Alright, so some updates.
I've been really slacking on the headlight department. Every time I open the box and start to play around with stuff I wind up bored and never end up actually doing any work. I haven't even unsealed the headlight housings yet.
So, I've decided to get the ball rolling on it by downsizing the build and doing it a little different rather than days on top of days of work to build these things.
So, here's kind of where I'm at with it.
Keeping the headlight housings.
Keeping the 4th gen halo's
Keeping the sequential switchback strips
Keeping the colormorph fog light bulbs
And getting rid of all of the following: Projectors, shrouds, bulbs, projector halo's, demon eyes, amber flex strips, and color morph led strips.
I'm still playing with options of what to order, but I'm going to keep it a little bit more plain.
Right now I'm considering ordering in the XKGlow demon eye LED headlight bulbs. Essentially the same headlight bulbs i have now, except they have a small line of LED's across the top and bottom that can illuminate the entire headlight housings in whatever color I want.
An added feature of these is the smartphone app. Basically when I leave the truck I can drop a pin on a map where the truck is located. When I get within a few feet of the truck, it activates the colormorph automatically, essentially meaning when I get within distance of the truck the headlights would illuminate red. Kinda cool.
Here's a link to the website with a video you can watch that shows why I'm considering going this route now.
XKchrome iOS Android Smartphone
To go with the XKChrome app, I think I want to order in the 6 piece 10" flexible strips. There's the openings in the Fusion bumper that I'd illuminate the holes with, taking up 3 of them. Then along the rocker panels so it would illuminate the ground below, taking up an additional 2. The last one I would place under the bed so it would light up back behind the truck as well. Being the boring person I am, I would leave all of these lights set on red. I like the location option where it lights up when I get within range of the truck, also giving light for under the truck in case there's snow, ice, rattlesnakes, whatever.
Going back to the headlight build, I'm going to install the 4th gen halo's as planned. I'll also install the colormorph fog light bulbs where the factory turn signal goes.
Instead of installing the sequential switchback strips only on the lower part of the headlight, I'm going to wrap them around with the 4th gen halo making the break.
Something like this.
It'll flow down, towards the outside of the truck, up, towards the inside and start over. Should look pretty cool.
From there, that's it. No projectors, no major backlighting mods, just clean and simple.
Now, onto some more fun. This is another possibility, not a guarantee right now.
I was browsing around on facebook just goofing off, and came across an ad for 4 wheel parts. It was from Alpine for their "Restyle" for the Jeep JK Wranglers, and it had an accessory control option that allowed you do to everything an sPOD would do. Basically a screen that controls lights, winch, whatever 12v accessory you want. It also had a multiple camera view option, opening up camera options for front, rear, and side views on the screen of the stereo (eliminating the NEED for a spotter when off road).
So, I started browsing around and came across the price of almost 4 grand for this unit. No.
Then I started playing around on Alpine's website, and found something a little more realistic.
The
INE-W967HD has majority of the same features, retailed at $1700 instead of the $4000. It does NOT include the accessory controller and multiple camera controller, it's sold separately but still not too extreme compared to the Restyle.
So I started playing around with numbers a little bit. Because of the move back in August, leaving my job and starting up a business, among other things, I gave up on the center console and stereo build. I donated the eBay Android stereo I got to my sister for her car since her's quit working, figuring I'll get another one down the road. After seeing it work in her car....I'm glad I dumped it off on her. Sound quality was poor, it lagged, it was cheesy and I was not thrilled with it.
So I had already planned on spending closer to $700 or $800 for a nice quality double din stereo.
Now, take into account I was going to do the touchscreen sPOD with the stereo and console build. That's another $720. That's closer to $1500 range for everything already. Obviously with my line of work I don't pay retail, but still a bigger chunk of change.
Well my boss is in pretty deep with a sound company back behind our shop. We do all the wheels and tires for both their customers, their personal rigs, and their audio show rigs. So they hook us up just was much as we do them.
I called them a few hours ago to figure out a price for the Alpine stereo, accessory controller and camera controller (don't need to spend the money on Alpine camera's, just their generic).
Well, they came back with a price for me CHEAPER than the $1500 for it all.
So, I'm thinking of going down this road instead.
I'll relocate the stereo to a custom center console, then I'm thinking I'll still move the Edge CTS2 over to where the factory stereo is, then place the magnet mount for my cell phone next to it so my phone sits there instead of down in the console.
From there, I'll rewire all of my accessories over to the stereo, then keep my tuner screen on the pitch/roll screen all the time instead of on the toggle switches.
We will see what happens here. Christmas is coming after all haha.