Everyone here knows I am restoring my Tbird. Recently I gutted the headlamps to replace the rusty buckets. When I removed the headlamps they were so old that the glass lens seperated from the back of the glass sealed beam units.
I am thinking of replacing them with aftermarket clear lens units with the replacable halogen bulbs.
Here are the ones I am considering:
Black projector lamps with city lights
Chrome projector lamps with city lights
Chrome lamps with white halo ring
What do you all think?
Cheap projector headlamps typically don't give you a good beam. Of those, I'd get the standard chrome projectors and use some bulbs that don't block all but the blue spectrum (bulbs with a blue coating - light output turns to heat instead). I tried black with my HID retrofit and it looked horrible. I didn't think even making the marker lights in black would look decent after seeing that mockup.
(http://home.comcast.net/~seekproj/hidprogress7.jpg)
(http://home.comcast.net/~seekproj/hidprogress8.jpg)
Thanks for your input! I have definitely decided against black projectors so I will be looking at conventional clear lamps with the city lights or halo surround.
I really do like the look of the chrome projectors but if the light beam output and pattern is not good then I don't want them.
Projectors are great when they work as you can get much more even light distribution without throwing a lot up above the cutoff as glare. They ARE better than reflector type but you just need to find a good product, including one whose housing lenses won't cloud up due to poor plastics being used. There are a ton of newer reflector designs in sealed beam headlights that work much better than what was originally put on cars (they use the reflector to distribute light better than fluted lenses).
Most of the ones I have found have a glass outer lens over a plastic housing, so that is a plus. I guess I better continue research trying to find the best ones.
on a 4 eyes it wont look nearly as bad (black that is) Its a matter of choice for you
X2
I was gonna say something about not having all that clear plastic with reflectors behind it on either side of the black lenses like the 87/88's have. Having a 4-eye with no other lamps near by is an advantage for customizing. The real beauty is that LOTS of different cars used the same sealed beams our 4-eyes did, which makes aftermarket headlamp availability a non-issue. If the car is black, I think a 4-eye with those would look pretty sharp, actually. As for performance, dunno. Never had anything with projector beams on it. Even my '09 Chev Impala (company car, actually) has standard reflectors on it.
Now, put those black ones behind some clear protectors that are made to fit right, and that would be sharper than a $2 tack.
I made my decision and it was a silver 1969 Mustang with a 1970 nose on the cover of a Mustang magazine at work that helped me decide. That Mustang swapped out standard sealed beams for crystal clear round units and it looked so sweet, fresh and updated.
I decided the black projector lamps look too ricey and I was more concerned with proper light output.
So I bought two sets (they come in pairs) of clear chrome lamps with glass lenses and purchased them. The even come with the 9003 H4 bulbs which we all know by themselves are at least $40. Regular headlamps would have been at least that much and sealed beam Silverstars would have been about $80 for four.
The lamps also come with blue city lights but I will swap those out for legal color amber bulbs and wire them to the parking lamp circuit. Why not use clear bulbs? I just want to be different I suppose.
Now I am trying to figure out the best configuration to wire these up. All four lamps are identical except they are specific left and right due to the placement of the city lights. So I have to decide do I want to wire them so that both inner and outer lamps come on with high beams or just wire the inner lamps for high beams. The inner lamps will not be connected for low beam for sure, just the outer lamps.
I agree the black projectors don't look good on your Bird. It's just not a balanced look. It's as if someone removed the regular lenses and fitted small projectors in there which look lost. It has to do with the scale I suppose. Now if someone made clear lens versions of the stock lamps that would look good. However with the age of the cars, there is certainly no demand for them.
I always loved the headlamps of the 1996-97 Birds and Cats! I love the entire front end so much that when I had my 1989 Tbird I put a 1996-97 style nose on it! I was really happy with that. Like a fool, I traded the car on a 1999 Mustang I didn't like nearly as much.
Looking back now, I could have been really happy with a good 1996-97 Thunderbird instead of buying a 2008 Mustang. Don't get me wrong the new Mustang is a great car but I have done all that I feel like doing with it. I just feel it's more of an acomplishment to take something older, fix it the way I want and having it feel as good as having a new car.
