Headlight Modification

06/03/04

Daylight pics with the lights on.....

Pics at night...

05/29/04

Back to the drawing board---After looking at several newer vehicles today with projector style lights and having a set of PIAA 1100X fog lights on my bench, I decided that I needed to incorporate these into my modified assy. So after talking myself into it, I ripped apart my first mount down to the bare bracket. I test fitted the two Hella units in different positions on the bracket. Seeing the best scenario for fitment, I ground down a number of molding protrusions in the bracket. This allowed me to see where the adjusting feet needed to be. Unfortunately I didn't have material in places where it needed to be and material in places where it should be open.....so after several hours I ground down the bracket and made a polycarbonate mounting plate for the two Hellas to mount to. This built up the back of the bracket for stability since I removed some of the rigid molding lines. This is the ideal way in my opinion to mount the Hellas to the Caprice headlight bracket. As you see below it turned out well. I used plastic welding cement to attach the poly mounting bracket to the headlight bracket----works very well. I will paint the entire assy (minus the light modules) gloss black. It should look nice. I wish that I had a little more space for a turn signal but, the fog lights are good enough. Turn signal model is below driving light model.

05/26/04

My first round attempt at new headlights was to mount the Hella 90mm units
inside the plastic (for lack of a better term---cause it's made of a
different material)) bucket where the bulbs reside. I knew about the only
way to make this work was to either have a new outer lens made or cut holes
in the oem units to allow the light to traverse through the lens without
being refracted from the fluting. So I mounted the Hella units which took
some work, then cut holes in the outer lens. After seeing, I really thought
it looked bad. After seeing another enthusiast sand and polish oem lenses
clear, I decided to go back to the drawing board.

I remounted the Hella units to the black headlight mounting bracket (which
was much easier than to the chrome bucket). I then removed almost all of the
chrome headlight bucket except for the outer ring (which the lens mounts to)
and the mounting screws, thus allowing the stock lens to still attach easily
to the headlight mount assy. Of course all of this depends on my ability to
sand/grind down all of the inside fluting on the oem lens and polish it
crystal clear. Let me say this is a huge PITA. As of tonight I have one
lens done and both Hella modules mounted. Unfortunately, the lens is on one
side and the Hella units are on the other. Good news is that it is almost
done. I need one more used headlight lens, bucket and mount and then I
should be done.

This will be very cool, it will have four headlights, two of which are low
beam, projector style with H9 (65 watt) bulbs and the others are high beam
straight reflectors with the same bulb. These will also be outfitted with
the cool "angel eyes" halo rings that you see on the BMW's. I am really
excited as I didn't think I would ever get the lenses done. 

11/15/03

It seems everyone who has a 94-96 B-Body recognizes the low output and poor performance of the stock headlight system. Several changes can be made to the system such as better wiring and relays to brighter bulbs. Unfortunately no one has made "better" after market headlight assemblies that are still available today. As such I set out to build something better for my own use. If by chance it was easily reproduce able, I would consider manufacturing. After looking around for the "right" parts and doing some test fitting I realized this wouldn't be a design that I could manufacture. So, this is a rough outline of what I did, what I used and where I got the parts. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

First I located what I feel to be the best weatherproof and complete projector assemblies made. They are manufactured by Hella and available from Rally Lights. They offer a projector assy which uses the H9 bulb and a regular reflector assy for high beam which uses the same bulb. I really like these because they are water tight, a high quality piece and inexpensive. Hella refers to these as the 90 MM units.

Each unit comes with their own mounting and aiming screws. They are basically an adjusting screw with a special threaded nut already installed that snaps into the projector housing. these can be installed for a forward mounting application or rearward mount application. The ball end of the adjusting screw "snaps" into the black mount collet. The collet then snaps into a 10 mm hole that would be drilled into a front facing sheet/metal/plastic mount or rear facing mount either one.

My approach to using these for the B-Body was based on using as much of the stock components as possible. This is due to several reasons...everyone will have most of what they need to do this mod, it's much easier to design from a mounting aspect and has allot of adjustability to it. The stock outer lens is also being retained however holes are cut in it to allow the two lights sources to be exposed and the properly focused light to project through without degradation from the poor lens fluting and clarity. Since the headlight system will be converted to a 4 headlight system and both reflector cavities will be needed as mounting areas, I moved the stock turn signal bulb from the inboard headlight cavity to the corner lamp assy. After doing this, I found it provided enough forward facing light and side light for turn signal illumination.

To mount the projector assy which acts as the low beam, I first started by removing the whole headlight assy from the car. I then removed the headlight bucket and lens from the mount. I then carefully separated the lens from the bucket. After mocking up the position of the projector assy, I opened up the bulb hole (in the headlight bucket) to accommodate the larger back end of the projector assy. Once enlarged I again test fitted the projector assy back to make sure there were no issues. I found that several screws on the projector assy which hold it together hit the reflector. I marked the spots and then etched out the reflector to allow the projector assy to fit flush with the reflector. At this point, I feel confident that the assy will fit without a problem. Care must be given in going through this step as the headlight stock reflector assy is mounted in the car at a angle. This means that the projector assy's must be fitted in the stock buckets at an exact opposed angle to maintain a straightforward light angle. It's sometimes tough to keep this in mind while working with the bucket out of the car. After setting everything, I marked an outline of the projector assy on the outside of the stock lens. I then cut out the lens with a cutoff wheel and a dremel tool. I massaged the opening by hand....it will eventually be fine finished.

The next step is to figure out how to properly mount the projector assy in the bucket. Since none of the stock reflector has any flat surfaces to mount to, it made it difficult to build something sturdy. I also wanted the option of independently adjusting each assy within the stock bucket and still retaining adjustability of the bucket itself in the car. This meant using the adjusting screws and hardware included with the Hella units. after several days of thinking and test fitting, I realized that I would have to drill holes in the bucket where each adjusting screw would be and then make and install mounting tubes that would accept the mount collets for the adjusting screws. I went to TAP plastics and took the adjusting screw collet and found a piece of fiberglass tube that allowed the collet to fit perfectly. After purchasing it (maybe $6.) I cut small lengths of it and test fit it in the stock reflector, placed where the adjusting screws would come though. After etching the reflector several times I was successful it getting everything to line up. I then applied plastic cement to the tubes while everything was assembled. I let this sit over night. 

This is as far as I have gotten. 11/15/03