into a bonafide crack. 

The next day, I installed my brand spankin' new sunvisor and retainer!

Since I help out at a local auto upholstery shop, I knew that it is easy to make a visor install a little confusing.  That comes from moving the pivot around too much.  All I needed was a 20mm torx and a small ratchet.  The only part of the install that was a hassle was the retainer hook.  For some reason, the locator pin on the back was in a totally different location.  I couldn't get it to push through the headliner, so I just broke it off.

I can now drive safely, free from blinding sun and a broken visor that wanted to make me drive off the road!

Double sided Velcro was all I had to keep the broken visor up after the retainer hook broke

The broken retainer clip, broken in a fit of anger by myself...

Part # for Medium Stone Gray retainer

Part # for the visor

The original part is on the left, note the different locator pin on the new part at right

Torx and ratchet

This is what the mounting location looks like

You can see how moving the pivot around too much can confuse installation for a short time

ALL DONE!  YAY!

Floppy Sun Visor...

Recently, Vic 2.0’s driver side sun visor started to bind up.  It felt like something wanted to break.  Sure enough, one day the visor flopped down and stayed there.  What resulted was various tests of materials wrapped around the visor retainer to keep it in the up position.  Tissues, Dunkin Donuts napkin, thin rubber sheet, and finally Velcro attached to itself.

Ebay searches didn’t turn up any used visors in the correct color of Medium Stone (or what appears to be that color!).  I ended up buying one that LOOKED correct, and the seller seemed to also think it was the right color, but once it arrived, it turned out to be too beige.   It didn’t cost much… will probably just relist…

First attempt to stop the flop... didn't work...

Anyhoo, yesterday things came to a head.  The visor kept flopping down at all the wrong times, causing me to drive over the white AND yellow lines so often I gave up and we now have a visor on order with a Ford dealer.  Oh, and in my anger, I accidentally broke the retainer hook that mounts to the headliner.  So that got ordered as well.  The parts guy told me there was “only 3 in the country”, though I don’t know if he meant the visor or the retainer.

Hopefully when the parts arrive, they will indeed be the correct color.  I gave the code to the parts guy, so we shall see what I actually end up with…