Well since I have been a member of FTE I have gained a lot of insight and benefited in many ways from the help of others. Now it' my turn to give something back.

Last week I took the family to the beach to watch the sunset and on the way back (in the dark of course) I realized just how poor the factory headlights on my truck are. I mentioned it to my wife and she agreed!

Needless to say, I soon had a set of auxiliary lights coming (nice find on Craigslist that my bro-in-law picked up on his way to visit us). This is no earth-shaking write-up, but it may help someone.

Before lights installed:





My high tech of showing where I wanted the lights mounted so they would shine through the lower/outer grille openings.





These are the lights I got on CL for only $45 (1/2 the price of new).





With the grille off I checked the lights for fit. Just right.





Then I measured the grille opening.





I then compared that to the area where the light would be mounted.





I then marked where I wanted the hole so the light would be back close to but not touching the radiator.





I then drilled it and mounted the light bracket using a plastic bushing under the bracket so the grille will slide in under the bracket. (You can see my Zoodad mod in the upper right).





I then mounted the light to check for clearance in the back. Just right!





I then slid the grille on and made sure the light was centered in the opening.





I then put a piece of tape on the grille and marked the center of the light.





I then removed the light and marked the back of the grille directly in back so the center-line of the light would be visible when I flipped the grille upside down.





I then removed the grille, flipped it over on the bench and drilled a 1" hole where the light would be mounted.





I then removed the rest of the plastic using side cutters.





And smoothed it up using a razor knife. This is where the grille will slide in around the light bracket mounting bolt.





I then slid the grill in under the light bracket and double checked that I had notched the grille enough to clear the light mounting bolt.





Here it is with both lights installed.





And a side shot showing how the lights sit back inside the grille.




So now it's just a matter of running wires (I ran out of time tonight).

Next is 2004 headlights and turn signals!

 

Very cool! Great writeup and pics! Reps for you!

 

Those dont look too bad like that. I thought about something similar to this set up, however, I changed my grill to the 05-07 set up. So mine will be a tad different. I do have the wig wag lights mounted on the top bar of the grill so something like this might be cool.

 

Thanks for the comments and reps! Hopefully I can add some more to the collective wisdom that is FTE.

 

nice job...reps your way.

 

Nice low-profile install... great job!

 

Great install and write up!!

 

I like the procedure you followed to notch the grill to fit the light mounting tab.
i just drilled and screwed my little fog and driving lights to the grill. I wish I had done it your way!! great write-up and pics!

 

Thanks! This way makes it easy to still get the grille off should I need to.

 

Looks great!!! I wonder how that would work with an 06 grill?!?

 

Send me one to keep for my truck and I'll let you know.

 

Nice work, reps sent. Please let us know how well they work once you have everything wired up. I think that with the lights recessed like that in the grill there should be no glare problems or anything like that. Do you have upfitter switches installed or are you going to use something else like a relay powered off the fog light circuit?

 

Actually they will run off a relay that is hooked to the high beam headlights. Next week I will be installing 2004 headlights and turn signals, so my low beams will be much better than they are now. Running these lights with the high beams should be sweet!

 

I'm sure that laws vary by state, but here in CT you can't have the high beams and fogs on at the same time. I have the BriteBox with FLC (Fog Light Control) and at times I worry about getting hasseled about that. The BriteBox leaves on the low beams when you turn on the high beams so both are on at the same time. The FLC option also turns on the fogs when the highs are on, even if the fogs were not on to start with. My Sonata leaves the lows on when you turn on the highs from the factory so it must be OK to have highs and lows on, but not sure about highs and fogs or driving lights. I've thought about adding a FLC cutout switch, mostly because it's an annoyance to have the fogs come on and light up the back of the plow when I hit the highs....

In the Tech Folder there's a mod to alter the fog control wiring so the fogs stay on no matter which lights you have on. I've also considered doing that mod but altering it slightly. Instead of just relocating the ground wire I thought about using a SPDT switch to go from normal OEM operation to modded operation(fogs stay on with high beams). That way I could disconnect the BriteBox FLC and use the switch to have High/Low/Fog or just High/Low when I have the plow on. Like most projects, the biggest detriment is having enough time to get it done.....

Here's the link from the Tech Folder:

http://www.ssdiv.com/fogfix.html

If you look at the last diagram you will see a blue oval (how appropriate) showing the mod to the wiring. My idea is to put the SPDT switch there so you can select between the ground the mod installs and OEM wiring. With a flip of the switch you can go from "the fogs are on when I want them on" to "no officer, I'm not sure what you're talking about but if you want I'll flip the lights from high to low so you can see that the fogs cut out when the high beams are on..." in other words normal OEM operation.

 

That's too bad. Here in Oregon it is illegal to have fog lights on with low beams (no more than two lights on when there's vehicles in front of you). Obviously the auto manufacturers didn't consult Oregon law makers because most vehicles with factory fog lights have it so the fog lights are on with low beams and off with high beams.