Lil' Bear The Black Jeep: A 2016 2 Door JK

Duct tape. :p

A quick search for "duct tape latch" yielded this:

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Not sure how I'm going to adapt that...:D
 
The
Using absolutely no duct tape whatsoever, I got the latch sorted out.

Latch hardware:

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Unfortunately it's designed to latch across two even surfaces. I don't have that and it doesn't have the range to bridge the gap between the table and the tailgate.

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What's a guy to do? Well, I cut off the latch and replaced it with airline wire. This gave it the need reach and flexibility.

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Single latch holds well and there's no rattling while driving.
 
With the latch sorted out it was time to put that table to use.

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Used a piece of aluminum stock to mount the TM281 on the upper console molle panel.

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Basically sandwiched the molle panel between the aluminum stock and the mounting bracket for the Kenwood. Good visibility and it's tucked up out of the way when I'm not using it.

The CB was up next. Time to drill holes in perfectly good trim panels. I put a 1 1/4" hole on the passengers side of the center stack so I could mount the antenna/power distribution box for the 75wx st inside the center stack. This is one of those areas where visibility was good but accessibility was not.

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How am I going to get the tiny lock washer and nut on there with my big old meat hooks? By using the power of magnetism!

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I've used this trick to blindly attach hardware in tight spots before, and while it can take a few tries, it's quite satisfying when it works. Got the hardware on and wires run.

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Waiting on a few bits to arrive tomorrow to finish getting everything wired up and the mics mounted to the passenger grab bar.
 
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Just a bit more progress on some things today as the Amazon guy brings little bits and pieces each day. I added a surface mountable RJ45 pass through just below the CB connection on the passenger's side of the center stack.

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This will allow both the CB and 2M mics to live on a mounting bracket attached to the grab handle. No wires hanging down anywhere like in the Sequoia. They were never really a problem in the Sequoia, but this is more aesthetically pleasing.

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Mic mounts and the patch cable to run between the RJ45 pass through and the radio show up tomorrow.

While I was in the center stack I tapped into the factory 12v outlet to power a 12V to 5V dual USB adapter. I'm not a fan of splicing into factory wiring, but in this case all I'm doing essentially is hard wiring in the equivalent of a 2 port USB charger. Not a fan of wires running everywhere so this does away with the plug in style charger and usb cables. I routed one of the cables out of the little storage compartment in the middle of the dash. The other will live in the storage compartment on top of the dash and power the tablet I'll mount there like my previous JK.

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Also started playing around with some interior lighting. The cabin of the JK is black on black on black and it's easy to drop and loose things when it's dark. In the interest of preserving some night vision I'm using some red led strips trigged off of one of the OEM switches I modified earlier.

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I'll mess with the placement and number of strips before I button up the wiring, loom it and zip tie it to the top of the molle panel. While I was up there I also installed a sunscreen over the front of the JK. Driving with the rear window rolled up and the sunrider portion of the top open is my favorite configuration, but the sun can be a bit harsh with this setup, especially at low speeds with no airflow. This should provide just enough shade and UV protection to prevent me from having to wear a hat constantly.

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Great work!

Maybe I missed it but how did you run the wiring from the CB unit down to the center stack?
 
Great work!

Maybe I missed it but how did you run the wiring from the CB unit down to the center stack?

The cobra unit I was running has everything built into the handset. Inside the dash was the units small power distribution box that mounted nicely right next to the Kenwood stereo. I routed the antenna wire out through the firewall.
 
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