I like the looks of the early chrome front bumper with fog lights - how difficult is it to retrofit to a '73 an early chrome bumper without the rubber extensions and add foglights? Is the wiring already there in the existing wiring harness, or, do I need to add all the wiring to do this?

1973 came with fog lights and early chrome bumpers.at least both my 1973's do

I believe the wiring is already present behind your dash and in your front trunk if I recall correctly. Aside from that you need the switch, foglights, grills and mounting bolts. Hopefully I am correct. Good luck I like the look of the fog lights and grills in the early cars.

Although you might want to consider a new wiring harness (if Jeff makes it - http://bowlsby.net) if you have to buy one, I have a '73 parts car that had fog lights. I can look at the wiring, and send you photos of the mounting points, etc. if you like.

My 74 had all the wiring. A few simple connections, grills, switch, lights and these instructions is all it took.

http://members.rennlist.com/demick/lights.html

http://members.rennlist.com/demick/fogrewire.html

The front is all there, even the bolts to mount the lights.

Under the dash it a bit more of a mystery. (to me at least, I never did hook mine up after taking a bunch of abuse here about it)

I have a 75 and backdated the bumpers and added the fog lights. the toughest part for me was making sure the light ended up being centered in the light grill. Light is mounted to the car, the grill is mounted to the bumper.

IIRC on my '75 there is a "step" formed into the body behind the bumper where the light mounts. I had to drill a hole for the bolt. I wonder if a '73 had the nut welded in for you?

Click to view attachment

This is a car a local guy was parting out a few years back. Believe it was a '73. You can see the "step".

There was a post that suggested the you attach a threaded rod or cut off bolt to the bumper vs. trying to push the bolt thru the body from inside the wheel well and thread into the bumper.

It makes it real easy to install and remove and install the bumper by yourself. when you are installing the lights you will need to test fit many many times. You know the old saying, "measure twice and cut once"? Oh yea, my 75 did not have fog lights, but it did have the connection on the wire harness.

Pull your bumper & look - easy swap if it's all there, but beware that when dealers wanted fog lights they often got lazy & clipped the wires to take/steal them off other cars on their lot & retrofit for a customer wanting them added. That was done to my early `73 914-2.0 "914S" which definitely had them, but they cut the wires, left the hole in the dash from the switch & sold it to the PO/OO as he told me when I bought it back in `75.

You'll also need the dash switch for the light (wiring is in the harness also) & they used green in early 73 MY (Aug`72-early`73), & then switched to amber sometime in spring 73. Look at p914.com under lights for the date that happened, & your VIN sticker or Karmann plate should give you the date of mfgr of your 914.

Also, if you want a DD quality front "tit-less" chrome bumper you may be able to find a good one already rechromed or a core to have rechromed there in IN/IL/OH (or look in Hemmings magazine for the classic/collector car rechromers back there).

Bruce stone/bdstone out here sometimes has nice rechromed driver quality ones at reasonable prices, but shipping may kill you.

There are also polished SS ones available from Rich Bontempi/HPH in SF Bay area, & another group online sells them in the UK but ships from Southeast Asia mfgr (Vietnam?) which some members here have purchase. Both sell F&R in Chrome.

BTW - it your 73 is a 2.0 up to about March `73 production, then it probably also had chrome bumpers originally, but got swapped by the dealership when new for another customer, or a down-option, or taken off by a PO. Dealers were also famous for stealing the factory alloy wheel spare (Pedrini, Mahle baby-gasburner & Fuchs 2L) & replacing it with a steelie, then selling 4 stolen alloys to another customer as an upgrade for 100% profit!

FWIW - if you're a CW nut & want originality, then stick with a well done triple-chromed CW quality set of bumpers with a nice set of the front "tits" for both concours/show & resale reasons.

(wiring is in the harness also)

So, it is present at the fuse box, and all I need to do is plug 'n play?

I think you also had to add the stock relay. Look at the links I gave they were all the instructions I needed to install my fogs. The wiring instructions works for stock or the Pilot fogs. I know those instructions have no pics, but I didn't need them, it was pretty straight forward.