vejatabul

i made some brackets and modified my headlights to not pop up. i mounted a pair of 1x6 inch lights, which use h3 bulbs. i bought the lights off of ebay for $14+ shipping. i plan on finishing the lexan covers soon, they will cover the head and parking lights.

got a set of 100w 6000k bulbs in yesterday. i put the bulbs in, and modified the bezels a bit by drilling holes with a 1.25 hole saw in the sides to adjust the lights. i then finished by sanding and smoothing the cutting the i had previously done, painted them, and properly adjusted the beam. they could be a bit higher, but i set them at 20 inchs at 1 foot, in other words, since my headlights are 22 inchs from the ground, 2 inch drop per foot=10 feet. i think i may raise them a little to perhaps 12 feet out, but for now i am very happy. the differance was huge between bulbs, and i now have a beam pattern that encompases roughly 15 foot in width. here are a couple pics...

before, with 35w bulbs...



and after, with 100w, 6000k bulbs...

as i said, i am very happy with the lights, and with the monster 10-8 gauge harness that feeds them power.

i also finished putting the dash back in, after finishing the removal of all the remaining heater and a/c equipment, and stereo/speakers/insulation and sound deadener. i mounted the coil inside the car, on the fire wall. now i get this nice ticking sound from the msd box at low rpm. i think i am going to move the msd system inside too, as i have tons of room for mounting with the heater and vent equipment gone. now i am waiting on a sabelt steering wheel that i won off of ebay, and my recent round of modifications are over. i took the steering wheel(i have a quick release) off for this picture to illustrate the vent block off plates i made and to make the radio/a/c delete plate more visable. since the picture was taken at night, it kinda looks wierd, because the dash looks very grey, but it blends alot better than it looks. you can kinda see the gas pedal that i made out of aluminum, and ignore the fact that you can see the red of the firewall, i have yet to finish its cover...

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Sweet, I’ve long thought about doing that, do you have any pictures of the install, brackets, what it looks like without the lights on/in the light?

How are they on the street, are they as useable as the stock lights? I’ve thought about trying to do it with the 93-97 camaro headlights.

305q_ta86

iTrader: (1)

Looks good from that angle, but do you have any pics from other angles?

vejatabul

i do, but they are not too great of pics, and they are from various stages of completion.




they are great on the street, i think i will adjust them up a little.they are 1x6 inch, and use an h3 bulb. i got them on ebay for $14, plus another $10 for the 100w bulbs, as they only come with 35w.

fitbmxseries1

you should make the lights still pop up but for the brights only have some super insanly bright light in there

jethawk

looks good.... how's the beam pattern? throw enough light out on the ground for you to see... because they kinda look like fog lights... anyways i can across a site with some cheaply priced 130watter H3's if you wanna go even brigther.. (if those housings can take the extra heat)

http://lightingresearch.com/store/pr...products_id=65

305q_ta86

iTrader: (1)

Those extra pics you added really help, actually. I like it a lot. If it were me, I'd probably try to find some way to cover them, but I think you sorta said you would, so it's all good. Great work!

vejatabul

i made one lexan cover for them, but i have yet to make the other. the whole reason for the modification was to eliminate the pop-up feature of the headlight. i wanted to get rid of the motors, and besides i have no use for brights, live in the dallas area, and extremely rarely do i go into areas that brights would help.

305q_ta86

iTrader: (1)

Even if you wanted brights I guess you could wire up the fogs for that, if you wanted.

The_Wraith

I used doubles in my car. It is A TON of work to get the doubles to fit. Its is also a tight fit. But it was worth it. I gotta get better pics after my car is painted black. I still have to pic up the wireing kit so that all four come on when I flick the high beams on. Right now the lights placed slightly ahead come on when hi beam is on. BTW i would recommend against moutning lexan in front of these lights. They get VERY hot. Almost enough to melt the houseing a bit. If anything it will melt. I thought about useing tinted covers but decided against it for that reason.

The_Wraith

pic

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

Gnarly… what lights are those… doesn’t look like you could have found a better fit…

The_Wraith

I don't have the box handy but I will look for it. They are identical to the lights redraif used. I found them at a local auto parts place on sale.

firebirdjosh

iTrader: (1)

Fog lights illuminate the ground/under the fog. Brights light up signs and the sides of the road. It's not really the same thing.

