License Plate Light Modification
Here are a couple of pictures of the mods that I made to the
Drake license plate light. The
Drake unit is made to be mounted as an assembly with machine screws from
the INSIDE of a vehicle. (The Drake unit also has to be removed
from the vehicle to remove the housing to change the bulb...) This
modification allows the unit to be installed on the trailer with screws from inside
the housing -as was the case with original Hollywood light. It does
not add any additional holes to the outside of the light.
I started by removing the tabs on the inside of the
housing that accepted the screws that held it on from the back. (I can't
remember, but I think I used a Dremel tool.) I then made up the bracket
(painted grey) that you can see in the pictures. It is made of
about 1/16" (14 or 16 ga.) mild steel sheet. You can see a
cut out area that clears the lens opening. You can see two tabs on each
end of it that are bent down, and you can see two tapped holes. The tabs contact
the bottom of the housing when it is screwed in place. They provide just
enough space for the lens to fit between the bracket and the housing (but do
not clamp the lens tightly as this might crack it). I tapped the
holes in the bottom of the bracket 6-32 (for two 3/8" 6-32
flat head stainless steel screws). The housing is held on by the two
screws FROM THE BOTTOM ONLY.For these reasons, both the space and
the angle of the bracket tabs to housing fit has to be pretty good.
I made the bracket tabs a little long -then filed them to fit the
housing and lens. I then screwed these 3 parts together. I then held this
assembly in place on the backing plate, and marked the location
for the holes for the bolts that hold the bracket to the
backing plate. I then took it apart, drilled it, painted it, and
reassembled it.
Though not quite as good as designed by Drake, this
modification maintains the same appearance (no extra holes) and is still
reasonably weather resistant if carefully made. As modified, I feel
that it is still a better design than the original Hollywood item.
I hope you can make sense of this. I probably added a bit more
info than you need. As you can see from the pictures, is it pretty
simple. You can probably also see that this mod does involve a
bit of trial and error and filing and fitting. Perhaps
something else will come to your mind that is better and simpler?