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

I recently spent some quality time out in Death Valley with OUTCAST and bstoner59. We did some night wheeling while there, and I was once again reminded how much I hate my light setup. I also got to see just how well bstoner's hood mount setup worked. I was blown away with how well, actually.



So when I got back I called up Connor at Outlaw Raptor and ordered a set of their "Raptor Claw" mounts.. He shipped that same day, they arrived quickly and I finally had time to install them today.

Lemme start right out by saying... this install sucks. I dunno if it really is just this hard, or if I'm enept or some combo there of. I'll tell it like it happened, and let you be the judge.

First thing to know is the install instructions come in the packing list on the outside of the box. I didn't seem them at first there, and fortunately the trash hadnt come before taking the box away.





The tools I ended up needing are:
-10mm wrench
-10mm socket & ratchet
-8" socket extension
-a Dremel with fine tip sanding stone end
-tin snips
-a buddy to wrench while you, with your big muscles and good height pull and tug on the hood
-some luck
-and a flashlight


Something I loved about these mounts is that there was zero flex or jitter 'out there' in the rough stuff. And you can see why in the next few pics. These mounts are so well built they could probably support the weight of the truck!







Here are some shots of lining stuff up




Here's where you'll need to cut. I cut a large window, basically following the detent in the plastic with my Dremel, and using the snips to make the final cuts from under the hood. Not only does a larger window provide clearance for the mount, but it also allows you to access the back bolt from the top with the hood closed.

Be careful with that Dremel! You're working in very tight quarters, and if you slip even a little bit you'll be into the paint on the edge of the hood. Ask me how I know.









Here's the plastic I ended up removing


Now its a matter of removing the 2 10mm bolts holding the hood to the body.




Be careful! As you go, loosen both the front and the back together. You'll see the hood start to sag as the support frees up. Have your buddy hold the hood up while you do this.

STOP READING HERE FOR A SECOND! puddle hopper's got a couple good suggestions that make this part far easier, which you can read here: http://www.fordraptorforum.com/f81/outlaw-hood-mounts-hidx-lights-alternative-off-road-10845/

Here's the passenger side, and you can see it starting to slip (see where the bolt is relative to the paint?)


Now slide the mount in, and on top of the hood bracket. Use your fingers to get both bolts started well into the holes. How's your buddy doing at this point? Those arms numb yet??

At this point, its time to tighten everything back down. But if you just start spinning, you'll soon notice that your hood alignment is all screwed and you probably will hit the new mount when you close the hood as well. What I had to do was get both bolts started by hand, literally grab the arm holding the bracket to the hood and pull very strongly, while at the same time pushing the new light mount as far back as it will go. Once you've got it, have your buddy tighten down the front bolt as tight as he dares, and then let go. Carefully lower the hood and check your alignment, as well as your clearance from the hood edge to the light mount. If ya pulled just right, you should be aligned again and have about 1/8" of clearance at the mount.

Now get that back bolt tight by lowering the hood and using your socket extension thru that nice big window you cut earlier.


^^I aint gonna lie to ya... that pull here and push there and tug that and tighten this part sucks. In retrospect, it might have been easier to pull the whole hood off. But I kinda hate that idea because now you've got two things to realign, instead of just one.

Hood closed


Hood open


And one side done




Rinse and repeat on the other side.

Oh, one thing... see that big gaping maw there?



That aint no glory hole, trust me on this. I strongly suggest you keep all your junk, erh parts, uh tools away from it. It will suck them in and you'll have to get VERY lucky as stuff that falls in there may or may not fall just right to allow you to crawl under the truck, reach your hand behind the plastic fender well and in front of the sheet metal of the fender, bend your wrist around a wall there and use your finger tippy tops blind to fumble around, barely grip whatever you dropped and by the grace of the gods hold on enough to unpretzle yourself as you drag the thingy out. Again... ask me how I know...

And lastly, it takes almost zero force to bugger the threads on the nut your bolts screw into. I mean, like, you could almost do it with your fingers it seems. Somehow someway I buggerd the back passenger side nut so that the bolt wouldn't thread in more than a few threads. I ended up running a tap thru there to try and clean them up, and that basically did nothing more that just recut the threads at the crossthreaded angle. Nothing to be done for it except tighten everything back down (but not too tight to strip those freshly cut new/bad threads) and let the body guy deal with it if ever the hood needs to come off for whatever reason.

So yeah, this install was no fun. I'm sure there are easier ways to go about this, and I'm sure not dropping a socket and the mount itself down that there hole will speed things up. It took me about 1hr per side, with maybe half that time spent goofing with the hood alignment (I aint tellin how long it took me to fish out those parts that fell down that hole ). Once again I was reminded why I HATE messing with hood alignment stuff. It just never seems to go back exactly perfectly, although I think this time we got it good enough.

Now with all that crap out of the way comes the fun part... now I gotta decide what lights I want up there, buy 'em and get em installed!

Thanks for reading

Nice write up BigJ...


-Greg

LOL, yeah I can see where this job could be a big pain in the ass. What lights are going on? In your rock slider/skid plate thread I noticed the light forces were gone?

Good eye. I love those lights, but I pulled them off because mounted to that bull bar, when off road the beam rattles enough to give ya an epileptic seizure.

Here they are up on the mounts (not bolted down or cleaned, but you get the idea)



Too big I think. And even if I liked 'em up there, they're in the way of the hood. I'd have to figure some other way to offset mount them.

I'd love to see what a set of those ADD/Rigid D2 cubes up there look like, and how well they perform. Gonna be a lil while before I can spring for a set of 'em though.



Dually D2s (Set of two)

Another great tutorial and mod. I can't wait to see these and the sliders in Jan.

Thank you so much BigJ, i have been looking at getting a set of these mounts, and i'll be pulling the trigger after seeing your write-up. I too also want to mount some D2s up there. Thanks again, great write up, and i'm placing my order soon.

Awesome 'gorilla! Glad you got some benefit out of this. I'm gonna try to get a set of those D2's soon, so stay tuned for install pics and a review of those. Not sure they've been tested up there yet? Should be cool to see!

I guess the race is on to see who can get the D2s first, they are on my Christmas list.

But i really dont think we can go wrong with them. I think the compact design will fit perfectly up there.

---------- Post added at 10:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:03 AM ----------

Placing my order now...they are on sale for 69.99...

The mounts or lights are $69.99?? Hook me up with a link if you found the lights for that price!