eulogious Posted December 29, 2009 Share Posted December 29, 2009 Hey all, so I got some nice Hella 500FF for christmas and I would like to install them on my bumper in front of the grill. So today I went to try to install them and realized that I am not going to be able to install these lights into the bumper very easily. Now I have seen some guys here that have them installed into the bumper, how did you do that? Did you use the stock mounting that came with the lights, or make something for a bracket? From what I can tell, all I have is a bolt to mount the light. I have taken apart most of the bumper without taking it off the car, and I just don't see how you got it to work with the stock mounting. There isn't enough room to be able to drill a hole, and then mount and tighten the bolt for the light, at least that I can tell. If I have to remove the bumper I will, I just don't really want to do that if I don't have too. This is on a 1990 Loyale. I now this seem like a newb question, but I have been for a while now trying to figure out how to do this, and finally just decided to come here for help. Any advice/pointers would be great! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eulogious Posted December 29, 2009 Author Share Posted December 29, 2009 Ok so after some searching, I came up with this: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=94320&highlight=fog*+lights So far drilling and tapping is making the most sense, duh I knew there was an easier way then removing the bumper. Any other pointers on installing these would be great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedwagon Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 I just drilled holes in my bumper to mount a pair of Hella Micro FF lamps. No tapping, just drilled, put the bolt through, and with the grill off, put the nuts on the other side. This is on an '87 Brat. The grill is a tight fit to get back in and out now, but it's doable. If I moved the light forward about 1/4" more, the grill would go in a lot easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eulogious Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 I just drilled holes in my bumper to mount a pair of Hella Micro FF lamps. No tapping, just drilled, put the bolt through, and with the grill off, put the nuts on the other side. This is on an '87 Brat. The grill is a tight fit to get back in and out now, but it's doable. If I moved the light forward about 1/4" more, the grill would go in a lot easier. That's what I was thinking I was going to do, but there isn't enough room for me to get my fingers into the space I would need to get to in order to tighten the bolts, let alone a wrench, and then keep the nut it to get it started... I think there is enough difference between your brat and my wagon to make work for you, but not for me I was hoping it was going to be that easy, but alas. I should be able to spend some time in the morning to get these guys mounted and working. I will post back with some pics when I get it done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstaru Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 its four bolts to loosen and pull the bumper off....and it will teach you more about your car.....cheers, brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eulogious Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 its four bolts to loosen and pull the bumper off....and it will teach you more about your car.....cheers, brian It's not that I don't want to learn or know about my car... I was to the point of undoing the bolts and pulling it off, but I don't have a lot of room (I have a 1 car garage at an apartment complex that I can't even open both the doors all the way in, and the back of my car sticks out of the garage and I have my motorcycle in there along with some storage stuff... needless to say it's a very tight fit. Also I am NOT allowed to work on my car there, so I have to be discreet about what I am doing. Lame ) and it was going to be a LOT of effort to try to make room for this all to happen. The other reason is I AM going to be pulling off the bumpers to throw them away and install some real, custom bumpers, so I don't want to do it twice. Yes I know practice makes perfect, but time is money, and practice doesn't pay me Drilling and tapping is the easiest way to accomplish what I want, especially because this is by no means permanent. I am not a lazy sack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoobieDoo Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 It's hard to tell from your small avatar, but isn't yours the newer style EA82? You know...sticks out like a foot, instead of the plastic covered tin foil one. There's not much room there to mount lights into steel. With the cover and foam off, you could carve out some foam and mount some extension brackets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monstaru Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 working on, and "improving" your car are two very different things.i imagine they do not want huge oil spills and such.so be smart.it is very easy.if you start out your car career not being able to accept the simple things that will happen and not prepare for them, then i have no hope for you!:grin:adapt and overcome man....you pay for a garage, use it.thats just my two cents.........piss on that ************.i would get the parameters of the use rules.and