How about the side marker lights on the late-model Volvo wagons.
http://www.volvoworld.com/60/Section_5_2.htm
They look small enough to fit on the pillar behind the door - if you
don't mind drilling a hole for them.

Or the early '80s Audi side marker lights?
http://www.linkline.com/personal/dbarton/SideMarkerLights.html

Todd
'88 Vanagon

Joel Walker wrote:

>>Our vanagons have red running lights/reflectors on
>>
>>
>the side in the rear, and
>
>
>>I am wondering, has anyone tried to modify these
>>
>>
>lights to be turn signals
>
>
>>only, or perhaps some form of hybrid (running
>>
>>
>light/turn signal) ?  The
>
>
>>wiring seems fairly straight forward.
>>Just curious if anyone out there has any mods they
>>
>>
>can tell about, with
>
>
>>their side running lights.
>>
>>
>
>i've been futzing around with this for a while ... and
>have yet to come up with something i truly like the
>looks of AND will fit easily.
>
>1. on the rabbits and sciroccos of the 1980's, there
>were yellow running lights on the sides of the front
>fenders .. those are exactly the same as our rear red
>ones, but amber in color. same size, shape, everything.
>so i figured that it would look right to put them in
>the same relative position, behind the front wheel
>well. won't fit ... the b-pillar (vertical post behind
>the front door) isn't wide enough ... about an inch of
>the light sticks past the rear edge/seam of the
>b-pillar. not a problem on the side with no sliding
>door but on the side with the sliding door, that could
>be a big problem. and on the non-syncros, the gas
>filler opening kinda got in the way. on a syncro, there
>is likely plenty of room to do this.
>a problem: these lights take a HUGE hole for the light
>fixture/bulb-holder AND two screw holes. the hole for
>the fixture is like 40mm!!
>
>2. led lights from jc whitney. long and narrow, about
>$8 each. look funny on the side of the bus. so i tried
>them under the bottom of the power mirrors (plastic
>housing so it's easy to drill a hole for the wires,
>plenty of room inside to run the wires up to the
>lights) ... but the bottom edge turns out to NOT be
>flat/square ... and the light doesn't fit well.
>other lights? tried some marker/running lights from
>18-wheeler trailers .. bulb ones are like $5, led ones
>are like $20!! this doesn't look that great ... the
>lens pops into a snap-in holder and the holder is
>expected to be screwed into metal to provide the
>grounding of the light. this could be modified without
>too much trouble (solder a wire to the light). but the
>holder looks cheap. :(  these lights are kinda expected
>to be broken a lot, i guess.
>
>3. marker lights from a dodge dually pickup. similar to
>18-wheeler lights but black plastic holder (instead of
>cheesy plastic chrome). haven't checked them out fully
>yet ... never made to the dodge dealer. only saw them
>on a dually in a parking lot.
>these might fit nicely on the side of the bus, behind
>the front doors, on that b-pillar. perhaps in the
>indention/trim-line where the door handles are. running
>the wires would be somewhat difficult, but it could be
>done ... that pillar is hollow, and open at the top ...
>you can feed a wire done into it from the courtesy
>light opening on the driver's side. on the passenger
>side, you'd have to open up the hidden courtesy light
>opening, behind the headliner vinyl .. but all that
>means is putting in a 2nd courtesy light ... which
>might be a good idea anyway.
>
>4. bmw or porsche or mercedes or late-model vw lights.
>made by hella. easily available from the dealers in
>different styles (from the different years), but they
>all snap into a rather large hole ... about 1 inch by
>1/2 inch. :( i didn't mind the idea of two smallish
>screw holes and maybe a third small hole for the wires,
>but a hole that big didn't appeal to me. the audi ones
>from the early 1990's were the best shape for our
>buses, i think ... rectangular with a domed top. still
>might go this route. but they aren't cheap! these
>things are like $20 each! :(
>
>anybody else got any info/ideas?
>
>joel
>
>
>