I really like the look of Mini's with driving lights - big, small, mounted high, mounted low, 2 or 4, you get the idea. I decided the price of the OEM lights were out of my budget and after some forum searching decided to use the Hella replicas that Pep Boys sells for $29. Now I really don't plan to use them much, if ever, I just wanted them for aesthetic purposes. I mouted them using a custom solution found on this board using items from Lowes that ran about $14 for the 2 mounts. The total cost was under $45 for the lights and the mounts. I've yet to run the wiring. I'm still unsure ultimately where they will be mounted, as you can see they are mounted a little closer together than most and I thought it looked unique. I may move them apart a little. We'll see.

 

Looks good...do you have a pic of the mount you used?

 

Great, looks A+++

 

I used the parts from this thread:https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ella-500s.html

I sprayed the silver parts with Plasti-Dip so they would blend in. It's a solid mount, but has yet to be tested with the lights on for vibrations. As I said before though, I did this for the look, not function.

 

I think they would look great if you put them in-line of the front part of the bonnett stripes. Therefore from the front view the stripes would look like they originated from the back of the lights. Besides the cosmetics, it would be less restrictive of the air flow to the radiator.

 

I second the motion to move them apart. At the ends of the stripes would be nice.

 

Does it put any strain on the grill? I can see tightening those bolts a little too much and cracking the grill. I'd be concerned about cold weather (if you're in such climates), plastic get's brittle in the cold and with a little stress on the grill it could crack. what do you think?

 

I changed the postion to align with the stripes. I'll agree - I think it looks better. I'm still fooling around with the passenger side to better align it, but it's pretty close. Nothing you would notice except in a picture.The grill is pretty solid itself and I'm not too concerned about it breaking. The backing of the mount is a 5" x 1" metal plate that distributes the weight (although the lights don't really weigh that much).

 

Looks good. I agree that the OEM lights are way too expensive. I might go the same route that you took. Thanks for the post.

 

MiniIvan, what are your thoughts about mounting these lights down on the lower grill? Do you think a similar technique would work?

 

The top and bottom grills are made of the same design, so I think it would work. I think it would look great too!
I'm not sure how to take it out the bottom grill, but I'd imagine it wouldn't be too hard to figure out.

 

if you mount on the lower grill you will be blocking the air for the intercooler.....

 

yeah but this looks sooooooo cool

 

Agreed!

 

tru...but that is an r53 which is supercharged and doesnt have an intercooler at the lower grill..... maybe you can mount it on the solid part where the intercooler is not exposed

 

MiniIvan,
instead of using that plumbers part, could you just add a large washer to the part so that the bracket does not stick out too far? do you have any side pics to see how far the lights stick out?

thanks....

 

When I changed the position of the lights, I used a small length of 1" PVC pipe (painted with plasti-dip) with large rubber washers on both ends instead of the metal plumbing part. It doesn't stick out much now, but I could cut the PVC even shorter. I'll take a picture tomorrow.

 

great! looking forward to see it

 

Yes pics please - also have you found a place to put the relay for the wiring? What kind of switch did it come with? Do the lights just below the bonnet stripes make it difficult to open the bonnet b/c the release is directly below the drivers side stripe?

 

ltdodge and toolazy,

Here's a picture of one of the mounts and another from a side view. I could cut the mounts down so that the lights are almost flush with the grill, but as it is the back of the lights are less than 3/4" from the grill. It's no problem to open the bonnet with the lights in place, although I never thought it was as easy as it should be in the first place. I haven't done any of the wiring yet, but the light came with a rocker switch. Not the best looking switch and I'll probably buy a different one when I get around to it.

 

MiniIvan, I can see that there is adjustment in the vertical plane but how about horizontally?

 

FWIW, Here's outmotoring.com's solution for the R56,

 

You can mount them using any of the openings in the grill, but there is no other adjustment with the exception of tilting forward/backwards on the mount that come with the lights. You can also easily bend the tilting mounts to point inward/outward depending on where you want them.

I was looking for an inexpensive solution to mount some lights to the grill and spent less than $50 for the lights and mounts. I'm glad I posted this and received the feedback to move the lights apart. It looks much better now!

 

thanks, that looks pretty good.... alot cheaper than the outmotoring bracket and you don't have to remove the bumper

 

Definately a x 100 job!

I'm going to do the same.