My driving lite brackets!! Thanks Al for the Stainless steel custom brackets so the pilot driving lites fit right. Geez, they look nice. Have to hook them up tomorrow afternoon.

this is the way to go if you want real driving lites and for them to fit in the grills.

Geoff

(I can see someone making these and selling em thru the vendor page)

sorry for the lowres pics the Nikon is in the shop for a tune up.

I am sure glad you like them Geoff Let me know if the s.s. fasteners I sent along worked for you?Any way I am going to set up to mass produce a few dozen sets to see if anyone else wants them AL

man, those look great! where can i get a set? my pilot's are on order from autozone ($43 and free shipping!), should be here by the end of the week, and i'll need a coupla those brackets to mount 'em.

~a

DooD sign me up please as I have a set or two or three of Hella driving lamps that might find their way onto cars someday, but I am sure I don't have enough brackets to go around...and most of the used ones are rusty & crusty... Or, is the geometry of these significantly different from the OE ones?

These mount the smaller Pilots closer to the grills. When you mount them with oem brackets the lites are smashed against the car and you can't really aim them.

These are the hot ticket with the Pilot driving lites for a 914. The lites really throw a beam out there.
hehe now to go blind some ricers...... :finger2:

Geoff

My biggest gripe with my teener is the lights, I do most of my hell raising at night around here and hate cornering with stock lights and the stock driving lights... I definately need something way brighter.

What are you guys doing for headlight bulbs? I have seen an H4 conversion, is it worth a shit?

I bought a set of Pilot lights a year ago and haven't mounted them. Sell me a set of those brackets. Please!

The H4 conversion is a Good Thing. Throws more light in a more useful pattern than the stock US-spec sealed beams. You can also go with higher-powered bulbs, but you'll want to run a relay to keep the load off of the headlight switch and ignition switch.

Adding the Pilot driving lights should help even more. You'll need a relay for them, also, if you go with bulbs higher than about 40W, IMHO.

Oh, and Al--I suggest making up a dozen sets or so (if it's not that hard) and listing them in the "Member's Products" section. Sounds like they come in really handy.

--DD

Dave, I am going to produce a limited number of brackets say maybe 20 sets. It's not too hard except trying to get those1/4" endmills to stop walking. anyway I will be making some and have them ready in a week or two! AL

Jake,H4 headlights are good but these are the hot ticket for those dark night on the road. Suckers really throw out the lite vs the fogs even with the H3 bulbs in them.
Order a set quick! Al's making them out of Stainless so they should outlast the car!
Geoff

Does anyone have a pic? What do the pilots look like? I'm in for a set. Gimme detals and I will crack the vault.

Nevermind...I found the "search" function. Getting lazy.

nice al!!! like i told you when you asked if i wanted a set.... "Resources, Parts, Products". better make 30 sets.

kevin

Al

Make me up some too, I'll keep them handy for later.

Dave

Jake, get the euro spec H4's they're better and look cool with the flat lens. The pilot light's totally rock.

The wife was bitchin about the anaemic stock lights till I did the H4/pilot light up-grade.
I asked her how she liked it with this set-up and she said that before she couldn't see the trees on the side of the road. Now she says that she can tell the trees by species.

I wish I had these brackets when I did my up-grade, even though I don’t have any issues with my homemade brackets, these look cool. Got a price on them yet?

hjhk

very sweet! those brackets will be real handy!! great job!

Mark,
where can the Euro-spec H4s be had? I've only seen the rounded ones from the usual suspects

You can get the Euro Hellas from Pelican or here: Classic Garage

Those do like nice, for some reason they look very familiar

Light Upgrade..by Demick

You can also get the Euro Hellas from a lot of VW bug shops.

yes Mike, Al used that drawing to make em. He has use of a machine shop which some of us don't. I think this is a solution to a longtime 914 problem, poor lighting.
So also hats off to Craig and Demick for figuring this out.
or you could buy a set of those early 911 driving lights for $500 a set.

Geoff

i'm installing the pilots sometime in the next week or two. can you explain the process for adding a relay... is this like the round black ones? i'm a bit un-initiated electronically, though i did learn a lot by frying my ignition switch and headlight relay recently!

~a

I just wanted to see Demick get a little credit

figure out a price, if reasonable, I'm in for a set as well.....

