Hey guys ChrisFix here today. We'll be working on project nightlight. Now. What is project nightlight?
And why do I have all this metal out here?
And why do I have a huge 42 inch Led light bar?
Well project nightlight is going to be installing the Led light bar on top of my truck
I'm going to use the factory post holes in the bed make some bed rails a headache rack
And then a little bit of an overhang for a slight roof rack projects like this don't just happen overnight
You just don't go out and buy metal and go at it
If to come up with ideas, so I first sketched out an idea of what I want
Here's a crude version of my truck now
I wanted bed rails a headache rack and a little bit of an overhang so my light bar is
kind of centered on the cab and I kind of drew out a [map] view in all different views and
Then I created my own rendering [in] photoshop of how I wanted it to see how it actually look you can see here this looks
Really cool got the bed rails there lifted up just a [little] bit so you could tie stuff down to them it also protects
The bed since I have this bed cover
It'd be good to have something [that] is kind of protecting it, so if I want to lie something on top
I don't even have to open up the bed cover it also protects the back here
So [if] something slides into the cab it won't hit the glass it'll hit the metal here
And then I need some type of Roof rack that
Stays right above the cab and goes about to where the door [is]
I think that looks pretty good
But it also prevents the light from shining on my hood if you put the light bar up here
You'll get night blind with the light bouncing off the hood this blocks out
Just the hood
but allows the light to go everywhere else [and]
Here's what I mean if we put the light bar right by the windshield the light will shine on your hood
And you'll go night blind which isn't good you want the hood to be dark
And you want the light to shine right?
after the hood
So here's the led light bar which the whole reason I'm doing this build it's a 42 inch bar by Wharton and it turns night
time into daytime this thing isn't a cheap [ebay] light bar it has
39,000 lumens and has a lifetime warranty
[just] [wait] till you see how bright this baby is so [I'll] be using square tubing for this project
This small square tubing will be for the top of the roof rack and the larger one and a half inch square tubing will be
For everything else [after] [we] finish welding will use herculiner and give it a rust-free super durable coating [now] [to] do this build
I'm not using any expensive tools
Have a metal grinder. [I] have a cut-off wheel with some extra cutting discs and we have a 90 amp flux core welder
So you don't need to use gas and it cost about a hundred bucks
So really not that bad you don't really need to spend a lot of money do a build like this
And that's the whole point and so we don't lose sight of what we're building. [I'll] put this right here
Let's start with the bed rails and looking into the post holes
The post holes fit a 1.5 inch tubing and there are two on each side [of] the bed
One in the rear and one in the front
and I want the bottom of the horizontal Tube to be level with the bed cover, so let's mark where we want to cut
Transfer the Mark to make sure it's level in a straight cut I'm using a square marking the metal with a nail
Then I cut one side at a time
Using the square for each cut to ensure. It's level and
[now] let's test it out and see
Perfect that is exactly where we want it now. I'm going to go measure and cut the [other] posts
Okay, so we got our four pieces of metal that are going to be our post
They're all even let's test fit everything and see how we did
This is looking really good
It's nice and level and we're already starting to see how this is going to look on the truck
This is going to have a post coming up to here above the third brake light so we aren't blocking it
But [I'm] getting ahead of myself. [let's] finish the bed rails I
Just want to check out to [see] how level the bar really is because what the naked eye looks perfect
we have fifty five millimeters in the back and
We have fifty two millimeters in the front a three millimeter difference is nothing so this came out great
Let me quickly do the other side and we'll see what it looks like with both set up with the other side done
This is looking great now. Let's cut the ends off and weld this together
We're going to make sure there's bars at the right spot to cut so we're going to check the gap against the bed
I'm using this piece of wood to make sure the gap is even on both sides
Good mark off the spot
we need to cut
I'm only going to show you cutting one side to save some time you don't need to see me cut both sides same thing
It's like a mirror image
Alright, let's test fit it
slide this forward
Let's check out the gap between the rails in the cab
Perfect, okay, this looks awesome
Both bed rails look straight to the same on both sides and we're ready to weld them in
When welding these in I'm going to tack weld them together on the truck so we can make sure they're straight
So we're going to be using this thick fiberglass
Blanket to prevent the weld Sparks from causing damage [to] the paint or plastic on the truck attach the ground for the welder
Get your welding mask on and we're ready [to] weld
First we're going to Tack weld the rear
And now we're going to tack weld the front
Now with that tack welded in place. We could take the bar off the truck now. I'm by no means a professional welder
I'm a self-taught welder watching [Youtube] [videos] and doing some reading on the subject while I won't be welding up any roll cages or engine
Mounts, I can do projects like this no problem
Let's clean the weld off
See that's a pretty good weld [if] I do say so myself
Let me weld the rest of this up, and we'll test fit the bed rails on the truck
So we got some nice welds going I'm going to get some plates to fill back here
But I got the back welded as well. These welds will be ground down so they look decent. They're nice and strong
That's all that matters
And it looks nice and straight
Same over here
This is a pretty good weld, and we're done with one bed rail
So let's go do the other bed rail
And then we'll have to get a piece of metal here that goes up at an angle, right?
