Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Well. Just got the glass lights in the mail today. Hoping to figure a few things out.

Pics of disassembly included. And basic line up.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...7&d=1256652970

Alright. First removed is the glass. I did this by heating the whole unit in the oven at 230 degrees for 8 minutes. Came apart fairly easily. Used screwdrivers for careful prying. Apologies for oversized images...but then again, now you can see things that much better right?

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1256652951

Now you can see the infamous 'block off plate' This was removed by the two screws in the front, as well as an 'adjuster' screw in the back. Judging by its making, I am fairly confident that our foglight assemblies will bolt right in.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1256652962

Here is the highbeam light. Note the parking light also inside the housing. Im not sure what I think of that little thing yet...but we will see what happens later.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1256653006

Beware of this little white thing. It holds in the highbeam/low beam assembly. Its evil. After fighting with it for 10 minutes.....

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1256652979

.....it did this to me.:eek: Ok. its just a flesh wound.....anyway, instead of trying to pop it off (as its made), I finagled a way to unscrew the white thing from the back side. and then I was done for the day. (exhausted and hungry. bleeding......*cough*......

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

That tiny light is what is part of what is referred to as "city lights". It illuminates the housing. They were also on the JDM headlights which I used to have. :o

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Zavikan

Thanks for the pics, although they are seriously way too big. Thanks anyway :rolleyes:

Now that you have them at that stage of dis-assembly, there is one job you could do that will save you a whole lot of grief, and end up with the best compromise.

If you take the plastic lenses from your Canadian lamps, and glue on the glass front to your existing lamps, you will have almost the "best of both worlds" ;)

• You will have the benefit of glass lenses, that pass much more light than the lighter plastic OEM kind.
• You will not have to be continually polishing them because of UV degradation
• You will have the inner third fog lamp, that is not available in Euro or Oz lamps.
• You will retain the fitments and connectors for your North American bulbs.
• You will not need to rewire the outer corner indicator lamp to include the Euro parking bulb that is beside the main beam bulb.

On the down side, there is only one loss:

• You will not have the benefit of the electric beam leveller for the dip projector lamps.

Even this could be seen as a benefit. It will mean you do not need the inner switch on the console or to re-route the wiring to drive the leveller motor.

Decisions, decisions

:rolleyes: ;)

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Resize your pictures....

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I would resize... but it was hard enough for me to figure out how to get them online.. so....no.....cant we have a tech savvy admin do it?




I am sort of planning on what ur saying svxitentialist. I do not know yet if the plastic housing is the same. I have a feeling it might be. If it is IDENTICAL, I might be able to attach the headlight leveling motor.

I am pretty sure the innards will be plug and play w/ the american ones. meaning I get foglights, as well as 9005/6 bulbs. (though I almost wonder, are our 9005/6 bulb combos better then these german ones? why switch to the american? all style bulbs are available here.)

Plug and play HIDs are in the cards of course (seriously, they are glass, gotta go for the gold), in which case I think the 9006 HID retrofits would work best...

I would like to see a few pics of SVX with 'city lights' on. I dont recall ever seeing any (though I have heard of the bulbs existance of course).

James

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

testing............

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

don't mind me:lol:

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

sorry:o.............

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Your pictures are too small, I can't see anything.

Right click -> view image -> image opens in new/same window/tab automagically resized.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

not everyone uses whatever browser you're using

hes right about the huge pics being good for details, but not when you directly post them like that.
it deforms the thread, like a newborn babe would a vagina

Bah! I could swear up and down IE had this feature at some point. Stupid Firefox, being all superior...

BTW, not every baby deforms vaginas.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Hey Zavikan, not sure if you remember me, I PMed you about it a while back.

Cool pictures, thanks

I have the glass headlights, and I don't want to shove them in the oven to pry off the glass... I don't want to pry off the glass at all.

My question is, do you think there's a way to stick a bulb in the fog lights section without out removing the glass.

Thanks, Jordan.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I had nothing better to do at 3 AM so I resized them to 600x400 so it can be see easily on most screens. enjoy
http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1237273357
http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1237273460
http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1237273471
http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1237273479
http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1237273492

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

So guys... Just get Firefox and add the ResizR and Image Zoom add ons. Then you just have to right click and set the image to whatever size you want. Yeahhhh Open Source software:tongue:

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I like how my awesome post has devolved into this :lol:


Anyway, to answer the 1 question risen by my dismantling..

The answer is no. you can not stick a bulb in there without removing the glass. The plate is held in w/ an 'adjuster' screw (made for the foglight), and 2 little stainless steel screws. Any attempt on 'sticking in' a bulb would have metal shards in your housing. As well as an enormous and illegal glare problem (bad enough that im sure you would be pulled over).

