Ron's White 6.2L 2023 project

[ronlarimer]

Last night I threw together a Photoshop mockup of my truck in its current state to help me decide what back-up lights I wanted, and I thought I would share, for your comments. Current mods include...

• 35% Tint
• The required American Flag's under the AT4 on the drivers and passenger doors (missing in 1st photo)
• BAK Revolver X4 Tonneau Cover
• Black GMC Emblems Front and Back (I shot a video of how I did the front if it is helpful)
• "Blacked out" 4's on all of the AT4's with wrap.
• Ebay stake pocket covers
• Chrome trim from Duramax Denali to make room for light bar... thought I ordered black but I'm going to see how it looks with the light bar before deciding to reorder, wrap it to match the grille or leave it alone.
• Switch Pros 9100 on a custom plate and the switch panel mounted to the headliner. Pics to follow.
• Currently making the mount for the 20" Baja Designs ONX6 shown below. Light is here.
• White Baja Designs S1's with Scene lenses to be ordered today. April 4th 2023

My truck was purchased the day before Thanksgiving 2022. It has the 6.2, premium and technology packages... and that's it. No 20's, No Sunroof, No nerf bar steps, and No body colored side moldings. It had everything I wanted and nothing I didn't.

I was big into forums with Miata's and SV650's back in the day, probably will be less so here, but I thought it at least deserved a build post. I welcome questions, comments, insults, suggestions, poems, haiku's or any other input you would like to share.

 

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American Flag Metal Trailer Hitch Cover - Grab one through Amazon!

[BigBalco23]

Would love to see how the light bar turns out as I would be interested in doing something similar.

 

[usmcfiredog]

Last night I threw together a Photoshop mockup of my truck in its current state to help me decide what back-up lights I wanted, and I thought I would share, for your comments. Current mods include...

• 35% Tint
• The required American Flag's under the AT4 on the drivers and passenger doors (missing in 1st photo)
• BAK Revolver X4 Tonneau Cover
• Black GMC Emblems Front and Back (I shot a video of how I did the front if it is helpful)
• "Blacked out" 4's on all of the AT4's with wrap.
• Ebay stake pocket covers
• Chrome trim from Duramax Denali to make room for light bar... thought I ordered black but I'm going to see how it looks with the light bar before deciding to reorder, wrap it to match the grille or leave it alone.
• Switch Pros 9100 on a custom plate and the switch panel mounted to the headliner. Pics to follow.
• Currently making the mount for the 20" Baja Designs ONX6 shown below. Light is here.
• White Baja Designs S1's with Scene lenses to be ordered today. April 4th 2023

My truck was purchased the day before Thanksgiving 2022. It has the 6.2, premium and technology packages... and that's it. No 20's, No Sunroof, No nerf bar steps, and No body colored side moldings. It had everything I wanted and nothing I didn't.

I was big into forums with Miata's and SV650's back in the day, probably will be less so here, but I thought it at least deserved a build post. I welcome questions, comments, insults, suggestions, poems, haiku's or any other input you would like to share.


View attachment 3464View attachment 3465View attachment 3466

I like where you chose to put the flags. I bought some and been trying to figure out where to put mine

 

[ronlarimer]

I finally finished the brackets and got it mounted on Thursday night, and thought I'd share a quick photo.

I switched the mounting screws to some button heads to give me some more clearance. It fits perfectly. I was also able to mount it flush withe the remaining portion of the grill which, to me at least, makes it look integrated.

The light being mounted low shows a lot more of the ground contours than the bars I have seen in the grill or windshield mounted. This is the 1st one I have had in this position and I'm a fan so far.

 

[SRacer05]

Looks good, If you get the chance I would like to see how you mounted your switch-pros panel.

 

[poopster]

Last night I threw together a Photoshop mockup of my truck in its current state to help me decide what back-up lights I wanted, and I thought I would share, for your comments. Current mods include...

