2013 Mustang fog light retrofit project for a 2004 Cobra

JeremyAlan

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Title sums it up pretty well, I'm using another OEM part from some other car on my Cobra. Yay! :tongue3:

2013 Mustang GT's showed up on dealer floors a few years ago and yours truly noticed that they came with LED fog lights... cue the gears turning. Now, Ford wants something in the neighborhood of $500 for EACH fog light :nono:

Obviously that price isn't very easy to swallow. Thankfully a company called Starkey Products has take off lights. They also only want $230 for a new set, not bad. [ LINKY ]

I think we can get them for cheaper... hmm, seems they have a clearance section! Boom, same lights for $120 because they are 'blemished'. SOLD! [ LINKY ]

The blemish won't matter because I'm just after the LED and optic. Also, I wanted that nice weather proof plug for the back so I picked up this adapter harness. [ LINKY ]

So $120 for lights and $50 for the harness. We are obviously more than plug and play LED's at this point but half the price of an HID projector retrofit. :headbang:

ProsCons
Instant on/ No warm upPrice
Pure 5000k white outputLots of DIY Modification
Sharp CutoffPrice lol



Now, on to the photos!

photo12.jpg


photo21.jpg


photo31.jpg


photo4.jpg


This next photo is without the optic on the front, it shows how important the optic really is.

photo51.jpg


Those sumbishes 'permasealed' the optic into the housing... this will be fun to get out.

photo13.jpg


Finally, here is the actual LED emitter, that little guy is putting out all of this light. Looking at it directly is like gazing at the sun lol

photo24.jpg



So, let me know what you guys think. I'll keep this thread updated as I go along.
 

Orange 94

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Sweet!

Can you elaborate on the how this is superior to just putting an led or hid kit into stock fog lights?
I'm not much of a light guru.
 
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JeremyAlan

JeremyAlan

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Sweet!

Can you elaborate on the how this is superior to just putting an led or hid kit into stock fog lights?
I'm not much of a light guru.

Same as Orange. I'm stumped as to what the optic exactly is.... Lol


Crapatalkin' on the iPhone 5.0

In much the same way that headlights need good optics, fog lights do as well. The lights on the front of your car are designed to help you see where you are going. Everybody likes to upgrade and get more light output so they can see where they are going better, right? However, when you add a light to a reflector setup that was never designed for it you start casting light in places it shouldn't be... like oncoming drivers eyes. No one likes being blinded by a car coming the other way with cheap lights and it's not very safe.

This is a headlight example, but it is the same idea. Plug and play HID's on the left and a retrofitted pair of headlights with glass optics to direct the light at the ground on the right.

22672d1382055612-plug-play-hid-kit-st-halogens-pnp-vs-retrofit-cutoff-output1.jpg


The area above the cutoff on the right is where your eyes are as an oncoming driver, notice the light is concentrated below that(at the road).
Also, by focusing the light with an optic, none of the light source is going to waste by going every which way but where you actually need it, on the road.

Here is a photo of the Cobra with plug and play HID's in the fog lights. You'll notice the camera is being blinded because the reflector is shining light upward instead of at the road. To keep from blinding other drivers I had to point them down as far as possible with those cheap lights. Thus, wasting the power of the light because it was pointed so far downward it only illuminated the area just in front of the car.

IMG_2348.jpg


Last thing, the LED's you can plug and play into fog lights that are available from most retailers are WEAK. Check the lumen output from those bulbs. I would wager it is HALF of a standard halogen bulb.
 

FivepointSlow

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Oh okay so the optic is just like the lens in a projector setup? That makes sense now. Lol thanks.
I love how you're using the fogs from a s197. Very creativen


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JeremyAlan

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Interesting tid-bit: see the ridges on the top and bottom of the optic? They are frosted and crafted in such a way to bounce a small amount of light back into the reflector of the fog light. I'm 99% sure Ford did this to keep the "headlight signature" of the Mustang the same. The reflector literally doesn't do anything in these lights, it's just for looks, and I find that interesting lol

/nerd-out
 
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JeremyAlan

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UPDATE: Baked the '13 fogs open to get the optic out(thanks for sealing them in Ford).

Before I baked them, took the cobra fogs off. Size comparison.
photo14.jpg


What's for dinner? Fog lights, Fog lights are for dinner.
photo23-1.jpg



Dat cutoff doe! Optic only output shot, these things are going to be sick!
photo33.jpg



Optic, Led/Board, heatsink and adapter harness ready to go for the Cobra lights.
photo41.jpg



Comparing the back of the '13's light and my Cobra light. I'm going to have to get creative with a dremel....
photo52.jpg
 

OnyxCobra

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This is pretty sick, if someone had told me they had stock LED fogs I would have been like wtf are you talking about? Is this a rare option or something, I've never seen a car with these.
 
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JeremyAlan

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Any 2013+ GT with the fogs in the grill will be LED. Not an extra option as far as I know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Win

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This is pretty sick, if someone had told me they had stock LED fogs I would have been like wtf are you talking about? Is this a rare option or something, I've never seen a car with these.

thanks a lot man now I want these lol


That looks killer.

Sent from mah Obamafone

ive got cheaper options for all of you and they fit perfectly in cobra Bumpers!!!!!

Cant go wrong with the quality of the BMW fogs!



http://www.theretrofitsource.com/closeouts/bmw-x5-led-fog-lights.html#.UzbUlie9KK0
 
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JeremyAlan

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ive got cheaper options for all of you and they fit perfectly in cobra Bumpers!!!!!

Cant go wrong with the quality of the BMW fogs!



http://www.theretrofitsource.com/closeouts/bmw-x5-led-fog-lights.html#.UzbUlie9KK0


This was brought up on my IG page, I spoke with Chris @ Yukes retrofits and he brought up a good point. See how heavily contoured the light is? The cobra bumper requires a flat fog light. I'm not sure how you will get that to work and it looking good in the process.

zm00ia.jpg
 

Win

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This was brought up on my IG page, I spoke with Chris @ Yukes retrofits and he brought up a good point. See how heavily contoured the light is? The cobra bumper requires a flat fog light. I'm not sure how you will get that to work and it looking good in the process.

zm00ia.jpg


I don't trust someone that charges a 500 dollar up charge for there service. For something that takes 1 hour of time.

You do know the projectors he uses only cost 120 bucks but yet he charges 675 bucks for a set of headlights. To me that's horrible way to do business.

If you look at the fog light it's pretty simple to do. Just takes a little bit of common sense.
 

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