Hey Ian, ...I got a good one at an Army Surplus store.... REALLY nice one, actually, and it came with an army jeep mount...I modified it and slapped it on my old Runner. I'm sure there are better ones you can get, however... But for 20$ with the carrier? YEAH BABY! lol.

 

I ran outta gas in mine the other night. Totally sucked. I had been driving around on an empty tank all day. I had almost made it all the way and when I got to the 50 yard up hill to the station nothin, had to have a guy pull me to the pump. Not to mention it was 10 below. Kind of embarrasin since everyone knows me n my truck is this rinky dink town.
Id start with chef's idea with the surplus store. If not there, Id check at an up coming gun show if ya have any locally.

 

i didn't even think of those ideas. thanks guys! i'll need to look up surplus stores between here and fredericksburg. i found a center console (sr5, gray) on craigslist

and i'll have to keep an eye out for local gun shows. huh... who would have thought...

thanks mark & z!

 

You can usually find some good old militaria at the gun show. I usually see a few jerry cans at every gun show I go to.

 

the next gun show is more than a month away. i got a 2 gallon jerry can today, so i guess that'll tie me over until i find a good metal one

 

did a bunch of stuff today

ok, that's a lie. i finally got around to uploading some pictures, though...

when i was working on brian's lights, i broke a tool. a china-made craftsman


i thought this looked cool


got some snow this week. and it was gone the next day


finally rolled over to 170k. this marks 37k i've put on the rig since october of '07 (when we got it)


aaand one of my weekend projects. got it in the mail today

 

Like the mirror, I put one in the 2wd a few months ago.

 

thanks! the picture is after a good cleaning, though.

was the wiring already in your 2wd?

 

Yep. But I think you can only use two of the four holes as the sheet metal ceiling isn't tapped.
If you had a dome light right at your mirror, then the wiring is there.

 

for a jerry can maybe Tractor Supply Company if you have one near you

 

no wiring, but i did have the two other holes. it's securely mounted with all four screws

no tsc's in the suburbs of northern va. i'd probably have to drive an hour or two to find one. boo.


and the mirror installation pics are uploading... that'll be my next post

 

we got a TSC here less than 10 minutes away from me. lol.

We got like 2 or 3 military surplus stores as well, but they hardly ever have these things along with ammo cans. I got lucky with the 3 ammo cans I got but it was from another resource.

 

all hardware off


where the light wires go up. i tapped into them just above here, under the head-liner


the middle light off. i thought i could tap it here, but not without removing the entire liner


the extension of the plug, all shrink-wrapped


the "x" was cut so that it would expand the hole as the new housing was pushed in, making a snug fit


next i fed the wires through. i used a coat hanger to move them. in...


...and out. then trimmed and spliced


all screwed in


and the cover is on


i was disappointed that a row of led's burned out in my center light




and all back together




very easy to do. a great beginner level mod and it's almost factory

 

Looks real good I always liked those lights in my 4runner and I've kinda missed em since I got my pickup course I couldn't do this mod now due to the fact that I'd have to rework my cb bracket and I must say fighting that stainless again is more trouble than its worth. Nice job though very clean.

 

Looks good. I might have to grab one of these next time I go to the junk yard. I know You have the led in your dome light, but how much more light does that throw. Any drawback to the mirror itself you noticed?

What did that come out of, I don't remember you saying.

 

oh, yeah... the mirror assembly is out of a 89-95 sr5 something. i got it off of ebay, so it was listed as "sr5 truck 4runner mirror"

the mirror itself is in the exact same location as the previous one. it's even got the same number on the back. the only thing i really changed was the hosing and light set-up

the led's throw much more light than the festoons. i was happy when i first got the array, but now that a row has burned out, i might have to make my own. i got the $12 cheap-o advance-autozone-boys one, which worked great for about 2 months. the led's are brighter, and they have a 180 degree beam angle, so everything is covered with light

 

that's weird, because even cheap LED's last a while. Maybe the size of the housing is too small and it heated up too much? I know LED's run cooler but....... Or it just needs some solder.

 

no, it's just a cheap led. it is actually burned-out. and the only led's that run hot are high-power led's. i might be making a new light out of something like this. i've used them many times before (like for the bike lights) and they're great to deal with. i got a lens that had an air bubble in it, and they shipped me a new one

 

Great work, Ian!

I heard, from many, that Ozium is one of the best, and it's US made. Ahhh, but yes, you're quite the electronic-self-helper, aintya? lol. Also, Autolumination(SP?) is one that has INSANE amounts of LED lighting options....something for every application, it seems.

All the flat panel ones, like you have, that I've tried?.... they all seem directional, like a flashlight. They're bright, but not wide spectrum, ...so I'm hoping they'll come out with(or someone will tell me, lol) a super bright wide spectrum LED-Festoon. I know they have some, but they obviously have less bulbs, ....so "More spectrum but less literally light". Oh well, I'm confused again... lol.

Have a good one, Ian, .....looks great, serious.

 

thanks mark! good to hear from ya

today i went over to xlaxx's place and helped him with his air intake. we just put in all of my old intake stuff (the "cold air" set-up). wow, that's 4 "internet friends" i've met so far. i'm sure if i went out to cali, i'd meet a bunch more