djdingo
10-19-2008, 12:33 AM
I needed to add 4 switches for 4 sets of lights I'm going to be installing. I was going to do this entire project at once, but decided to chip it off little by little. Today I got the switch panel done. I thought this was pretty neat and wanted to share.
I didn't want to have a row of switches with no indication of what they do. Of course I would know what they do, but others wouldn't. I also didn't want to label them either, so I came up with a simpler idea. I would make a picture of a Jeep and put the switches by the locations of the lights they control. The lights will be...
(2) lights on front bumper
(2) lights on windshield mounts
(2) lights on back bumper
(2) lights underneath Jeep
I bought the CoolTech switch mount plate to start with.
http://www.cooltechllc.com/jeep/jk_switch_mount.htm
It is a mounting plate that is completely flat. It comes predrilled with holes for switches, but I didn't need those. So I cut a piece of plexi-glass to fit over the front, drilled holes for the mounting screws and painted the back of the plexi-glass black to cover the holes on the switch mount plate.
A friend of mine is really good at design so I gave him a side picture of my JK and asked him to make a decal of the outline of the Jeep. He came up with a few ideas but I picked out the best one and put the decal on the plexi-glass.
Today I got the switches I wanted from RadioShack and drilled the holes to get those mounted. I decided on a low profile switch that has a red LED indicating the switch is ON. There was a lot of wiggling and adjusting to get everything to fit...I was doing this by myself with my hands holding it still. A drill press would have been awesome to use for this.
I put the switches next to the locations of the lights that they will operate. Now they are ready to be wired up!
The finished project isn't absolutely perfect, I got kinda close to the decal with the switches. I was worried about clearance from the back of the mounting plate. The top middle switch was high up there and I did have to trim a bit of plastic from the bottom of the center dash so it had clearance to fit. Can't see that part anyways.
Check it out..
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/1018081753a_Small_.jpg
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/1018081753b_Small_.jpg
I didn't want to have a row of switches with no indication of what they do. Of course I would know what they do, but others wouldn't. I also didn't want to label them either, so I came up with a simpler idea. I would make a picture of a Jeep and put the switches by the locations of the lights they control. The lights will be...
(2) lights on front bumper
(2) lights on windshield mounts
(2) lights on back bumper
(2) lights underneath Jeep
I bought the CoolTech switch mount plate to start with.
http://www.cooltechllc.com/jeep/jk_switch_mount.htm
It is a mounting plate that is completely flat. It comes predrilled with holes for switches, but I didn't need those. So I cut a piece of plexi-glass to fit over the front, drilled holes for the mounting screws and painted the back of the plexi-glass black to cover the holes on the switch mount plate.
A friend of mine is really good at design so I gave him a side picture of my JK and asked him to make a decal of the outline of the Jeep. He came up with a few ideas but I picked out the best one and put the decal on the plexi-glass.
Today I got the switches I wanted from RadioShack and drilled the holes to get those mounted. I decided on a low profile switch that has a red LED indicating the switch is ON. There was a lot of wiggling and adjusting to get everything to fit...I was doing this by myself with my hands holding it still. A drill press would have been awesome to use for this.
I put the switches next to the locations of the lights that they will operate. Now they are ready to be wired up!
The finished project isn't absolutely perfect, I got kinda close to the decal with the switches. I was worried about clearance from the back of the mounting plate. The top middle switch was high up there and I did have to trim a bit of plastic from the bottom of the center dash so it had clearance to fit. Can't see that part anyways.
Check it out..
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/1018081753a_Small_.jpg
http://my.project-jk.com/data/500/1018081753b_Small_.jpg