Latest DIY mods

[Jbaker33]

So, as everyone who has a cover on their bed, it comes with it's own set of problems. One, is not being able to see into the bed when you open the tailgate and another is, if you leave your tailgate down by accident or if it falls down, you can't see it and could lose some valuable things..


I took care of both of those issues.

First, I bought an led light kit specifically for the bed from Walmart(I know, the horror right). It comes with a 2 prong plug that you can plug into your vehicles plug if you have one. Well mine is already being used for my 7 way connection and I didnt want to get splitter for it. What I did was order some push type pins(thing hood switch for car alarm) and some 14 gauge wire. I cut the wires from the harness(4 total. 2 plain black for negative and 2 black with white stripe for the positive). I connected the 2 black with with striped wires to my a 14 gauge wire and ran the 14 gauge into my fuse box. I looked for one of the extra spaces that had power at all times, verified by test light. I then drilled out a hole for the switch. I had very few spots to mount as I wanted the lights to come on when I lowered the tailgate. If you're not familiar with these switches, what you do is hook the ground cable to the switch. When the tailgate is up the switch is fully compressed which disconnects the ground cable from its grounding source. Since the lights need to be ground for the lights to work, the lights turn off. When you lower the tailgate, the pin allows the circuit to be grounded and you have lights.


I ordered a pack of 2 switches because I wanted to also add in a switch that would tell me if my tailgate was down. I used the other side of tailgate for this. I already had an led light mounted in my dash from a previous DIY project(MDS mode light) but no longer used it as I "disconnected" my mds by unplugging my oil temp sensor. Because I only wanted to know if my tailgate was down while driving, I found a wire inside my dash behind my radio that was only powered with the ACC switched on(in this case I used a thick pink wire with yellow stripe that went to a harness that wasn't being used. I think it was for the sliding back window option which I dont have) i then ran a negative line from the led to the 2nd pin switch and it works exactly the same as the led bed lights. I didnt take step by step pictures as this was an after thought and I think there is already a step by step guide out there. I'm attaching pics of the switches I bought and of the finished projects. If any of you have any questions, feel free to ask

 

[Jbaker33]

 

[fastf]

You better get a patent on that someone will use it and make money off of it.That is brilliant.

 

[SYKRAMMAN]

That sure is^^^.

 

[Blackdodge2010]

I have my underhood lighting hooked up like that with one of these switches, never even thought of using those switches for the bed lighting, {mine currently wired inside of the cab} Guess I found my weekend project!

 

[Jbaker33]

You better get a patent on that someone will use it and make money off of it.That is brilliant.

Thank you..I actually think I found bits and pieces online(I cant remember how much was online vs how much I thought up) so I cannot take the full credit for it. The bed lights mod I have been wanting to do since I got my cover last winter. The tailgate down indicator evolved when I had a bunch of containers of used oil in the back and my ******** brother in law doesnt know how to shut the truck like a man(as you can tell, I no longer like this idiot so i trash him as much as possible. In all fairness, he didnf know it needed to be slammed lol) so when we got to our destination, the tailgate was done and we were missing a few containers :/.

Not sure if I posted my rusty tailgate/bottom rocker panel mods that I did when I replaced my rear wheel well panels this summer. I did come up with the fix for them and they are holding steady so far. I live on a nasty dirt road that was literally made over a swamp. I'm camping now and the wife wants me to come in so I will add comments/pics to this thread in a little bit to show what I did.

 

[Jbaker33]

So the bottom of my tailgate was rusted

I have my underhood lighting hooked up like that with one of these switches, never even thought of using those switches for the bed lighting, {mine currently wired inside of the cab} Guess I found my weekend project!

