Fog Lite Retrofit with SMDs & Eagle eye & Euro signals, Finally completed with pics Options

[dangrouche]

Finally completed a retrofit, that I am happy with, of modifying the fog lites using SMDs to serve as Daytime Running Lights. Here is my previous thread on this:

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=227721

The best thing about it, I can restore to OEM, as long as I don't lose the bulb shield that I had to remove from the reflector lamp.

Here the parts used
1. 90mm SMD angel eye from eBay ($14). The SMDs are type 5050, not the more common 3528 SMDS. (Based on my 2/19/14 posting below, I surmise 3528 SMDs will still yield a very good result.)
2. The eagle eyes were from Banggood.com. ($6) Both items were shipped from China. so these parts took about a month to acquire. Had to file down the front of the eagle eye to fit flush against fog lamp lens. (In hindsight, I could have added some clear 1/4" clear square plexigas piping instead of filing down the "cornea" of the eagle eye so that the eye laid flat against the back of the fog lense)
3. The mounting platform was was a 4" pre-cut 1/8" disc of plexiglas from the local plastic store and it cost about $5 for the pair. Total cost of this project is $25 bucks. Attached angel eye to the disc with zip ties.

The only tricky part once the reflector housing shield was removed, was how to ensure the light assembly contraption stayed flush to the glass. For this, I used a coil spring that was placed on the shaft of the eagle eye and it pressed on the most rearward portion of the relector, aka the "retina" of the lamp housing. I applied pressure to the reflector as I re-installed the four tensioning springs. I connected the leads from the eagle eye to the angel eyes in parallel and connected it to the leads that ordinarily contacted the OEM fog bulb, and I basically used push-on connectors to link up the OEM wiring to the SMD LED leads. Basically a coil spring slightly longer than the depth of the reflector housing.

I no longer have fog lites, and now the fog light switch serves as a daytime running light switch. I did the headlamp/fog light switch hack which permits the use of the fog lites regardless of whether the headlights are on or off. IMHO, I think it looks pretty cool, and I am not just tooting my own horn.

Also awaiting my Euro front lenses, and from the previous thread cited above, I have SMDs lighting up the lower portion of the housing. So whenever the ignition is on, the lower portion of the front signal bucket is lit up with 5050 SMDs.

[dangrouche]

The springs are something I just had laying around. I just sought out a spring that fit for the span from the rear of the fog light housing to the rear of the lens. That mod using the circle of LEDs was "state of the art" back then. Now, they make discs of full LEDs, which they offer on eBay currently.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2x-12V-70mm-2-8-10...%3D141660644547

If I these discs were offered in 2014, then I would have installed those instead, and likely used open cell foam padding or sheet packing foam, to force the disc of LEDs to press against the rear of the fog light lense. Here is my most recent addition of a LED light bar to the top of the fog light grille. Scroll down to Xmas day, Dec 25. These light bars zip tied to the top of the grille is also a pretty simple mod, and in daytime, these light bars are actually so bright, they are really annoying, and readily do the job of DRL for our low slung cars. The wiring of these are a feed from the dashboard, so that when the car is running, the light bars are on. Alternatively, the halo rings of LEDs are controlled by the fog light switch. I do not have any fog lights.


that said, if I were going to do the spring method, I just found a vendor on ebay from which I could start collecting the bits:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Pcs-3-3-Long-Aju...mQAAOSw0JpV6G5H


here's the lite bar update of my mod.
http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...774&st=7060

given the mods above, I would try that bar lite install first. It only requires you to remove and zip tie the light bar to the grill. once you see them on, you will realize you do not need to do surgery on the OEM fogs.