Hood Light Mounts Install Walk Thru (Lots o pics!)

Squatting Dog said:

I am sure SDHQ will take care of it Madcow!


-Greg (aka squatting dog)

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Killjohnathan said:

Damn vision x man! Mine are all jacked up too. The housing on mine looks like someone dropped them across the concrete. Sorry your light is screwed up, that really sucks


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

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rhino said:

My guess is you used a double ended stud and removed one bolt at a time, replaced with new stud and torqued so the hinge was never loose on both ends. Then simply put the new bracket over the hinge studs, put the nut on, torque to spec and your done. Well that's how I did mine any way.

I did not time it per side but it couldn't have been much longer than you described. I was installing mounts in both raptors and it took less than an hour for all four and I had numerous interruptions.

I'm curious if this how you did it as well. Regardless good luck and this forum has great ideas and knowledge base to pull from. It will be good to meet some of you at the Texas run. We are bringing at least 2 disabled vets on this trip so we are pushing to have both Raptors ready in time.

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MarkT said:

OK... here it is FINALLY.

Stock hood hinge:



The parts I used to install the brackets are:

4 - 8mm x 1.25 x 30mm studs- full thread
4 - 1" OD x 5/16" ID stainless steel flat washers
4 - 5/16" hardened steel flat washers
4 - 6mm x 1.00 nuts drilled and tapped to 8mm x 1.25
4 - 8mm x 1.25 nuts

Basically, the secret is to NEVER REMOVE MORE THAN ONE HINGE BOLT AT A TIME.

First step is to cut the plastic.

Next, loosen and remove the front hinge bolt. Install one of the studs into the hole where you just removed the bolt. Leave enough threads sticking up to install the bracket. Put one of the SS flat washers on the stud. Now take one of the 6mm nuts (10mm wrench) that you drilled out and tapped to 8mm x 1.25 and tighten. It doesn't have to be super tight, but you want it fairly tight so when you remove the rear hinge bolt, nothing moves.

One thing... you want the flats of the nut to be more or less parallel with the edge of the hinge when you are done tightening. This is so the slots in the bracket will fit over the nuts.

Pic showing the front stud installed:



Do the same to the rear stud. (Hint: closing the hood and working through the notch you cut in the plastic is the easiest way I found) Again, line up the flats on the nut so they are parallel to the edge of the hinge.

Pic showing both studs installed:



Now if you close the hood about halfway and turn the bracket on its side (light mounting tab down), you can slide the bracket in from the windshield side, twist, and drop it over the studs.

Drop a couple of hardened flat washers over the studs, install the standard 8mm nuts, and tighten. Note that the 6mm nuts you drilled out to 8mm fit into the slots in the bracket... if they don't, you need to turn them slightly so the flats line up in the bracket slots.
Done.



Two installs using this method... no issues... both of us have had the brackets off and on a couple of times... takes less than 5 minutes per side.

One note...the "homemade" nuts only need to hold the hood bracket until the light bracket is installed and tightened. Once the bracket is installed, it clamps everything together very well. There should never be any problems. But use this method at your own risk...

(If I were starting from scratch, I'd do it differently and there would be no need to rethread the 6mm nuts.)

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RaptorSpartan said:

Ok fellas.... just got done doing this solo in the dark in the driveway.... you guys got me really worried about the whole alignment thing and having two people and stuff. Let me tell you what I did that made it super easy...

- Open Hood
- Cut away plastic to allow mount to slide into place
- Take a 8' 2x4 and prop the hood way up... at the end of the travel of the hinges. Braced the 2x4 against the front grill ridges.
- removed drivers side bolts
- put on mount
- tightened bolts
- removed passenger side bolts
- put on mounts
- tightened bolts.

The hood didn't go anywhere.... there was no slippage. I was also careful not to jostle the hood or anything... but it didn't move. After tightening everything down and slowly closed the hood and it was lined up perfect.

no muss... no fuss...

really like the way these things fit... they are very nice. Now I can't wait to get my leds from WSI!

Maas

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fjcoop said:

I installed:

XIL-OPR110KIT VisionX Optimus Round LED Light- Pair
Beam Pattern: 10 Degree Spot
Housing Color: Black

AOHDMOUNT Alternative Offroad Ford F-150 & Raptor Hood Mount Light Brackets

Vision X lens covers and blacked them out..

I will say i did not need to cut or drill anything. Tight but perfect fit. I use a tie down strap to hold the hood in place as i removed the hood mount bolts. The strap help it in place so i did not need to adjust the hood.

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