Hey folks, I am making a list of items less than $100 for my Secret Santa to pick from to give me for X-Mas. I already have a bunch of MINI stuff listed and driving shoes. I noticed that the Hella 500 lights are less than $100, so my question is: Are the Hella 500 driving lights fine? (Do they even fit on a MINI?). Thanks in advance for any input.

 

Hellas are and Excellent, well-respected line of lamps. They have been around for many years. I hate to say "do a search" but you should find several cars with 500s installed.
Good choice

 

Thanks for the reply! I did do a quick search but no one seems to mention the 500s. Just other models.

 

PM not-so-rednwhitecooper

Im sure he put them on his MINI

 

Hella 500s are fine lights. Big, very bright, very light. IIRC you can get them in clear as a driving light or yellow with a fog light lens. I could be wrong about that, though.

See my gallery pics for what they look like.

 

OK, I did!. Thanks!

 

OK, will do!

 

i'll just post a few pics of my old car with the 500's on, for reference.



(and the car looked sooooo good )

 

Those Hella 500's are a pretty nice light. Light years better than the ones MINI sells. Hey not-so-rednwhite, what did you use for brackets? Also how stable were the lights? When you went down a bumpy road up there in Geauga county did they dance around or were they stable? I hates the dancing lights.

Thanks,

Chuck

 

god, i spent a solid 4-5 hours reworking factory brackets

then i saw piaa sells a reinforced set for 50 bucks, id just go with new PIAA brackets.

they way i had to reinforce the brackets, by making the bracket i triangle to make it solid, cant be used with a slat grille, i had to cut big gaping holes in my aero grille to get them on. they were covered by the lights, but they were there.

after it was done, you could jack the car up from the brackets, but they took way to long to modify, when for the same price you could have the PIAA ones.

 

Not-so-, thanks for the pics! They do look great on your old MINI!

So, the brackets that come with the 500s are not that good?

 

I just read your PM, not-so-red.

Was the problem with the mounting related to the Aero kit? Would it mount beter on the regular grills?

 

Rick,

Thanks for the fast response. Do you happen to know where I could pick up the PIAA brackets? I'd rather not reinvent them like you had to.

I think the problem is that the areo grille is mesh & doesn't have the slats that the light mount brackets run between. That's why holes were cut.

Chuck

 

well, my brackets wont fit with any grille, unless you drasticly modify them. if you wanna see the brackets, the car is still outside at classic, i might be able to go nab a shot or two to show you how large i had to make them so they wouldnt wobble.

i'm not too sure where they sell the PIAA brackets, but i have seen them on their website, so probably any PIAA distributor should be able to get them. they are just about double the thickness of a stock bracket, while still retaining the stock shape to fit like a stock bracket would -- with any grille.


the 500's come with no brackets, only the swivel brackets that they bolt to your bracketry with.

let me know if anyone need some more help moutning these up, aero grille or not, i can be of some help, i have LOTS of pictures of all my projects

 

I just ordered a set of 500's for my MINI. If anyone has info on installation for brackets and wiring of the 500's I would appreciate it. I did order the PIAA brackets too on the recommendations from those who have them. How hard is the install of the wiring to include the polacement of the additional switch? I was looking at the Hella wireless switch, does anyone have any experience with that? I'll be using these on the midnight Dragon run this year.

I ordered the PIAA brackets off mymini.com ($55.00 with shipping).

Thanks,

 

Where did you get your Hella 500's? I think they've been discontinued. Locally the supply of them has dried up.

 

Summit has TONS of them for $60 bucks a piece

 

http://store.summitracing.com/defaul...=egnsearch.asp

Top three, clear driving, clear fog, amber fog.

 

Thanks Rick.

 

no problemo

 

I ordered the 500's from 4x4connection.com ($76.21 with shipping). no one had them locally around St. Louis, MO area that I could find either. This will be my first hands on mod so I'm not looking forward to it right now.