round fogs behind grille? done it?

its a really popular mod for people with bigger fords over on fordtruckworld, but i don't remember ever seeing it done on an explorer or mountaineer.

I have been trying to figure out for a while what i should do with my mountaineer grille to sort of fill it up/make it look right. I really didn't want to do a billet grille and i want the stock look a little more than a mesh grille would provide. anyways, this seems like a great answer.

I'd be adding them to my pro 90 xts in my bumper (110 watt piaa fog and 130 watt piaa driving) and my HID headlights. Can't think of much else i could add to a street truck light wise- can you?

 

[Crankcase]

Yes.....

 

[bradmatejo]

Bill Kemp,
Is that an X airdam you have? It looks a lot like one off a Ranger I was thinking about getting. Wasn't sure if it would fit, so if that's what you have, my question would be answered.

Thanks!

 

[expo5.0]

well, i did it!

 

[expo5.0]

h

 

[expo5.0]

g

 

[expo5.0]

f

 

[hydroxy]

if that was a civic I would have only one word to say to you. RICER!!!! Gotta love the half painted/primer/fiberglassed front end....

what kinda lights you use?

 

[expo5.0]

piaa 520s yellow ion or whatever they call em

 

[jimbo74]

looks good... and when is that getting painted?

 

[expo5.0]

what're you talking about- i painted it today. grey primer for the grille!

 

[jimbo74]

lol

 

[expo5.0]

bill- if you read this i was wondering how you mounted your lights?


i went and bought extended 3/8" bolts from the hardware store and 3 nuts per bolt. one nut to hold the light, and two to "locate" the bolt on the plastic on the top of the grille where i actually mounted it to.

i turned the lenses over on the lights. drilled holes in the top of the header panel and attached it all with the bolts.

 

[Bill Kemp]

Looking real good. But then I would say that......
I drilled a hole in the panel lip and mounted a piece of metal about 3 to 6 in long that I mounted the lights to.
I had to dremel the grill to make the lights rest againsted it and point where I wanted them to. That also kept them from shakeing.
I didnt think about stabalizing them from the top through the cover as it sounds like you did.
I'll attach a pic later...

 

[Bill Kemp]

Pics of top ,.showing light and bolt that holds the piece of mounting metal. Second pic is from the bottom.

 

[Bill Kemp]

That was the bottom. This is the top.

 

[expo5.0]

looks good bill, and that was my first idea about how to do it. I just ended up sitting there and deciding this was gonna be way easier and avoided having quite so much visible modification. your lights are bigger than mine are too, so it was tougher for you. i didn't have to move the tranny cooler, or dremel the grille itself.


at walmart tonight these dudes asked me to show them all the lights and asked a ton of questions about them- lol. i guess they look cool.

 

['96explorereddiebauer]

Looks awesome, bud!! Just paint them when you have a chance.

 

[BBQ_HotDogs]

I just got my Piaa Pro90's in and now I want to put an additional set behind the billet grille like yours. Can you tell me how you did this? How did you wire it all togeather? I noticed that you said the running lights are on all the time, so you had to special wire the pro90's. Where did you mount the switches at to turn all the lights on? Did you already have factory fogs on before this project took place?

Ahh, so many questions and so little time....

 

[expo5.0]

ok i sent a pm but now i will actually try to answer all of those question as well as possible.

first off- i will take pictures of the way i mounted these lights sometime soon. that will be the best way to show you that.

second- i did have factory fogs, but i am not using the wiring for them at all. However, that is because i no longer have the factory fog light switch due to my 11" lcd bezel. One more thing will make my setup different that yours- my HID conversion is only for my regular headlights (i have NO brights from them).

what i have done though, is used the factory relay for the headlamps as the turn on lead for the relay with powers my pro 90 fog lights and my HIDs. That means that when the headlight switch is on those two sets of lights are on. it also means that the factory wiring is protected (since i used a the factory relay and wiring only as a turn on lead for the individual relays for the other two sets of lights)

i have also used the factory relay for the brights (actuated by pushing the stalk to the brights position) to turn on the driving lights from the pro 90s. for me this means that the pro 90s brights are the only lights that are on at that time. if you do this you'll still have your headlight brights on at the same time (which would be fine)

then for the second set of fog lights i have wired them "normally", just using the whole piaa wiring kit and switch inside the cab. i will mount the switch for them on my steering wheel within easy reach. I did it this way because i wont' be using them as much (so i don't need the ease of use i need with the other lights that comes from using the factory stalk) and also because it is illegal to have more than two sets of lights on at a time here.

obviously, the legality of my entire set-up isn't even in question, it is just plain illegal. the HID kit isn't legal, having the 520 fogs so that i can turn them on without the headlights is illegal etc. etc.

that said, it works awesome, and is intuitive to use. i don't think there is a better way for ease of use to add this many lights to your truck.

 

[J Zee109]

I used to have them. I had the PIAA's and they fit fine and were bright as hell.