'98 Dodge Dakota third brake light

[Eagle_SX4]

After looking for a while trying to decide how I wanted to do a third brake light. I came across a Dodge Dakota in the junkyard and liked how the light looked and decided to take it home and see if I could make it work. A lot of modification later and now I have a third brake light and cargo lights in my Comanche. First I knew that because the angle of the Dakota and Comanche roofs were different it would need to be cut apart. I cut the face of the light off and set it in place to see if it would match up the body. Turns out it has nearly the same profile as the Comanche roof. Time to cut a big hole. The hole ended up being about 1 3/16" high and 9" wide. After I cut the hole I realized that there is not much depth available in that area for such a deep light fixture. So I pushed it in as far as it would go marked it and cut a big section off the reflector housing. Then I used my soldering iron to weld the two pieces back together. Now that the light bulbs were closer to the lense I decided to use LEDS so the housing wouldn't melt (Using Napa brand 921 LEDS). I wanted to put an insert in for the screws. I ended up using the same square 1/4" inserts I used to put the aftermarket 97+ front grill together. (Came with the truck when I bought it). Wiring was simple. When I pulled the light I made sure to cut the connector off the wire harness in the Dakota. The cargo light wire harness was already there just had to plug it in to my fog light switch. For the brake light I ran a wire from the connector to the brake light switch on the pedal. I tied the grounds together and grounded them where by the e-brake. The lights work well and I think it looks great. Here are a few picks at night.

[Pete M]

nice!    looks period correct too.

[Drahcir495]

that came out really nice. it makes me reconsider putting one in but i can't bring myself to cut s hole in the roof