• 35% Tint
• The required American Flag's under the AT4 on the drivers and passenger doors (missing in 1st photo)
• BAK Revolver X4 Tonneau Cover
• Black GMC Emblems Front and Back (I shot a video of how I did the front if it is helpful)
• "Blacked out" 4's on all of the AT4's with wrap.
• Ebay stake pocket covers
• Chrome trim from Duramax Denali to make room for light bar... thought I ordered black but I'm going to see how it looks with the light bar before deciding to reorder, wrap it to match the grille or leave it alone.
• Switch Pros 9100 on a custom plate and the switch panel mounted to the headliner. Pics to follow.
• Currently making the mount for the 20" Baja Designs ONX6 shown below. Light is here.
• White Baja Designs S1's with Scene lenses to be ordered today. April 4th 2023

My truck was purchased the day before Thanksgiving 2022. It has the 6.2, premium and technology packages... and that's it. No 20's, No Sunroof, No nerf bar steps, and No body colored side moldings. It had everything I wanted and nothing I didn't.

I was big into forums with Miata's and SV650's back in the day, probably will be less so here, but I thought it at least deserved a build post. I welcome questions, comments, insults, suggestions, poems, haiku's or any other input you would like to share.


View attachment 3464View attachment 3465View attachment 3466

Is that flag on the door a decal or something other than a stick-on decal?

 

[ronlarimer]

Looks good, If you get the chance I would like to see how you mounted your switch-pros panel.

Sure no problem. Not sure which side you were asking for so I took a couple of pictures. The actual switch panel inside is mounted to the headliner. I made a backer plate out of some .1" aluminum plate I had from a track car spoiler project with 4 holes for the screws and 1 for the plug, and radiused corners so that they didn't cut through the head liner. So the headliner is sandwiched between the 2.

The communication with is run through the grommet on the passenger side. The cable was too thick to go through the nipple (I did try though.) so it ended up going through cut I made in the grommet. I thought I would be lazy and not remove the battery. Would have been hours faster to remove the battery. Then it was routed through the fuse box and up the passenger A-pillar. There were actually perfectly sized empty clips already there, probably for a sun room that I don't have, and then I just chased it into the headliner like you would a wire loom dropped the panel to make the connections.

The 9100 unit is on a panel I cut out of the same aluminum I used above. I tried to make it stand-up per the directions but the only place I could find to do it would have been the wheel well and I thought this location was easier and less likely to get wet... I will likely add some spacers to raise it when I wire the next lights (back-up or rock lights) to make the wiring easier. I probably would prefer it not be directly over the positive terminal, but I can deal with it.

 

[ronlarimer]

Is that flag on the door a decal or something other than a stick-on decal?

Simple die cut vinyl decal. 1st thing I add to every truck. I had them on my 1st Sierra, my old JK, this one and the ford my son drives. I prefer them to an emblem or anything 3d as there are a lot of small spaces in the design that collect dirt and moisture. In fact, I usually de-badge my vehicles completely... my kids talked me out of removing the AT4 logos. I removed the "SIERRA" though.

 

[SRacer05]

Sure no problem. Not sure which side you were asking for so I took a couple of pictures. The actual switch panel inside is mounted to the headliner. I made a backer plate out of some .1" aluminum plate I had from a track car spoiler project with 4 holes for the screws and 1 for the plug, and radiused corners so that they didn't cut through the head liner. So the headliner is sandwiched between the 2.

The communication with is run through the grommet on the passenger side. The cable was too thick to go through the nipple (I did try though.) so it ended up going through cut I made in the grommet. I thought I would be lazy and not remove the battery. Would have been hours faster to remove the battery. Then it was routed through the fuse box and up the passenger A-pillar. There were actually perfectly sized empty clips already there, probably for a sun room that I don't have, and then I just chased it into the headliner like you would a wire loom dropped the panel to make the connections.