memorize them.cheers, brain It's not that I don't want to learn or know about my car... I was to the point of undoing the bolts and pulling it off, but I don't have a lot of room (I have a 1 car garage at an apartment complex that I can't even open both the doors all the way in, and the back of my car sticks out of the garage and I have my motorcycle in there along with some storage stuff... needless to say it's a very tight fit. Also I am NOT allowed to work on my car there, so I have to be discreet about what I am doing. Lame ) and it was going to be a LOT of effort to try to make room for this all to happen. The other reason is I AM going to be pulling off the bumpers to throw them away and install some real, custom bumpers, so I don't want to do it twice. Yes I know practice makes perfect, but time is money, and practice doesn't pay me Drilling and tapping is the easiest way to accomplish what I want, especially because this is by no means permanent. I am not a lazy sack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hardtail_pride Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 It's hard to tell from your small avatar, but isn't yours the newer style EA82? You know...sticks out like a foot, instead of the plastic covered tin foil one. There's not much room there to mount lights into steel. With the cover and foam off, you could carve out some foam and mount some extension brackets. Woah is that what it looks like underneath my ridiculous bumpers? Or is there some metal added there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted December 31, 2009 Share Posted December 31, 2009 what i did was use a piece of roof rack span and mount my lights to it, and bolted them into 3/16" holes with 1/4" lag screws about 3 inches long to bite into the dense foam behind the skin. i used an ea81 unit as i was able to cut it short evenly and reattach the ends to make it fit between the headlights; the width of the grille. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eulogious Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 working on, and "improving" your car are two very different things.i imagine they do not want huge oil spills and such.so be smart.it is very easy.if you start out your car career not being able to accept the simple things that will happen and not prepare for them, then i have no hope for you!:grin:adapt and overcome man....you pay for a garage, use it.thats just my two cents.........piss on that ************.i would get the parameters of the use rules.and memorize them.cheers, brain I hear what you are saying man and I agree. I work with linux and the mainframe on a daily basis at work and have to "think outside the box" and adapt all the time with my work, so ya, I feel ya on that! I am working on trying to adapt those skills to my mechanic skills and I think that I am making process, there's a big learning curve for a newbie I do still work on my car in my garage, I pay for it so I will do what I want in it, I just have to be discreet. That and moving stuff around was not what I wanted to do when I started this post, so that's why I asked the question. I figure before I go out and rearrange my entire garage so I can get the bumper off, I would ask to see if there was an easier way to accomplish this task. One thing that I have learned is that the internet is f'ing incredible in helping you solve your problems. I also try to apply the KISS (Keep it simple stupid) to everything that I do, so the simplest way to solve this problem was to ask before I committed a bunch of time for something that might not be necessary You might have all the time in the world to take apart stuff that isn't necessary, but I don't It was a good thing I stopped and asked, I found my solution that was WAY easier than removing the bumper, drill and tap The sad part is that I have a tap and die set in my garage, I just didn't even think about using them. Like I said, I am glad that I stopped and asked, because sometimes just taking a break from the problem will make the answer clear as day when you go back to work on it. It's hard to tell from your small avatar, but isn't yours the newer style EA82? You know...sticks out like a foot, instead of the plastic covered tin foil one. There's not much room there to mount lights into steel. With the cover and foam off, you could carve out some foam and mount some extension brackets. I think that it is the "newer" style, it's a 1990 loyale. When I took the plastic part off the bumper, there was a good six inches or so of steel before the foam, so there is plenty to drill and tap into. Thanks for the pic with the foam off. Helps get a better idea of what it looks like. Granted it took me over 2 hours in searching to find the answer, but alas the lights are installed and working ! All I did was go to lowes and pickup some hex head bolts to use instead of the square ones that came with the lights, and then I drilled a hole, tapped it, and then bolted the bracket for the lights to the bumper. I have a few things to work out in the cab with the switches, but when I am done I will post some pics! They totally light up the road better which is nice considering I work grave yard and most of my driving is at night. Good stuff! Thanks for all the suggestions and letting me use you all as a sound board Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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