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mounting the tail light boxes to the jeep

Kejtar

PostMaster General
NAXJA Member
The boxes are done and at this point I have them mounted with 5 bolts: 3 use stock mounting points and the last two mount to a plate that's inserted through the spot where the stock taillight slipped into the rubber grommet (the plate has two nuts welded to it and the taillight box has two bolts in the bottom so that it sandwiches the sheetmetal). I don't see the lower two bolts don't really restricting sideways movement, they just keep the light close to the body and are meant to prevent the lights from pivoting. I was going to use nutzerts in the middle and bolt through the iside (remove the light and put the bolt through the back wall) but without putting some sort of a spacer in between (body is concave in that area) I don't think it would do much good (and even with a spacer I don't think a long bolt would do much good in there). Any suggestions on how else to mount it to stiffen things up?

Here's a few pics (haven't taken pics of the lower mounts specifically as I just finished working on it and as you can see in the last few pics, it was too dark to really see anything):
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=te2xbqn.5umd0vgb&x=0&y=-97ox78
 
Looks good remi. Did you use your factory lights as a template? I have been thinking about doing the same thing. and was just tossing ideas on how to get the lines right. What gauge metal did you use?
 
jrsxj98 said:
Looks good remi. Did you use your factory lights as a template? I have been thinking about doing the same thing. and was just tossing ideas on how to get the lines right. What gauge metal did you use?

Yup, the factory lines were used as a template (Took the light off, layed it on some cardboard, drew the shapen ad cut the cardboard to fit). Then I put the steel strips I cut (4.5" in width) and bent them in a vise and on an anvil. The drivers side came out way better then passenger side as after I made the passenger side I decided that I made it to short and I added a "U" shaped piece on the bottom to extend it (doesn't look bad, but you can see it not following the body line as closely where it joins).
In any case it's 3/16" steel and I think I got about 2.5 days of work in it (that includes bending, cutting, welding, drilling, painting and making the harness for the lights)
 
Very nice Remi. First time I've seen someone do a good (home made) job on a late model body style.
 
kid4lyf said:
Very nice Remi. First time I've seen someone do a good (home made) job on a late model body style.

Thanks :D just don't look too closely on the passenger side one :D (might have to redo it one of these days so that it looks better)
 
jrsxj98 said:
Did you leave the backs open, for access to the lights? or the inside portion?
on the back side there is a hole to feed the wire and the connector through (about 2x2", you can see it in one of the pics) and the lights are sealed units accessible from the front: you can pull them out from the grommets with a screwdriver.
 
Cool. did you have trouble with the wiring?
I found the tail lights at the local tractor supply for a decent price, real cheap if I wanted to stay incadesant. like 3.00 each.
 
jrsxj98 said:
Cool. did you have trouble with the wiring?
I found the tail lights at the local tractor supply for a decent price, real cheap if I wanted to stay incadesant. like 3.00 each.
Yes and no. Because of the size of lights I was using, I couldn't get a two stage light in red, so I had to make a little gismo that would allow it to be bright and dim:
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=44687
I will redo my harness though as I was making it while the light boxes were drying and I couldn't measure/test fit it (I needed them for this weekend so I couldn't wait) so the lengths are not done right and it kind of fits funky (some wires are longer then they should be, some are shorter).

Getting back to how I did the "shape":
the inner curve was bent in the wise: I put in an edge and yanked on the opposite end and it came out pretty much what it needed to be. The outer shape I did also in the vise, with a hammer by making small bends where appropriate to get close to the shape, and then as I welded the sides in I'd adjust as needed. The sides are down from 2 pieces (made it easier on the bends) and are welded up together on the top and bottom (they overlap on top of each other).
 
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