Did the first mod to my truck today. One of my big pet peeves are people who ride my ass, or who drive up behind me with their brights on. In Texas you cannot have rear facing spotlights, unless they are pointing at the bed of the truck. So I had been trying to think of how to flash people behind me. Then I noticed how limited my sight was with the huge rear headrests. So I decided to take care of two issues at once. I dissected my headrests and installed lights in them. This was slammed together quickly and I will probably find some LEDs that fit in here for the future, these get way to hot to use as work lights etc, but will work great for flashing idiots. This was a quick, cheap way to see if I could get it to work.
I started with some cheap tractor lights and changed out to 100 watt bulbs ($35 total). I then removed the mounting brackets.
Then I took the headrests from the 2010 I just traded in and started cutting! Ya'll didn't think I started cutting on the 2012 did you? Anyway, I cut a couple of inches off the bottom, and then carved out the center back to accomodate the lights. I put the upholstery back on and trimmed it up at the bottom. For the time being, I just used black duct tape to seal the upholstery, I'll go back and use some upholstery adhesive or staples. I also scored an X in the back of the upholstery where the light would push into the body of the headrest.
Next I got some plastic planters from Wally World (96 cents each!). I cut the bottom of the pots so that the opening was slightly smaller than the lights. I then measured the distance between the backglass and the light and cut the top off the pot as needed. I put the pots over the light from the rear and pushed it forward and duct taped it in place. Again, I will upgrade to some type of sealant in the future, but I just wanted to make sure this would all work. I then put door seal trim on the top of the pot where it would make contact with the window, to seal it and keep the platic from scratching my defrost elements. The pots and door sealer will serve to "seal" the beam and keep me from blinding myself in the cab.
I wired it all up and installed it.
Works great! The headrests still look factory from inside the cab. The lights, pots, foam seal, look like shit, but you can't see them thru the tint on the back glass. It gets hot as hell, but I knew that would happen, for the time being its just to flash people blinding me from behind, or if i need to look in the back of the bed for a minute or so. When I have the time I will upgrade it to LED's, aim the lights a bit better, and clean up the duct tape with something a little cleaner looking.
I started with some cheap tractor lights and changed out to 100 watt bulbs ($35 total). I then removed the mounting brackets.
Then I took the headrests from the 2010 I just traded in and started cutting! Ya'll didn't think I started cutting on the 2012 did you? Anyway, I cut a couple of inches off the bottom, and then carved out the center back to accomodate the lights. I put the upholstery back on and trimmed it up at the bottom. For the time being, I just used black duct tape to seal the upholstery, I'll go back and use some upholstery adhesive or staples. I also scored an X in the back of the upholstery where the light would push into the body of the headrest.
Next I got some plastic planters from Wally World (96 cents each!). I cut the bottom of the pots so that the opening was slightly smaller than the lights. I then measured the distance between the backglass and the light and cut the top off the pot as needed. I put the pots over the light from the rear and pushed it forward and duct taped it in place. Again, I will upgrade to some type of sealant in the future, but I just wanted to make sure this would all work. I then put door seal trim on the top of the pot where it would make contact with the window, to seal it and keep the platic from scratching my defrost elements. The pots and door sealer will serve to "seal" the beam and keep me from blinding myself in the cab.
I wired it all up and installed it.
Works great! The headrests still look factory from inside the cab. The lights, pots, foam seal, look like shit, but you can't see them thru the tint on the back glass. It gets hot as hell, but I knew that would happen, for the time being its just to flash people blinding me from behind, or if i need to look in the back of the bed for a minute or so. When I have the time I will upgrade it to LED's, aim the lights a bit better, and clean up the duct tape with something a little cleaner looking.
