Lets talk about FC headlights

[classicauto]

Hey boys and girls!

Alright, starting to plan out "phase two" of my FC's front bumper. Some of you may be familiar with its.......uniqueness.......

I'd like to address a couple of things and hopefully settle on something that I'm finally happy with.

Here's a pic of what I have at the moment:



Now obviously they're round, shitty fog lights. The lights themselves are actually part of the CP racing kit that used to reside in the car......and FWIW the $500+ cP racing kit used *sigh* fucking chinese fog lights.

Now, my current plan of attack on the bumper involves a two part scheme:

1 - Go all S4 on the bomex cover. Add the S4 trim, line up the marker lights to the rest of the car, remove those gay bubbles from the side and just generally make the lines of the bumper fit and suit the car better.

2 - partly borne from number one, involves the lights themselves. After much deliberation I *think* I'm going to go back to a sqaure style light.....non pop up. Reason being, a square light will fit the style of the car much better the integra looking eye balls currently on the front..............I hope.

Here's where you guys come in

Sqaure style housings: What can I get and in what dimensions? I realize theres all kinds of old school sealed beams out there a1 b1 a2 etc.........but I'm looking for better lighting in general so something that could even be converted to HID would turn me on.

Best lighting in general: Forgetting the style/looks aspect what lights are going to give the brightest, widest pattern I can possibly find? I might consider comprimising the looks slightly for overall better night vision.

And lastly - what would you like to see on the front end? Just curious on some brain farts of what you think would look good. IMHO after all these headlight mods I'm longing for a stock set of pop ups but forget it - because the cheeseball previous owner hacked up the CP install so badly I'd need to weld in another complete rad support to go back.

So cliffnotes:

whats going to give me the best lighting?
what kind of square light housings can I get and in what dimensions?
general wild ideas for the lights

layitonmah

[TitaniumTT]

Joe, I think if you change out the lights to something better, you might be happy. I don't thing a square/rectangle light would really look good on the front end of your car. There are too many lines and curves up there and I think a square light would look out of place.

Hella 90mm Moduales - Have them, love them, offered in a totally legal HID version as well. I love mine, did I mention that?

Susquahanne motorsports - Rallylights.com sells them as well as a million other lighting products. I would start browsing there

[classicauto]

Originally Posted by TitaniumTT

Joe, I think if you change out the lights to something better, you might be happy. I don't thing a square/rectangle light would really look good on the front end of your car. There are too many lines and curves up there and I think a square light would look out of place.

Hella 90mm Moduales - Have them, love them, offered in a totally legal HID version as well. I love mine, did I mention that?

Susquahanne motorsports - Rallylights.com sells them as well as a million other lighting products. I would start browsing there

Yea I'm *generally* happy with the overall look of the round lights, my main beef if I keep a round light setup is just changing the stagger of the lights. Currently the outside ones sit further ahead then the inside ones - if I can reverse that they'll flow better with the car.

My thought on the square or rectangular light would be that a) its closer to what the car has originally b) it would be a Joe/north american style camaro conversion like was really popular in jap land in the hay days.

I'll check out the rally lights because ultimately, I'll make it look good, but bangin' night lights slightly outweighs appearance at this point.

DJ - out of curiosity, any idea of dimensions on those 626 lights?

[djmtsu]

How do you feel about rectangular? Some early 90's late 80's imports had glass headlight housings using 9006/9005 bulbs. They last forever, and will not get hazy like the the more modern lighting.

My old 626 Turbo had glass rectangles. Check it-



Sad things, I had a spare set, but they went with the car. Sorry

[djmtsu]

PS- I wish there was a cost effective way to convert to low profile twin HID round lighting (like yours TT)

I just can't see spending the $$$, so for now, I rock Silverstars, and 100W bulbs for the fogs.

[TitaniumTT]

Mine are HID, they're not legal though, they're rebased H9 bulbs. I've never had one complaint about them which is why I haven't changed them. Figure I can spend $1000 better elsewhere than on some legal HID's....... even though as far as CT is concerned the lighting is the only thing not legal on the car right now

[djmtsu]

Hmmmm......

This might give you a better idea.....

[Max777]

why dont you just get a genuine RE-Amemiya Style bumper? Shine Auto makes good replicas for around $500. The bumper you have looks like a cheap knock off from that style.

You dont need to spend all that time "Adding S4 trim" to get the look you want.

[Flash]

Here's a pic of my front end with rectangular headlights. They're stanley and the front is real RE-Amemiya.



I do a lot of hwy driving and the lighting is good enough for pitch-black roads between cities. Better than foglights I'm sure, but could be better. They're there cause they came with it.

I have two other cars with HID and there's a big difference. I do want to change it eventually to projector HID's but I'm in no rush since I only drive the car in spring summer and the sun's out till 10pm any way.

When I do switch, I was planning to have dual lights like you do, but definitely opposite: inside lights further out and outside lights further in (when looking at the car) probably following the same curve as the front of the bumper to make it look balanced.

I was going to get used projector housings from here: http://store.theretrofitsource.com/index.php

Avg price is 200 for projectors, pretty good IMO. Then buy a ballast/bulb kit.

Hope this helps.

[classicauto]

Originally Posted by Max777

You dont need to spend all that time "Adding S4 trim" to get the look you want.

The look I want can't be bought. There's almost nothing on my car that wasn't either made or bought and then modified further/added to. Thats the general idea behind modifying the car. Rule #1 you might say - modification.
Believe me if I wanted to have the RE-A bumper I would, I'm just not a fan of the rest of the bumper, nor am I a fan of the rest of the bomex bumper, but I liked the bomex better as a starting point for my bumper. Which is why I bought the genuine bomex kit and cut it all up to my liking

Originally Posted by Max777

The bumper you have looks like a cheap knock off from that style.

Yep because I was still a child when these car's were new and japanese tuners were making bumpers for them! EVERY flush headlight style is a knock off of that!

Originally Posted by flash

Here's a pic of my front end with rectangular headlights. They're stanley and the front is real RE-Amemiya.



I do a lot of hwy driving and the lighting is good enough for pitch-black roads between cities. Better than foglights I'm sure, but could be better. They're there cause they came with it.

I have two other cars with HID and there's a big difference. I do want to change it eventually to projector HID's but I'm in no rush since I only drive the car in spring summer and the sun's out till 10pm any way.

When I do switch, I was planning to have dual lights like you do, but definitely opposite: inside lights further out and outside lights further in (when looking at the car) probably following the same curve as the front of the bumper to make it look balanced.

How are those lights mounted on that bumper? To the bumper itself, or brackets attached to the car?

[Flash]

Originally Posted by classicauto

How are those lights mounted on that bumper? To the bumper itself, or brackets attached to the car?

The lights are attached to the bumper with brackets. The bracket goes around the back of the light and attaches on either side of the sloping cut-out. You can't see in the picture, but you can see small bolt heads from how the bracket attaches to the fiberglass.

[4port]

i would go re style but prepare to pay some coin