Adding Grille Lights to Your Ford Truck
Hardest part of adding huge fog lights behind the grille of your Ford truck is the wiring.
Many Ford truck owners have large fog lights or driving lights mounted between the factory headlights. Most people buy a bull bar, brush guard or some other item that bolts to the front of the truck and the extra lights bolt to that front-end accessory. Other truck owners mount the big lights behind the grille, but it can be tough to make large lights fit in the space between the grille and the radiator support.
Fortunately, “DC Special” put together a simple how-to write-up showing everyone how he mounted four huge off-road lights behind the grille. While he did some welding to finish up the project, anyone with basic tools can perform this upgrade to their own Ford truck without welding.
The Introduction
When the OP first introduced the community to his simple how-to, he explained the items needed to make this upgrade work, both in terms of parts needed for the build and some specific items needed for the lights to fit.
Alright, in my other thread and in PM’s people have asked about how I installed the lights behind the grille. So, I uploaded some pics that will give you a better idea of what I did.
You will need a billet grille (or something similar that requires you to cut the stock shell) to be able to have enough room to bolt the brackets for the lights to the header panel.
Obviously, first step is to remove the grille…..4 screws at the top and 4 clips at the bottom hold it to the header panel.
I made the brackets out of 1/8″ thick 3″ wide steel plate that I cut to the proper length to bolt to the header panel and not hit the AC. Then I sprayed them with rubberized undercoating.
He included a picture of his homemade brackets after they had been sprayed with the undercoating material.
The Install
After making the brackets, the OP took the mounts that came with his off-road lights, bolting the mounts for the lights to the brackets before mounting the brackets across the back of the front bumper of his Ford truck. He then popped the four lights into place and ran the wires, but he didn’t provide any exact info on how to wiring the lights up.
Of course, if you want these lights to work with the factory switches, there is a great deal more to the project, but “Citypol86” shared his own wiring diagram, showing how to wire aftermarket lights in with the factory switches.
Those of you running these lights off of a separate switch just need to mount the switch, run wires to the switch, power and ground and they will work independently of the factory lights.
Community Questions
Finally, in addition to the input from the community on how they did this modification on their own Ford trucks, “Citypol86” posted the following questions:
I wasn’t so much looking for a step-by-step but was wondering:
1) How did you seal between the bumper and the light/mount;
2) Is the light mounted via the normal mounting lugs or is it mounted via it’s circumference;
3) Is the mount welded to the bumper and if so, I’d assume the bumper is painted;
4) If the mount is not welded to the bumper, what did you use to cover the edge of the cut-out.
And the OP provided these replies:
1. Weld
2. Both
3. Yep, welded and painted.
4. Better pic from my 07. (Unfortunately, this picture isn’t working)
Now, the welding might worry some people, but in addition to providing extra reinforcement for the brackets, welding them to the bumper also helps keep water, mud and other debris out of the space between the bumper and bracket. If you don’t weld and don’t know anyone who can help you out with this step, a product like JBWeld or epoxy will help keep dirt and water out of this small gap, working to prevent corrosion between the two pieces of metal.
Click here to head to the forum for a closer look at the initial how-to write-up and the discussion stemming from this great, simple upgrade.
Join the Ford Truck Enthusiasts forums now!
