Hella Black Magic driving lights mounted inboard! Looks awesome. (pics)

[reenmachine]

I mounted the Hella Black Magic driving lights on the blue '68 fastback today, and I must say it is one of the coolest custom mods I've done. They look awesome! When the front end is all together you'll barely notice them, but the lights are very effective.

 

[The Great Oak]

Wow, thats going to look sweet when its all done!

 

[86bluecobra]

that does look good. How hard will it be to get to them if one burns out?

 

[reenmachine]

that does look good. How hard will it be to get to them if one burns out?

Not bad at all. One screw clamps the outer band which holds the lens in place, and you can access it through the grill.

 

[Blue67]

How did u mount them????

 

[86bluecobra]

Not bad at all. One screw clamps the outer band which holds the lens in place, and you can access it through the grill.

so just a matter of pulling the grill and you are in. No messing with the bumper or anything. (sorry if I sound stupid but I don't own a classic I just like them a lot).

 

[reenmachine]

so just a matter of pulling the grill and you are in. No messing with the bumper or anything. (sorry if I sound stupid but I don't own a classic I just like them a lot).

Don't even need to pull the grill. Just stick a screwdriver through the grill to remove a screw that faces forward and the ring retaining the lens comes off. You can then lift the lens out above the grill (I left enough wire coiled inside the housing to do this) and the bulb goes into the back of the lens.

 

[reenmachine]

How did u mount them????

I'll leave out the hours of scratching my head and cut to the chase. There's just enough room, bounded by the A/C condenser, grill, horns, and hood latch support. The pics pretty much explain it. The aiming adjustments can be reached from above through the hood latch opening.

 

[88gt]

Reen...you have some excellent design skills. I enjoy seeing everything you do.

Keep up the great work and posting it for us. Very impresive!!

Jim

 

[geostang351]

Damn that's nice!!

 

[garner67]

I was just looking at the Hella Black Magic lights, because I really like the idea of NOT having some many obvioiusly mounted lights up front. Your post has answered all my questions Thanks a ton, Reen!

 

[krash kendall]

They look really cool but after the deflector, bumper and valance are on they look like they will block off most of the airpath for the rad. Are you planning on using a shelby style valance?

 

[reenmachine]

No, just the standard valance. With the oversized aluminum radiator and high-flow electric fan I think it'll be just fine.

 

[65mistress]

It's amazing what you can do with a welder, a couple pieces of tubing and a lot of imagination, looks good

When the lights are on, will they be throwing heat off of the back of the brackets into the radiator? Or will there be enough of a current through there to negate the heat?

 

[JC6715]

Looks awesome man. I was trying to do the same thing, but don't have the welding capability...

Could you post some pics of the entire front end. I'd like to see what they look like from a little distance. Thanks man, nice work.

 

[reenmachine]

It's amazing what you can do with a welder, a couple pieces of tubing and a lot of imagination, looks good

When the lights are on, will they be throwing heat off of the back of the brackets into the radiator? Or will there be enough of a current through there to negate the heat?

There's a gap between the back of the reflector and the housing, and the housing is plastic. It stays pretty cool to the touch.

 

[reenmachine]

Looks awesome man. I was trying to do the same thing, but don't have the welding capability...

Could you post some pics of the entire front end. I'd like to see what they look like from a little distance. Thanks man, nice work.

You could do the same thing by screwing/bolting the assembly together.

The front end is still apart, but it'll be together in a few days & I'll post pics.

 

[JC6715]

You could do the same thing by screwing/bolting the assembly together.

The front end is still apart, but it'll be together in a few days & I'll post pics.

Thanks man I'd appreciate that. Yeah, I ended up bolting together a fabbed up bracket, but instead of behind the grill I cutout where the license plate goes and had them there... Too Elenor-ish, espcially when I get the new fiberglass front end from Cobra Automotive...

 

[HHStang]

Probably too "Eleanorish" (or "69-ish") for you, but here is what I'm doing. I cut rings and bonded to the grill to expose the lights. I've made a panel over the top of the grill to conceal these lights (shown in the 2nd pic), hood pin mounts, condensor/fan, etc. You can also see my metal Eleanor scoop I had to fabricate to clear the carb inlet from the supercharger, my Cosworth hood vent cut outs and the start of my mod's to the lower nose piece.

I plan to either lower the radiator down in frame and/or fab a small panel up and over the radiator to clean it up and use as a mounting bracket.

Yours looks awesome Reen! Thanks for posting pics.

 

[reenmachine]

It's 99% there and will be ready for the Fabulous Fords Forever show this coming Sunday. Road testing is underway and is going great so far!

The driving lights are quite subtle.