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headlight swap and hardbody grille


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Well I went out today and bought a pair of sealed beam headlights, removed the pathfinder headlights, bolted the hardbody headlight buckets on, installed the headlights, all was going very smooth, until I came to putting my grille with the lights in it in, My 87 hardbody that had this grille in it before did not have AC, now when I went to put it in the pathfinder the left light is hitting the accumulator/drier !! I took the bracket for the drier off and tried to move it out of the way as best I could but it is still in the way, even tried to move the metal behind it back slightly to give the light some more room, I finally got the grille mounting screws in but the grille is sticking out slightly on the bottom and since it is kind of bowed out on each side of the light, it isn't fitting properly around each headlight. So I may use the other grille I have from a company that used to be around named "candy's", only thing is the other grille says "Hardbody" in the center which is fitting as that is my name, lol. In the mean time I'll be looking for a pair of thinner lights. took 2 pics quickly before: Oh I discovered the pass. side bumper was missing one nut and the other 2 were very loose, so when I took the 2 nuts off I took some time and straightened the bumper and adjusted the bumper bracket so the bumper studs would line up with the bracket, looks a little better now just have to give it a coat of paint, also removed the factory driving lights.

 

 

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here is a crappy pic of the other grille:

 

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Make sure you got the tabs below the lights on the corners in right and they ain't bent on the headlight bucket brackets. Either way will make the grill sit retarded. My setup is off a non a/c truck and I got all my a/c stuff on unmodified AND a pair of fog lights tucked between the grill and condenser so you got something up... Also swapping out the Pathfinder corner lights for HB ones will help with athestitics and might help a but with the fitment as well.

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the tab's below the lights? Do you mean the lower mounts for the grille? If so they are all broken off on my "lighted grille", Do all the different year pathfinders have the accumulator/drier in the same place? what about the Hardbody's? My 87 I bought without AC living in NY I figured I had 5 windows that opened and wouldn't need it so I don't know where the drier would have been mounted. Also the lights in my grille are just inside of the headlights are yours that close? Lastly what fog lights are you using and how deep are they? The lights in my grille mount from the rear in s 3 corners and are on springs so when you adjust the mounting screw in the front they "pivot" so you can aim them, the more you tighten the screw the more thread of the bolt sticks out the rear which is also hitting the accumulator/drier. You have any close up pics of you grille? I also noticed the slight gap between the end of the grille and the corner lights and thought the hardbody corners were different.

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Those would be the tabs I was talking about. Your lights now that I actually pay atention (at 11pm I wasn't exactly completly awake lets say) are more round than mine and proably an inch or so closer to the headlights. Only thing puzzling me is yours was made that way, my fogs are some off the wall brand that I have hard mounted to the grill, but IIRC they were kinda deep for chumpy little lights. I'll tear it apart if I get the chance to either today or tomorow, get some measurements and take some pics.

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yes, my grill came with the lights. I don't recall if the grille was advertised for trucks without AC or as I said if the earlier trucks may not have had the accumulator/drier mounted in the exact location it is on the 4 door PF's, I was just looking at different lights trying to find a thin light that would fit in the openings in my grille, even if I find a normal mounting type light I could always rig up some brackets to mount them in the grille openings. Thinnest so far has been a PIAA (think PIAA stands for expensive,lol!!) model # 540 at 2.5" deep. My grille lights are 6.25 round and that is about the size of the opening also.

 

Have to see how thick those BMW headlights are I saw at the junkyard in a 525 series, they look to have a very similar mount,

 

I think the lights in my grille are kind of unique in how they mount where they can be adjusted left to right and up and down, which is nice.

 

I was also thinking about mounting these in my other "Hardbody" grille, these lights are a flush mount, dual bulb adjustable up to 7 degrees up or down, at the 4x4 shop I used to work at we used to mount these in the rear doors of suburbans and other similar vehicles as a back up light, pic below

 

 

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Edited by ahardb0dy
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Dude that new grille is wicked with those driving lights in it. NEVER seen one like it...unique.

 

 

X2 on the awesomeness. and never seeing it b4

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thanks !! well until I work out the clearance problems with my grille with the lights, (I have an idea,LOL), and since I now do not have a factory hardbody grille I decided to install my other "hardbody" grille, I know it needs some new paint, and I know it says "hardbody" in the center but I have to use what I have on hand, actually looking at these 2 pics you can't really see if it's a PF or a pickup, LOL so a few pics:

 

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the idea I have is to cut out the holes in this grille, but towards the center a little so I can mount the 2 lights from the other grille, the problem I had is the left light is hitting the accumulator /drier and the right light is hitting the fitting for the condenser causing the grill to not fit correctly. I already did a mock up of one of the lights in a sheet of plastic to see how far it sits forward and to measure the total depth, think it should work.

