If still too bright, spray a light coat over the remaining unpainted part - - it'll knock the illumination down a bit more. . . Great job.
Paul
They are still too bright. All they are supposed to do is make the rear license plate visible during darkness. I bet one of the LED's they have inside the housing would take care of that. I think there are ten. I'm going old school and installing the new OEM type replacements that came in the mail today.
Drove about 200 miles in the Explorer today, maybe 30 in the dirt. It was good dirt though. Went to Valley of the Moon area. Its high desert, but it was still hot out there today. Lots of big rocks and off-camber stuff. It was good enough to freak the wife out several times and just about as difficult as I would want out on a very hot day alone. Went in through the main road which is mostly paved, then up to the Elliot mine for lunch.
While up there I pull two bonehead maneuvers. First, I noticed my bumper mounted gas can appeared to be seeping fuel at the lower seam. It does that sometimes when under pressure. I loosened the cap to relieve the pressure. It was taking a long time so I turned it one more turn and baam, cap blew off shooting premium gas all over the back of the Explorer and me. Luckily I was wearing sun glasses. Wetted down my shift with water to get some of the smell out, but still spent the rest of the day stinking like gasoline. I think the 4,000 elevation and 96* day built up a lot more pressure than I have ever experienced in a gas can before.
Second, I installed my cheepo eBay awning for the day because it was going to be hot and there is limited shade out there. That wasn't the bonehead maneuver. I opened up the awning and set it up. I walked to the rear of the Explorer to grab my guide lines because it was breezy and watched the awning flip almost upside-down. Luckily, it only tore the end out of one of the thin aluminum poles used to keep the sides rigid. I rolled it back up, sans the one pole. I think I can repair the pole, maybe figure out how to make them a little stronger at the ends while I am at it. So stinking of gasoline with no shirt while sitting in the hot sun made for a unsatisfactory lunch break.
After lunch, we took a couple of side trails, then took the wrong trail and ended up in a canyon driving along the original barb wire border fence for a few miles. Found a abandoned late model Expedition parked in the sand at the bottom of this canyon. It was obviously a Border Patrol vehicle, but all the equipment, stickers and plates were removed. It must have driven down into the canyon, which has two access trails but both require a very steep climbs over big rocks to get out. No way it was making it back out of there. Didn't look to have been there very long. I forgot to take a picture. The way we took to get out was the most challenging part of the trails of the day. Lots of turns around boulders, up and overs, and off-camber stuff. Luckily it tied into the trail I was looking for that drops down to a wide dirt access road to the big border wall. The trail down was fun, tight with some good drops over big rocks, with no room for error due to a several hundred feet drop on the driver side. As soon as we hit I-8 westbound, I noticed my driver window was jammed and wouldn't roll up. Its happened before but its been a while. I think I am going to order a new power door motor because it was a warm drive home. It would have been nice to crank up the AC. Got home about an hour ago. Explorer worked very well. Transmission never got over 180 on the freeway pulling a very long grade, mostly in 3rd with the converter locked. Engine usually stayed around the "N" in NORMAL unless I was running the AC, then it went up to the "M". It did start creeping past that after about 30 miles of up hill on the way out so AC came off.
Some Pics
View from Elliot Mine
We got buzzed by a Homeland Security helicopter right about when we stopped. They flew past level with us and close enough that I made eye contact with the pilot. The entrance to this area is right off the In-Ko-Pah exit of I-8. They are always BP cars parked in this area. I think one of them asked the helicopter to see what we were doing up there alone, on a Thursday, on a very hot day.
Side trail in / out of valley (reminds me of Chutes and Ladders board game)
Solar farm and the big mean border wall.
I need to remember to toss an extra shirt into the cargo area after I clean it up, maybe a pair of socks too.
