There’s a strange thing I’ve noticed for years but I don’t believe I’ve ever actually spoken about, at least not publicly. It’s about what I believe to be the only common car part that really and strangely resembles a whole, complete car. Well, not exactly complete; it’s more of a car part that looks like the front end of a completed car, complete with bodywork, headlights, turn indicators, hood/grille area, bumpers, a sense of specific style, and so on. But it’s just a part of a car, and it’s a pretty mundane part, too: a dome light assembly. The specific type of dome light I’m thinking of is one that incorporated a dome light and two independently switched map/reading lamps as well. The one I think of the most was used on GM cars from around 1970 to the mid-1980s, though Ford had a very similar version that was used around the same time period, and I remember these being in Ford trucks, especially. I call this strange visual recursiveness the Dome Light Phenomenon, and I really want to show it to you.
Here’s the part I’m thinking of:
Our own David Tracy remembered this very unit is in the Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle we dragged across America, so he took some pictures of it for me:
Actually, it looks like he has two! One mounted on the ceiling and with a brown-black plastic case, which I’ve not seen before, and then he also has one of the more common chrome ones, there on the floor. He also kindly pointed out the novel little tabbed round spring thing that holds the hemispherical lens in place for the map/reading light!
I know you’ve seen these before. They’re almost always on American cars (though I think some GM subsidiaries like Holden in Australia used these, too) and because they’re usually overhead, you may not have felt that they look particularly car-front-like. But, if you flip them 180° from their usual orientation and use your imagination to fill in the rest of the car, the standard GM Deluxe Dome Lamp with Map Lights actually makes a pretty attractive-looking car, at least in my head. Here’s how I always see it:
There’s something almost, I don’t know, 1975ish Chevy Vega-like about the look of it? I think it’s pretty attractive; sometimes I see a Porsche-like look there, if I choose not to imagine a radiator grille on the front of the plastic translucent ivory plastic that forms the Dome Light Car’s hood. And look how the switches for the map/reading lights perfectly become where the turn indicators would be! It just works!
The proportions are just so, well, car-like that I can’t help but wonder if some entry-level designer with big dreams yet condemned to crank out interior miscellanea like door handles and armrests and dome lights saw the dome light job as a clandestine opportunity to make their dreams of a full car design a reality, at least in small scale and, you know, only partially. Maybe this dome light is the front end of an incredibly beautiful car that we never got to see, except in this highly truncated and secret form?
If that is the case, this happened more than once, since Ford’s version of this same sort of dome light is a bit different, and lends itself to a different sort of car:
The slightly boxier and more upright Ford dome light seems to suggest a more upright kind of luxury car, something with a lot of dignity, like a late-1960s Mercedes-Benz or perhaps a Lincoln.
I’ve started the process of seeing if the designer of this dome lamp may be able to be found; if that’s possible, and I can locate the designer, I’ll ask them if the intent was to mimic an automotive front end, or if I’m just perpetually delirious. I also need to get one of these from a junkyard and try to use it to make a little sculpture of the full Dome Light Car, too.
That seems important.
Very ingenious! I see it more as a mid-’50s, Tatra or Skoda, awkward attempt at streamlining.
Honestly, I’m just impressed by Torch’s ability to produce an actual car design from a dome light. I can’t draw a straight line with a ruler…
I got the last two pictures of the dome light car noses, read down to “That seems important.” and then there was a targeted ad that showed up someones hairy nostrils from below, selling nose hair trimmers. Absolutely lost it. I don’t know what it is but the targeted ads here are phenomenal.
What medical regimen must you pursue, what long list of medications must you consume, to live and work with the rest of your fellow man, Torchinsky? 🙂
“I’ll ask them if the intent was to mimic an automotive front end, or if I’m just perpetually delirious.”
I’m pretty sure the answer to the first question has very little to do with the answer to the second question.
More in-car things should be car-themed. Examples:
Round vents could look like small wheels with fancy rims (same ones as on the car of course), tyre like imitated material on the outside would give a good grip on them when changing air flow direction.
Storage holes for phones and stuff could have a shape like the car’s silhouette. Just for fun.
Dashboard turn indicators could light up amber dots on a seen from above car shape. The one many cars has to show doors open and the like. Especially useful in BMWs so the owner can see what that stalk is actually for 😉
Along this line the vanity mirror covers on my 2011 Mustang are shaped like the hood of the car.
Actually the in dash realistic light repeaters should be mandatory!
Great for EV drivers to see when their brake lights are on when they ease off the throttle in the middle of the freeway with no one in front, confusing the hell out of the ones behind them.
Good for easier spotting if you only drive with the 5w “Africa” side lights on. And the main beams could be two large blue cones in front of (above) the car.
The dome light for a late 2000s Kia Sportage looks like the front of a bus, if the bus looked like Groucho Marx.
https://a.co/d/9pxpJey
Have you thought about hooking up a voltage regulator to yourself?
Clearly, there are some synapse firing issues.
I can’t tell if this is standard Torch or if it’s the lead talking.
I think those batteries he cut up might have been lithium, since this is mellowed out Torch.
It can’t be a real Torch article without references to obscure watering holes or bodily fluids.
Growing up, we had an 86 Pontiac Parisienne Safari that had one of these. That car was incredible, but I’d forgotten all about the dome light and the reading lamps! I remember crawling around the interior in the summertime playing with all the buttons and lights, and this feature ended up with quite a bit of my attention. It’s the little things.
“The Dome Light Phenomenon” would be a great band name for a jam band made up entirely of moonlighting Porsche mechanics with humanities degrees.
Ford Australia used these too. My dad’s Aussie ’80 XD Fairmont Ghia had this light, and when I moved to America and bought an ’85 LTD I was pleased to see the exact same one.
And thanks to the title of this post, I now have Hip Hop Phenomenon by BT stuck in my head. Thanks a lot.
No, seriously, thanks a lot! It’s an awesome track.
International player, pure poet, more devoted but more soul and yall know it.
I met that guy once, he’s rad.
The GM dome light housing reminded me of a Pinto for the same reasons it made you think of a Vega. If the Ford version had squared-off openings on either side, it’d be worth a Granada ‘Benz’ joke.
Geez I’ve gotta start looking up again, last time I looked they were round or a rectangular bar of soap thing and clipped in a silver base. I’ve not had a car with a round face.
Your knowledge of taillights, headlamps, and now interior lamps is probably going to be one of the most complete in the world; oems should come to you for creative solutions to lighting challenges. CHECK YOUR EMAIL. ChangLi-thium!
Actually it looks more like a radio insert. So radio insert looks like a car.
I saw that dome light picture and it triggered a distant memory for me, which I know sounds insane, but I was like “why did it look so familiar to me, I’ve never owned a car with one like that”.
Then I remembered that was what I was starring at as a child in the headliner of my parents old Grand Wagoneer. I was “that kid” who took zero naps, and never was able to fall asleep in cars no matter what age.
(Checks new Autopian shirt)
Hey, Torch, don’t you see a really cool Pao facelifted-front from that dome light? That was my immediate thought.
*thanks for the Pao shirt, Matt!*
You’ve been drinking the antifreeze again, haven’t you?
I think we all know Blinker Fluid is Torch’s beverage of choice.
It’s hard to tell post-lead dust Jason from pre-lead dust Jason.