above the third brake light I
Tried using my extra welding mask over the camera lens, so you get an idea [of] what I see.
But the camera had a hard time focusing
Basically when you weld you're watching a molten puddle of metal and making slight sea movements at an angle to weld the metal together
with the other bed rail welded
We can move on to the headache rack part of the build
Next step we want to get these headache rack bars up and then the crossbar
Here's what I want
The headache rack bars to look like they won't block the window at all and they'll follow the curve of the cab
so now I need to cut this at an angle so [that] it lies flat on that piece and
Allows for an angle up [here], and that will intercept like that, so let's go cut that at an angle
I'm just going to do it by eye and then fit [it] up
sheesh
Got it the first cut not bad okay now
We're going to use [a] piece [of] wood with cardboard which is going to give me the same distance from the cab on
Both the driver's side bar and the passenger side bar now. I'm going to tape up the bar so I can weld it in place
You can see [that's] the angle I wanted at. I just want it right at the edge here
That's going to come up meet the bar and go across
So we're going to go tack weld this in place
Okay, this looks good. I kept the angle I was looking for sometimes when you weld the heat causes the metal to bend
But we're all good here. Let me quickly do the other side so we could do the cross bar at the top
I'm
Using the same piece of wood as the driver's side which will keep the spacing even and I'll angle the bar the same angle
So it follows the curve of the cab now with it all taped up at the correct angle let's weld it in [place]
Okay, we're on the last steps of this build pretty much laying out bars that are going across that way and that way and then
One bar that goes across like this so the next thing I'm going to do is right here
I'm going to cut and make it level so that we can put this long bar and weld it to the top
so I'm going to level this out by eye and mark where I need to cut
Okay, so it's a little uneven but I'm going to take a grinder
I'm gonna just grind this flat, and then this will sit right on top
So now I'm trying to follow this line right [here] up to there
I'm going to just do it by eye, and then I'll measure it so
That's where this bar is going to end right there
And you can see that's the plan this actually the picture goes a little bit further here
I want to be a little bit further back, and that will give us [just] enough light so that the hood doesn't light up
But we get all that light in front of us
Okay, let's see how it fits
That's what it'll look like
Looks good, so I'm going to quickly do the other side [off-camera]
You [don't] need to see it same exact process, and then we'll weld these babies up
Okay, so we look here got my two bars all set up going across the top this I'm going to adjust a little bit
I'm going to move this
Fiberglass sheet over so this is just temporary just to give you an idea what it's going to look like I want them to run
parallel
So I'm going to start welding here. You can see I got my camera set up, so you get to see the welds
Okay, these welds are looking really good the bar is nice and straight and level now the top bar the headache Rack will go across
Right here, but first let me finish the other side real quick
Looks good. [so] I know it's a little early, but I really couldn't resist this looks so cool
[I] really [can't] wait to get this done. Let's go weld in that top bar on the [headache] [rack] now
We're going to measure across the top. Let's see what we get
And we're looking at about
42 and a half right [there]
So we want to cut the next piece to 42 and a [half] inches
Okay, let's see how well it fits perfect? Let's go weld it in place
So that's welded into place for the most part
Now we're going to go to this side and weld this into place, and then we'll take it off and finish welding off the truck
Okay, this looks great
[so] let's take it off the truck and finish all the welds I couldn't get to with our rig on the floor
I'm going to say this is the end of part [1] they'll be a part [two], but in the meantime
I'll finish those welds [that] I couldn't get [to] on the truck the next video link could be found by clicking on the video on
The screen and I'll also put a link for part two in the description
Hopefully you're as excited as I am if you are remember to give the video a thumbs up and if you're not subscribed
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