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Light bar behind grill (PICS)

Joined
April 6, 2012
Messages
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City, State
Colorado
Year, Model & Trim Level
2004 Ford Explorer
I've been searching around and haven't really seen anything on custom light bar brackets for mounting driving lights behind the grill, so I figured I would post pictures of mine. Let me know what you think.

Lights and bracket all installed with the grill back on.
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Grill and black plastic taken off. The lights were a tight fit, wasn't sure if i was going to be able to keep the plastic on!
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Plastic fits pretty good.
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These are the tabs coming off the lower grill support. I had to use carriage bolts so it wouldn't interfere with keeping the grill from setting all the way down. Can't even tell they're there!
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1" X 1" angle iron 16" long welded to the 1-3/4" X 4-3/4" long tabs coming from the lower grill support. I bolted the angle iron to the center piece going down the radiator support.
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Another view.
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Custom Accessories 4" HID driving lights.
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Very tight clearance! Almost touching!
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Night shot of all the lights on. I will post better pics of this when I get the chance.
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This has nothing to do with the lights but sure makes it sound good!
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Hope you guys enjoy! Let me know what you think.
 



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Nice writeup! do you have a pic facing the truck with them all on? I've already got all my lights set up but I'm just curious.
 






Nice writeup! do you have a pic facing the truck with them all on? I've already got all my lights set up but I'm just curious.

This is all I have for now. Took a few pics on my way home from work this morning. All of these are with the hi's, low's, fogs, and driving lights behind the grill on at the same time. It definitely puts out some light. I'll try to snap a few tonight and post them.

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Awesome job. Thanks for taking the time to post this. :eek::thumbsup:
 






1st off - love the lights. The whole setup looks really good.
2nd - also love that commute. Canyons are great!
 






maybe a dumb question but how do you have the his lows and fogs on at the same time? i only have low/fogs or his ... and btw i like those lights
 






maybe a dumb question but how do you have the his lows and fogs on at the same time? i only have low/fogs or his ... and btw i like those lights

Well.... originally the fog light function on my headlight switch went out. So I decided to just wire up a separate switch for my foglights. Now I can have all the lights on at once! It helps out quite a bit.
 






Awesome job. Thanks for taking the time to post this. :eek::thumbsup:

Not a problem! Glad you guys like it. This is my first write up so bear with me.
 






These pictures aren't very good at all. The little one was gettin fussy in the car so I was in a hurry. I will try to get some with a better camera, until then my phone will have to do. I can't get very good pictures of the front because my phone won't focus right, everything is overexposed.


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I love the setup!!!!! Looks great, how much do they help you with brights? Also do you get flashed with them on if you meet some one?
 






I love the setup!!!!! Looks great, how much do they help you with brights? Also do you get flashed with them on if you meet some one?

Thanks! Sometimes I get flashed with just the low beams on, not very often though. And the fogs help quite a bit with the high beams. Generally the high beams are for long range and the fogs help with right in front of the vehicle, so you get the best of both worlds.
 






lookin good keep up good work
 






Nice setup. :thumbsup:
 






Digging up a old thread to show everyone how I did this. The way I did it was a little different, and just wanted to show everyone another option.

I've had my offroad lights on my brush guard for years, but just took my brush guard of due to rusting on it. Of coarse this was 2 days before the hurricane, and most of Long Island had no power and trees across the roads. I had planned on putting the lights behind my grill, but this pushed me to do it earlier than I wanted to.

I got a piece of 1 1/2" angle iron with pre-punched holes. A 52 inch piece was about $13 from Home Depot, but I only needed 28 inches. For anyone who doesn't know, this is usually used in installing garage door openers.

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I put this piece across the gap between the left and right side of the bumper. Due to clearance issues with the lights and the grill, I had to drill mounting holes in the angle iron and in the bumper as well so that it would sit closer to the radiator. I have thick KC's so I had to do this, but there are holes in the bumper already and if you had smaller lights it would probably work without drilling.

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All together, it took a little less than 2 hours to do everything. It gets a little tight to work back there, especially once the lights are in, but it wasn't too bad.

The finished result.

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Hopefully this can help someone else who is looking to do the same thing. My next step is to get a top billet grill to match the bottom one.
 






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