305q_ta86

iTrader: (1)

Of course not. That's why I was saying you could rewire them for that. And re aim, and possibly have to replace the housings, depending...

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

huh, yours look like they fit better...

online170

How would you get past the legal issues on a mod like this? Could you still allign them? And adjus them for aim?

The_Wraith

Yes then can be alighned. There is adujustment screws on all 4. They can be adjusted to a varitey of settings. Legal? NO CLUE LOL. But if need be swapping back to stock would take me like 30mins

online170

They should be legal then, you wont run into any safety issues. As long as they are secured to the vehicle, they are adjustable for up/down, left/right, and in some places they have to be less than a certain brightness. Other than that i dont see why they wouldnt be. Cool, thanks for the info i was just curious if they were adjustable!

firstfirebird

iTrader: (3)

Looks great! I thought about that cause my lights are finiky, but work most of the time (when they don't come up, the worm gear is so bad I just pull them by hand). My high beam switch is broken,
so that's what I did, except they're not aimed quite as high as high beams.
Look at the pic in my sig and you'll see the $16.99 pair of aftermarket fogs I got from Advane Discount of all places. They are halogens that are about 3x brighter than stock fogs, and they were a bolt in deal - perfect fit(stockers are $30+ each). This way if it's raining out, I just turn on the fogs and haven't had a problem with the law. I saw the idea in a thred from 2002 or something here on TGO.

The_Wraith

I went about mine different. I chose to use plastic sanding slate rather then plywood. Seems she ran into more "tight" fitting areas then mine did. Not sure why though. I also did not have to notch the signal lights for them to fit. Im not 100% sure why she had to do that. Everything is adjustable , hood ,bumper ,headlight door position.

Comp788

Very nice work!!

ws6gta89

wow talk about thinking outside the box on this one i would have never thought to do that even though i hate the way my gta looks with the lights on now i have to go to a junkyard and buy a set f head lights and mod them to because i dont want to chop up any factory part of my gta

HCR13

iTrader: (5)

I was thinking of doing the same thing, except I still want my lights to pop up so I can put rocket launchers in them...

Actually I like the fact that my lights pop up, its one of the main thing that separates the Firebirds from the Camaros. If I were going to do a non-pop up light mod, I'd try to go with something like the Z06 Vette. Where I'd remove the whole headlight assembly and put a bigger headlight in the gap/hole, and then continue the slope of the hood to the front bumper with a lexan cover.

Either way, I must say your mods do look pretty bitchin', and mad props for being creative. Keep up the good work.------->$0.02

goalieforlife

iTrader: (4)

The lights popping up are the coolest thing about the Birds, I wouldn't want to change it, although I must admit that they look nice.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

Kinda like these on a Fiero I saw?

iansane

iTrader: (1)

You have better pictures of that fiero?

HCR13

iTrader: (5)

Now that looks pretty nice...

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

Sorry, that's the only pic I have of it.

It was local though, so I'll keep my eyes open at future shows for better pics, more info. Maybe the owner will even be nearby to ask for info on it.

iansane

iTrader: (1)

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Archives/A...-1-021837.html

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Archives/A...-1-014924.html

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

I checked out those links...The ones on Ferrari Fans red car are the ones I saw, judging by the close-up pics of them.

83 Crossfire TA

iTrader: (2)

To be legal they’d have to be DOT approved for headlight use, 55w/65w low/high beam…. There are also regulations how small the light source/lense can be that that amount of light is coming out of (the smaller it is the brighter it would have to be), and most areas now have laws against HID retrofits and any headlight that produces that amount of light from a relatively small source unless they’re OEM because if misaimed they will blind other drivers (notice that none of the companies that were selling them before still sell them… yea, I know you can still get them on ebay…)

I don’t see any way that this would be technically legal unless you used something that was originally used as a headlight, like using the LT1 style camaro lights, and I’m not sure if there is any deal with partially obstructing their beams (like you’d have to with a light like that.

That being said, a lot of this depends on your local regs… if you don’t have to go through a periodic safety inspection then if done well and not obviously wrong to oncoming traffic (ie, not blinding to other drivers or not particualry standing out WRT to beam coverage/shape), I doubt that you’d ever have a problem.

