Bed Rail Roll Lights
Looking at those bed rail roll holes with nothing to fill the void except a plug was not acceptable to me. I wanted them for a purpose, like lights, a blinker or brake as the likely function. There has been a recent tip about lights in the rolls and upon looking at what is available commercially, those run about 100 bucks. Naugh, you have to be kidding! My thoughts about what I wanted are to keep the lights neatly hidden inside the tubes. I figured a piece of 1’’ PVC would be a good housing about 2’’ long should do the trick. If the insert diameter is smaller than 1.5’’ you can add several long strips of RTV silicon to the outside (let it dry before inserting) of whatever tube you choose and this should hold it inside the bed roll tube securely. My next step was to see what’s available on the open market for LED type lights. I found a 2 pack of 4 (amber) LED bulbs with a blade connection and a socket assembly that I could use. I had to solder the two wires to the socket because of its construction but everything will be hidden and should work fine. That cost was about $17.00 @ a (FLAPS) auto parts store.
LED’s are not cheap but over the long haul they work out well. I used LED bulbs so I should never have to gain access to this light unit again to change bulbs. I should also be able to seal this unit up. I have in the shop a couple of old amber clearance lenses (your choice) that I can cut to make a round shape and hot glue to the PVC housing. This was fairly easy to shape with a circular sander and took minutes to complete. I used a hot glue gun to assemble this light, which held the LED centered and the socket and wires. The completed project has the wires exposed out the back, which will run down the exterior stake pocket, protected with a split wire cover to the wiring harness to both left and right turn signal.
Dave (Fla54Chevy3100) started this thread a several weeks ago and used a sprinkler head to hold his incandescent light, socket and lens. His lens sticks outside the hole and that has its advantages, better visibility by having a larger diameter and being seen from a different angle. 4onthefloor is starting to make replacement tail light inserts and I for one think that is a great idea. The more lighting at the rear the better. LED’s are a bright light that lasts and uses lower wattages to operate. These were fun to make and work well in their application.
What you view in the photos are the components, the wired soldered socket, amber 4 bulb LED, PVC tube and what I used to make the lens from. I used black silicone on the outside of the PVC to ensure a tight fit within the bed roll tube. The completed version will soon be linked when I have the truck back from the paint shop. I'll install these and get them posted to my photo page.
http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view¤t=587685-R1-016-6A.jpg http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view¤t=587685-R1-020-8A.jpg http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view¤t=587685-R1-024-10A.jpg http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h298/1951otter/?action=view¤t=587685-R1-014-5A.jpg 
12 VOLT ~ LED’s WILL work on a 6 volt system, they may not be as bright as with 12 volt BUT they work!!!
