Switch Box gen IV vA
February 17 2010 | Posted in: ElectricalEven though my gen III switch box accomplished the goal of making assembly easier, it still wasn’t perfect perfect. All of my switch boxes have been connected to my gen I relay box. One day while doing something to the box, it dawned on me that the box was 8″ x 6″ x 3″. DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRR Steve! The switch boxes I have been making have been approximately 8″ x 2.5″ x 2.5″!! So if i started with these plastic hobby boxes, the hardest part would be done for me! The perfect bends I have been trying to achieve would be done for me! To top it off, the box was cheaper than a sheet of metal for my older versions! More cost / time savings !! w00t.Enough with the history lesson….
What you’ll need:
- Project Enclosure 8″ x 6″ x 3″ from RadioShack (model number is 270-1809)
- Drill with assorted drill bits
- Something to cut the plastic box with (rotary tool, box cutters, band/hack saw, etc)
- Ruler
- Metal Snips
- Rivet Gun & Rivets
- Metal File
- Clamps
Here’s the project box new from RadioShack
It comes with a lid, screws to hold the lid down, and a metal board/shelf. Keep the metal board because it will be used to make the wings that go under your sun visor clips. The lid won’t be used in this writeup.
I chose to make the box as large as possible. So the face will be the full 3″ tall. The back will be 1″ tall. The sides will be cut straight to intersect at the ends. I chose to make a mockup out of poster board just to make sure before I cut into the box. I’d suggest you do it as well to make sure you like the size and that it fits with your application.
I could have changed up the design a bit and cut it something like this:
or
One thing to remember – the height of the back face dictates the angle of the front face. Make the back shorter, and it will angle the front down more (like in the second alternative I showed above). Just make sure if you do this, that it won’t cause interference with the headliner and your switches/wiring.
OK, so now go out and check how your model fits:
I lucked out in two ways…
- With a 3″ tall front and 1″ tall back, the bottom of the box is perfectly horizontal. I didn’t plan this, it was sheer luck!
- The model shows that the straight cuts on the sides won’t have to be modified. It stays tucked up the the headliner nicely. If you place yours farther forwards or back, you might have to contour the sides to match your headliner.
You can also see how far out the box will be. For some with overhead consoles or the overhead IR keyless entry system, you might have to modify the deepness of the box like I demonstrated a few pictures up.
Alright, now to cut up the box. Transfer your dimensions/measurements on to the box:
Now cut it out
Because my Dremel has been taking a beating recently and the fact that it’s sound has probably been pissing off my neighbors (apt living), I wanted to try to cut it with something less noisy. And wanted to show people without special tools and workshop can also do it. Heck, I did this in my living room floor in my apt. So I tried a sharp box cutter. If you do this, BE CAREFUL. The cutter likes to slip away from you and try to chop off digits. I’d wear thick leather gloves and be super slow. It takes a few extra minutes, but it produces a sweet and clean cut…
While cutting it, I had a thick metal ruler clamped to the box to help me keep a nice straight line.
But then I just wanted the darn thing cut, so I cut the sides with my Dremel. But because it’s on the fritz, it will only run when set to 10,000 rpms. And at that speed, you don’t cut the plastic, it melts it.
No worries. I few minutes with a metal file cleans it right up.
Now go outside and test fit it…
Fits perfect!
So now we need to start figuring out how to keep the box up there. So we need to make wings to bolt up under the sunvisor clips. I took a scrap piece of poster board and slapped it up there. Then placed the box in its final position and traced the outline of the box and the clips:
Now we have a somwhat accurate representation of the layout that we can take inside with us.
We find out that the screw holes that hold the clips on are 9″ apart on center. And that the outter edge of the clips are 10″ apart. This will let us know how wide our wings need to be.
So if you do your math, the clips stick out approx 1″ from the sides of the box (10″ wide measurement on the clips minus the box that’s 8″ wide and divide by 2). So just to be safe, I made my wings 1.5″ wide. I chose a depth of 3″ to give it a good solid base and a good area for attaching the wings to the box.
Once you figure out the size of your wings, you need to see how far down you need to make the wings to into the box. Take your measurements, and that will give you those dimensions. I would make the inside edges a little shorter than they measure out so they don’t bottom out on you and keep the bend from sitting flush on the box.
I used that mockup piece to test fit it to the box to see if I had any bottoming out issues. Now transfer the completed dimensions onto the piece of metal that came with the box. I highlighted the lines because my original pencil lines didn’t show up well in the photo. Also, the middle line isn’t a cut line, but a bend line.
