SIK-120 : Steve's 08 D4-D

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

some recent pics of the prado

thanks for the congrats guys.

unfortunately the wet season isn't quite here yet, so i'm not able to get any killer storm pics for the PP calender.

i stoopidly loaded an older pic of the prado totally forgetting about the 2 pic per month thing. so seeing as i don't have any current pics that qualify for any of the other months in the calender, i may as well post the pics in here.

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

more pics...

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

well, haven't done much for a while. our baby girl is now 8 weeks old, so looks like i can get back into the wheeling.

Finally stopped being slack and sorted my switches out. i've always had the blank carlings with little stickers on them. so i ordered a whole bunch of custom rockers to replace the old ones. now i got a shit load of blank carling switches. lol.

[Pocket71 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pocket71]

Good day out at Gunpoint, two Prado's and a Cruiser.

[Madkore Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Madkore]

Great photo Pocket! You are a brave person following Steve.

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

finally sorted out the wimpy ARB fog lights in my bull bar. i have about half a dozen cactus ones.

problem being their mounting set up with the indicator surrounds. i have a series 2 ARB bar with the new insert with no metal bracket mounting.

i will have pics up tomorrow night with a little write up.

but a pic for now....

ARB Fog light


Replacement Fog Light


before


after

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

so, after 6 pairs of fog lights over 3 years, i'm a bit over the ARB foggies in my ARB bull bar.

They generally fill with water, and the first couple of replacements i actually drilled a small 3mm hole in the bottom of the foggies. so even though they would fill with water, the hole helped drain the water out. Problem then was the lense would still have water left in it. Also being a 55w H3 globe, there is no water sealing at all.

With water in the lense, the globe would blow as soon as it got hot. they other issue i had with the ARB foggies would be broken glass lenses. this usually happens when you have them on for a while, then you splash some water onto them directly, which results in the lense cracking or breaking altogether. then they fill with water, and then the globe blows.

so i've been looking for a replacent light for a little over a year, checking out different round lights and their mounting systems. nothing would be a direct replacement with out some fabricating. i also checked LED lights and DRL as well, but most were only 70mm in diameter. i just wanted something that was well sealed, and as least farking around to fit as possible.

in my searches, i pretty much always ended up with the narva compac 100mm halogen 'fog' lights. they have two styles available. one fog light (spread) and one driving light (distance/spot).

check out http://www.narva.com.au/products/browse/compac

part numbers are:
71850 (driving) with an impressive 200 odd metre range
and 78160 (fog light) with a measly 30m range, but good spread.

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

so after no luck finding anything else, i bought a pair of the Narva foggies. cheap as bro.

next hurdle of heart ache was how the hell do i get the new foggies in the Bull bar.

so i pulled the indicator out, then the foggies, then the whole surround. the ARB foggies utilise two posts/dowels out eash side in which the light can pivot up and down, and then an adjuster screw and spring in the top through the surround. these lights are made the same so they can be used in left or right positions.

what a pain of a system to try and retrofit anything. all well and good if you stick with the ARB foggies though.

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

so this is the ARB foggy.




and with the lense pulled out. just two machine screws on the sides.


and inside

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

and this is the Narva Foggy




and side by side

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

now, to make the Narva fit the ARB!!! turned out not too hard, after a lot of measuring and thinking.

so, having a lot of dead foggies lying around, i got stuck into chopping the housing up. in the end, i had no ideas of a simple mounting, so i looked into utilising the original housing. so the more i looked and measured, the more i saw the light.

the Narva foggy could fit into the ARB fog light housing.

so more measuring, and i soon had a solution, which did not include liquid nails, and would also allow easy changing of the H3 globe if needed.

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

so, i pulled the bracket off the narva foggy

[8608 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close 8608]

the narva foggies have a sealed lense, with a twist lock cap on the back.
wiring is actually epoxied in, and the cap has a nice sized seal.



then i pulled the innards out




and the bare light