Less intrusive auxillary switches?

[MellonRover]

Wanted to add some additional circuits for lighting. Turns out the Auxbeam AS-R60 fits into the console stack pretty neatly. Popped the wood trim off the ashtray and screwed directly to the insert. Bought it from eBay after "watching" then they offered $145 price. Amazon has it for $169.
Tapped a blank fuse slot so it powers on when you open doors and powers off with headlight delay in case you forget you left the sun on. Found a nice meaty section of firewall above steering column. It has a good 6" area safely away from anything you don't want to drill though. And above the intake high water line. Here's some pics.

 

[MellonRover]

More pics

 

[Land Rover Joe]

@MellonRover ,

Great project and thanks for writing up and the photographs.

What are you powering with your switches (or what are your plans)?

Also, do you have more details on the bulkhead and wiring locations? I don't understand what we are looking at in the photograph at the bottom and center left in the second group (I assume it is a wiring loom being routed to the panel).

For an alternative to your build, which will certainly not be less expensive than what you have done (i.e. my ideas are guaranteed to be the MOST expensive), I had seen Massimiliano's (Land Rover Passion) design, which I thought was very slick (as are all his products) at -

Switch/tool Panel Discovery 3 - Land Rover Passion

The switch/tool panel for Discovery 3 that can accommodate up to 7 36.8mm x 21mm DIN slots for Rocker Switch or 29mm diameter holes for tools (Voltmeters, USB sockets, 12V power socket etc)

www.landroverpassion.com

Awesome build and looks like it will be very useful!

 

[MellonRover]

Just aux lights as of now.
Those pics are my ocd...the red wire sticks out visually and I don't like it, But yes, just routing photos for reference.

 

[powershift]

Dig the wiring effort. That had to take a bit of courage to go at the firewall with a drill lol. ls the hole above the brake lines? Was anything damaged on the other end?

 

[MellonRover]

Below brake lines. About 4-5" above center of steering shaft opening. Nothing near it on either end, so a safe place to poke a hole.
I definitely triple and quadruple checked what was around and was I seeing it correctly!