Headlight mod questions

[Mister]

Hi All, I really like the headlight mod on this car.

http://www.sterlingkitcars.com/members_n_forums/vbclassified/uploaded/55juxub7.jpg

How hard would it be to do this? Seems to me that an industrious person could do a headlight bucket insert mold for this and the finished item then screwed or glassed into place.

This seems to fit the bill for something Warren mentioned in a newsletter article where he was talking about Dave and headlight updates and said

He now at least has raw materials for some nice modern headlights, though I think it can be even better with a contoured insert for the headlight bay that looks even more modern and less “surface mount.”

I've seen photos of several cars with this mod. Has the drop in part thing already been done? The shape of the lights sort of looks like the headlights on the Thunder Ranch Riot.

 

[letterman7]

Dave hasn't set that up yet. It would be a nice addition to his lineup of parts so I'll mention it to him at the show in a few weeks.

I don't know how the guys with those built them, though. I do know that the car that you picked for the example and one other with similar lights have stationary mounts for the lights - there is no adjustment to them at all. In the UK some guys are using the Fiat Barchetta Coupe headlights which have a similar bodyline (and are fully enclosed); here in the states you might be able to modify the C6 Corvette buckets to achieve something similar. Otherwise it'll be molding fiberglass over PVC tubes and some basic bodywork skills!

R

 

[Brett Proctor]

How hard would it be to do this? Seems to me that an industrious person could do a headlight bucket insert mold for this and the finished item then screwed or glassed into place.

Wouldn't be that hard at all. Go for it

Were you thinking of having them retract. If so make sure you have enough clearance for the wheels

 

[Tullio]

I asked Dave a little while ago about the headlights used in this car -

He told me this -

The lights on the orange car are like the ones in the attached photos. I sold those lights for $246,00 included all wiring relays, switches, 4 headlights, high low beam, adjusters, ABS plastic dual light frames that you can glass into the sterling front end.

It doesn't look like it is up in the store yet but you can contact him and get them over the phone

Hope this helps.

 

[Mister]

Ok then. *laugh* I guess that answers that! Dave has it all covered doesn't he. *thumbs up*

While researching this I saw that photo of the two light sets together on the Fiero Forum.

 

[Nic]

There are some aftermarket RX-7 lights that would work as well.

 

[Tullio]

Yes, the RX-7 lights are fairly close too.

The ones Dave sells are intended for use on 89-94 Nissan 240SX

Although, it would be best to support Dave and his effort rather than looking around online to find these elsewhere for cheaper. *thumbs up*

 

[Mister]

Yes, the RX-7 lights are fairly close too.

The ones Dave sells are intended for use on 89-94 Nissan 240SX

Although, it would be best to support Dave and his effort rather than looking around online to find these elsewhere for cheaper. *thumbs up*

Wholeheartedly agreed!

 

[Flyer615]

While I realize that this thread is a year and a half old, I got to thinking about this the other night and sketched up an idea that I've had. It sorta goes along with this one, I think. Let's say I'm thinking out loud and am looking for input on the degree of complexity.
I'm not a big fan of the lexan headlight cover set-up of the Sterling, nor am I particularly fond of the big square panel that sits on top of the pop-ups on my Sebring. I do like the lights that are shown above, but I think I would prefer them to be of the hide-away persuasion. I've included a rough drawing, which I know doesn't have enough engineering in it yet, that shows what I think I'd like to try. Not shown in the drawing are the garage door-like tracks to make everything clear the body line. The extra link in the rotating part is for variation in distance from the pivot point. Also, I'm thinking that the blank panel may need to just drop and follow the body line due to tire clearance. Does anyone know what dimensions the panel in previous post has? I like the one that was mentioned that Dave sells, but I don't know what size it is.

Here is the sketch:


I believe Brett is the one who got me thinking about this when he asked if a previous poster was going to have them retract.

Ken

 

[cdrd03]

I always liked the old opal headlights. They rotated. Below are examples of open and closed looks.

Chuck

 

[Brett Proctor]

Kind of a busy looking design.
You should be able to accomplish the same thing by making it a flip up design and it would be more compact with fewer moving parts. I've come across a few cars(toyota's, mazda's,Honda's) in the junk yards that will work in the space provided that are of the flip up design. and I'm sure you could get after market projector lights to replace the factory ones with if that style flips your switch. I don't know how much fabrication would be involved to make them work in our cars(its got tobe less than making them from scratch) because I never looked at the design of them real close, I just measured the size to see if they would fit in the opening

Not shown in the drawing are the garage door-like tracks to make everything clear the body line.

Don't forget the tires will throw up all kind of nasty stuff into those tracks and the pivot points if they're exposed

Brett

 

[letterman7]

You could always fab internal wheel wells for the tire muck issue, but I'm trying to figure out what exactly you want to do, Ken. Either way, there will be a cover over the lights I'm guessing.. so if you can make the cover smaller over a smaller set of lights and still have the simplicity of pop-ups, what's the difference? The buckets on my one car aren't near as large as the "regular" headlight bucket of the Sterling, but I'm fairly certain they are close to the Sebring size:




What I'm guessing is you don't like the "hat" look when the headlights are raised?

 

[Flyer615]

What I'm guessing is you don't like the "hat" look when the headlights are raised?

On the nose, man. My Sebring looks awkward with all that flat "hat" on it. Of course, I suppose that you only see them raised in the dark, when they would be less noticeable, but if I can do something different, I'm gonna. I like the sleek look of hidden lights, I just don't care for all that extra top over them.
I might give a look at the flip-overs like those in an Opel GT.

 

[Peter]

Rotating pod with axes front and rear? Fiat V20 coupe? Rotating with centre axes across. Porsche 928, Like mine), Flip up, flip over, straight up, the list goes on.

 

[letterman7]

Make the buckets bigger and the overhang will look smaller....

 

[Peter]

One idea I remember from waaaay back was a 50/50 split, front half dropped down horizontal and the back half popped up to revel pair of projectors. Can't remember where though but it kept the whole thing very low.

 

[CyCo]

On the nose, man. My Sebring looks awkward with all that flat "hat" on it. Of course, I suppose that you only see them raised in the dark, when they would be less noticeable, but if I can do something different, I'm gonna. I like the sleek look of hidden lights, I just don't care for all that extra top over them.
I might give a look at the flip-overs like those in an Opel GT.

Maybe go the route some of the guys with MX-5's go with? They call them Lo-Pro (dat's fancy talk for Low Profile...)

Some go with rectangular head lights with this mod, some go for the quad light look.

Personally, I like the Lo-Pro look on the MX-5s. If I had a one, I'd certainly look into doing that mod.

 

[Brett Proctor]

Pontiac had some low profile lights that I was at one time thinking of using. I think they were only 3 or 4 inches tall but I think that the high beam and low beam were seperate units(I could be wrong) but making these a pop up style would be something different

 

[Flyer615]

I do like these ideas a little better. The low-profile version would not be nearly as intrusive. Also, I wouldn't think the hood (bonnet?) was flying off every time the lights came up. *yipes**laugh*

I also like the idea of 1/2 pop up and 1/2 pop down. That would save some rise in the lights but still have them hidden. Mucho good ideas here. *thumbs up*

Ken

 

[CyCo]

I had been meaning to add a further post about the MX-5 Lo-Pros. It's possible to 'fettle' them a bit, change the light that goes into them, and get them even lower profile.

More on the Teenage Dirtbag MX-5 here.