Of course, the first fix it ticket you got for it you’d have to return it to stock to get the cops/inspection station to sign off on it.

That would be a bit harder… you’d either have to extend the length of the doors or come up with some fancy deployment scheme (maybe an automatic attitude correction as soon as they leave the launch tube) to target points at ground level in front of you, unless the missiles are shorter then the headlight doors, which wouldn’t carry much firepower…. By correcting attitude right after firing you could get lower targets at shorter ranges but there still would be a range inside of which you could not effectively aim, so for that I would consider something like a low mounted, Gatling style cannon, maybe 50cal with explosive rounds, possibly mounted down with the fog lights.

firstfirebird

iTrader: (3)

Here in FL, you have two choices with a citation like that. You can either pay the full ammount of the faulty equipment ticket or have it repaired then got to the station to have it checked and pay only $5.

HCR13

iTrader: (5)

That is true, but what if I acquire heat guided missles that need no aiming? Of course the thrust/propellant would still be an issue...area 51 technology anyone?

coynamy

That looks really good,I may have to try that.

vejatabul

yeah, they are bright enough, but i am thinking of cutting the parking light/turn signals for an additional set. i havnt decided for sure yet, and since i am building the car from the ground up now, i might just wait to do it later. if i do cut the parking lights, ill just have the side marker lights for blinkers. i have thought about alternative locations for blinkers, but i have been spending so much time on everything else lately.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

I still prefer the "lazy eye" mod. The pop-ups, are one of the cool things, to me, about our cars.

slow_90firebird

Wow, both those set-ups look amazing! I didnt think it was possible.

I actually photo-chopped my car a while ago, to see what it would look like. I basically wanted to see what it would look like, if you shaved the headlight doors, to become part of the hood.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

Yes, but the headlight doors aren't stamped steel like the hood, so you can't simply weld them together, unless you can weld cast to stamped.

TheRealBlkBird

Thats what fiberglass is for.

86transamws6

How about using headlight bezels/housings from a 77-78 firebirds/trans ams? And cutout part of the top of the bumper.

http://topnotchvehicles.com/v-web/ga...rans_Am_01.jpg

or

http://www.cactusclassics.com/images...AmPassSide.jpg

This last one even has 1 piece composite lights!

http://topdeadcenterpodcast.com/wp-c.../10/burt1b.jpg

HCR13

iTrader: (5)

You know, I'd love to see how the 77-78 Firebird headlight/nose piece would look on a thirdgen...

86transamws6

This was a really bad chop I just did for an idea of what it would look like. The pic of the 77 I cut the lights from was a little more angled and the GTA was straight on, but u get the idea. The width is pretty acurate though.

83TransAmRECARO

now thats Bad@rse... just needs the shaker mod to make it complete... I vote someone tries it... just wish it could be me... not enough time or extra parts..

HCR13

iTrader: (5)

thats really f*cking NICE!!!

I edited the headlight doors off...I am really HEAVILY considering doing this...

Shadygrady

iTrader: (3)

I know someone made a kit to replace the pop up headlight and replace them with camaro style headlights on the 4th gens.A guy around the corner from my dsds house has a heavily modded 01 T/A with them.Looks good but I like the pop up lights.When I had a t/a I just raised them by hand till I got them fixed.

RSFreak

That is f'ing SWEET!

86transamws6

Ya, I forgot to edit out the old headlight doors...Thanks, that looks a lot better. You know, I just pulled my TA into the shop after 6 years of sitting. My camaro is done and I need a project. Theres still no rust on any of the panels. But the front bumper is warped and sunken in on the top on each side of the point in the middle. I was gonna just replace it. But if I did this headlight mod, I would cut those parts out of the bumper anyway. If I can find some 77-78 light bezels, I'll do this mod. I already have 2 late 70s TA shaker scoops layin around. I was gonna swap my TA hood for a flat firebird one and do a true shaker induction hood. What u guys think?

HCR13

iTrader: (5)

that would look nice. There are like 3 77-78 Firebirds around here at the boneyards I might snag the bezels myself and keep for future modding...

BlackTopKing

iTrader: (1)

Its like a retro 3rd gen... kinda hot, def different tho