My Custom Interior and Exterior Lighting

I just wanted to show you some of the accent lighting that my best friend and I have rigged up on my truck. The first idea we put together was a custom front bumper plate that would light up at night. We thought it would turn some heads. What do you think??

So we built it, and here it is by night:
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And by day:
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I installed a new Pioneer single DIN head unit in my truck shortly after I got it. But since the dash opening is so big in the 95+ Explorers, I needed a dash adapter. Well, in short, the black plastic piece above the head unit was ugly. So my best friend and I decided to dress it up a bit, and after our success with the bumper, we figured why not add another light.

So we went back to the drawing board and built it, and here it is by night: (my passengers seem to like this one)
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And by day:
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What do you guys think??

I have a few more shots of my truck on my home page. If you'd like to see them, click the Stephen's Truck link in my signature.

THATS REALLY REALLY COOL!! How did you get the liscense plate to light up? and how did you cut out the EXPLORER on your dash like that? Very impressive!

Wow, that is a really neat job. Especially the interior light!! How did you make the interior light, I'm very interested in that

that is so cool

That looks great. You just HAVE to tell us how you made that interior Explorer light and how you wired it. John must have one too now. John will make his blue though to match the blue on his Sony M750 (I think thats right) receiver.

That's really awesome! Any how-to's? Do you have ICQ or AOLIM or anything?

VERY nice man! love it! too bad the word moutanieer would have to be tiny to fit in that space.. hey, I've done alittle custom work on my dash as well, nothin that cool, but.. .

btw, you gotta get some neon man. under yer dash in the floorboards, and under the truck.. its sweet.. I'm not gonna put anymore pics up, but I've got a ton on my web page

I like both of your guys' dashes around the deck those look great! Can you both tell us how you did it?? Thanks!

slick

I made mine by making a sort of sub floor to mount the new HU on.. the dash kits you can buy mount the HU at the top or bottom and I didn't like that, so I went to a metal shop and had them make me one, nice and heavy so it will stay in. I used the existing slider on the back of the factory HU to mount the new kit that had the subfloor on it, the HU mounts to the sides of the new kit with flat screws that are countersinked (spelling) to fit flush, on the top and bottom of the very front there are 2 like 2" thick peices of steel, perhaps not needed, but it holds it in place and makes the HU difficult to remove, the lexan actually juts mounts to those 2 peices of steel with double sided tape, sounds flimsy, but its held for more than 6 months now, unfortunatley, this design doesn't give me room to do any lightings behind the Hu but it does leave it looking pretty good

unfortunatley I don't have any pictures of how it was made, so.. hope the explanation helped, I'm bad at explaining things

the interior explorer light is just crazy nuts...how did you wire and where did you get it? please post some info and how-to's. thanx.

Well thanks guys!!! I wasn't expecting this kind of response!!

My AOL screen name is SJS898, and I am also on MSN Messenger service and my name there is my email address sj898@hotmail.com

Alright you guys, so you all want to know how I did it. I'm sorry to tell you that niether of the lights cane be found in any store. They were both hand made by my best friend and I. Fortunately for me, my best friend works in a sign shop (they make signs for businesses and such), and the acrylic, vinyl, and sheet aluminum used to make the lights were easily accessable. Both of them are pretty hard to describe so I hope this gives you an idea of how it was done. (sorry its so long)

For the front light:
We took measurements of the original license plate holes and drew up the shape of a plate on a computer to fit the holes. Then we used a computer controlled router to cut out the proper shapes in the brushed aluminum (border), the clear acrylic (Ford oval), and the white acrylic (background). We then cut out the Ford in blue vinyl and stuck it to the back side of the clear oval. The brushed aluminum was then glued to the white acrylic background and the Ford oval was placed in the center of the oval cut in the aluminum and also glued. That was the easy part. To make it light up took a little more engineering. We cut an hourglass shaped piece of 1/8 inch aluminum with the router. Then with careful measurement, we bent it in a vise to form a sort of square box behind the plate wich could be bolted to the plate through the bumper holes and on the bottom (notice the stainless steel hex bolts in each corner). Pieces of aluminum were then cut and riveted to the sides to close the box. It was then sealed with silicone to make it somewhat waterproof. A small hole was drilled in the back to run the wires for a dome light I swiped from a wrecked Chevy S-10 in a boneyard. The dome light is attached to the very back of the box with two screws. Wiring it up was easy too. I just ran a lead with an in-line fuse from the positive pole of the battery to a toggle switch under my dash, and then to the positive side of the light. And I grounded it to the bumper with one of the mounting screws. Overall, about a weekend worth of work.

For the interior light:
This one was a little tricky since the tolerances were so tight. The dash kit I used for my stereo had a piece of flat black plastic snapped into the top to cover an existing square hole (maybe for an equalizer or something). Well I snapped it out and took some measurements. We then cut out a piece of clear acrylic exactly to fit the dimensions vertically and 1/16 inch long on the left and right sides. I had to file the edges a little to make it fit flush in the front. The EXPLORER was then cut out of a piece of black vinyl, the letters were removed and what was left was stuck to the back of the acrylic. A piece of white vinyl was then cut to fit the acrylic and was stuck on top of the black, so the light would shine white. We stuck it in the hole and secured it with a dab or two of silicone on the 1/16 inch overhangs. Then it was back to the junkyard to find another dome light assembly. I found one in an 87 Blazer that was perfect. I trimmed the plastic a little and used high temp silicone to stick it to the top of my stereo cage (NOT ON THE STEREO). I ran its positive lead to the same switch that the front light is wired to so I didn't have another wire on my battery. And its grounded to a metal bracket behind the dash.

