What is this thing?

Courtesy light. Missing bulb

boy, that makes me feel dumb haha. thank you.

Tighten it to the dash so it gets a better ground, add a 631 bulb (or LED equivalent like I did!) And it should illuminate whenever the driver or passenger door is opened.

Bofa said:

boy, that makes me feel dumb haha. thank you.

Click to expand...

The only stupid question is the one not asked, besides, now you know! They were completely missing on my dad's convertible. I didn't even know they existed at all until I got my '66. Only noticed when I put in a new under dash wiring harness in his car.

There should be 2 of these courtesy lights, 1 on each side.

boy, that makes me feel dumb haha

I've had a bunch of old Chevys and Volkswagens. I had never seen a light under the dash, or one that looked like these, without the bulb in it you have no context to figure out what it might be. That was a perfectly good question.

I was going through a tech check in at a car show and they said "your glove box light doesn't work". I told them that my car must not have been a high enough trim package to have one, but it has the switch for the glove box door to strike. He pointed out that the light bulb fits into a socket on the back side of the switch housing and said " if you go get a bulb and put it in, we'll give you all 100 points for the tech check." I learned something new and got the points for the show.

there is one on the passenger side, I just didn't think about it.

welcome though

The mustang was designed as a secretaries car. The lights are there so you can check out here legs while she takes you for a ride.

supershifter2 said:

The mustang was designed as a secretaries car. The lights are there so you can check out here legs while she takes you for a ride.

Click to expand...

Why is it when Oddjob threw his hat at a statue, it cut the statue's head off. But when he threw his hat at this girl, it killed her but didn't cut off her head?

I spent my money on the car, I didn’t know I needed to hire a secretary.

supershifter2 said:

The mustang was designed as a secretaries car. The lights are there so you can check out here legs while she takes you for a ride.

Click to expand...

Seriously thought he was in his underwear.

I love footwell lighting...Just enough to see what you need to see in a vehicle without being blinded. No need for a dome light.

Always removed the bulbs when I was a teenager, parking for extended periods with the doors open could drain the battery

supershifter2 said:

Ken Miles even made fun of the mustang by calling it a secretaries car. After the camaro came out in 67 Ford decided to make the mustang a hot rodders car with the 390 engine option.

Click to expand...

I agree that it was recognized as a secretaries car, which is why the 289 HiPo and GT equipment group options were introduced, much earlier than 1967. As far as the Camaro comment, I don't think that it happened exactly that way. If it was after the Camaro "came out" in the fall of 1966, the 390 would have not been available at job 1 of the 1967 model year, which it was. Having engineered a few items for Ford and GM that went into production, I can assure you that the planning and design efforts to support the first 390 in a production Mustang in August-September of 1966 would have been well under way by the fall of 1965, if not before that. There must have been enough intelligence available to get approval for the plans, and that intelligence might have included some knowledge of what GM was doing. It is pretty difficult to keep secrets for long.

supershifter2 said:

The mustang was designed as a secretaries car. The lights are there so you can check out here legs while she takes you for a ride.

Click to expand...

100 MPH with the windows down and her scarf never moved...

100 mph with tungsten bulbs in the headlights looks like a pair of bathroom candles coming down the road

Ah yes, underdash light.
Long time ago I disassembled a spare dash, pulled the little blue cups (for dash illumination) and put over the bulb at this socket. Not sure if i will do that with my coupe project. Maybe for old times sake lol