I wanted driving lights behind the grill of my ‘99 XL, mainly to give me a little more light when I putt around on the dirt roads at night. I did a little research and found while many people have installed the lights, there aren’t a lot of photos on how they did it. Keep in mind there are many (and some better, I’m sure) ways to install the lights, this is just the way I did it.

I decided to hang the Hella 500FF lights (55W ea) down from the fiberglass inner grill. I did this so I could center the lights vertically in the grill opening, and still keep them as close to the grill as possible. Because the fiberglass inner grill is thin and flexible, I braced the light mounts back to the steel radiator support approx 6" behind it.


Here are the mounts ... part of the fiberglass inner grill is sandwiched between the black light mount and the silver brace (braces still need painting in this pic).


Mounts/Lights installed


It’s a tight fit to get the lights between the grill and the lower cross brace, so the plastic covered fiberglass cross brace was notched to allow the lights to fit and be aimed properly.




I ran power for the lights from the under-hood fuse box to pin 30 on the relay and fused it w/ a 15A fuse (labeled because I’m old and forget what I did 6 months earlier).


I mounted a 40A relay out of the way on the driver side inner fender at the firewall.


I wanted to use the factory light switch w/ fog, but my truck is an XL which means it has no factory wiring for fog lights under the hood. The factory wiring for fog lights is present in the cab but terminates at the firewall (connector 160, for those of you that care). I didn’t want to mess around w/ adding pins/wires from the firewall connector into the engine compartment, so I decided to run new wires from the relay to the light switch. I did this through an existing rubber grommet located next to the brake booster on the firewall (wires are encased in a flexible pvc conduit for general protection).


I ran the wire for the lights from Pin 87 on the relay, along the inner fender, following the cable for the hood release, up to the grill. I connected the lights w/ water resistant plugs in case I ever have to remove them. You can also see better how the braces connect to the light mounts. The three bolts are in oversized holes which allow left/right adjustment of the lights.


To get the lights to operate as stock (only on w/ low beam), I connected Pin 86 on the relay to the WH/BK wire on the light switch, and Pin 85 on the relay to the yellow wire on the switch. I consulted the wiring diagram for my ‘99 for this setup, and I believe it is correct for ‘97-‘99 (if it’s not, someone please correct me ... I’m pretty much a novice when it comes to anything electrical). I think the ‘00+ are wired differently. On a side note, the light switches for the ‘97-‘99 are different than the ones for the ‘00-‘03, although they look very similiar in the cab.




UPDATE: I modded the switch and switch wiring so the grill lights can be switched on/off anytime the parking lights are on. https://www.f150online.com/forums/ar...witch-mod.html




They work!!





While I had everything apart, I decided to PTM my grill surround. I never liked the chrome one that came on my XL, and w/ the chrome look of the lights, it was too much.

Before ...


After ...

 

wow man fantastic write up

and those are really nice brackets, im assuming you made them yourself?

and you did a great job PTMing your surround! looks phenominal

 

Lookin' good fairlaner! Definitely one of my favorite "simple mod trucks" out there. Everything looks factory, but makes you scratch your head and say "it didn't come that way..."

 

Awesome! I am doing this!

 

great write up!! the ptm looks SO much better

 

Looks great man! Did you just pick up the color matched paint at a local auto store??

 

Very nice truck indeed!
Let's get a night shot now ?

 

Nice man they look great. Nice subtle touches really work on your truck

 

Very nice. I wish I had that factory switch w\ fog light option. I need to do the fog light mod myself very soon.

 

Thats odd. My truck is a 2wd, but it has the fog switch.

 

Man that looks really good, love the mounting bracket

 

great work. i like when people post pics and descriptions cause that lets others who didn't think they could do it themselves get motivated and go out and do it. nice job.

 

Very nice. Excellent write up.

 

Hey thanks for all the positive comments I've been wanting to do this for a while, but life kept getting in the way. When I was looking into it, I didn't find a write up, so I thought I'd do one.

Thanks! The lower bracket is the Hella mount welded (could have been bolted) to a piece of angle iron. The upper braces are aluminium guard rail reflector mounts I got at work (that type hasn't been used since the 70's, I'm not sure why we still had them), which I bent in a vice.

Thanks! That's been my goal from day one ...

I got the paint at automotive touch up online ... none of my local parts shops carried duplicolor in my paint code.

My XL of course didn't come w/ factory fog lights ... I got the fog switch on ebay. A '97-'99 non-fog switch will pull out like the fog switch, but it is not wired for the fogs (nor does it have the fog light indicator light).

 

Nice write up what size are the bulbs that you used?

Also has anybody done this that has A/C?