I wanted them to look just as good during the day as at night, so great care was taken so that seams and glue would not be seen by a casual observer. It's hard to tell you how it all came together, since it was sort of a trial and error thing. When one idea didn't work, we cut another piece and tried again. I hope this helps you out, but if you have any questions that I didn't answer, then feel free to ask. Thanks again you guys for the great response.

[Edited by Stephen S on 01-15-2001 at 03:49 PM]

Dark Fox, I like what you've done with your dash as well. Very clean looking. As for the rest of your truck, you've done a great job with it. I love the neons underneath, and since your truck is white it realy looks sharp. But my truck is so dark (dark green) I'm not sure it would look so good on the outside. But on the floorboards, I am already thinking about those.

Yob_Yokem
I tried the blue to make it match my dash board lights but the bulb faded to the white you see in the pictures. I almost like it white, but the blue was nice while it lasted.

Both lights look great!
So basically, each light consists of a lens (acrylic and vinyl) and a light (old dome lights). It's not that complicated if you think about it, it's just hard for most of us that don't have access to that type of equipment. Again, kudos for being inventive!

Maybe you should think about manufacturing a few dozen of each light. If you have the computer templates, they shouldn't be that hard to mass produce. Or, you can just get the vinyl cut and any moderately skilled craftsman can do the rest.

Thanks Alec and you're right, I had to have access to the computer contolled router and vinyl cutter to make it look as good as it does.

My friend and I have discussed making more of them, but the bumper light would only work for a 95 - 99 truck (I think) and the interior light only for those who have the same dash kit as I do.

stephen, thanks for the compliment, I've seen several trucks here that are very dark colors with neon underthem, what color is your truck? sorry, from the picutres here I can't tell, I beleive dark blue or black? if either.. you can go with blue, or if black, any color you want, the neon would still look good IMO..

btw, about the lit up explorer thing, thats exatly how I thought you did it actually, heh, looks great, I had an idea to do similar once, but I don't even remember the details, I was going to use white lexan behind clear plexi and light it with a streetglow mini neon.. but it seemed too complex for me.

with that kind of creativity, and determination, yer bound to get some more great ideas goin for that truck, heh, maybe down the road you can enter it into a car show of some kind? I've actually thought about that, even tho its egotisical of me.. I know mines pretty individual.. I mean how many mountaineers do you see with clears on them?

Thanks a lot for the compliments everyone!!
DarkFox, my truck is dark green, that's why I'm not too sure about the neon. I have some better pics of it in the daytime on photopoint (the link in my signature) if you want to see the color.

I am still thinking of ways to set my truck apart from the rest. I've got light on the front, on the inside, now I'm trying to think of something for the back or more interior accents. Any ideas? About the cars shows, I'm not too sure mine is nice enough for one of those but I'll keep working on it.

dark green, thats not so bad, I know a guy here locally with a streetglow kit under his green cherokee, its bright as anything, looks great too, the green neon doesn't really throw the look of the dark green truck off at all, heh, and you KNOW you will stand out having neon, I get looks all the time, the last time I went through a restaurant drivethrough the people inside were running all over the place trying to find a window to see it interior neons would work well too, I TRIED to get some under my back seat, but the material under there won't let the double sided tape stick, and theres no other way it seems to mount it, a friend of mine suggested staples, might try that later. hey, perhaps you could get your dome lights colored? either with bulbs, or painting then.. I personally can't bring myself to do that, but it does look good from the people who have done it.

Stephen S.,

Love the interior 'Explorer' setup. You should send that idea to someone to see if they'd buy it from you to market it. Couldn't hurt to ask around. Again, looks good.

DarkFox, for the interior lights, I'd really love to go hyperwhite everywhere inside the vehicle, dash lights, ash tray, glove box, dome, map lights, etc. I've been looking around and have found some hypers at a few local high performance dealers but they are sooooo expensive. They want $25 for the two little bulbs for my front door panels. At that rate, it'll cost me more than $250 just to replace the interior light bulbs!!! I don't know, but I thought that was a little high since I'd need more than 16 bulbs with many different types. I still want to do it, but I can't justify the cost. Second option is colored bulbs, but they ones I've found fade so fast, and the ones that don't are also expensive. AARRRRRGGHHH!!!! Nothing come cheap nowadays I guess.

Thanks Goober, I have thought about marketing both of the lights, but I'm not sure where to begin. I mean, anyone who owns a new Ford with a single DIN aftermarket stereo in that huge hole may be interested, but that's sort of a small population. With that said, do you think a company would a company be willing to try it?? Mine is made to fit my dash kit, but I'm pretty sure that another could be made to fit a different dash kit.

Stephen,

Even though I still have the factory head unit, I was thinking of putting the "explorer" light somewhere else. If I have the vinyl cutout, making a custom light box would be no problem.

Alec, I'm curious about where you'd like to put the light in your truck. How you make the light box is entirely up to you and how you want the install to look. As long as you can get your hands on some material, with a little ingenuity, it's possible. Transluscent acrylic and the vinyl cutout are a must. A local sign shop might provide you with both; either rough material or cut to the exact size if they are nice enough. Just tell them what you want to do. That way, you can get the EXPLORER vinyl cut out in any font you want.