IF you choose to remove the glass though (and I assure you, its VERY easy. cookie sheet, towel, 250 degrees, 7 minutes, CLOSELY monitored (obviously a firehazard)

Just lay the whole thing on a towel, then lay the towel on the cookie sheet. keep all edges of the towel INSIDE the cookie sheet.

The towel prevents the surface touching the cookiesheet to melt.




Just an update to all.

The wiring harnesses between US and German are COMPLETELY different. It has created issues that I will have to fix once I get to my car (which is still in storage).

The German spec had the highbeam, lowbeam, and city lights going into 1 large multi plug(They all shared the positive lead :eek: ). It also had a 6 prong multi plug for the headlight adjuster.

This is obviously nothing like the US spec. I desided that changing the low beam to 9006 made the most sense. I want to have the HID plug and plays installed at some point, I know we have had luck with these, and didnt want to try it with the german bulbs.

Foglights have their own harness connection, so they were a very simple plug and play.

Highbeams/City lights became the problem. There is no way to change the highbeam bulb to 9005 w/o losing the city lights. The housings are formed with the bulb socket.

What I desided to do, was cut the harness (damn) for both the Highbeams and City lights.

When I get to my car up north, I will make a harness plug to plug into the stock highbeam plug, and splice it onto the headlights.

The City lights (I believe, some one correct me if im wrong.) are supposed to work exactly like our parking lights. so I'll simply add a wire from our current parking lights, and harness them in.

And Voila! Glass lights! yay!

An interesting thing I found when I was dismantling the lowbeam cutoff bracket. Below is a diagram of the US cutoff pattern.

Driverside Passengerside
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (x being darkness, the lines being our cutoff)
xxxx_________ _____________
____/


The cut off pattern is not the same as you can see. It lowers on the drivers side, for oncoming traffic. The German spec lights had identical cutoffs on both sides of the car (they were both like our drivers side cutoff)

Not like this matters, but well, I thought it was interesting...US has a better cutoff pattern ;)

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Well, discovered something ELSE that must be different about euro SVX... the horn. :lol::lol:

Installed the pair this weekend (omg, car was a total snafu.) Took her out of the garage to find a massive gas leak. dropped a quarter of a tank in 4 miles. Shes sitting in the garage again...BROKEN.:( I dont have time to fix her this weekend... I will have to wait for June (no Reading for me)...Which means the car has to SIT... BROKEN!!! That is so often the beginning of the end for so many stored cars....

Back to the horn. The headlight level adjusters bump out alot from the back of the housings. The fender side horn is in the way. had to do some fancy moving about to get it all in there. (I pulled the harness from the zip snap close by, and put the twin horns back to back, out of the way, on the same original bolt).

The optical clarity on the glass vs plastic was AMAZING. the plastic has this wierd 'ripple' look, up close. the glass is of course smooth as a babies butt.

yay

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Here is the car after the weekend. Had to leave her parked b/c of the leak. It was a nightmare getting these lights in. (I broke the foglight reflector, and had to get another) :(:(

But I think these pics will make me feel better...:cool:...as you all wish you had my lights

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1239657972

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1239657959
You can see in this pic, my projector got dusty some how when reassembling... will need to get something in there to wipe it off somehow.

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1239657943
Yes..my low beam is out on the passenger side...I use 9005 in 9006 slots, and that bulb wasn't modified yet. Notice the foglights. I get to claim 1st set of glass headlights w/ fogs?

Nice garage huh? my tires are rubbing the wall :eek: My dad is going to put 4 tons of stove pellets in the bay with my car, so I needed to push over...

http://www.subaru-svx.net/forum/atta...1&d=1239657920
My battery is out, as the car wont be moved for some time. You can see that the horns had to be moved (there is still space for the battery). The silver screwed thing is the motor. which mounts right onto the american housings. The plastic holder for the american adjuster is in view, not being used. This is actually on the euro models too, and is also unused.

cheers,

James

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Pics not workin:(

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

pics fixed. I'm dumb.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Looks great, nice job!

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

now u just need the clear corners.....

very nice. hope u get her fixed.

i had a gas line issue on my silver too one time.... the original hose cracked by the fuel filter and there was fuel everywhere.... scary.

good luck, good work.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

clear corners? as in the smallcar performance ones?

nah

I think I'll keep my brand new (also known as not used) JDM corners.:lol::lol::lol:

You can see there is no orange reflector in pic 3.

I want a euro svx horn. :lol::lol::lol:

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I just realized I have $30 double pack of h3 high beam $30 double pack h3 foglight $30 double pack of 9005 low beam and $20 double pack of silverstar corners.



