Head Lamp Assembly Freak Modification

[museumquality]

so view the jpg at bottom,
i decided to try something with my fogged up oil stained front light assembly covers. road grease and piss covered they look like hell. i myself only peed on them 20 times or so, so i should be the one to blame.

no seriously,,, this is a serious project for a serious svx freak. so i'm the one.
after removing the pooh soiled cover, my first task was to plug this thing in and see how the lights work with just clear CLEAN plastic protecting them. the light was AWESOME! like same coverage on the floor all the way down the street, high beams, low beams, fogs they all did there job much better, like TWice as bright! is this going to be a prob, who cares. look at those new bmws, crazy bright. PIAA low beams and the rest to come i think this will give the front end a whole new look, new crome grill on the way, this will accent the crome around the lights, carbon fiber hood on top should be killer.
so this is a test and at this point only a test, if this were actually garanteed to be narly, then i would say go for it, but let me send these off to the plastics guy and see the final product on the car. with the hood and grill of course.
i never cared much for the front view of the car, or i should say the lighting arrangement, whats with that bs fake light grill thing, get that outa there or put some lights in it or something, it s like ford prob style or chrysler something,,i don't know. just stay tuned to this crazy project. i have to tell you with this cover off it is beautiful inside! the low beam glass eye really turns a translucent blue/green in reflection. its like art man..

drive fast have along week.
jimi from mars

[museumquality]

side view close up

[jscorse]

Yes. I'd like to see what you end up with. Even my '97 lenses look like crap. I wish they would have used that new crystal clear plastic use in newer cars or glass in America. The Euro. and Japan cars used glass. Much better. Unfortunately we can't use the RHD glass bezels in America.

My '97 has a black grill (the only real visual change from all the other years) and I like it. I know that all the other year SVXs have the clear 'grill' but I'm partial to mine. Can you blame me?

[museumquality]

i will keep you guys posted, i dropped the m off at the fabricaters today, they are going to have them ready within 2 weeks. they will use a 1/4 plex that is very hard, and treating with a silicone coating of some kind, this will prevent them from being scratched easily. and they will be totally clear like the newer cars. as you can see its beautiful behind that stock cover, it needs to be shown off a bit better. i think this will do it. my grill should be here in 2 weeks as well as the cf hood, i'll put it together and get a jpg posted here.
i then can help anyone out with the steps i took, although it was pretty easy the key is to get a perfectly striaght cut, they can't bend the 1/4" to much.
i wish i could share the intensity of the lights as well but that will be the reward for all who do this.

jimi from space

[svxistentialist]

Originally posted by jscorse
The Euro. and Japan cars used glass. Much better. Unfortunately we can't use the RHD glass bezels in America.

Jeff, I'm not so sure you are correct in this. My car is a Japanese import, and it uses plastic. I am surprised and bemused at this but it works OK. Was a little smoky looking when I got it, but I used glass polish to clean it up, and the light output is fine, but won't start any forest fires. I have seen posts on the UK site which indicate theirs are plastic also.

The place to look for glass alternatives is Germany. I have a Matra Murena which comes as standard from France with plastic lenses enclosing fog lamps. Cars sold to Germany had to have a special cover with glass inserts in front of the fog lamps. The reason for this is German engineering specifications for autos, called the TUV, specify lamps must shine through glass.

If Subaru ever sold an SVX in Germany, you can bet your ass they had to come with glass headlights as standard. And, they would be left-hand drive. Why don't you check it out with FUJI Europe??

Joe:) :)

[museumquality]

i was talking with the plastic dude, and apparently the chemicals in plastic react to the chemicals in oil and react in a way where the chemistry in the plastic changes. the result is permanent discoloration.
i did have my set polished, they came out shiny and with high gloss, but the golden tone was still there. i work with color everyday so i am sensitive to color tones, and this really bothered me.
i think owners with vehicles in higher traffic and warmer climates will see this problem. i am curious if any other s. cal owners have this prob. or warm climate larger population members as well. share it. i've seen others makes with their plastics yellow as well, even like almost brown.

if your set are clean and clear, be sure to keep clear of oil build up. when they turn to golden yellow, they look very sad, they ad 8 years to this car that looks like its new right off the lot. and thats a big part in why we love our svx's!

jimi the rambler

[jscorse]

<<Jeff, I'm not so sure you are correct in this. My car is a Japanese import, and it uses plastic. >>

Joe,
I was referring to a thread on Yahoo several months ago when a guy from Japan talked about his glass lens. Then another guy from Europe or Australia (don't remember where) also had glass.

We jumped all over them to try to see if we could find them, but it turned out they where all RHD and would not work for us U.S.ers.

Probably not all Japan or European SVXs where made with glass, but apparently some.

Thanks for your feedback. The clouded plastic and how to deal with it has been a topic of dicussion for as long as I've been on these forums.

Keep us posted on what you end up with. I'm not brave enough to cut up my 'new' covers just yet.

