I shopped around for one of those Switchboxes places like Galls sells, but for some reason, they're like $100+!! So I said "Screw it", I'm not one to buy other people's stuff anyway. I'ld rather make my own. So off to Radio Shack I went. Let's face it, they ain't exactly the Salvation Army, so it still cost me a little lettuce (about $40). But that's OK. The finished product is my creation, and it is exactly how I want it to look...CLEAN!

I wanted this to look as clean as possible, so endless trimming and filing of the plexi glass face was needed to get it to conform to that opening perfectly. I Measured out the positions for the switches and LEDs, and I just happend to have room for 7. Once the holes were drilled, I painted the other side of it black to make it look sweet, and so that the paint can't be scratched off and also has a permanent glossy black look to it (just like the outside of my truck...permanent glossy black!). The switches were $3.49 and the LED's were $1.99. I can't tell you how much wire, solder, and crimp connectors I used, but it works great! You don't really need the LED's. See, I thought these switches stayed lit up whether the switch was on or not. So, the LED was going to be an "on" indicator for each switch. Since the switch only lights up when it is in the "on" position, I wired the LED's to be on all the time. I had to use them for something, so now they sort of mark the locations of the switches at night. Oh yeah, I drilled two 1/2" holes in the back of this compartment to pass the wires through. Other than that, nothing permanent was done, which is just the way I like it!

There's a picture in my photo gallery in case anyone wants to make some sort of variation (READ: please be original and creative). Another idea I had was to make a drop down switch panel in the overhead (normally the garage door opener compartment). That would be really slick!

Later,
John

 

Cool! Nice looking finished product. Just curious though, what do they control??

 

Ahh... probably should have mentioned that, huh.

Right now I have two sets of PIAAs. I'll be getting another set to put on the Yakima front crossbar for when I drive to Labrador next month (A man's gotta be able to see, no?) The picture in the gallery of my truck is old, I have since put the Westin step bars on it, and made lights to shine directly down on the new step pads for visibilty. I have a switch that operates those, along with the normal door activation. These bulbs are all matched at 5000 kelvin to my headlights, and all my PIAAs. For the trip, I'm also putting a switch on my brakelights to deactivate them. I get paranoid when I drive to remote locations, and since I don't drive the fastest thing in the world, I need to be able to go into stealth mode if need be. Ditto for the reverse light.

The lights I want on the roof need to be super bright. I'm talking 1,000,000 candle power each (it's for wilderness travel). The only problem is that the brighter the lights get, the yellower (lower kelvin) they get. I could go HID, but those things are way over priced, and not as bright as I want them to be. So, in other words, they'll look horrible with all my blueish lights. But, since they will only be used when off-roading, that might be ok. Anyway, that's my newest problem.

So, that's 6 switches all together. The seventh? Hmm, I'm just gonna have to go out and buy something to operate with it!

Thanks for the comment. Glad you like it!


>Cool! Nice looking finished product. Just curious though,
>what do they control??

 

The install looks great but you were way over my head w/ matching kelvin and crap.