Map Light And Scanguage Install

Blown383 said:

Looks clean! How did you end up securing the counsel to the roof?

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Nikko said:

I just bought a Homelink unit and hope to get started on this soon. I had the same question ... can you go over how the wood bracketworks to secure it to the roof?

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Here's a rough sketch of what's involved. Basically I used Wesayso's suggestion.



Using a U shapped wooden mount, and screws that went through the console, compression of the mount to the headliner by the screws keep the unit in place.

On hindsight it's prob easier to epoxy a block of wood onto the underside of the roof and screw the console in, but because I had cut the hole so close to the rear view mirror, I needed the mount to push the headliner down a bit to meet the console.

Does this make sense?

Good Luck!

It's an awesome mod!!
T

so i was plugging around in the local pull and save junk yard and came across this little beauty



not to shabby for $2.50

its form an 04 Hyundai Elantra and measures 7 3/4" x ~7" i got the wire harness as a free bonus. i like this because its smaller than the unit from the Honda and i have no need for a home link as my truck will soon be to tall to fit in the garage. then i was messing around with the light bulbs that came with it. they are bright but i decided that i wanted to go with some red LEDs, to preserve night vision. the lights will not come on when the door opens (its only a 2 wire system and only turned on when the buttons were pressed) so i could go with any colors i wanted. after poking around for a few seconds i came across tunerdomes.com (i would hot link it but it generates its own ridiculous code). before you slap me with the rice stick they have an excellent selection of LED solutions for a wide variety of cars, including the bulbs that are in the Honda units that most of you are using. if anyone is interested this is the part that you need. also when i checked out and received my conformation email they gave me a discount code for any of my friends to get 10% off. the promo code is "friend08" and its good for 45 days. my ScanGauge comes tomorrow (the 3rd) so ill take pictures as i go and post em up

as promised i have a write-up for everyone. i spent the morning taking thew FJ apart and not breaking a thing thanks to the wonderful threads about dissembling the innards of the cab. then i had to wait anxiously for the mail man to arrive with the ScanGauge.

to begin, whenever working with or around electrical anything disconnect the battery. no one wants to accidentally set off the side curtain airbags. the other thing is to have a system to make sure you don't lose any parts/fasteners that have to be removed for the install



i began with a simple slightly smaller cardboard cut out of the ceiling unit. i scribbled on it to remember what end i wanted to go where.



then i rolled some duct tape on to the back of the pattern, drew a center line and mounted it where i wanted in the roof.



using a pencil i drew the outline on to the headliner and removed the cardboard.this is the last shot to make sure everything is lined up right.




after the outline was drawn i removed all the handles, visors and mirror and made my incision. the cut was made slightly interior of the lines to insure a tight fit



then i had to wait the longest two hours of my life for USPS to bring me my package. this time was spent walking around in circles, checking measurements, the forums, staring longingly into the FJ's headlights and a few rounds of Company of Heroes. at 2:42 pm the package arrived!



its smaller than i expected to be but this it the prime example of big thing in a little package. next step, make another pattern, this time out of some junk mail. fix it onto the ceiling unit, center it and draw the outline. next step Dremel and trim. if you don't own a Dremel tool go and get one, these things are awesome.





now then this is the spot where everyone has there own solutions on how to keep the sunglasses drop-down from fully extending. the method i chose was to use a gray ribbon. cut a pair of slits, run the ribbon and fix the ends with a hot glue gun.




so now its time to put the ScanGuage in the hole that was cut earlier. well turn out the Dremel cutting blade melted a bit more of the plastic than i wanted but oh well.place the unit where desired and use loads of hot glue form behind to secure it in place. this left a little glossy glue in sight but i can manage, besides that's what paint is for.



and on to the test fit



now this is the part that i stopped taking lots of pictures because it was mostly detail work. i had to make a cut on the side of the sunglasses tray to allow me plug the cable into the ScanGauge, trim the headliner because i cut it to small, run the wires and test everything before the final install. for the map lights i found that running the hot line directly into one of the unused locations in the fuse panel to work great. then for the ground i drilled a small hole in the handle bracket located in the A-pillar. pinched a ring on the wire and riveted it into the hole. the picture is out of focus but the hole is there juts below the mounting bolt.



then its all about buttoning everything up and admiring the finished results



red LEDs are in the mail so ill take some night shots when i get them