SEC foglamps on a SEL
 

Hi.
I'm new to mercedes land as I have just bought my mom's old 1989 420SEL with 112,000 miles on it. It's Dark gray/light gray
runs good & strong. :D

Anyway, my question is...has anyone attempted to fit foglamps from a W126 SEC into a W126 SEL's bumper? I've never seen a SEC in person up close but the bumpers on the to cars look almost identical. (Can one put a bumper from a SEC on a SEL?)
I'm hoping that with some careful cutting with a dremel tool that
the SEC lights could fit. I really have no idea though. Even if they did fit, what about mounting them?:confused:

Thanks,
Clay

Clay wrote:
Why yes, you can. It's not a simple swap but it's not too difficult.
It does require some modification though.

Here is a pic of my car that I just finished yesterday.

Wow! :eek:
Looks great Clay.

Thanks Clay.

(I'm such a smart-a$$):D :D :D
Or else I just like replying to myself:o

Okay, my name's not Clay, but I'll play anyway...

That does look good. I wonder if more W126 sedan owners are interested in this process?

I was wondering the same thing.
I did happed to snap some pic's through the installation and I can give some general directions & tips for those who might be interested.

I would be very interested in the process, any pics, part numbers, or hints would be appreciated.

Cheers
Matt.

sec bumper on the sel
 

Clay,

sorry no one responded to your post earlier. I think its funny that you wrote to yourself so we could see the update. It looks really nice. Did you wire the foglights up too? Looks only? Or do they function?

Thanks

Austin

Thanks Austin.
Currently the SEC fogs are not wired up yet. I'm an electrical idiot so I'm going to have it done professionaly. The plan is to have my citylights wired into the ignition so they are on all the time, to have the headlight-integrated fogs wired into the high-beam switch, and to have the SEC fogs wired so they respond as the original fogs.

Matt...I'll try to get something put together and post it in this thread either today or tomorrow.

wiring
 

Clay,

You are welcome. Oh I see you have euro lights too. Ok. Well there are some connectors that I can find the part number for you that you might need. Take you car to a mercedes shop to get it wired because you need special connectors. DONT use Ttaps and other things, they make it look like junk. I really dont like seeing wires everywhere. I like it when it looks like mercedes did it. I will try to get some resources for you. You can do it yourself, it just takes some work, and a voltmeter.

Ill write you in a couple days,

Austin

SEC bumper on a SEL installation instructions:

You will need…..
1)W126 SEC front bumper cover
2)Fog lamp bracket 126 826 07 14 (x2)
3)Fog lamp bracket 126 885 34 14 (x2)
4)SEC fog lamps
5)Basic hand tools (wrenches, ratchets, sockets, screwdrivers, etc) and an electric drill.
6)Many trips to the hardware store
7)Some ¼” air hose (optional)
8)Someone to help (optional) but highly recommended.

First, this is not necessarily a straight forward “drill some holes and tighten some bolts” job. I make it sound like it is but it just isn’t the case. It will require a lot of studying the way the cover fits on the support and some modification in the final mounting procedure (my work did in any case).
But you can do it! It’s just time consuming and frustrating at times.

The bumper cover is rather flimsy & flexible and the bumper support is the exact opposite. The cover changes shape as it is being bolted to the support, but you can’t drill wholes or mount the lamps while the cover is mounted to the support. This is where I recommend that you have a helper to hold the cover & support together so the you can hold the lamps in place to see where you need to drill mounting holes.


Here is a pic of the fog lamp brackets. The large one on the left is #126 826 07 14, the “V” shaped one on the right is #126 885 34 14. You will need 2 of each.
[IMG]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0NAAAANYQebDGQMSERwvCPhjMuqbX6Ris5!09ep6KtcSX!2scJ0mHCO0DSjJ3nJUyZxumNE8UULwZNP*Aspqn4w/420fogbrackets.JPG[/IMG]

Here’s a pic of the brackets put together.
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0NQB0c...gbrackets2.JPG

A pic of the brackets mounted to the lamp.
[IMG]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0NAD7d9EQrK8mW0DWngpJtFRh*AD9lV*tMqblkGKOioc6oZRG5sNTtemnn5YrZqWpigKkYiRvsITejMWOkVbR5g/420bracketlamp.JPG[/IMG]

This is a pic of the drivers side bumper support. On the bottom of the support there are 2 slightly elevated areas circled in red. The lamp brackets lined up perfectly with these bumps and with the bumper assembly roughly put together, the lamps appeared to fit rather well in the bumper cover. So it just made sense to that that’s where I needed to drill to mount the brackets. I drilled through dead center.
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0NgAAA...persupport.JPG

Here is a picture of the passenger side bumper support with the brackets mounted to it. I used carriage bolts to bolt the brackets down because they need to be as flush as possible to the support because the cover needs to slide over the support.
[IMG]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0OgAAAJQTGz8mW0DWngpJtHXaMYtvAx*Eo4zE1rW9kYZdJ3gq91*TgBl34ctbB*qPnEMBy2ja5bEzEL!bGnhsiWefsTFBF67V/420bracketsonsupport.JPG[/IMG]

With the lamp brackets mounted to the support, it’s time to put the bumper assembly together. Once that is done it’s time to mount the lamps to the brackets…..this is where the modification comes in.

Here is a pic of my modified lamp mounting.
http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0NgAAA...ponbumper0.JPG

Once I had the bumper assembly put together I figured that the lamps would bolt right up to mounts and that would be that……wrong! Either I did something wrong somewhere or the SEL support is significantly different than the SEC’s. The lamps were centered in the opening in the bumper cover, so I was correct in drilling (at least partially) were I did, but they were recessed to far, particularly the bottom of the lamp. I studied how I mounted the brackets…if I had mounted the brackets slightly forward it would have improved it somewhat, but it wouldn’t come close to fixing the highly recessed bottom portion of the lamp. Soooo…… I made some spacers out of some ¼” air hose (red pieces between the lamp & bracket) to bring the lamps forward so they would fit properly. It looks kind of shoddy but I assure you they are on there tight. Once the top of the lamp is flush with the bumper support, make a spacer to tilt the bottom of the lamp forward to be flush with the bumper cover. And your done.

And here is the result.
[IMG]http://groups.msn.com/_Secure/0MwBpZYUQMqDT6WCnmMI5wahc7DaF0SJGUw!1ij4YzMfoy04w!bJimxpADAAHURKkM*6uPUlHR*D!SMecn0*g8w/420bumperfogs.JPG[/IMG]

I haven’t been able to find anyone else who has done this so I assume I’m the first. If anyone else tries this and sees a better way to do it, please let us know.

Thanks very much Clay, unfortunately all your pics are x's. If you email them to me I could put them up on a web server for you.

Cheers
Matt.

Hmmmmmm.

I can see them. :confused: Oh well, they are on there way to you and thanks alot for hosting them. :)

Also, I can only assume that these parts will fit your Euro-car.
I guess we will find out eh?

No probs, I will email you back the links so you can edit your posting.

My email is mattpetersen@paradise.net.nz

Cheers
Matt.

nice looking w126!:D

My tech owes me, so instead of replacing my front bumper with a newer one, I will ask him if he has an SEC bumper. This should spruce up the car's image.

By the way... do the foglights come with the SEC bumper or are they something I need to buy separate?