I’m beyond thrilled to be the new owner of a 1989 Chevy K1500. The Chevy 350 under the hood, the five-speed manual, the chiseled good looks, the surprising ride comfort — it all makes for such an incredible machine, especially for just $4,900. But there’s one feature that I’d like to highlight today, something small: The under-hood work-light.
I know that nowadays we all have cell phones with LED flashlights built in, but those are a pain in the ass to try to prop up just right so you can use both hands to fix something under the hood of your sad, broken-down car. That’s why I’m such a huge fan of under-hood work lights.
These have been around for a long time, with the most famous example being the World War II Jeep. It used the vehicle’s headlights, which could flip 180 degrees, to light up the vehicle’s legendary, torquey Go-Devil 134 cubic-inch inline-four. Check it out:
Early Jeep Cherokee XJs also had an under-hood work light, but it was retractable. In fact, it used some kind of spring mechanism to pull the light back into the housing bolted to the bottom of the hood. You can see the light here on this 1990 Jeep XJ that was auctioned on Bring a Trailer:
Here’s a closer look:
And here’s an even closer photo, but from an eBay listing:
The Bishop notified today about a similar contraption in old Datsun 280Zs like this one:
That little light pulls out of the body, with a green wire as the “leash”:
But today I want to focus on the under-hood work light in my newly-acquired 1989 Chevy K1500. Just look at this marvelous device that the Chevy 350 has the honor of sharing an underhood space with:
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It’s like a little fishing reel bolted to the passenger’s side fender. You open up this little “gate” to unlock the light from the “reel”:
Then you unreel the reel a bit to give the light some slack:
Then you just pull the light out.
Let me go outside and check how long this thing is…
Holy crap! That’s amazing! That’d come in clutch during a late-night tire-change.
When you’re done, you just reel the wire back in and close the “gate.” Boom:
How awesome is this? The downside over your cell phone is that this wire might get caught in the radiator fan, but the benefit is that the wire lets you hang the light where you need, and the dome nature of the light means you really don’t have to aim it that well to be able to let go and use both hands for wrenching.
This thing is an absolute masterpiece, and I wish more modern cars came with under-hood retractable work-lights, even though I know most people rarely pop their cars’ hoods, anyway.
These rank up there with wing window vents and floor-mounted high beam switches as “stuff modern cars should replicate.”
Honestly, though, I find a good LED headlamp to be the best way to get the light where you want it. For around $40, you can get a good-quality (mine’s Petzl) headlamp that’s brighter, goes where you’re looking all the time, and will run all day (or night) on cheap alkaline batteries. If my headlamp isn’t already in my backpack/luggage, it goes in my road-trip emergency kit with the usual other stuff.
There’s usually a cheap flashlight or two from the checkouts at Harbor Freight rattling around in my center console too.
Awesome feature on an awesome truck! I don’t remember this being on my dad’s ’90 Suburban. Of course, he had one of those retractable work lights (Google tells me it’s also called a ‘trouble light’) mounted in his workshop and loads of flashlights stashed in the truck.
That’ll be very helpful when it comes time to replace the dead 12V battery on the side of a dark road at night…
That’s a nice feature…plus it has an on/off switch unlike the fixed lights those had.
I see yours also has the handy storage/tool box where the second battery went on the diesels. I just had to pick one up on eBay for mine.
I have what looks like a generic plastic work light with a household bulb, except it clamps directly to the car battery. Even though I leave it in the truck, I can’t recall ever using it. I’d rather get my vehicle home and work on it there, during the day or in the garage.