Tacoma Dude

Hi all,

I know some of you have done this mod as well as write it up (sorta). I have these off of ebay and am trying to figure out all the hows and wheres, etc.

I think I have it narrowed down to the kickboards (running out of space fast!) but my problem is now in the wiring.
I'd like to wire this up to go on with the dome light. I know that its most likely a ground switch and not a power switch but beyond that I don't know how to get to the wiring to tap it.

Also, you guys can see that the lights come with their own switch. Is it possible to wire up these lights somehow so that I can turn these on without the dome?

I have 4 of these and if I decide to put the other 2 in the back I'd like the option of being able to turn them all on at once or the front and back independently.

Thanks in advance guys!

DuB

Well, I'm about to get back to my studying for my two finals today:cry: so I can't post much. There's a wiring diagram of how I wired my footwell neons here . To get to the wire, I snaked a wire hanger up there, but I'm sure you could use a Haynes manual or something and find where the domelight wire comes down one of the pillars. Right now, I have a switch that is an "Always off" which when switched to off, disables the wiring system so the neons can't come on. On the on position, it allows the neons to come on with the domelight or be turned on by the "always on" switch. The "always on" switch overrides the domelight and turns the neons on if the doors are closed. In short: "always off" overrides "always on" I'm sure it'd be pretty easy to figure out something for the front and back.

Tacoma Dude

Okay, I know about the coat hanger but from where do you go in?
What color wire are you looking for?

Sorry for the questions but I'm a bit confused.

Also, you mentioned pillar... I'm assuming you mean the plastic column next to the front seats between the front and rear doors?
I was actually thinking of mounting my extra 2 sets of lights on those.
Any suggestions?

P.S.
Good luck on finals.
Hope you did well!

Bob_98SR5

Jason,

I went to your CarDomain.com site and checked out your sound system---very nice.

I read that your friend did some fiberglass work on your truck. Do you know of any good online sources for doing that stuff? I'd be very interested in learning.

Bob

DuB

Well, I took off the panels that cover the driver's seatbelt, and fished the wire hanger in underneath the headliner there.

I'm not sure what the wire color is, but if you find a Haynes manual or something, it mayb show the acutal route of the the dome light wires.
OR, you can test every wire that goes up into the roof with a multimeter to test to see which one goes 12- when the doors are open. I used this method to find the reverse lights' wire in the driver's side kickpanel. Yeah, that took a while since there were about 20 wires, but find the domelight wire shouldn't be as tedious.

I just routed the wire up to the domelight. The domelight switch has three connections it can make: On, Off, and Door. I connected it to "Door"


Thanks for the compliment Bob. Fiberglassing is really easy, the hardest part is getting over the intimidation factor If you go to any car audio forum, there should be plenty of information on each if you do a search. CarSound's fabrication forum is a really good one. Many of the industry's finest post here. I check this one pretty regularly.
Termpro.com has a fabrication forum, as well as a tips and tricks forum. I haven't checked these out in a while, but they used to be pretty helpful when I used to frequent them.
There are a lot of tutorials that guys have posted up on cardomain, so try searching for those on carsound's forum. I never bookmarked them though. Also, each guy has his own techniques, so read on different kinds before you attempt a project.

My general technique that I use is to make a skeleton with wood attached to a base, stretch grill cloth (or t-shirt cloth, or fleece, or any material for that matter), soak the material in resin making sure it soaks into the base as well, and then reinforce from the back with "kitty hair" or fiberglass matt and/or cloth. Then bondo the front to build up or fill any voids, sand down and smooth out, and then prep for paint, vinyl, carpet, etc. I found that this method is pretty efficient (and a lot lighter) than other methods which require tons of bondo and sanding. HTH!!

Bob_98SR5

Dub,

Thanks for the websites and great advice. One day I'll try it on my downstairs neighbor and fiberglass his mouth shut.

Bob

Tacoma Dude

So did you just pull the panels really hard?
I removed a door panel just a little while ago and messed up 2-3 plastic plugs.

Don't feel like doing that again...

DuB

To get to the headliner between the front and rear doors, I first removed the front and back door sills (held in by screws, then carefully pry upwards), then the bottom panel covering the seatbelt should pop off by pulling towards the chair. I think the top panel had a screw holding the bottom of it in, and then the rest of it had pop plugs holding it in. Not too sure about that though. This is on a 3rd gen 4runner though, so it might be different on your taco.