Impressed by the goldwing modifications I saw in the thread link posted here the other day, and thinking I could do something like that (yeah, right), I decided (along with requests from my girl) to get some light into the trunk. I also decided to install a power outlet for charging a cell phone there too - tied into the aux circuit since it will only ever be used to charge phones/ipods/gps/etc.
I started by taking the trunk apart. Not an easy task for the un-initiated. Here's how I did it:
First to come out was the weatherstrip, held in place by it's own adhesive.
Next was all those small screws under the weatherstrip (a bazillion, #2 phillips).
Then were the bolts at the bottom and front (6 bolts, 10mm socket).
Then the hinges and top were removed (6 screws, #3 phillips).
Then I found the half dozen screws that come up from the bottom (6, #2 phillips).
Then I realized that the rubber grommets have to come out to get the damn thing separated (5 grommets).
Then the 3 screws that hold the latch in place. That's where it went bad - the lower of the 3 didn't want to come out, not even with an impact driver, so I had to grind it down with the dremel and pry the liner out over the stub left behind (3 screws, #2 phillips and 2 dremel cutting discs).
After all that, I was able to get it separated.
For wiring, I used 22ga for the power for the power outlet and the ground, and 20ga for the power for the lights, because that's what I had that was pretty colors, and pulled them through some pvc covering I had leftover from a fog light set I bought at some point. As stated, the switched comes from the aux connector, which I made 2 "Y" connectors for - one branch for the power to the iPod charger in the front and one branch for the back. The red wire connects through a fuse to the battery positive terminal. I terminated the new harness with OE style bullet connectors and rubber sleeves to make it look pretty (the red/yellow/blue wires in the center):
Once in the trunk, the ground splits at the door jamb switch (front left for 1995 Merc Tracer if you're curious) and the door jamb switch completes the ground side of the lighting circuit when the lid is opened. It only takes about 3/4" opening to get the lights to switch on. I attached the spade terminal of the switch to the ground wire, and the light negative wires to a ring terminal attached to the screw that holds the switch in place since it's designed to ground through the frame. Don't have any pictures of the insides - was afraid of sweat ruining the camera as it was hot as Hades in the garage today. The switch was mounted in the front right side of the trunk liner as such:
Power outlet - got one with a cover to keep things from finding their way into the socket when not in use, pretty simple install (7/8" hole saw made for a nice tight fit):
The lights themselves are the maxi led strips, 2 x 12" from autozone (they were cheapest there), and they're bright as the sun. The wires go through grommets installed into the holes drilled in the sides of the liner, and the strips themselves were stuck as high as I could get them to go without putting them in the lid and having to deal with wires running through a hinged part:
While I was digging for the pvc covering, I came across a red LED strip I had picked up at Harbor Freight for a different project that never got used, so I decided to add it as a 3rd brake light, and stuck it to the bottom of the trunk cross brace, and soldered the wires directly to the female terminals of the plug for the right trunk tail light:
After I got everything wired up, I put the trunk back together, reassembly is reverse of disassembly, and secured the weatherstrip with some black super weatherstrip adhesive.