I think you can use the round relays, but it is probably easier to go to an electronics-supply store and get relays and relay sockets from them. They'll likely be cheaper and easier to mount.

A relay is an electrically-operated switch. In a wiring diagram, you will often see it shown as a switch and a coil. When current flows through the coil, the switch gets pulled into one position (for our purposes, that's simply "on"). When current stops flowing, a spring pulls the switch to the other position (for us, "off").

To use a relay to "protect" the ignition switch and headlight switch, you need to do a few things.

First, run a nice beefy wire from the battery to your relay. Put a fuse in that line, preferably within 18" wire run of the battery. Hook it to one of the "switch" connections on the relay. Next, run another beefy wire from the other "switch" connection to the headlights. Hook up the wire that used to go to the headlights, and hook that to one of the "coil" terminals on the relay. Hook the other one of those to ground.

Now, when you turn on the headlight switch, the switch only sends the modest amount of current required to flip the switch inside the relay. That, in turn, handles the larger current that goes to the light.

Now, this gets more complicated in that you have two separate circuits providing power to the headlights, one for high beam and one for low. You can run two relays, one for each, or you can just put the relay on the high-beam circuit. Many people feel that the low beams don't draw enough current to overload the ignition and/or headlight switches, and the simplicity of only having the one relay is worth it. Not sure how I'd do this if I were installing it... Depends in part on how powerful the "target" low beams are.

Speaking of which, you need to size the wires, fuse(s), and relay(s) so that they can handle the maximum draw of the lights. Which depends on the power rating of the lights, and (in the case of the wire size) also the length of wire you will be running.

--DD

Dave's explanation is good - but really aimed toward changing your headlights to 100W units.

double-a was really asking about what's involved in installing the pilot driving lights, which is much simpler. If you already have fog lights installed, then simply swap them out. The pilot's are only 55W, so upgrading the wiring/relays/etc is not necessary.

If you do not have fog lights, most cars are already wired for them. You only need to install a switch in the dash and add one of the round black relays to a socket on the fuse panel.

Mike: thanks for the credit!

Demick

thanks for the great info dave, i understand relays a bit better now. i *think* the headlights on my car have already been upgraded, they're very, very bright. not sure if they're 100w, or how i would check that. as far as what extra wiring may have been put in place at that time, i don't know, i've only owned the car for about six months. but every time i break something, my knowledge tends to increase proportionately.

~a

Oooh, good point!! Sometimes I get kinda carried away and talk about everything but the actual question!! D'OH!

--DD

Demick, thanks for the drawing. I used the drawing to make my own brackets a couple months ago and they came out great. I made a couple sets for some of the guys here and they liked them as well. Brought the Pilots right out to sit flush with the grills. Great job!!

Rod

can you buy a replacment lens in case a rock or debris get's too freindly with the new Pilot light???

what about some kind of clear film that can be cut to size and stuck to the lenses? i've seen this treatment on some of the more expensive cars out there, mostly on the front, bumper, etc.

~a

Damn you are cheap. these are at $43 a set so if one breaks I'll get more.

Geoff

I'll take a set. I was just thinking about doing the pilot lights.

- Garold

yup, i usually prefer to let things get broken so i can turn right around and buy them again, but i'm saving my clams for some nice genuine nla front turn signal lens screws from aa...

~a

I prefer frugal over cheap

Yep, I have a term for you guys down there....
Cheap!

Californian
Hotshot
Engineering
Asshole
Partrecyclers

I'd like a set also Al if you have enough. When I stripped my car I found all of the wiring for the fogs. I've been considering the Pilot install myself. The brackerts would cling the deal.

FSOBOSC? Doesn't sound right. CSOBOSC is mo' better. CSOBONC is more correct, but also doesn't sound right. FSOBONC? No, not even.

--DD

i would like a set also!!

doug

I'd like a set too. How much are they going to run?

AL? How much??


Geoff

Now see what you started? You're gonna be making brackets for years. Put me down for 2 sets. I've put the 916 front end on the blue car, and really like the looks of both fog and driving lights.

What's the part number for the Pilots that fit the 914?

PL-193C

I am not sure how much they will be yet As soon as I get my head out of you know where I'll get back to yall. But I will say this they will be very reasonably priced for you frugal guys and gals out there! Al HELP.