Raptor Grille Lights

[FordandPolaris]

Well I figured I may as well start the thread and add to it as I go. Saw this on a different forum and thought it looked pretty sweet.

Raptor style LED grille lights-install pics - Ford F150 Forum - Community of Ford Truck Fans

So far I have 3 of the 4 mounted. Thunderstorm rolled in so I am waiting to put in the 4th. Basically they are amber 10mm LED bolts from superbrightleds.com. I used 1-1/2 in corner brackets just cause that is what Walmart had when I was there late last night. 1in corner brackets would work too. Then I just got an epoxy from O'Reilly and started glueing them on. I will post a pic of two of them on so far in a little bit. If you want to know what the finished product looks like, the pictures on the first page of that link I posted has just that.

As for wiring, my plan is to run the positives from each light into one main positive wire, which will then run over to the minor positive wire on one of the turn signals. Ground will then just go to the frame. From what I can understand, this should work, but let me know if you think it will not.

I will post more pictures once the rain lets up including what they look like mounted to the brackets.

EDIT: Here is the pic of the two in so far, the wires will eventually be tucked away up above and I will paint the brackets with plasti-dip as soon as everything is in.

 

[TactialMonkey]

I was thinking about doing it but then got distracted with my whole dash being off and stuff! I wanna see how it looks tho!

 

[Lightnig]

OK, maybe I am missing something

forgive my ignorance, but is there a point to these lights, or are they simply a visual styling thing?

 

[FordandPolaris]

No real point other than to just add lights and draw attention away from my dented bumper haha. I always thought the markers in the grille looked sweet and so I put some in haha. I was really bad at taking pictures as I went, but if anyone has questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to go back and get some pics if needed.

I will take some tonight after work too.

 

[TactialMonkey]

why not space them apart more??

 

[FordandPolaris]

I had seen a couple guys that had put some space between theirs and it did not look as good to me. If you look through that F-150 thread in my first post (there is a bunch of pages, but there are a lot of interesting pics) you can see what I am talking about. This was the way that seemed to look best.

Camera kind of let me down on this one...

 

[walnuts4x4]

I wanted to do something like this but kinda hard with my current grill

 

[TexasAngel34]

hmmm i think the people in town would get mad if i added more lights... lol... they complain my headlights are bright enough, all i want is the KC lights that go on top the Bull bar ....

 

[FordandPolaris]

I wanted to do something like this but kinda hard with my current grill

There is a guy in that F-150 link towards the end of the thread that did some lights on a billet grille. He confirmed that it was not easy though.

I should add they are not technically the grille lights used in the Raptor, nor are they in the same spot, or even the same number as the Raptor (I am guessing people knew that already), the inspiration simply came from the Raptor.

 

[FordandPolaris]

I like these more and more each day. They are actually pretty bright at night too.

 

[sgtowing]

They are different.

 

[sgtowing]

You should add a couple more and make them light up in sequence from side to side K.I.T. style from Knight Rider

 

[FordandPolaris]

Haha that would be interesting... and cheesy.

 

[FordandPolaris]

OK so I figured I would update this thread. So far I have had two of the four lights burn out. I think it was the ridiculously cold weather we had this winter. At 5 bucks apiece they aren't too expensive to replace and super easy to change out.

 

[Waylap]

If you're trying to impersonate a Raptor coming down the road at you then it's (3) amber lights evenly spaced in the upper grille. Ford did this instead of roof mounted because the Raptor is wider and requires them for DOT.
More lights than that and I think it looks a little South of the border

A good LED light for this mod would be Custom dynamics.com item #cdled3.
3 of them. About a $15 project with shipping. Just 3M tape them surface mount in place in your upper grille and connect your wiring.

 

[FordandPolaris]

If you're trying to impersonate a Raptor coming down the road at you then it's (3) amber lights evenly spaced in the upper grille. Ford did this instead of roof mounted because the Raptor is wider and requires them for DOT.
More lights than that and I think it looks a little South of the border

Haha trust me I know what the front of a Raptor looks like And I also knew the reason the Raptors use them. They also have one side marker LED on the front of each fender in order to be DOT compliant (Need 5 lights if over a certain width).

The way my grille is set up, there is no open space directly in the center, so it was either 3 with the one in the middle off to one side, or 4 close together. Spacing them out looked weird with them only being one LED apiece. Thanks for your input but I think my truck is a long way from fitting in South of the border haha.