- Jeff

[blonde_man]

The headlight lense upgrade sounds like an interesting project! Improving visibility(safety) is always welcomed! You're braver than most of us! Those headlight assemblies are rather expensive to start cutting up! I'm sure you have a very steady hand to take on that task! I look forward to hearing/seeing the end result! I just have a question, will those lights be DOT approved after you're done? I know the stock lenses are DOT approved and they also have the aiming lines used by some inspectors. You might run into some expensive problems if you get a nit picky inspector!

Yes I believe the German SVXes have glass headlight covers. The only problem is that they don't have the center foglights (the 3rd headlight bulb for us). It's just an open space, with a steel plate in the rear. They also complain of inferior visibility with the low (projector) beams. I always use that foglight to supplement them. Unfortunately they don't have that option.

Not having the center foglights is kind of pointless, like the non functional center grille light(?). Tacky fake lights IMO. It would be cool if they had smaller headlight assemblies, and a larger grille. However that would've cost FHI too much to design an implement for such a low volume vehicle.

Another way to improve your lights is to improve the electrical system. One of Subaru's big secrets about the SVX (besides the transmission problem) is the barely adequate alternator. They hid that secret by not including a Volt meter(the same way they hid the tranny secret by not including an ATF temp gauge). Install a voltmeter and you'll see what I mean!

I believe headlight bulbs are designed to provide peak light output at 13.5 volts. If you run a lot of load on the SVX(radiator fans, climate control, headlights, etc), the system voltage can drop into the 12's or even lower! So it's just 1 volt lower than recommended, what's the difference? Well the headlight bulbs will produce only 50% of the light output. That's the difference.

So how can you improve system voltage? You can rebuild/upgrade the alternator to produce more electricity, or you can upgrade the alternator-battery-ground cables to a much larger size. The stock power cables are too small, and a lot of electricity is turned into heat, because the wires can't flow enough. Upgrading those cables, and improving/adding more grounds can give you up to a 2 volt increase in system voltage!

However, even if you do upgrade the alternator and/or those power cables, the headlight bulbs won't be able to take advantage of the improved electrical system. Why? Because the wires going to the headlight bulb harnesses are MINISCULE! I'm sure you could measure another sizeable voltage drop across them! So in a completely stock electrical system, the bulbs might only be producing 15%-30% of maximum light output! Sounds like there is some major potential for improvement!

These electrical upgrades have been discussed in great detail over at the Yahoo SVX Club. Just do a search (shotsky typed many informative posts on it) and you should find PLENTY of information on it.

Good luck with the project!

[museumquality]

at this point i have to at least try this, my covers are so damaged that i lost probably 50% of the light produced through the lame system. i was aware of the electrical weaknesses on this car but would never attmpt any kind of project like that.
the covers like i said, i'll give it a shot, if they don't workout, well then i buy new, if i didn't attempt this i would've had to buy anyway.

what did you think about the look with the covers off, pretty incredibly diff.
as far as inspectors, we only have to smog our cars here in cal, beside the tough emission standards we have, its pretty laid back, lots of after market custom work thats questionable on the road. they talk about the new cameras at intersections for the red burns.
i've had a english license palte on the front of my rover for over a year. cops just look and drive on.
next week i should have jpgs of the finished product.
thanks for the interest

[museumquality]

i put another project photo in my locker along with the others, check there for more photos in the future.

[just_ski]

Hey museumqualiy,
I hate the yellowish tint on the headlights and the grill as well. I am wondering about the chrome grill you refered to in your first post. Where are you getting it from, and do you have any pictures of it? I would really like to replace the stock grill on my 92 with that or the grill off of a 97 svx. Also, I would like to know how the clear headlight cover project is going as soon as you have more news.

[museumquality]

i've decided not to get the crome japanese issue grill, too expensive. like 350. for the 97 black its 180. from the dealer. im working on another idea. should have my lenses this week.

[SVXtreme]

Warning, this will add absolutely nothing to the discussion!


I was stopped at Wilson Farms (not in my SVX) on Friday in Lexington, MA. Parked right across from me was a 96 or older SVX with the most beautiful headlights I had ever seen. It was like they were right off the showroom floor. The car had a "support the police" sticker on its back window. If anyone else knows which car I'm talking about then you can verify this. I was actually amazed at the clarity of his lamps!

happy to not add to the conversation,
SVXtreme

[Jaylinb]

Originally posted by museumquality
.... i was aware of the electrical weaknesses on this car but would never attmpt any kind of project like that...

As the first project I did to the car, my wiring upgrade went well, considering I could only use those idiotic screw-on type terminals at the time. The car is at the shop now getting new terminals soldered onto my HUGE 2-gauge wires. I got these from Home Depot in the welding section. Big, flexible, fine copper strands encased in rubber that will withstand over 400 degrees. Now that's more like it! My car is also getting the alternator rebuilt at the same shop (not related to the wiring, the thing was whining for a long time before I did the upgrade). I did notice an immediate difference in headlight brightness after the upgrade.

Jimi, Those headlight covers look 500% better than the stock ones!!! I'm tellin' ya, you could make some money at that. I'd like to have something done with mine - they're okay, but they could be so much better. Polishing them every week gets kinda old.
If you ever want to try the wiring upgrade, don't fear: it's not as hard or scary as you might think - just don't touch that red thingy to the black thingy! ;)