Get out some metal sheers and cut out two of them:
Because the metal is somewhat soft (I think it’s aluminum), it will be easy to cut and bend.
Speaking of bending, time to bend up the wings:
I didn’t use any jigs or bending tools for this. I simply layed them on the edge of my desk one at a time and bent them over the edge. MAKE SURE YOU BEND THEM CORRECTLY, YOU DON’T WANT TO END UP WITH TWO DRIVERS SIDE WINGS 
And once they are bent, it’s a good idea to mark them D for driver’s side and P for passenger’s side.
Now that they are bent up, it’s time to drill the holes/slots for the visor clips. But you don’t simply measure 1/2″ from the bend and mark your center line. You have to account for the thickness of the wall of the box because the wing will attach to the INSIDE of the box.
So hold the wing up inside the box tightly:
And mark your line
Now you can mark your centerline 1/2″ from that line. (Remember, the box is 8″ wide and the clips are 9″ apart. 9 – 8 = 1. Then divide the 1″ in half for each side to get 1/2″ on each side).
Onto the clip. The underside of the clip looks like:
So we need to account for all of the parts that don’t sit flush with the headliner.
First drill the holes for the two main protrusions:
Then drill some holes inside of those to make a slot:
Use the metal file to clean up the edges up and see if it fits:
Now I kinda missed a few steps here photographically, but I’ll do my best…
It’s now time to attatch your wings to the box. Position the wing where it belongs on the box. And as best as you can, trace on the outside where the wing sits on the inside wall. It doesn’t have to be exact, but close as you can get. This is your boundary for your holes that the rivits will be placed in.
Drill (into just the box) as many holes as you deem appropriate. I went with 3 on each side. Two in the front and 1 in the back. Should be pleanty. Now take your wing and clamp it back into position. Take a pencil and mark your holes. Then unclamp, drill your holes, and then rivit the wing into place. Do this for both sides.
Here’s how mine turned out:
Now cross your fingers and hope your measurements were good and go test fit the box:
Sweeeeeet. But I noticed that the edges of my wings were digging into my headliner more than I cared for:
No biggie. Just trim a little off of each edge:
The old gen II box next to new gen IV box:
You can see how much more room this one will have for the wiring. I like that. 
Time to drill some holes for the switches and LEDs. Here’s where I lucked out AGAIN. I am running 7 switches. It just so happens that there are 7 reinforcing ribs that run along the face of the box! Sweet. I only have measure to center them vertically. Drill points marked in silver:
And after some drilling:
TADAAAAaaaaaa!!!
Things to think about…
- This was for a 1998 XJ with no overhead console to worry about. I’m sure other model years that have/do not have overhead consoles need a little tweaking from what I had to do.
- The roof lines might be slightly different.
- Different model years might have different clip designs so you may need to cut your holes in your wings differently
- Different model years might have a different distance between the clips you may need to account for.
After running this setup for a few months, I found my switches that came with the ARB goodies and decided I wanted to use these. And with this box, I would have more than enough room for them. The older versions of the switch boxes weren’t deep enough to use them. So I pulled the box out and made a few cuts: (you can also see the silver Hammered Finish paint I used)
It looked OK but something just didn’t flow right. So I went back and tweaked on the box some more. What I tweaked:
- Recut the box so it was 3″ tall in the front and tapered down to a point in the back instead of a 1″ face in the back.
- Added automotive door trim molding to the top. This really cleaned up the look.
- Used slots in the mounting wings so I could slide it closer to the windshield.
- Modified the mounting of the wings a bit.
- Found a place that sells matching Carling switches that match my ARB switches. They also have mounting panels that really clean up the look of the mounted switches
The modifications to the wings:
Finished product:
The 4 matching switches are made my the same company that ARB purchases theirs from; Carling Technologies. I ordered the extra switches from www.WaytekWire.com. The switches are inserted into mounting panels also made my Carling (also purchased from Waytek Wire. They really clean up the look of the install.
A couple of variants I have made for friends:
The wiring stayed pretty much the same. It has 3 wires coming into the box.
- Power in for the switches
- Ground for the switches
- CAT-5 ethernet cable to connect to the relay box.
2 Responses to “Switch Box gen IV vA”
May 17th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
tell me more about the CAT-5 ethernet cable! WOW, this is news to me, for powering switches!
May 17th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
lol, what would you like to know?