How-To: Yellow Fogs

[blu_fuz]

This is my first how-to on something that interested me. I hope this helps someone else here. Pretty basic, but I am proud of it .


Final goal for this aestetic mod is to create a yellow light output from your fog lamps. Easier way to do it could be to just buy yellow bulbs I guess. This how-to will apply to any color of your choice. I chose yellow so I will not be hassled by the police for improper DOT approved lamp color.

1. PRE-STEPS Locate a small amount of transparent vinyl, really in any color you want. Ebay is a great place to start. You can also call around to your local decal/vinyl shop. My 12"x24" sheet cost $13 on ebay. It should come with a vinyl squeegie or you can just use an old credit card I guess.
Put a 2-3" deep pool of room temp/warm water in your sink with a dribble of dish soap. This will help with the vinyl layment.
Have a hair dryer ready for use.

2. Un-clip your fog light bulb harness from the bulb and/or twist the bulb counter clockwise to remove it from the back of the lamp housing. Remove your fog lamps and brackets from your bumper. There should be one phillips screw on the top of the bracket and one or two more on the bottom depending on what model contour you have.


3. Remove the aiming screw from the bottom of the bracket. Sometimes the bolts are rusted tight to the metal clip so be prepared to have to replace them if needed.







4.Clean the lens from any debris, bugs, road grime, etc. I did a quick wipe down with a brillo pad and wished I had used some fine grit sand paper or steel wool to get all the bumps off the lenses.






5.Take your clean lens and place it face down on the non-sticky/non-paper side of your vinyl before you peel any apart.






6.Trace around the lens and get as close to the lens as you can without touching it with the marker.







7.Cut around the circle on the inside of the line created by the marker. This will ensure that you don't see any of the marker on the vinyl after it is installed. It just so happens to make the correct size circle for final install.

[blu_fuz]

8.With the circle cut and the backing paper still applied to it, dip your hands in the soapy water. This will keep your fingers from sticking to the vinyl and also prevents your finger prints from appearing on the vinyl.





9.Peel apart one edge of the vinyl from its paper backing and submerse the entire thing into the water. Continue peeling all the vinyl from the backing paper and submerse the vinyl again.








10.While still holding the vinyl, take the fog light lens and dip just the face of it in the soapy water. While the fog light housing and the vinyl are still wet, apply the sticky side of the vinyl to the face of the lens.







11. After you center the vinyl on the lens, take the squeegie and try to press out the extra water from behind the vinyl working from the center of the lens out. The object here is to remove extra water and bubbles from between the lens and the vinyl.





12.When sufficient vinyl layment is achieved, use a hair drier to heat the vinyl to make it more plyable working in circles on low heat warming the vinyl to dissipate extra water.

[blu_fuz]

13.You will notice just a little vinyl sticking over the face of the lens all the way around. Use the hair drier to heat up a 2-3 inch section of that loose material and push it down with your fingers forcing the vinyl to lay towards the back of the housing. There will be some white light that passes through the side of the lens still. You can try to apply the yellow to that area also or you can use black vinyl or black paint to block the light.



Done! Install as-is or add more layers of vinyl for a more dramatic and intense yellow. A combination of yellow bulbs with this vinyl is ideal for an all yellow light beam.

Please post pics of your installs here. Thanks for reading!. P.S. I have never done any vinyl work ever, so if I missed something or you have a tip to share please do. I will post installed pics later but here is the final look with and without flash on the camera.

[CSVT#49]

That seems like a lot of work considering what else is available...

my brother did this mod to his SRT4 and he picked up a rattle can version of this at an arts and crafts store. Much easier in my opinion and then you don't have the white light shining through on the sides either.

Here is the stuff I am talking about...

Krylon Stained Glass spray in Yellow (comes in other colors as well including blue and red).

$8.99

[blu_fuz]

Good discussion on vinyl, spray color, and yellow bulbs:

http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=43619

[cetroutt]

good write up.

[cobrawannabe]

Joe, while I love and respect you to a point that it's kinda (a lot) weird, I have to point out that you forgot to mention Lamin-X in the list