Right on. At first I thought about wiring it to the cargo light switch that's on my headlight switch assembly but decided not to because a lot of times I know I'd forget to turn it on and then have to go back up to the cab and turn it on, then remember to turn it off(so I'm lazy, who cares lol). Hopefully you can see exactly where I mounted the pin, basically right behind the rubber stoppers flat area. On the first one I ended up messing up the rubber piece and just cut that side completely out(the same side of the pin I'm talking about), while leaving the stopper in place for the tailgate. On the second one I was a little smarter and was able to notch out a little cavity that works perfectly. You're gonna have to take out the taillight(s). If you are doing both the bed lights and tailgate indicator, you're going to need to do one on each side as I dont believe theres enough room for two pins on a side. Once you drill the hole and stick the pin in, you'll have to reach up into the hole left by the taillight and reach over the firewall(?) To screw on the nut. I'm not sure if it's called a firewall but you'll see what I mean. It's a bit tricky and after you screw on the nut tightly, you'll have to connect the wire to the backside of the switch. Thankfully for me, it wasnt too bad because I have little girly ***** hands to easier fit in there

I know you are probably pretty skilled in this type of stuff, as you mentioned you did the same thing but with the hood lights so please dont take offense to me overly explaining it lol. I'm mostly going into more depth on a few parts for others who may not be as skilled, who are reading this. If you end up doing it this weekend, let me/us know how it went please. And take and post some pictures!

 

[Jbaker33]

Ok, so my tailgate fix. The lower portion of my tailgate was rusted/rotted out to the point it was causing structural damage to the tailgate itself. It was not only the lower visable part but also where you dont see it, wrapping underneath. It made my truck look like **** and I hated it! I was embarrased and didnt want anyone looking at my rear end and laughing lol. I priced some new tailgates and to factory match my paint it was close to 400 dollars. At first I thought about just getting a thin piece of steel welded onto and cover it up like a band aid. Well I dont have a welder nor do I know how to weld. Plus. That still left the structural issue and rust spreading to other parts of tailgate, causing me to have to buy a new one eventually. Like I said, a band aid. A week or so goes by and an idea hits me. Granted, it's not the best, but its not the worst(insert the know-it-all to tell me its hokie, wont last, looks like **** etc.) I used to do construction and remembered doing seamless gutters one time. We used this big roll of aluminum foil stuck to run it through the machine and the machine bends it into the shape of a gutter. You measure how big of a piece you need, usually the whole length of the house and there you go. Well aluminum isnt steel so it doesn't rust. It does corrode when exposed to the same elements. It doesnt really rot or turn rust colored, it forms aluminum oxide which is a thin white layer that they say actual then protects the aluminum from further corrosion. I did not pull this out of thin air, nor am I that smart #thankgodforgoogle. So anyway, I cut out the rusted areas(just above the black line for the front and about the same height on the back side) and ground down the areas immediately surround said rot. Btw, I took the tailgate off the truck and was doing all this via 3 2x6 supported by saw horses. Once I made sure I had cut out the cancer, I measured the length and width of the new hole in my tailgate. I dont own a metal brake and wasnt going to rent or buy one just for this. I ended up marking where I needed it cut and where I needed it bend and used a 2x6 as a straight edge. For those who haven't used or work with aluminum coil stock before, here a little tip on cutting them without a brake. Secure the board on top of coil where you want to cut(we laid down cardboard on the ground and the aluminum on top of that. Then had my wife stand on the 2x6 so it wouldn't move). Then get a new razor knife, box cutter, etc and slowly and carefully scribe a line using board as straight edge. Once a light line is scribed, carefully do it again with a little more force. Now, if you carefully bend the aluminum away from the cut and give it a few back and forth bends, itll snap right off. Way cleaner and better looking than using cutters.

To make your bend you do the same process as cutting it except you only do the first light scribe. That's it. And then instead if bending away from the cut, you bend it towards the cut, getting as close to the angle you need as possible. During the bending I was alone so I had to use a bunch of c clamps to hold the board onto the aluminum. Even though you scribed it with board as a straight edge, you'll still want to use it to help bend the metal.

