JA's copy-cat Footwell Lighting

[navyjonathan]

Alright here we go, finally done with it. All was identical to JA's post/website, and I can't give enough thanks to him for the correspondence during this project and for putting those instructions up. It looks great! (although the camera i took the pics with aren't that good, it looks really nice in person.

For the switch, i just used the DPDT switch and with leaving the ground off the maplight mod prong, I can use both mod's in one position of the rocker switch, turn both mods off on the center position, and get just the footwells using the third position. I mounted the switch in a different place than JA because the 2005 doesn't have the cutouts where he mounted his (well they do, but only one switch, and i didn't feel like remounting the dimmer switch).

So I used a extra open cutout here, the switch was a TAD larger than the whole and I had to cut out like barely a millimeter of trim with a razor blade and the switch snapped right into place.

 

[navyjonathan]

continuing on to the footwells, they no longer make the footwell lights that ja used, so he suggested i go with the 30LED boards, also from vleds.com. this has caused me lots of stress when it came to mounting them on the fabricated brackets because the backs of these are not flush and straight, they have little circuits coming up so they really don't tape on there. I used lots of that computer chip tape he recommended and im hoping they stay on the brackets, if not, im gonna have to find some other way to get them to stay on.

here they are, sorry for the shotty camera, the pics didn't come out well in my garage, they look better in person.

one of the pics is with the car on, and the switch in the on position where i can turn on the footwells only while driving the car.

 

[navyjonathan]

they look really bright in the pics but that was taken in a closed garage, they really aren't too bright when you are driving down the road and they are just perfect when you use the alarm keypad to get in the vehicle. thanks again JA!! Husky floor maps are on the way which i believe will even out all the light and give it a much cleaner look.

 

[J.A.]

Looks good and the switch fit is great too. Any pics of the actual 30 led boards? Are they really only 5/8" x 1-3/8" in size as per the website? To get more light spread on the rear seat footwells you can a) bend the mounts to tweak the light angle/aim and b) tie up the fabric tightly on the very back of the underside of the seats where it hangs down the most. :bigok:

 

[Lowpro]

nice job man!

 

[4 Runner Bud]

I so need to do this. Nice Job!