Edited by ahardb0dy
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So do I, the whole reason for converting the headlights to the Hardbody style was so I could mount my grille with the lights, but due to clearance problems I was unable to install the lights grille at this time, but I'm working on it, thanks

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You can do A LOT of modification to the H4 bulbs and buckets those use. They make 130W bulbs for those suckers, and if you get European spec lenses for them you'll be set. Heavy duty wiring required, of course.

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You can do A LOT of modification to the H4 bulbs and buckets those use. They make 130W bulbs for those suckers, and if you get European spec lenses for them you'll be set. Heavy duty wiring required, of course.

 

are you talking about the headlights? These are regular sealed beam Sylvania's I would like to pick up a set of the Hella euro headlights eventually, I had them in my 87 Hardbody with 80 watt low and 100 watt high beams bulbs, only thing I don't recall them costing $50 each back than, guess everything goes up in price over time right?

 

think tomorrow if the weather permits my bumper may meet some flat black spray paint, it sure needs it !! LOL

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the "Hardbody" grille is only temporary until I can figure out a way to use the one with the lights, the first grille (with lights) actually doesn't look bad in the pics, in person you can see it is not sitting correctly. It's pouring here now but I may switch them again and see if I can use some spacers across the top edge so it sits uniform across the top. The "hardbody" grill is a pain in the butt to install and remove it uses 4 metal brackets that bolts it to the radiator core, Instead of using nuts and bolts to put it in I inserted rivnuts into the holes in the radiator core. As for the markers, the pass. side one sits funny on the fender for some reason, I just got that one from the junkyard, the bottom front slot was broken off on the original one.

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I was just thinking of that before & decided against cutting the light holes in the "hardbody" grille, not raining anymore having some lunch right now than may go out to work on the pathfinder, really want to paint the front bumper today, if I have any of the paint left.

 

 

maybe I'll just mount my 2 Hella Rally 2000's on top of the bumper!! I used to have 6 of them but over time 4 got crunched, but I have all the different lenses, cornering beam, euro, pencil beam, think that's all of them, pain in the rear part is each different lens takes a different bulb.

 

Or to stick with square lights I have a pair of Dick Cepek C-1000's also, the big guns with the built in vent to cool the 210 Watt bulbs!! LOL

Edited by ahardb0dy
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OK, I had an idea, I removed the springs that sit between the lights and the grille and adjusted the lights as far forward as they would go, I got the grille mounted and it is sitting about right, I will leave it like this until I can find thinner lights, a few pics below, also primed the bumper as I didn't have the paint I wanted to use right now:

 

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yes the front edge of the hood is gloss black (the original paint) and the rest is primer black

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Definatly looks better with that grill over the "hardbody" one... I'd do like MY1PATH said and find a 4x4 badge off the side of a 2 door on the block on there...

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Just got home from seeing Shrek in 3D Imax, we had more fun watching my wife's handicapped sister reacting to the 3D stuff, LOL

 

 

And I just pulled one of those 4x4 covers off of a 2 door about a week ago at the junkyard, should have grabbed it, maybe Saturday, I have to take the fan clutch/fan blade back to the junkyard as it was no good.

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Do all the different year pathfinders have the accumulator/drier in the same place? what about the Hardbody's?

I think my 88's is behind the radiator support rather than in front, my 93's is in front like yours. My 88 also had the R12 system, so the placement might have changed with the swap to R134 systems. (I'll double check this on my next trip out for a smoke.)

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I checked on the location last night in a FSM for a 96 D21 and it shows it in the same location, will have to check my 87 FSM, but unless the condenser is different I think they will all have to be in the same place as that is as far as the metal tube coming off the condenser will allow the drier to be mounted. Saturday if I go to the junkyard I'm going to check out the lights on the BMW 525 and other models that I saw had what looked like a similar sized light as the one's in my grille, and to see how thick they are. I went thru the entire Hella catalog online and didn't really see anything that I think would work but in the PIAA catalog they have a thin light about 2.5 front to rear but I may be able to have the front of the lens stick out thru the grill a little, only bad thing unless I can fine a pair of those PIAA's used they are expensive!!

 

this is the PIAA model the 540

 

http://www.piaa.com/Lamps/Lamp-pages/540.html

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