Orciari Front Fog Lamps

 


O

f all of the modifications I had lined up for Kermit, the Orciari fog lamps were the top of the list.  These were what I really wanted for the lad, because these would have finished the little fella’s front off quite nicely - especially when combined with the light brows and indicator mesh or the Morette triple headlamp conversion.

Okay so I admit; it's quite hard to tell how little room there is behind here! This shot shows the air conditioning condenser, which is almost immediately behind the front grill. There just isn't much room!Unfortunately, it was not to be.  Just when I was about to prepare the Ka for the fog lamps - in other words, when I was just about to cut a hole in the lower grill, I had a close look behind the grill to make sure I wasn’t going to cut at anything that shouldn’t be cut.  And there it was, a pipe associated with the air conditioning system.

I knew that it would be cramped in front of the radiator and condenser combination, but these pictures show just quite how cramped it is.

Now you really don’t want to go moving bits of the air conditioning system around unless you absolutely have to, for a few reasons.  One is that if you damage something and cause a leak, it’s expensive.  Two is that that some air conditioning systems are designed around the shape of the system - if you change the shape, you may impair efficiency, and this could lead to it breaking down.  This isn’t good news.  I would much rather sacrifice the Now I think we know why Uncle Henry hasn't given the Ka front fog lamps! Pah!fog lamps and go without, than have to repair the air conditioning system in a couple of months time (in the middle of summer, when I really want the system to be working!).

I contacted Orciari, who appeared to be aware of the problem - yet it does not state that this is an issue anywhere on their site, or in the instructions that came with the lamps.

Given that it is “very difficult” to fit the system, I arranged to swap the fog lamps.  I may well get a body shop to work on another idea, such as incorporating the lamps into the bumpers (which will be very expensive, I’m sure), or perhaps seeing if I can fabricate a special moulding for the lower grill and use the shallowest lamps I can find.

And there’s this Ka owner I know with Focus fog lamps that I should probably contact...