Driving Lights in Air Dam - Install w/ Pics

Alright, finally finished the install today.

Hella 500s, 4 in the Air Dam

I went this route because i did not want the lights sitting up too much higher then the roof line, i tend to frequent parking garages and such.

The advantage of installing in the air dam is you can mount the lights a little higher or lower, or a mix, lol.

ok, to the install!!

So the air dam was removed, the four hex bolt along the bottom edge were undone and the top is held in by clips so it pops right out.

The air dam is a little flimsy so i just a 24" piece of galvanized steel to mount behind it to bolt the lights into.






Next i marked the location for each light along the metal, they were spaced out with the exact same increment between them (can't remember at this time because i did this mid last week) i also marked the locations for the nut and bolt i used to hold the metal to the air dam (before the lights were mounted.


and the two end bolt were drilled and bolted in. the steel is very easy to drill through, a regular drill bit and cordless drill worked fine for me.



i justed these black plastic caps the flip down and click into place to hide the exposed bolt. they work quite well



and one from the back



next up the drilling and mounting for the light brackets. again i just used a really big drill bit to make a big enough hole for the bolts. i used a corded drill for this part because my cordless died and the other drill is much more powerful







and this is how it looks with the lights bolted into the mounts



next was the actual install into the roof


i chose to drill through the roof close to the bar on the roof (right over the driver's head), no particular reason, just looked like a good spot.


next was consealing the wires from the lights in some wire loom....yes i used red electical tape on a black loom...only because i did not have any black tape it was getting to be 9:30 at night (notice it's kinda dark out, i had to work by flashlight because my garage is in no shape to house a vehicle....besides the old mustang the resides there...)
anyways, i put some loom from each light them combined the lights that went to the same harness....note....in this image i had the two together, but i later moved these two so one was on each end and the other two were in the middle





ok, now i drilled yet another hole in the roof and used a bolt here to mount the grounds from the lights. i had enough wires running through the vehicle at this point so i decided the roof was the best place to ground


and to cover all the exposed bolts and holes so there are no leaks....aquarium silicon!!!!....a little i had left over for a tank i made a few years back (my other expensive hobby)



so the i drilled semi-circles into the back of the air dam for the wire to run into, i also had to shave some plastic off the front lip on the basket cover because when the cover was closed it pushed the air dam up slightly



so the remaining wires were run into the roof and down the A-pillar to the underside of the dash. i did not include wiring information in the write up because i think the instructions included with the lights was pretty good, i will mention i ran the red wires from the battery +, blue from the battery -, and green to the driver side turn signal (green goes into the cabin and plugs into the toggles switch and yellow goes from the toggle switch to the harness. all harnesses were mounted in the engine bay against the firewall (wires were not long enough to reach into the grommet on the driver side from the battery or i would have put them under the dash...and i did not have the correct size wire laying around to extend them)

and here's the end result from last week, lights are now wired and work perfectly, i can take a pic of them on later tonight if anyone want to see them....oh, and i mounted the toggles by the mirror adjusters






i think i was the first person to put the lights in the air dam, i think they look pretty good here (kinda resembles a jeep liberty a little which i do not like, but i think that's because i mounted the lights too close to eachother) if i were to redo this install i would mount the lights farther apart.

hope this helps anyone considering this install!!