Can the Hella 500 driving lights be mounted to the JCW grill by making a custom adapter that attaches directly to the grill. The oem brackets look a little Rube Goldberg to me; Can the plastic JCW grill support the weight of the lights without using the special brackets. I seem to recall a member who used some combination of plumbing hardware to mount his lights directly to the grill but I don't know how the grill held up. I planned to machine some adapters out of 3/4" pvc with an inserted metal bracket for bolting the lights to. I'm confident I can make the adapters but I don't know whether the grill is sturdy enough. Anyone have personal experience with this approach?

 

No personal experience with mounting light to it but it is rather easy to come off so it may not work well and the plastic is really not all that sturdy.

 

It's been done

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...62-post10.html
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...176-post3.html

 

I did this recently with my regular "S" grille, so I'm assuming it would be fine on the JCW grille as well. The grille is plenty strong. Actually, the lights don't move at all and don't even vibrate. I didn't like the idea of the VIP or OEM brackets since you don't have any choice on where to place the lights....and I REALLY didn't care for the price.

I had seen the post with the plumbing hardware install and didn't really care for the look of the chrome shower flanges, so I came up with my own mounts using the altered hella 500 brackets. I ended up getting a short length of 1 inch steel bar....I think it was 1/8" thick. I cut the bar into two short segments of about 2 or 2 1/2 inches (this could be different for you depending on how wide the slats in your grille are). I hammered them to bend them slightly to match the curvature of the grille. Using two small self drilling screws, I attached the small hella brackets to each bar. The two screws just keep the bracket from turning and don't really hold the lights on the car since one of the mounting bolts goes through the bracket. I ground the backs of the screws off where they protruded through the steel bar. Ideally, I would have welded the two parts together, but I don't have a welder handy here at home.

After painting the bracket assemblies, I glued a piece of black vinyl (you could use rubber) to the back to protect the grille.

The brackets mount through the grille slats and secure on the back side with washers and nuts. They don't move at all. Doing it this way gives you alot of flexibility with location as you can move them towards the center or outwards towards the sides. I aligned mine with my bonnet stripes.

Here are some pics. I'll go take a pic of them on the car later.

 

Here are two more pics. Sorry about the dirty car. Winter sucks.

 

That's pretty close to what I was considering. How long have the lights been mounted this way? I think the JCW grill may be cheaper to replace than buying the oem mounting brackets and I really don't like the look of the oem brackets. Does not being able to aim the lights side to side pose a problem?

 

Fastlane- cleanly done, nice!

Only thing I would have done would have been to paint all hardware black including nuts and bolt heads.

 

They've been on there for a couple of months. The true test is if they move when going through a carwash (yes, I know....carwashes are bad....but it's winter in Indiana ). They don't budge at all.

The lights do aim side to side. The Hella brackets alow a limited amount of adjustment by loosening the bolt that goes through the light housing and twisting the light in the mount....then retighten. Because of the curvature of the grille, I basically have them turned all the way in and they are aimed exactly forward. I could probably have gotten even more adjustment by drilling out the hole in the housing through which the bolt goes (you will understand how it works when you see the lights in person).

I think you are right....the cost of the grilles is not very much. I wouldn't worry about it breaking, to be honest. The plastic is pretty beefy and sturdy. I can see how some sort of impact to the lights while driving (animal?) might break the grille, but that might happen even if the lights aren't there.

 

Thanks!

In retrospect, I probably should have painted the bolts and nuts, but honestly you don't see them. The lights are so damn big that they cover it all up.

 

Thanks for the info; I'll press on with my plan as soon as I get the lights.

 

If you haven't yet purchsed the lights, you can get a good deal at Walmart (of all places) in the automotive section. They have the Hella500 sets for about $60. I was kind of surprised to find them there. I've purchased them a couple times before for other vehicles and they usually go for more like $80 at Autozone and other similar stores. Just FYI.