Questions about Fog Lights

[rblongboarder]

So I've been learning about fog lights for the E10, E3 and E9...

I'm curious.. do most of you prefer Hella 140, Hella 160 or Hella 192 fog lights? 140's and 160's seem quite common... 192's seem a bit big.

 

[Stevehose]

Fluted lens = fog, clear glass = driving/spot. I prefer driving lights as I haven't encountered too much fog on my long trips but the extra light from spots down the road is very helpful. I prefer lights smaller than the headlights, so mine are 135mm Marchal 642. I love Marchal lights so I have them for the high and low beams also. Yellow bulbs for the driving lights and high beams, they are easy on the eyes. I purchased some Marchal 640 lenses which are the fluted fog type, so I can put them in to my housings when I want a change.

Fog lights are better when mounted low, so often they are the rectangular shape attached under the bumper. Depends on what you like aesthetic-wise, in reality you probably won't use them much but I think they look period-cool.

 

[HB Chris]

Cibie 45 also a great choice but I love Marchals like Steve, I have headlights on the e9 and e12 that are Marchals.

 

[rblongboarder]

How are your fog lights attached to the bumper? Looking at the mounting stud, it appears you have to drill holes in your bumper?

Or is there a clamp structure that wraps around your chrome and acts as a mount?

(From the profile in your photo.. it appears you had to drill mounting holes...)

 

[Stevehose]

How are your fog lights attached to the bumper? Looking at the mounting stud, it appears you have to drill holes in your bumper?

Or is there a clamp structure that wraps around your chrome and acts as a mount?

(From the profile in your photo.. it appears you had to drill mounting holes...)

Yes holes were drilled for all period lights. I have a spare center bumper section if I choose to revert, but not likely. Someone was making no-drill clamps (no longer, it appears), I had them but the lights bounce when driving and was annoying so I drilled.

New driving lights fitted.

A pair of NOS cibie 40 driving/fog lamps fitted ( I have both yellow fog and clear driving lenses) . The fitting allowed me to really detail the front bumper and over- riders.

e9coupe.com

 

[adawil2002]

Athena has Hella 142s mounted to holes drilled in bumper center section by a previous owner, they were mounted but not wired when I bought her.

Vern, my 1973 2002Tii, has Hella 160s mounted to the front Anco bar & were a gift from my brother in 2010.

I played around with Veronica the 1968 1600 Cabriolet with Yellow Cibie 130s, Hella 142s (Athena's spares) & Clear Marchal Starlux Iode 700x720 ~ 8 inches in diameter & 3.5 Inches deep.

 

[rblongboarder]

I've spent a lot of time on eBay looking at Marchal, Cibie, Hella, Carello and other lights. I found this
article which was quite useful for Marchal identification:

Marchal race & rally lights for BMWs

Marchal is a French manufacturer of high quality automobile lights founded in 1923. From its inception Marchal was very active in motorsports, especially in the 1950s through the 1980s. Marchal lights and sponsor decals can be seen on many winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rallye Monte C...

www.bmw2002faq.com

There are a lot of historical photos that are quite useful when estimating what Marchal lights might look like on your
vehicle. My personal preference is for lights that are 6" diameter or smaller.

 

[Krzysztof]

I've spent a lot of time on eBay looking at Marchal, Cibie, Hella, Carello and other lights. I found this
article which was quite useful for Marchal identification:

Marchal race & rally lights for BMWs

Marchal is a French manufacturer of high quality automobile lights founded in 1923. From its inception Marchal was very active in motorsports, especially in the 1950s through the 1980s. Marchal lights and sponsor decals can be seen on many winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rallye Monte C...

www.bmw2002faq.com

There are a lot of historical photos that are quite useful when estimating what Marchal lights might look like on your
vehicle. My personal preference is for lights that are 6" diameter or smaller.

To my amazement... In the 2002FAQ article I noticed old (1956-1976) Polish license plates (SH - Chorzow at Silesian District) - Polish Race from 1968: Antoni Weiner i Jan Karel na BMW 1600 TI (see the gasoline storage on the left).

Such a cars were like spaceships behind The Iron Curtain so the fog lights - imported individually with a lot of troubles. For average salaries you could exchange about $20-$30 (based on black market USD ratio of course)...