The 9100 unit is on a panel I cut out of the same aluminum I used above. I tried to make it stand-up per the directions but the only place I could find to do it would have been the wheel well and I thought this location was easier and less likely to get wet... I will likely add some spacers to raise it when I wire the next lights (back-up or rock lights) to make the wiring easier. I probably would prefer it not be directly over the positive terminal, but I can deal with it.

nicely done, very clean install. I've been looking at either that location or just to the lower right of the steering column. I'm between Auxbeam for the price and switch pros for the amount of power it can handle. Thanks for the pictures and the info!

 

[ronlarimer]

My logic for going with the 9100 was.... 1) I prefer the looks 2) I think the solid state system is less likely to fail 3) each switch can be programed to be battery, ignition, flash, strobe, or momentary 4) I could control the backlight colors 5) I can dim outputs 6) I could program a master switch or a 3way if desired and 7) it has inputs and 8) I couldn't see letting $500 sway me on a $74,000 truck.

 

[SRacer05]

My logic for going with the 9100 was.... 1) I prefer the looks 2) I think the solid state system is less likely to fail 3) each switch can be programed to be battery, ignition, flash, strobe, or momentary 4) I could control the backlight colors 5) I can dim outputs 6) I could program a master switch or a 3way if desired and 7) it has inputs and 8) I couldn't see letting $500 sway me on a $74,000 truck.

#8 hits pretty hard! I'm assuming the lead for the control panel was long enough for the install without having to extend it.

 

[ronlarimer]

#8 hits pretty hard! I'm assuming the lead for the control panel was long enough for the install without having to extend it.

It is

 

[ronlarimer]

Today's task was to install 2 white Baja Designs S1's with the scene lens. I was torn between the smaller S2 and the white S1, with cost per lumen, less obviousness, and the reflector size matching my ONX6 winning out.

The photos were taken just after sunset with my phone. I edited the stock photo so that the sky matched the lighted photo. It requires -130 of brightness and -1.2 stops of exposure. In person the stock lights was a little brighter than they appear in the photo and there were more hotspots in the lit background. I have since dimmed them to 50% to remove most of the hotspot on the backup camera and rolling shutter.

They were installed with a single power wire being run from the SwitchPros 9100 down atop the passenger frame rail and then being split to each light and the ground being run to a nearby bolt. It is actually the back of said bolt so I used a spacer from my automotive take-offs fastener bucket and an m8 bolt to make a solid connection on the ring terminal. It is triggered with either the switch, or automagicly by a trigger from the trailer harness backup lights. Completely unintentionally this causes them to stay on briefly when exiting the truck.... both lighting my path up the driveway and projecting a scooby doo style monster onto my house.

Let me know if you have any other questions... like they are 11cm from either parking sensor or that the bottom screws are on a line defined by the lowest edge of said parking lights... or that they aren't father out to avoid the wires for said parking sensors. or that if you remove fake exhaust tips getting to the nuts is really easy, but it you decide to be lazy, you need either small forearms or a high pain tolerance and when you drop a couple of those little nuts you will have to remove the tips anyway to get the nuts out. Don't be lazy.

 

[ronlarimer]

Hey I just realized that the photoshop from the April 4th and the truck finally match! Also that was posted the day I ordered the lights and they came today if you are wondering about Baja Design's current lead times.

 

[ronlarimer]

I finished the install of my LUX rock lights today... I bought 10 "blemished" lights for 50% off list. If I had it to do over I'd do it again, except I'd get all of the lights shorter. There was 1 light that could actually be called blemished, but only on the magnet side and it had been fixed before I got it. The other 9 were 10/10 perfect. Did I get lucky? Maybe but if you can see them you installed them wrong.

1 under front, 1 attached to the spare, 1 in each wheel welll, and 1 under each door.

The one in the wheel wells are attached to thier metal plates. I installed them all without pulling the fender liners. It took me way longer than I thought it would, but all of the wiring is loomed, ziptied and looks factory to me.