Lowbuck SA grille

[thatvwbusguy]

There are no stock mounting tabs on the front of the Hella 5,000 lights (like you would find on a standard headlight) since they are designed to be single point mounted on a bumper or a rack. I'm sure you could fabricate something to make it work, but I can't really see any major benefits over the strap style bracket that Andrew used in his original post.

I am sure that certain headlight brands have different mounting depths due to the proprietary design of their reflector, but I can't remember ever seeing a 7" round lens with a shallow enough mounting depth to sneak in to the drivers side inner position on a van.
_________________
Jay Brown
'85 Zetec Westfalia
Newmarket, NH


If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

[Racerrojo]

Found this! I tried to trim off a couple of small pieces off the grill and it worked. I have not tried to cut the holes on a grill, but it looks promising, a bit slow but promising. and the best part it was on sale at Harbor Freight Tools for $14.99

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Tight is tight... too tight is expensive!!!!


Too many vans and mostly all projects

[Nachtfalter]

Interesting thread... Lots of good info. So, here's mine.

I like the quad light look of the S.A. Grile but I like the original grille as well. I also like the inside lights to be a tad bit smaller so I went with 5 1/4" driving lights with a black housing so they blend into the grille seamlessly.

I laid out the lights and marked them with a sharpie then used a jig saw with a super fine metal blade. The jigsaw was gentle and cut easy allowing me to sneak up on the perfect snug fit, one small cut at a time.

I hit the grilles with light sand paper, primer, and plastic coat "satin" which has a factory look unlike "semi-gloss" which I thought looked too shiney.

I have not yet seen them at night or adjusted them, but it sure transformed the front of my wife's van. Cool little project for an afternoon.

[Steelhead]

bravo. looks great and you'll like the lighting upgrade.
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'77 Bay Window / '89 Caratsburg (aka. the Stormtrooper)

[climberjohn]

Nachtfalter,

That's the best looking on so far!

The black housing on the lights makes it great. That's the downfall of most of the previous ones here - you can see the hack/cut marks from 10 meters away.

Can you offer us a link to the actual lights you got?

-CJ
_________________
'86 Westy, 2.5 Subaru power
Know your limits. Exceed them often.

[Nachtfalter]

Thanks John,

After searching a while and not finding anything I liked, I stumbled on some "tractor" lights ( yes, thats how they were advertised) at the local parts store. Here is a link to the six inch version

http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/BLZ0/C52C...+universal

The 5 inchers were only 18 bucks and fit between the vertical ribs of the grille without hurting the overall strength of the grille. Plus, I like the look of the slightly smaller lights. They are really bright too!

The key is sneaking up on the perfect fit with a fine tooth blade in the jig saw. The lights are very light and can be mounted and adjusted by two set screws through the vertical ribs into the lights. Pretty simple. Looks like the grille came with them.

[climberjohn]

[davesclassicvws]

Nachtfalter,
That's the best option I've seen so far. I was so impressed I ran out to O'Reilly and picked up a set of what I thought was the lights. These lights are a little less than 5" in diameter.
I've attached pictures of the lights.
This has only brought up more questions.
1.The lights are completely encased in plastic. How did you mount them to the van?
2. Can you show a close up of the grill and the light?
3. Does the frame cover the grill? if so, How?
4. Did you wire them seperately or tap into the headlights?
Thanks for your input.

_________________
1969 VW Beetle
1972 Karmann Ghia
1982 Vanagon Westfalia ('OlBlue)
2000 New Beetle

[Nachtfalter]

John, I have no clue what the wheels are, the local VW mechanic had a few options and I liked those wheels best. They bolted on with no spacing and are 15 inches.

