Dave, Almost sounds like the light switch was failing.
On another subject, do you ever have any 1st Gen get togethers out in the Front Range? We are out there frequently. A couple years ago I saw a show while driving through Loveland and stopped for a while. There were about three 1st Gens and saw couple nice GTOs. One 1st gen was a red convert with a bench seat. The owner said it was original.