|
My 2011 F250 Crew, Cab Clearance Lights thread...
Since I got my 2011 F250 truck in May of 2012, I’ve wanted to add Cab Clearance lights to it. My last F250 had them and I just loved them. Now that I’ve owned the truck for 2.5 years, the newness has worn off and I am now ready to drill 15 holes into a crazy expensive truck with a perfectly good roof that currently does not leak.
I get that these lights are not for everyone. Seems like most of the threads that I read had a comment that the lights are ugly or why would you do this to a perfectly good truck. I hear everyone on this point but it's something that I want on my truck. Part of owning a truck is making it your truck. This is a very small item when compared to the people that add lifts, huge tires, sway bars, graphics, or tune their trucks. I wanted OEM. After a lot of reading, the non-OEM options that I saw did not have the quality of the OEM product. I may add LED bulbs down the road. My first step was to read everything that I could, from others that have already done this job. This is a list of links that I found helpful. Good stuff can be found on YouTube too. Link1 Link2 Link3 Link4 Link5 Link6 Link7 |
My truck has a moon/sun roof. I couldn’t find exact information on this type of installation. My first concern after taking a few measurements from my truck was that making the center of the lights 5.5 inches back from the start of the metal above the windshield was not going to work. So I searched a few dealers’ lots and located a 2015 truck with cab lights and a moon roof. I stopped, took a few pictures and some measurements. I found that the front of the lights were a strong 3.5 inches above the windshield weather strip to the front of the light. Some of the links provided state that the center of the light measurement should be back from the windshield weather strip 5.5 inches and others state 5 inches. I used 5 inches and believe it is the most correct answer when the truck has a moon/sun roof. If 5.5 were used, the rear of the two lights 8” off center, would have touched the moon/sun roof weather strip. That is not what I saw with this 2015 example truck. This is the most important measurement in my opinion. If you don’t have a moon/sun roof, this measurement is not that important. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...923141219a.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...923141219c.jpg |
On a piece of sheet metal about the thickness of the truck, I wanted to make a template. These are my measurements: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...925141844a.jpg • OEM lights are 3” wide. 1.5” being the center. • The center of each hole for the mounting bolts is 7/8th of an inch from the center line. • 8 inches from the center of the truck, moon/sun roof weather strip is 7 ¾ inches back. • Using 5 inches from the windshield as my critical measurement, the very back of the light will be 7 7/16th inches from the windshield. Drill some 1/8 inch pilot holes. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...1674adf6cf.jpg Duplicate my measurements on the other side of my piece of sheet metal and complete the 1/4inch holes and 7/8inch center hole. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0925141911.jpg |
http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...925141911a.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...925141911b.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...925141912b.jpg Next, I cut out my hole location template. The black cross hair lines I should be able to line up with my location lines on the truck. I filed the cut edges and holes to insure nothing was sharp to either cut me or scratch the truck. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0925141921.jpg |
Time to purchase some new tools and supplies: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0925141924.jpg Some people Silicone while others elect not to. I couldn’t see the harm in it, so I will silicone under the lights as an extra layer of protection. Probably overkill though. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...925141924a.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0925141925.jpg New, sharp drill bits. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0925141927.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0925141850.jpg |
Stainless Steel fender washers and metric nuts. I think the nuts were 5mm .80 pitch. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...925141925c.jpg Had this already but important: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141323.jpg Drop or two when drilling holes: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141355a.jpg 7mm Deep socket, an extension was handy too: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141318a.jpg |
Pictures before I started any actual work: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141053.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141054.jpg |
So how are we going to work on this truck without damaging it? I own a painting platform and some ladders and set this up. Notice that the platform is ratcheted to each ladder. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141111.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141111a.jpg Take off the antenna: http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141114a.jpg After setup was complete, carefully pull the truck in, under my work area. The moon/sun roof was not really all that handy to work from. I’ve read in other threads that people attempted this job from standing on their seats. The moon/sun roof was handy to reach around when tightening the bolts on the lights. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141114.jpg |