Dave, that looks like them, they have a wire and switch kit (at my store it was right next to them) for like 10 bucks with a handy wire diagram on the back. I think I measured them with the plastic packaging on in the store because I thought they were 5 1/4. The whole light, right off the shelf, slides tightly into the hole I cut into the grille. The lights themselves dont weigh much and since they didnt cut into the vertical ribs on the grille, I drilled two small scews on each side of the light through the vertical ribs in the grille and adjusted them at night. Once I was happy with the angle of the light, I put a third small set screw in each light to keep it from moving. In other words, the lights are part of the grille, like how driving lights are mounted to a modern Mercedes lower vallance. I couldnt think of a better way to make them look like a factory option.

I used push fittings on the wires with a little bit of slack which allows me to unscrew the grille and reach in and disconect the lights if I want to remove the grille. Its really an easy modification and the grille remains solid as a rock when you're done. Use satin not semi gloss and you'd swear you bought the damn thing from the dealer.

Hope that helps.
Paul.

[davesclassicvws]

Thanks Paul
I'll let you know how it turns out.
_________________
1969 VW Beetle
1972 Karmann Ghia
1982 Vanagon Westfalia ('OlBlue)
2000 New Beetle

[nij_tp]

thatvwbusguy

Like the look of your grill very cool I may have (in fact probably) missed the bit in your thread about what lights you used followed the link to hella but got lost in shiny stuff!!!

Nachtfalter

Then I read your post!! dilema dilema. Question on your solution the two screws you used where theu through the grill and into the light housing so it swiveled up and dowm? Where did you put the 3rd screw?

Its probably really obvious but sometimes I like idiot proof instructions before I start hacking stuff. (I always have fun but it takes a lot of procrastination before I start!).

Thanks in advance guys

Of course a shout out to the op great thread. Its always good to see how one person describes something and then 10 others come up with variations. Such a cool place to be.
_________________
1990 Vanagon GL _ Brunhilda (marked up as a Caravelle from new!) Just over 1/4 million miles, custom exhaust
1985 Vanagon GL - Josepha 140,000, Has a 2006 Forester 2.5 VVT custom exhaust
1989 Wolfsburg (Bluestar) - Walpurga
1989 Vanagon GL a parts bus
1984 Westralia
2006 Audi A4 2.0T with a unitronic tune
2007 Toyota Sequoia
1976 Mercury Capri 2.3l
1986 Honda Shadow VT700
2000 Suzuki Intruder VS800
1988 Kawasaki Voyager XII
2018 Chonda Hawk 250cc
1995 Subaru SVX (possible 3.3. swap)

[Nachtfalter]

If looking at the light from the front, I put the set screws on each side so it can pivot up and down, then once I was happy with the direction of the light, I put a third screw under the next horizontal rib above the halfway point. All screws are hidden under a horizontal rib.

Good luck!

[thatvwbusguy]

For my 4-light grill, I wanted aimable lenses with a dual filament bulb (high and low beam). The 5.75" Hellas fit the bill perfectly and use a standard H4 bulb that is available in many different wattage ratings. Here is the lens and bracket I chose: http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=4788 this only comes with a 24V bulb, so you will need to replace with a 12V bulb for use in a Vanagon.

For people wanting to mimic the operation of the South African Grill, where the inner lights are only used for high beam, the driving light or tractor light solutions are both very clever and probably a bit easier to fabricate and install overall.

There are some other promising looking lenses with mounting hardware available as well. These 3.5" units look like they might work nicely for inner high beam driving lights: http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=132
_________________
Jay Brown
'85 Zetec Westfalia
Newmarket, NH


If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

[Lobstaboy]

Looks Sharp

[Racerrojo]

[quote=There are some other promising looking lenses with mounting hardware available as well. These 3.5" units look like they might work nicely for inner high beam driving lights: http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=132[/quote]
I wonder how would this look in the lower grill?
_________________
Tight is tight... too tight is expensive!!!!


Too many vans and mostly all projects

[geo_tonz]

[greebly]

Harbor Freight has these 100 watt driving lights on sale for $25.00. Print out a 20% off coupon and they are around $20.00 for allot of high beam lighting.
http://www.harborfreight.com/off-road-long-range-truck-light-system-3029.html

[scobax]

I completed my take on the lowbuck SA grille over the weekend and thought that I’d share the results and some pointers for anyone considering the swap. I essentially followed Jays (thatvwbusguy) previous post to a tee using the Hella 7” H4 E-codes for the outers and the Hella 5.75” H4 driving lights with mounts for the inners, all from Susquehanna Motorsports’ www.rallylights.com website. The bulbs are Hella 100/80w H4’s in all four. I used Jays simple drawing in an earlier post as basis for the brackets. Thanks go out to Jay for the tips and great write up!

Right up front I’ll say that I’m really happy with the results and it’s well worth the effort. The savings over the “real” SA grille is substantial and the versatility of the H4’s is a real bonus. The light output in potency and pattern are simply amazing as compared to the factory square setup. For reference, I have been running 100/80w bulbs in the factory lights too so it’s a fairly apples to apples comparison in this regard.

I diverted a bit from Jays method in that I wired the inner lights only to the highbeams like the factory inners. I also wired up the daytime running light bulbs that are built into the 5.75” Hellas. These are some small 4 watt bulbs that enter the housing from the bottom of the reflector.


The main light wiring required some lengths of 14ga wire, a couple of 9004 female adapters and a pair of ceramic male H4 sockets sourced from eBay. The inner lights and daytime running lights required some standard male and female spade connectors.

For the grille, the trim rings are sourced from 6” Halo recessed lights, about $8 each at Home Depot. These rings are actually metal which is nice because they result in a very low profile against the grille. The only drawback is that the inner lip only extends about 7/16” back into the grille so there is some space between where the light lens and trim meet. I’m going to look around for some sort of sleeve or inner trim ring that might make the transition a bit neater.

I cut the holes in the grille using a fine tooth blade on a jigsaw with no issue. Go slow and be careful there! I positioned the trim rings where I wanted them and traced out the inside of the rings with a sharpie. I then cut the initial hole on the marks which allows you to go back and take a few more passes a little at a time to get them just right. A little dremmel work is also a good idea for some details like clearancing the adjuster screws on the light housings.

I attached the trim rings to the grille using some paintable silicone adhesive then shot it with flat black. It’s all bomber now.

The brackets are made of 16ga steel plates and I mounted them to the existing holes for the square light housings.

If I were to do this again, I would probably position the inner lights outboard more. After I had the holes cut this dawned on me. The grille has vertical support struts at regular intervals to support the horizontal grille bars. To use a 5.75” light you have to cut one of these vertical supports on each side. I cut the second one in. The most durable way to do this would have been to cut the outermost vertical support which does not leave long spans of horizontal grillework hanging out there. Once the trim ring is glued in place the issue is largely resolved, but I realized after the fact that I would have rather placed the inner lights further outboard not only for a bit more strength in the grille itself, but because this would have given the lights a bit more space behind for connectors (more of an issue on the driver side) but also aesthetically I think it would have looked a bit cleaner.

Here are a few photos;

_________________
87 Syncro Westy w/ Suby 2.5
RIP: 2.1 WBX. You were a good dog 'ol feller

“The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that's when adventure starts” -Yvon Chouinard

"It's not expensive, its priceless" -Unknown

[I am square]

Looks great! I did mine 2 wks ago. I went "Hella" cheap (pun intended) and went to pick a part on 50% day and got some high beam Hellas off an 90s BMW. Lights only cost me $10! I'll have to post up some pics when I get a chance. They are brighter than my high H4 high beams!

I just have them wired up as aux lights. I added an LED to the blank hole on the center of the gauge cluster as my indicator that they are on.
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Dustin

'73 Thing
'86 Syncro Doka
'85 Vanagon
'08 R32
'14 Tiguan

[wtcumby]

Do fog lights need a relay or can the switch handle the current?

I have a 1991 vanagon with the four square lights. Can I just butt splice in the headlight female plugs borrowed from the 1984 donor and put both brown wires on the same brown wire coming from the van?

Are the relays in dash the same?
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I've got the vanagon fever