Whew. Sorry guys, I dont write many things on here but when I do, I like to go into as much depth/detail as I can.

Alright. So even thought I'm now "wrapping" the aluminum from the front, up underneath to the backside, it doesn't mean Its going strengthen up the tailgate. I mean mine was flimsy where it rotted out. I'm sure I've already lost one or two of you due to length, heres where I'll lose the rest of you guys because you'll think this really is hokie but I did what I could with what I had available. I measured the gap between the tailgates inner and outer side and then cut 1x2 pieces of wood to put In there to keep the whole panel from flopping around. I re-measured every spot i put a piece. I then drilled a hole or two in the tailgate at each 1x2 making sure to go into the wood just enough to get a pop rivet it(lol Iknow, it sounds dumb to me to). Once I had gotten those drilled, I used a spring loaded center punch(awesome btw) and marked all of those holes onto the new aluminum piece, along with other holes to secure the piece to the tailgate. I ground down the heads, just a little bit, put a thin layer of bondo and glaze putty on, just enough to cover the rivets and any blemishes I made and then started the painting process. Now, I'm horrible and feathering the edges so I opted to repaint the whole tailgate(same thing I did with the whole sides of the box during wheel well repair. I have an older truck so the factory paint isnt the greatest so I was able to get away with doing it). For the piece I replaced, I wanted to protect it as much as possible so I did a few layers of that rubberized underbody stuff along with some black paint on top of. First time around I did not clear coat on top of black, just the white, which was a mistake. Dirt would basically sticking to the aluminum portion and didnt like to come off. I ended up redoing it 2 weeks later cause I didnt like that dirt stuck to it. With 3-4 coats of clear, it's much better and I'm very happy with the way it looks. Not only am I no longer self conscience of ppl behind me looking at my fanny, I now welcome it

Anyways sorry for the long story, I just honestly feel if it helps one person, it was worth the score thumbs lol. After all, as lame as it is, I feel a brother hood with all my dodge bros, kind of like dudes who ride motorcycles who do that cool, almost hitting the ground wave thing to each other when they pass by going opposite directions. You've seen it right? Lol. Anyways, we should help each other out, that what these forums are for. Heres some pics of the install. I wont caption it unless it's not super obvious. And as always, if you have any questions, by all means ask.

 

[Jbaker33]

God, one day I'll figure out how to attach pics properly...

 

[Blackdodge2010]

So the bottom of my tailgate was rusted



Right on. At first I thought about wiring it to the cargo light switch that's on my headlight switch assembly but decided not to because a lot of times I know I'd forget to turn it on and then have to go back up to the cab and turn it on, then remember to turn it off(so I'm lazy, who cares lol). Hopefully you can see exactly where I mounted the pin, basically right behind the rubber stoppers flat area. On the first one I ended up messing up the rubber piece and just cut that side completely out(the same side of the pin I'm talking about), while leaving the stopper in place for the tailgate. On the second one I was a little smarter and was able to notch out a little cavity that works perfectly. You're gonna have to take out the taillight(s). If you are doing both the bed lights and tailgate indicator, you're going to need to do one on each side as I dont believe theres enough room for two pins on a side. Once you drill the hole and stick the pin in, you'll have to reach up into the hole left by the taillight and reach over the firewall(?) To screw on the nut. I'm not sure if it's called a firewall but you'll see what I mean. It's a bit tricky and after you screw on the nut tightly, you'll have to connect the wire to the backside of the switch. Thankfully for me, it wasnt too bad because I have little girly ***** hands to easier fit in there

I know you are probably pretty skilled in this type of stuff, as you mentioned you did the same thing but with the hood lights so please dont take offense to me overly explaining it lol. I'm mostly going into more depth on a few parts for others who may not be as skilled, who are reading this. If you end up doing it this weekend, let me/us know how it went please. And take and post some pictures!

Thanks for all the tips, I will keep them in mind when I go to rewire mine.