Parts. All OEM. Nothing special about the lights. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141228a.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141228c.jpg The wiring harness was important. I ordered everything from Auto Nation Ford in White Bear Lake, MN. Had to call. There were seven wiring harnesses for my 2011 truck. They spent some time with me going though all the options (Air Bags, XM Radio, etc). At the end of our discussion, it was really a guess. They sent the correct harness for my truck but I did not end our conversation 100% confident that it would be correct. You will not know if you have the correct one until you get your headliner down and compare the old and new harness. The OEM harness replaces wires to the airbags, Sat Radio, and provides electricity the new clearance lights. You can see lots of clips on the harness to secure it. With delivery of all parts, I was in for about $150. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141230a.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141230b.jpg http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141231a.jpg |
|
So now the fun begins. I have my parts, tools, and the work platform all set. My next step was to layout the lights. I didn’t want to take apart my truck interior until I was 100% confident that I had the five lights properly located. On goes that blue tape. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141127.jpg I soon discovered that I couldn’t see my lines very well with blue tape. So over the blue tape went some tan/white tape. As I was laying out my lines, if I made a mistake or was not happy with a line, easy enough to cover my incorrect line with a new piece of tape. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141225.jpg Eventually I get everything measured and re-measured. The pilot hole template I made at the start of this thread worked great for location of the holes once I found the center line for each light. This process took me over an hour. I then set the lights on my marks, three little dots for each light, and gave my lights the eyeball test. I can’t get a picture from directly above the truck lights because of the trusses in my garage and my big head. Getting a center line for the truck took some time. A previous thread noted using string from the middle of the front badge, over the rear view mirror mount to the tailgate badge. Lots of theories in the links I provided. What I did was use the opening of my moon/sun roof. Found the middle of that. Then checked those measurements by measuring from each door edge. Lots of measuring here. Check and re-check. All lights face straight forward. Some people turn them slightly to follow the curve of the windshield but OEM point straight forward from my reading. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141242.jpg The back of the lights do not touch the moon/sun roof weather stripping. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141243.jpg The towels are simply for knee comfort. I’m old. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141245c.jpg |
More on measurements. Once again, I used the 5” measurement from the weather strip and metal windshield line. The last piece of painted metal before the weather strip as you go down the windshield. Spacing the lights from edge to edge also has a few different measurements if you do some reading. Maybe Ford changed this over the years. From the middle light, everyone seems to agree that 8” from the truck center line is correct for the two middle lights. For the two very outside lights I found two measurements from the truck center line. Some quote the 20.5” figure while others quote the 21” mark. I used 21” because to my eye, it looked better. Plenty of others note that 20.5 is correct and it may be. |
Time to yank apart a perfectly good interior. Two bolts remove the driver and passenger side grab handles. Just flip open the covers. Remove the driver and passenger side door weather stripping. I left the very bottom connected but pulled it way down on each door. My truck has a center counsel. That pops out and unplugs. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141255.jpg There are two Phillips screws hiding behind here. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141258.jpg Some T20 torx screws to remove the visor. You have to have the weather strip and grab handles off at this time to get your hand above the headliner. The wire clips for the visors are taped to the top of the headliner. You could use three hands at this time to undo the wire clip, hold the headliner, and the visor. In some of the pictures here you will see a small quick clamp holding my headliner. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141318c.jpg |
At this point in other threads I read, people are done tearing apart the interior. In their application, they have enough room above their headliner to complete this project. I didn’t. I took my dis-assembly a step further. At this time, the center post that holds the front passenger seat belts and the weather stripping for the rear door is holding up the headliner. I could see that all I needed to do was to loosen this center post plastic trim and remove the weather stripping from the back doors to really give me some room. The headliner will really drop down if you do this step. Only the back of the crew cab trim will be holding the headliner after this step. The rocker panel door trim, just clips in place. On the side near the center panel, unclip this piece. You have to unclip this plastic piece from the front and back door on both sides. It just pulls up. Side a long screw driver under if you need to and gently lift up. I did not remove them, I just unclipped the ends near the center panel. You could remove them all together if you like. They just push and clip back in place. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141315a.jpg Remove the two plugs near the grab handles and remove the 7mm bolts that hold the passenger grab handles. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141317a.jpg Weather strip is removed. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...927141318b.jpg This is the tricky part. By turning the seatbelt piece up/down and back and forth, you have to pull the upper center trim piece away from the body. You can hear it unclip as you pull it away from the headliner. You can see in the following picture how the headliner has dropped. The more you pull away the center post plastic trim piece, the more the headliner drops. You don’t want it down too far though. http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j9...0927141315.jpg |
|
| All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:55 AM. |
© 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands