What's the easiest/safest way of removing the overhead console? I've had bad experiences with Ford headliners coming off the board in the past, so I have some reservations about working so closely to the headliner material. I'm thinking about switching to blue LEDs for the console lamps to cut down on infrared emissions.

 

Place your fingers of both hands in front of the overhead light, and thumbs behind, and pull down with your fingers. The metal clips of the plastic trim piece fit into metal holes on the roof. The metal clips do not penetrate through the headliner material. You should have no worries about damaging the headliner.

 

Yes, to the above poster's reply, here is a pic of the console pulled loose. As you can see, the clips, left and right, do not go through the headliner...

Mike

 

what exactly is in the upper console besides lights? pls excuse the dumness.

 

If your car is so equipped, it also contains motion sensors for the active alarm system.....

Mike

 

Good info here. I was wondering about that. I'm also going to replace my overhead blubs with LED's.

White ones, I'm not concerned about infared emissions......

 

ahhh ,ok mine does have active anti theft.thanks for the info.

 

Will I damage the motion sensors by removing the overhead console?

 

Here's something cool I observed. I bought these 1W blue LEDs but they were power LEDs (ones that aimed straight at the end) so I was hesitant to use them. I had an old overhead console from another car that I played around with and found the reflector to be similar to the S197 overhead console so there's a reflector and diffuser.

The blue LED works very closely towards the UV wavelength. It made fluorescents and white colors appear MUCH sharper than they normally appear and it also cuts down on my IR emissions.

 

How about reading a map at night? That would be hard to do with the blue wouldn't it?

Red would be better for that, it also doesn't spoil your night vision as much. I used to use a red light lense over a mini mag light for looking at charts and such. Worked pretty well.

 

Nope. I had my overhead console out when I installed my Raptor. It's pretty sturdy.

Mike

 

I saw some stress marks on the base of one of the clips. I guess I yanked too hard on one side and it sort of pulled towards the other. I never like working on interior body panels because I have a tendency to break stuff.

Anyhow, I'm going to order different LEDs because of how they're mounted. Rather than use any of the traditional LEDs, I'm going to use a flanked LED where a 6-LED die directly faces the diffuser. That should give quite a bit of light output.

I did some experimenting with map reading and the blue light worked very well. It caused the fluorescents and whites to glow like they were under a UV light. The benefits also include reduced IR emissions and the ability to hurt vampires a little (some UV light). I'll post some pics when it's ready, or if I have to go back to the drawing board.

 

cut down on infared emissions, thats funny...