I have a set of 4 rally lights (Bosch Pilot 160) I'm currently trying to mount onto the front of my 99 GV. I don't have (or want) a bull bar or whatever it's called (brush guard? Shopping cart deflector?), and I cannot put the lights on the roof. I would rather have the lights at the same level as the headlights, so they'll be right in front of the grille. I also want to make it so that I can easily remove and install the lights quickly and easily, and finally I want to create mounts without trashing the bumper cover or the grille.
I'm having a heck of a time finding a good solid starting point. What I've found is directly behind that big stupid a/c tube that runs across the top just behind the front bumper is a good place. There's a nice flat area there that might be just big enough to either weld or bolt in something there, to get up over that stupid a/c tube. Then I was thinking of using some 1/2" square steel tubing that would come out the very bottom of the grille/fascia piece over top of the bumper and then see what I can do from there.
I had these same lights on my old car (a Dodge Daytona) and even though I just slapped together a light rack with a bunch of nuts and bolts and some 1" steel tubing (1/16" thickness), the rack mounted and unmounted very easily from the car, just 1 pair of nuts and bolts under the front bumper and a couple of ski-rack straps on the rad support. The straps kept tension on the rack to keep it from vibrating on gravel roads. Only downside (why I don't want to do the same thing this time around, but I didn't care at the time) is that it rubbed two vertical marks right into the front of the front bumper. I'm going to try to find a picture of my old car with the lights on so you can see what I did.
So basically this time around it's kinda the same idea but I'm trying to get a more solid mount ABOVE the front bumper, and if necessary instead of ski-straps I'll use a couple pieces of flat steel to squeeze in under the closed hood if I find it vibrates too much.
Another thing I wanted to do is have more flexibility in switching the light pod. The rules I have to follow say that what I have the big lights turned on with the high-beams, when I flip the high beams off, the big lights should turn off as well. But I want to do more. I'm 90% sure I've got it all figured out so I'm just telling you what I'm planning. See the lights I have, two of them are Driving lights (basically helper high-beams) and the other two cast a very WIDE but narrow beam - they're big round white fog lights. I want to get a 3 position toggle switch. When the switch is at bottom(OFF), the rally lights stay off (but the cars lights all work fine of course). Top position(HI), all four lights come on with the high beams only! Turn off the highs, and all 4 lights go off. Just as the rules say. Now here's the trick. Middle position(FOG) on that toggle makes those two fog lights on the rack behave just like factory fog lights! So they'd work only with the low beams and would go OUT when I flip on the high beam switch.
I've been studying the factory wiring diagram and like I said I'm 90% certain I can make this work, but first I have to get those lights mounted! The first navigational rally of the year is January 12th, I need to get moving!
James
