Instrument Leds

[POPEYE]

Your right there Andy! Must be mad, But what the hell i enjoy doing it, At least it's better than watching the cr@p on tv, If your gonna pull your
instruments and you want to do this, If you pm me i'll give you all the help i can, If you only want one colour (or even two or three) it will be easy, In answer to your Q i probably would do it again although i've no intension of selling the truck and am not tempted even by the 3rd or 4th (?) gens, Unless i won the lottery and even then i think i'd still keep this 2nd gen (just have a
large garage to keep em all in)

[red harry]

Certainly is a very neat and tidy job.
You must of had some patience to do that kind of mod, can I ask how long it took?

[POPEYE]

Hi, It's difficult to add up the hours as i was doing a little each evening, I was without the instrument's for about a month and trying to use the truck only when i had no choice, Suppose if you knuckled down to it a couple of days should see it more or less sorted, I also had to wait for leds and resistors
to be delivered at verious times as i was finding i needed more than i thought,
I originally over estimated the light a single led gives out so it was trial and error, Especially the uv's, you need more of them than any of the other colours,

[logey79]

excellent job! you must have some patience of an to do such a detailed job as that, mind you end product looks well worth it, well done!

[POPEYE]

3 Interior lights

Spent over an hour last night typeing this and lost it when i clicked on photobucket so here goes, I've changed the interior light (roof) as like most of the other lighting in the truck it aint very bright! I used a couple of small flouresent fittings cut down and stripped out, Fitted leds of different colours
onto a plasticard sheet cut to fit and linked up the wireing to give me the five colour wires and one neg through the top of the fitting, (the one for the rear has only white leds), Also made four footwell lights to link up with the roof one all opperated by the door switch buttons ( and a switch to turn em on when the doors are shut), The original light wires (2) were cut and run along with five wires for the colours down the centre pillar and to the centre console, the pos is linked to the five switch commons and the neg is connected to a sixth toggle switch, a neg wire is connected to the load pin of this switch and run back up to the neg wire of the leds, this allows me to turn off the lights altogether, the five colour wires are connected to the five
load pin on the colour switches and these wires are extended to the four
footwell lights along with the neg so they all work off the door switches,
Also fitted a seventh switch taking the neg to the body metal so as to bypass
the door switches and enable me to turn em on with the doors shut, The rear leds will come on with the original light switch, Also made some "map?" lights
out of an old ceiling halogen fitting, one for each seat, Thats about it, hope it makes sence,

[POPEYE]

4 Carpet and trim

Carpet! Not much i can say about that! Buy some new, remove the seats and lower trim and rip out the old, Fit the new! I cut it well over size and took my time, cut it down the centre the lenght of the centre console and started at the back of the rear heater working forward untill its up under the dash as far as you can get it, Once fixed there (used some existing fixings under the dash, and fixed it under the gear shift plate) i then worked toward the back,
Worst bit was up and over the rear seats, got some folds there i could'nt get out but i dos'nt look to bad now its in, and most of its covered with seats, mats etc, I also carpeted halfway up the rear trim as it was scratched and tatty, I machine washed the hilux mats and toyed with the idea of dyeing em but they cleaned up nice and look ok on the black carpet,
Trim! some of my lower dash trim was scratched so early on i decieded to paint it and have beed doing it as i've gone along, Doing the dash when i had it out for the leds, I've done it in satin black and primed it with "plastic primer"
this comes in an areosol can and really bonds the top coat on well, Be sure to give the bits your painting a good wash in soapy water, rince and when dry a good going over with degreaser (white spirit or petrol is no good) buy this if you have to as it will save a lot of agg and swearing when you paint, Most auto paint shops will sell ya a litre of panel wash cheap,
I used Duplicolour spray cans, primer and satin but you can use celli or acryilic
though a gun if you like, I've done all the lower dash, sills, lower pillar, seat
trim and "two toned the centre consol (used two bits of that cieling light chrome rod to stop the seat belt recievers scratching the consol), Black and grey go together well, but you can do any colour you like,
Got the carpet from these guys, About £70 for 6mt x 2mt and i got tons left
for door card bottoms, rear boxing etc,
http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZwercarmatsQQhtZ-1
And these might come in handy for colours and different finishes etc,
http://www.frost.co.uk/item_Detail.asp?productID=8219

[POPEYE]

5 Dash! the final layout

This will be it for a while (you'll probably be glad to hear), It took quite a while
to get all the stuff i wanted to complete the dash, Switches, gauges etc, But its finally about done, although i'm planning on makeing a roof console and this
depends on if i get hold of a surf inclineometer or i have to buy a decent after market one, If i get a surf one i'll put it where it's supposed to go on the dash but the other type will be going in the overhead console along with the clock and a CB radio if i can get a reasonably priced one,
I did originally fix the compass in between the two top gauges but they were affecting the compass cos whichever way i faced it showed S, Sw, I've now fixed it to the off side pillar and put the boost gauge were it used to live, Trouble is i think i've f***ed the compensating magnets up as it always shows N, Ne now, Have to email Ritchie USA and see if it can be fixed as there aint any compensating screws on the back (factory set),
Early on i decieded to do away with the top centre air vents and that cup holder also the ash tray, This gave me space for three gauges (two where the ash tray used to be) and a row of switches for the spotlights (front and roof and fog lights (seven switches in all) So just about got it as i want it
Cheers everyone for the help.

[AndyLala]

Absolutely mad Ian, great job.