$110 for lightbulbs? what is this world coming to...


(shameless bump, looking for attention, oohs, aaahs, and all else)

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

im not feelin your grille.....its a smallcar isnt it:tongue:

How much did those glassy lights run you?

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I like the grill. to each his own. :)

I took it off my wreck car, so color match isnt right...fit and finish on the front of THIS car isnt QUITE right (though its pretty darn good) b/c of a front end impact (wasnt much, but enough right?), so the grill doesn't perfectly flow...hoping to fix at some point...

I have mused around with getting a 92 grill on there again...but really, the mercery look doesnt do it for me....97 grill is nice...but for me, smallcar is better. A bit more aggressive.

The lights were purchased from a forum member, so for the sake of etiquette I will keep that private.

James

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

The look nice. That's a bit of a blanket statement, though. Don't you think? I don't wish I had your lights. Mine work just fine. :)

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I second what Mike said.

I am happy with my brand new OEM lights and HIDs. You could use some of that ching you'd get from selling them to fix the gas leak or to get a new grille. :p:lol: jk

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I think they look great. The only concern I would have would be potential condensation inside the housings after you took apart. Of course, they may not be any worse than our stock lights. No matter what anyone above said---glass headlights look infinitely better than our plastic ones--even if new. :p

I don't like the smallcar grille, however. The 97 or a JDM grille look sooooooo much better.

Lee

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

You'll be singin a new tune in around 6 years when your brand new OEM lights look like a diseased toenail. :lol:

Nah, I've seen the new OEM plastic, they look every bit as nice as the glass. Durability is what it comes down to. As the rarity of the SVX increases, the few and proud who own one treat them FAR differently then the inbetween hacker crowd who bought the car b/c it looked like a 1/4 mile TV car. Because of this, these cars aren't seeing the use they used too... so the plastic headlights will hold up far longer, and durability becomes less of an issue.

One thing I found when I put the plastic next to glass (both removed from casing), is that the plastic had this odd rippling distortion in the plastic, not on the surface. Not big wavy ripples, really tiny ones. almost like the ripples that the first pass of a spray gun causes?? that wasn't really apparent ON the car... Is this the case on the new OEM too? or was this some sort of aging? was very weird.


You two are the least likely to appreciate the glass, as you already have new plastic... But you both expressed almost a preference for the plastic (im not offended, just curious). why is that? Glass is more durable to normal wear, and optically clearer. Besides the stone cracking issue (which is preventable with plastic shields), I would think glass wins hands down? :confused::confused:

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

You people suck! I am so easily swayed by the 'voice of the people'! Couple more of you people tell me my smallcar grill sucks and I'll be driving north to rip it off :lol::lol::lol:

As far as condensation, the housings are vented anyways. they were never sealed. you can see the tubes on the backside.

+1 to the glass look comment :D

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I don't have new headlights. They're the original ones that came on the car in 92. Obviously age is not the factor. I think it's exposure to sunlight. Garages are your friends. :)

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I don't like the small car grille either. :p

Seriously, though.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Make sure you only drive when its cloudy then. And if you park it someplace (if your going out to dinner or something), make sure its near a parking garage. or get a tarp.


(now thinking about the 97 grill... because people on this forum are jerks)

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

The temp also must be within 65-75 degrees with 25.0% - 69.5% humidity. :lol:


True SVX owners take their significant others to dinner on a parking garage. Anyone who watched the original owner's VHS knows this. :p


Only the best Wolf Noah series cover will do for my car. :)

It's the only OEM alternative to go with, considering the care you have put into finding the rare OEM parts in an attempt to "outshine" the rest. ;)

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

Pfffft. You got it all wrong. shesh. The grill I'm lookin' for is this one.

http://www.x35performance.com/t-svx04.jpg

IDK if its butt ugly....its rare right? I'll take it!
:lol::lol::lol::lol:

I didn't get to see the original VHS... Please explain the reference, b/c it sounds pretty bizarre....

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

I'll pass on the Loyale-esque grille. Thanks:lol:

I refuse to believe in your quest for JDM-ultimate-SVX-face that you have not seen the "official" Subaru owner video. My car came with one in the glove box. ;) :lol:

I have to go find a screenshot.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

This is the screenshot from the original "our new look video. It is also part of the DVD series which contained this video, the owner information video, technical overview, etc.

The video's final scenes show a pearlie driving up the parking ramp of a multi-story parking garage. Once he reaches the rooftop, you see there is a table with a beautiful woman waiting. He gets out and they soon are having a wonderful dinner... just him..... the love of his life... .. .. and his "significant other"*



*in this case, that would be the woman! :lol:




.

Re: Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)
 

WTF!!! What were they thinking with this? :lol: