Finally getting to wiring up my roof rack work lights. Thanks to others on this and other forums, I've found some great ways of concealing wires down the vehicle, into the engine bay and through the firewall into the truck.

Sorry for the pollen heavy images, she's due for a wash this weekend.


Batam attached to the fusepanel behind the firewall within the engine bay. It takes a bit of work to fit it all back in and lock the fuse panel cover in place, but it does in fact fit.



With the A-Pillar cap off, it's super easy to run wiring up to the roof. You simply snap off the lower piece which exposes a torx bolt, then with said bolt out snap off the cover.



Wire run up to the seams between panels. The wire can effectively be pushed down deep inside with a body panel tool.



Routing the wiring to the inside slot of the roof rail to conceal once connected to the roof-rack mounted lighting.



A-Pillar cap back on. The only bit of wire that's visible is the little portion that runs from the a-pillar up to the roof panel seam.



With the removal of the metal side plate (exposed fasteners) working in this area is super simple. In this photo I've removed the rubber 'tray' which I'll modify to run the sPod control wire (shown) through and mount the control panel.



Control wire ready to be fed through steering column rubber boot.






Now this part takes some patience. I punctured the steering column boot and intend to run the cable through. Thought it's incredibly tight quarters and takes a bit of time to actually locate your puncture and guide the cable through.



Here's where I was able to puncture through. It took a number of holes and some stretching of the holes to make a large enough hole to reliably get the larger RJ45 connector through.

 

So you punched through the rubber boot from inside the cabin, under the steering wheel, and into the engine bay to get through the firewall, correct? I am installing a Midland GMRS radio and need to run the antenna wire through the firewall to install it on the hood, scratching my head and trying to find a grommet through the firewall, can't find one. I guess your solution would be the next best thing. Thanks.

 

Thanks for sharing, Landy. That’s a pretty clean install. Didn’t know you could run a wire in the roof seam.

Cheers,

K