Got a light?

Sometimes it’s the little things in life…like the cigarette lighter, in this instance.

I don’t smoke, and while there’s little evidence the previous owner of my ’85 Avanti did, the lighter never worked right, the lid never closed properly and the ash receptacle was rusty and nasty.

The ash receptacle was easy enough – a call to Studebaker International and a replacement part was sent out right away and fit and look great. So great, it made the pitted surrounding area look like crap. Rather than buy another – I’m not even sure if they are available – I disassembled it by removing the lighter assembly and the ash receptacle. Then I sprayed it several coats of black plasti-dip, masking off what I didn’t want to have to clean off later.

The lighter assembly was trashed – lots of corrosion and crud. A test light showed that it had intermittent connectivity and cleaning it with a wire brush just made things worse as more and more of the metal disintegrated. Since I didn’t really want the lighter part anyway, just a working receptacle that I could stick a USB adapter into for my phone, etc.,  it didn’t really matter much to me what I ended up with so long as it fit and functioned.

A trip down to the road to my local O’Reilly Auto Parts and I quickly found exactly what I was looking for – Custom Accessories #10213 – virtually identical to the original part which made it install, connect and appear just like the one I removed, only this one functions great. I did replace the included incandescent bulb with a red LED which was easily done.