Sunday Afternoon Fabrication

Whew!
Finally got around that guy.

DISPLAY OFF:


DISPLAY ON:


Full tutorial sometime this week!

 

Thanks!
I thought so too. :grin:

I looked around for a fuse holder with a display that could be turned on and off, but.....there's absolutely nothing out there.
These units are usually for show cars with gigantor stereos and a dozen flat screens (probably playing "The Matrix" or "Akira"), so they want as much show and tech under the hood as possible.

For my truck, I don't need show; I need GO!
....but a little tech never hurt. :grin:
I really didn't want the display on all the time.

I searched high and low (and on Google) for a switch with an LED that would light up when the unit was OFF. This way the little LED on the switch would be a visual reminder that the display is off and also function as a locater beacon.
What I thought would be quite common, does not exist. In any form. Toggle, rocker, touch panel....forget it. No such switch. Not even in China.
In a very rare move, I settled.

The mounting plate will probably come back out and get re-shot with the bed liner paint. It wasn't 100% dry when it went in, so there are a few little scrapes that need to be touched up.
I'm also going to re-drill the hole in the top face slightly larger so the switch control wires *and connectors* can pass through. As it is now, I put the connectors on after the fuse holder was mounted to the top face.

I'm also considering taking a big portion of the mount-side face out. It's really just wasted weight. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to bug me. LOL
I might contact JMB about doing a Sneaky Pete in there (and then powdercoating it....heh heh).

Updates as they become available.

 

I decided against the "Sneaky Pete" getting cut into the face. No one would ever see it, so....it wasn't really worth it.
(Props to Justin and Mr. Roe for getting me quick quotes on that though)

I uninstalled the mount bracket and removed a portion of the face to trim it's overall weight a little:



As you can see, I tried a 1.5" border first, then cut out 0.5" more to give it a 1" border. It's still VERY strong. Way stronger than necessary to keep that little fuse holder in place. :grin:
I still need to do some clean-up on those cuts, but you get the basic idea.

I'm going to get a slightly larger mounting screw for the fuse holder itself, and tap the mounting holes. This will make it MUCH easier to get that mounted because there's no need for nuts/washers on the opposite side (and nothing to possibly vibrate loose).

The holes for the red wires and switch will be widened SLIGHTLY to prevent wear on the paint. I'm going to hard-wire the fuse holder and the switch to the mount plate. If anything needs to be replaced/repaired, I'll have to pull the whole bracket....but that's fine. It'll make installation MUCH easier: 3 little screws, power cables, and one ground wire.

One other thing I found out was that the display automatically switches off after 3 minutes of power to it. I'm not sure if there's an adjustment or not, but I'll look into it.

New bed liner paint is going on it tomorrow, and I'll let it FULLY dry this time. :grin:

 

Ya learn something new every day.......

Today I learned that bed liner paint is really REALLY easy to take off! :grin:
It's pretty much just a layer of rubber:



With a new razor blade, it peeled right off.
The benefit of having to re-paint is that the little imperfections are now filled!
I won't show it, but I did pull a 'Garth with an air gun' on one of the faces. It's gone now.

Cleaned off, pseudo-filled, and ready for re-paint:


First coat:


Close-up to show texture:


Second coat goes on in a few and that should do it.

The downside of today is that I got the wrong screws.
I should have checked when the guy brought out the box, but they've never gotten an order wrong before. I really should have checked before I left. Trust, but verify....right? :grin:
I'll be exchanging them tomorrow.

 

Got the screws exchanged. Painless.

The paint is dry, and the piece came out perfect. The 1" border is exactly what it needed, and it lightened it up a bunch. I'm very happy with it.

After finishing the installation last night, I tried the switch.
*POP*
The little eyelet that I had re-used in the display section for my hot wire had failed, and then shorted out the display.
DAMNIT.

I had to pull it all out again, and will now be re-wiring it.
Again.
But with better components.

 

Turns out the LED on the switch got cooked during the short as well, so I had to get a new switch. It's the same setup, but square instead of oval (they were out of the oval one). It's a quick replacement in the future if I decide to. I kind of like the LED on this one better.

New wiring:


Fully wired and ready to be installed (again):


Install pics sometime this weekend.