(http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=20519&stc=1&d=1249997509)
Ok well you guys have lost me mainly, Ive been trying to figure out where to buy good bright but also good looking lights for my 88 Tbird and i dont really want some like Seek's mostly because its a white car, can i get some URL's of where the best places are to buy these headlights? or is there a way to open the stock headlight housings?
My lenses are vacuum formed polycarbonate. My projectors are from an Acura TL. The housing is fiberglass and pinted silver. Works great but I'll be redoing them with quad projectors up front (2xTL, 2xTSC) when I have some space to build some again. The clear lenses themselves are easy to do but the fluting is needed with the stock projector setup.
I've seen similar to the above headlights on a coworkers truck years ago - they worked great.
Your project got me thinking about doing some for the SHO.
If you dont mind me asking what did it run you? Mine should be a little easier as there are only 3 corners but i dont know.
Parts were much more expensive years ago as it was like $300 just for the projects, $250 for used ballasts/igniters/bulbs, and a lot of time with small expenses like non hardening clay, fiberglass supplies, sanding tools, paint, etc. Then there was the cost of the lenses but 4 eyed cars can get away with clear lenses from other vehicles so the thread starter would have an advantage if he was able to get a project to to fit.
Now, all the parts are half price or lower.
Was wondering more about prices on getting the lenses formed
I don't have room to do it myself right now but there are people who will for ~$150 if you send them a mold to form it over. You should be able to fill in a stock lens and have it formed over, just a hair larger than stock. If there is any fluting, filling it in will help the forming lay down more uniformly - else you'll see vertical lines in the lens from the heating of the underside being uneven.
Installed my clear headlamps today... More details about it on my restoration thread.
http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=24159 (http://"http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/showthread.php?t=24159")
(http://www.foxtbirdcougarforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=20971&stc=1&d=1254097117)
So you've installed them - it should be dark outside now. How much better are they? You should get a picture of the beam against a wall/garage/whatever, along with one on the road. It may help other members. Many of these are MANY times better than the stock fluted lens variety. The more light you can get on the road, and distributed wide, not in hot spots, the better.
I have not had a chance to look at the lamps illuminated in the dark. They need to be aimed of course. I would have done it tonight but i just felt like wrapping up before dark and relaxing before I go back to work tomorrow.
I did forget to mention that each lamp uses a dual filament H4 bulb. I had to disable the low beam on the inner lamps because it makes no sense to have them on with the outer low beams. I did retain all four lamps illuminating as high beams. When the high beams are off, the inner lamps look like a big parking lamp with the city lights illuminated amber when the low beams are on. Different just to be different I suppose.
I am wondering now if I should have just waited and gotten the Pilot brand clear headlamps with the halo square rings.
I did finally view the new headlamps on in the dark. Much better illumination! But then again, the old lamps were so bad they were collecting moisture and the front lens was seperating from the glass. They were also no longer bright like new as the illumination diminishes with that much age.
Not happy with the headlamps... the rubber sockets for the city lamps protrude too much behind the lamp causing so much binding inside the headlamp bucket that the city lamp bulbs are distorted in position inside the lamps. Also, the seller pictured seperate left and right lamps with the city lamps positioned accordingly but in reality the city lamps all face the left side. I emailed the seller and he admitted that he had flipped the photo to show them appearing on opposite sides. After leaving negative feedback for selling the item "not as described" (i.e. no modifications to install and the city lamps pictured opposite position for each side) he offered me only $8 refund to remove it. I decided not to accept the partial refund and remove feedback since $8 was not a drop in the bucket considering what I paid including shipping. I'll leave them as they are for now since new standard sealed beam headlamps would have set me back the same cost but I think later I am going to buy some Pilot Halo rectangular lamps. I gotta get some money put into the drivetrain and suspension before I can do any more cosmetic restoration and mods....
$8, what a joke. Sorry to hear that didn't work out so great, did you ever(Thread derailment!!) get your remote entry and such working?
Yes and it works perfectly! I also relocated my igintion module to the front of the radiator support just like the later model FoxCatBirds...