Glass Headlights. Mystery unraveling ;)

[SVX_MY_BABY]

Originally Posted by NikFu S.

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

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

[zavikan]

I like how my awesome post has devolved into this


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 ). 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

[zavikan]

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

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

[zavikan]

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......as you all wish you had my lights




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.


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 My dad is going to put 4 tons of stove pellets in the bay with my car, so I needed to push over...


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

[subbieatnz]

Pics not workin

[zavikan]

pics fixed. I'm dumb.

[Sov13t]

Looks great, nice job!

[intellibomb]

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.

[zavikan]

clear corners? as in the smallcar performance ones?

nah

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

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

I want a euro svx horn.

[zavikan]

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)

[SomethingElse]

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

How much did those glassy lights run you?

[zavikan]

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

[Green1995SVX]

Originally Posted by zavikan

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

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.

[Mike621]

Originally Posted by zavikan

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

Originally Posted by Green1995SVX

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.

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. jk

[lhopp77]

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.

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

Lee