Mike J

Well I am slowing working on putting my Targa back together...yes the roof is fine. I bought some turbo ducts from a fellow rennlister a while ago and Boris at the body shop was nice enough to paint them to match the car's color. I took them apart to get them painted and I was astounded by the crappy lens and reflector that are in these lights....no wonder people have been complaining..



So.....after some web searching for the smallest fog light I settled on these Hellas. The hole in the turbo duct is 1 7/8" which is pretty small. The smallest one is the Hella DE Micro Fog light...very nice unit and about $49 each. They are about 2 1/4" at the nose...but there is a trim ring. I ordered them figuring that I could do something about the trim ring. Oh, you don't need the whole kit because it includes relays and switches. Check out Hella Light for more information.



Nice looking light eh? Very nice lens, proper mount for the build, magnesium case for the heat, etc. I like the lens pattern...and it turns out that the old lens was from a Hella design as well so the oval shape was almost a perfect match...



So how to I manage to get these mounted? Well, the first problem is that the light is too large for the duct so some creative "carving" has to occur...this is the light bottomed out on the fixture. The trim ring on the light is in the way as well as the mount for the old lens...





So lets get carving. I used a square bottomed cutter on my trusty air tool and carved out the mounts at the bottom of the duct. The mounts were to hold the hold lens in. Keep carving the mount until you can see the joint between the case and the shell.



Ok, hold your breath for the next part. The trim ring on the lights has to be removed. Its glued on so I could not take it off in one piece so I, well, broke it off in bits..



Almost done, I smoothed out the rubber seal using a very sharp knife and then reapplied some urethane to make an nice seal...I did not take a picture after it was sealed....leave it as an excercise fo the student...



The old reflector was a bit smaller than this new Hella so I had to trim out the mounting hole a bit...sorry about the poor picture.



The lights out of the box are not threaded...I tapped some 6mm threads (heh, we have to remain metrica after all)....



I used some Stainless allen head bolts but these were a bit long... ;-)



OK, they are all trimmed and fit nicely.



Ok, tricky stuff. In order to get the clearance for the inside mounting bolt I needed to drill an access hole across the cool air duct with across. If you are good with a drill its no problem but take carefull aim (in three dimensions..).



Now you can see why I did this...I needed to thread the bolt in from the side. There just is not enough space between the duct and the light to fit it in so I used this method...worked fine and you can always use some rubber plugs for the duct..



Ok, here is the light mounted on the duct..its a good solid mount. The lights can be adjusted a bit using the slop in the screws...

Front view...



The bulb mount is much better on these lights..the wire connection on the ground is a bit flimsy but it seems to work fine...



The light with the rubber boot on the end...nice design.



I do not like to mickey mouse the connectors but do it properly. I solded all the exposed wires after mounting the spades...



Okay, I will get flack for this...I actually CUT the old connector off the car to replace it. I figured I can always put another connector on that one in case I take the ducts out...which is unlikely to happen.

**SNIP** !



Putting the connector on the car side...



And the finished connector with water sealing on the cables and the connector housings....nice and reliable and much better than trying to jam some spade connectors into the factory connector...



And the final test...what do their patterns look like....here you go!



I think this "upgrade" to the original turbo ducts is worth it...it takes a bit of carefull work but it gives a better light and better maintenance.

The Hella Micro DE also comes in a driving light for those who are light challenged if if you want to spend lots of money you can get a Xenon version!!!

Cheers,

Mike

The Eagle

Thanks for the incredible great write up & pics.


~ The Eagle ~
---------------------
'96 Polar Silver/Black C4S, manual, litronics, alu/leather shifter & handbrake, silver face gauges with alu rings, "GT" sport seats,
full leather interior, stainless door sills, with split rear grill and layered with Meguiar's NXT Tech Wax
__________________
'92 Carrera 2 (Sold)
'89 Carrera 3.2 (Sold)

C4S_fan

As usual... fantastic!

CAHRERA

Awesome Mike! How's the car running? Did you figure out what's causing the mis-fire?

InTheAir

Wow, that was quite the modification....and yes I cringed when I saw you breaking the bezel off the light.

They sure look nice and bright.

epj993

Great work, Mike! Love the vertical lens pattern and the white light projected.

Mike J

Maybe, knock on wood...ouch!

Take a look at :

Engine Misfire Thread

Cheers,

Mike

DJF1

That's a nice job Mike! Maybe you can do mine too

mborkow

+1

STLPCA

Nice project. Which turbo S ducts did you modify?

FWIW, the ducts from Mike Shaw/BW Motorsport already have a good quality 38W (#894 bulb) foglight fitted (reportedly from a Corvette):

mborkow

i think mike has the ****ty turbo s ducts a bunch of us got in GB a while back. speaking of which, one of mine died recently...and i had them on a total of maybe 5 hours the whole time i've had them (which is since new). real POS.

DocTock993

Nice write-up and overall finished product.
Hmmm, something to add to a non-turbo duct "project" - painting the inside with chrome AND upgrading the fog-lights...
So, anyone have any original fog/ driving lights with intact glass they want to get rid of ????

Mike J

Yup, I definitely bought the "****ty" ones.... *sigh**. I had to screw around with them to get the fitment right as well as replace the lights...what a good investment LOL! I bought them used from another Rennlister in a bonehead move on my part but I think I have managed to salvage the situation...

Cheers,

Mike

TomF

Wow, those are really bright. Great write-up Mike. Isn't it nice to be done with the have-to-do list and back to the fun stuff!

Rob 97 993c2

Wait a minute.. i also have the turbo-S ducts from the group buy from MA Shaw and, one of my fog lights failed. Mike, is this the same as yours? Why are these so bad? Are the factory ones better? anyone else have problems?