so i finally got my cheap fogs for my green car but i might have gotten a couple too many, lol. they should hopefully be mounted this weekend :biggrin: i'm gonna blind some people at the ice driving :biggrin:
i don't thikn that's enough...you need to blind people all around you, not just the people in front. Now go get some for the rears and even put some on the rim to blind the people next to you...
well i will have to make a special mount for them, it might not be the prettiest but hopefully it will work out well. planning on two rows of 4. my buddy will be helping me, i'm helping him put a tranny in his car and he will be making my mount :biggrin: i will post up pics when i get the bar built. 8 lights at 130w each :biggrin:
you'll be m ounting his tranny... wow... um... make a bar.. mount four on top four under.... or you could put em all around the car.. people may be reporting siting a UFO on the lake though
wow, how far will they project, are they a driving light or a fog? I suppose I should read the box above LOL!!
So, when are you holding the memorial service for your alternator? Might I recommend upgrading your electrical system?
yeah, lol, i will decide how bad it is when i get them hooked up, to see how much power they draw, i might need to get a large battery to help out on things, but i do have a spare alternator too :biggrin: and i'm not sure on range but i figured for the price why not, lol:biggrin: the more the merrier. yeah rich my roof already leaks a bit so i shoud just mount 4 up there and then 4 on the front bumper.
That is AWESOME!!! The second pic caught me off guard. you should do something like this: these lights on the dirty impreza car are HIDs.
why not go with the new hella 500ff?? You can get 2 for $69 at wal-mart and they are prolly 10x better than those "cheap" lights and have a better beam pattern. Plus you'd probably only need two fogs and two driving lights for the same if not better coverage.
On the interesting, cheap lighting front, Checker has started carrying a 7" HID driving light ("Off Road Only" of course) for $120 each. Starting tomorrow they're on sale for $99 each. I looked at them today. They are true HID lights and the housings are well built. The reflector looks kind of sketchy so the pattern probably won't be well defined, but they should be hellishly bright. And they won't draw nearly so much power. I'm not going to ditch my Hella FF1000s for them by any means, but if I was looking for something cheap and bright, these would be up at the top of my list. If you stop in at the 54th & Nicollet Checker in south Minneapolis, tell 'em Mark sent you.
Oh, 8 lights at 130W each is around 80A... That'll kill your alternator fast. I have an alternator benched at 158A to go into the Sentra to power my lights.
i won't be mounting them in front of the radiator, it will be higher. also i will be doing the wiring so when i turn them on i have control of how many lights are on at a time, so i don't roast the alt right away. and i obviously won't really be using these on road since they will be rather illegal, so it will mainly be at rich's and at the rally races.
the bar is done!! pics will be up shortly :biggrin: huge thanks to my friend foresterxt on the board(he hasn't posted yet though he just signed up)
wow, nuts. I think it's a little overkill with all 8 on there, but that light bar would look really good with just the bottom four lights mounted. Nice job. How did you attach your mounting brackets to the bumper beam. Is it welded on there or did you bolt it?
the lights are ebay specials, and yeah i might just go with the bottom four lights and keep the others for spares. i haven't done any wiring yet. the mounts are welded to the bottom of the bumper beam, it was just easier that finding a way to bolt them on.
you need to aim them in all different directions so when you start sliding around on the ice they'll light up every direction you'll possibly go!
I really think those look nice. Now just get them wired up. That bracket sure looks nice. who made that for you?
holy crap ryan...hopefully you arent behind me on the track lol btw, next time use a dremel when cutting your bumper, not a butter knife
lol, yeah thanks :biggrin: about time you finally post yeah justin it's a little sloppy but oh well, the cutting disc we had was to big and wouldn't fit so we had to go a bit crude, oh well the cars not made to be pretty, lol. and this bar is a quick release easy on/off, so i will be making the wiring quick connect also. this whole process took about 3hrs to do. now i just to ge the wiring done. and everyone wear your sunglasses to richs i will provide some sunlight
OMG, and I thought my lights were bright. What size alt are you running to power those? Amp draw? 130W I think is what you said.... P=VI so about 10A each for a total of 80A. That is some power.
Here are my suggestions for finishing it up. I'll refer to the lights this way: ABCD EFGH The lower set EFGH, leave the stock 55W bulb in them (sometimes this type comes with 100W stock, I'd still swap them down to 55W). The upper set go with 100W bulbs. You can do 130W if you really want to, but you won't actually see any more and they'll cost you more and be harder to locate replacements. Incidentally I believe I have at least 4 if not 10 130W H3 bulbs for sale, so if I was just trying to make a buck I'd tell you to go 130W for all eight Wire the lights up in pairs, A-D, B-C, E-H, F-G. Run one big 4ga ground wire and drill/tap a small bolt to attach it to where the quick attach points are. Actually, this might not be necessary depending on how good the ground is through the frame, but it's not going to hurt, and it'll keep you from melting some poor little wire that could end up carrying a large portion of the current. Then attach the negative wires of the lights directly to the bar with ring terminals and either tap in small bolts or just drill and use sheet metal screws. For the power to the lights, run a 12 g or a 10 g wire. 14g will carry the load of even two 130W bulbs without melting, but the lights will be dimmer. You can run 10g wire if you want (I would, but I go overkill). Right off the battery, put an inline 25A fuse. I have at least one nice Hella fuse block I'd be willing to sell at a good price, probably no more than buying 4 in-line holders. But either way. Run the same gauge out to each pair of lights. Wiring the switches is left as an exercise for the reader Go somewhere where you can park about 50' from a nice large blank wall. Aim F-G straight ahead, so they hit right at the bottom of the wall and don't overlap too much. Then aim E-H at the same level, but to the outside of the F-G lights. Now, aim B-C straight ahead such that the beams fill in just above the F-G beams. Let them overlap more than F-G however. Then aim A-D such that they're at the same level as B-C again, and again, let them overlap a little more than the bottom row. Adjust your distance front he building if you think you're going to be going slower or faster, but 50' is probably a good start. On a side note, I have four of that type of light I would sell for like $20 total. They're chrome, not black though (spray paint works...)
thats crazy. I personally think they would have looked better if the top row was staggered or set back alittle. just so it didnt look like a giant light push bar. this will be fun at the races. make sure to cover those so you dont get pulled over for too many forward facing lights. you should have put two in the back to amek up for the crappy stock reverse lights.
vector thanks for the advice on the wiring. the more i think about it i might just use the bottom four lights, that will be enough i'm sure and if will make the bar more appealing to the eye. and then i won't have to worry about smoking my alt right away. and these all have the 130 watt bulbs in them already. i am planning on doing all the wiring over new years weekend when i have plenty of free time.
so i have decided to just go with 4 lights for now. and i got them wired up today, but i still need to fine tune the aiming on them :biggrin:
^ kinda. It not really racing, more like extremely dangerous driving. I like the light setup, you should put the other 4 on there and get some pics.
It is fun drive this at night. I did that the first night before most people were there. Got a little worried with some of the driving going on the other nights so I just parked it. I am sure that is what Martin means by dangerous driving.
as far as the night driving being dangerous, i have a feeling it will be much safer this year with all the snow that is up there. kinda limits on the recklessness, i think i will hold off on the other 4 for now, these will be enough and that way i won't have to worry about my alt. but then again i don't mind if my car gets some damage as long as it still runs and moves :laugh::biggrin:
have you tried driving it with the lights turned on? how is it for stability, and not shaking/bouncing? looks like a nice setup!