Question for you... the flat panel above the hand brake and beside the original clock... whats going on there... is that an illumination panel that we saw earlier...?

This is the African Outback roof console that ARB sell...

And a Land Meter from www.johncraddockltd.co.uk at £17.01 (probably + vat) - not bad really...

[POPEYE]

Thanks Andy, That ready made console looks nice, So much stuff i want and so little money, That panel is two rows of sub miniture toggle switches, The lower row controlls all the leds in the instrument pod and the top row is for any other leds interior or exterior i might dream up, So far im only useing one
which is amber and switches the roof light bar marker lights on/off, Only three of those switches are wired, 1 is amber 2 is red and 3 is blue, Interior lights are controlled by the little bank of switches you can see hanging out of the centre console, Im watching a couple of inclineometers at the mo ones a proper surf and the other an after market one but it has a altimeter as well as the pitch and roll, I'll look into that console! see how much it is etc,
Gotta go pick up my daughter from work now, Bl00dy kids!! they get worse as they get older, Cheers m8. Ian

[Chillitt]

wouldn't it have been easier to buy a space shuttle ready wired???

[POPEYE]

wouldn't it have been easier to buy a space shuttle ready wired???

I did try NASA but all they had was one, Quote- Slightly damaged on re-entry
Columbia, Restoration project! Suit enthusiast, They wanted too much money
fot it though!

[spans]

I am left amazed, as always at your mods, the time and paitence that you put in, makes mine look like I didn't even try.

Thanks to your advise I have finished my blue led's in the dash, and in the centre console, I have stuck 4 blue neons on the rear trim, at the bottom of the rear windows, and connected them to a sound to light ebay thingy, and it really works a treat, everyone knows when my beastie is coming down the road at night, as it looks like a mobile disco now..

What I thought about doing was going to where the boy racers hang out, and play some 80's music through the ice with the rear window down, but then again, I would like to keep the ice in the car, if ya know what I mean

I would also like some kinda roof console, but with a sun roof that may prove difficult, I was really impressed with the pics Ian, where did you get those two round stalky light things for the overhead lighting??.

[Morr]

Its all looking very well Ian, especially the black bits. I'd love to take the time to redo my interior in black too, but I'm just too lazy of late. Keep up the good work

[POPEYE]

I am left amazed, as always at your mods, the time and paitence that you put in, makes mine look like I didn't even try.

Thanks to your advise I have finished my blue led's in the dash, and in the centre console, I have stuck 4 blue neons on the rear trim, at the bottom of the rear windows, and connected them to a sound to light ebay thingy, and it really works a treat, everyone knows when my beastie is coming down the road at night, as it looks like a mobile disco now..

What I thought about doing was going to where the boy racers hang out, and play some 80's music through the ice with the rear window down, but then again, I would like to keep the ice in the car, if ya know what I mean

I would also like some kinda roof console, but with a sun roof that may prove difficult, I was really impressed with the pics Ian, where did you get those two round stalky light things for the overhead lighting??.

Hi mate just finished replying to your pm, The round stalky things are just an
old B&Q halogen light fitting (indoors) it was made up of two chrome rails
with four lights on which you could angle and swivel round, Just gutted em and wired in a ring of eight white leds and four blue ones in the centre fixed into plastic card and attached to the big light with small rocker switches,
There supposed to be map lights (reading lights), Always check out builders
skips
Thanks Maurice, Much apprecieated, Just in the middle of doing the door switches and begineing to wish it had'nt started, Ian

[POPEYE]

6 The doors

I thought i'd have trouble changing the carpet on the bottom of the doors as they were stitched to the leather-cloth but i managed to get away with glueing the new bits on, just as well as i'm no good at sewing, I carefully cut around the stitching and pulled off the old carpet (its glued as well), useing it as a template to cut a new bit, Spray a little contact adhesive and stick it on, Then carefully spray around the leather cloth with the carpet masked up
and press it down all round, loads of bulldog clips all around the edge and some weights on the top edge and thats it. The hardest part of recovering the two front pockets is pulling the old stuff off, its glued and stapeled and is really on there, i sprayed it black before i stuck the new carpet on, Mask up the door card and carpet and spray'ed the lower leather-cloth and lower part of the door handles, Then its just screw all the bits back together and fit the speaker pods with "bigheads" and nuts to the card, While the card was off i gunned waxol in there and greased the motor gear, silicon greased the runners and all back together, The windows shoot up and down a treat now
I did'nt realise till i put the door switches (drivers door) back on that the lighting in the switches comes on with the ign and not the lights which i thought was a bit strange, after all you dont need lights on em in the daytime, and they have a delay on em which goes off when the door is shut,
i never noticed that before and it shows how good the original lights were,
The passinger door switches dont have any lighting so i've drilled a small hole
in the top of the rocker (after uncliping it and removeing the rocker) and glued an leds to the inside also glued two around the switch as backlighting,
I've run the speaker and led wireing through the speaker pods and into the footwell panels through some convuluted hose and end terminals from V.W.P
purely cos i could;nt be bothered removeing the lower dash to pull em through
the door hoses, They dont look too bad and i have'nt tripped over em yet, I
may rectify that if i have to take the dash apart in the future, Also got the front footwell lights fixed so they all work on the door buttons now!
Next step- Overhead console with some ideas from Andy LALA

passenger door window switch from underneath with an led glued in

switch back in the houseing,

quick test on a gellcell batt,


vwp hose and ends,