Here is the reason why you are starting to get flashes from oncoming traffic. See pic.
Anything outside the beam pattern from the other Ford needs to be trimmed off.

I would need to have a proper pic of the shield inside the headlight assy, with the nosecone, bottom shield and most importantly the pattern of the reflector.

As you can see from the pic there is a bit of a difference between what the Lo beam pattern should be and is now.
As I mentioned earlier it looks like you got your Hi beam on.

Don’t forget to post a proper beam spread on the ground in front of the vehicle where you can see all of the beam pattern.

ahh ok so all the other light showen on that pic is glare right? Ill post a better beam spread tonyt on flat ground, might have to take the the headlights out again to get ya a good pic of the reflector and take them apart.. I dont mind doin it if u think u can help me get a beam pattern like that.

Check out the signiture mavs


In the mean time i thought id take a pic of the Globes/Tubes whateva ya wanna call them:

 

 

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Last edited by SIM on Sat Feb 11, 2006 2:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

Interesting that the fairmonts use quite a different shield to the futuras and gli's, with less of the globe enclosed.

While you've got the headlights out, take to them with some sandpaper and clean up some of the yellow! There's a doco and a handful of posts on how to do it if you haven't already seen em

Or for a quick (but more temporary) fix, some regular polish, and some elbow grease will bring them up nicely.

IF you get pulled over, "i bought the car like this, they are some european xenon headlights apparently" .. its simple

Yeah when i take them out ill go over them again with sandpaper.. Think i've done it like 3 times before so its nothing new, might try polish the inside of the plastic lens this time too.

Its a strange set up and that they work ok atm cause as u can see one compleat side of the bulb is covered with the headsheild.. The other side points straight into another sheild in the assy...

Last edited by SIM on Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:02 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes you are right it is ALL glorious glare.
YES since you are prepared to work on it and spend some time it is going to be worth it.

I have explained in the following pic what different parts are called so we all refer to the same name, instead of each and everyone give these bits and pieces a nick name of our own.

The nosecone in your case is shaped as if it was in a complete parabolic reflector with no patterns, lines or sections in the reflector. As if it was for a Driving light reflector.
But then again the manufacturer of this Aftermarket kit was not manufacturing a kit specifically for your Ford.
He manufactured a one size fit all kit for all vehicles out there, As if…

If you look at Hyena’s reflector, you see that although his reflector mirror has a very smooth and even shape and is almost a perfect sphere the nosecone used with that reflector has a very funny shape cut to it.
The edge of the nosecone directs light to different places in the reflector and the lens brakes it so the end result is an acceptable beam pattern on the road.
The shape of the nosecone edge may differ from reflector to reflector.

On the other hand your lower shield is exactly what Hyena needs on his shield.
But, both of you need to cover some of the lower part of the bulb facing up. From base up.
The light emitted from the Arc or a filament of a Halogen bulb hits the upper part of the reflector and since it is a parabolic reflector, the light is reflected down toward the road.

We need to play with the shape of these shields so we can find the best possible Cutoff line upwards and sideways.
By doing this you will eliminate the glare as much as possible.

 

 

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So in the pic there you wanna try cover those red bits with some sort of heat sheild correct?

What about the sheilds already in the assy?

 

 

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Yes, but the form of the "cap" depends on the shape of the reflector and the lens.
It is not going to be as easy as a triangle. It will probably look more like a Swiss Alpine road full of bends
.
Can you take a pic of the shield/s already in the assy.
It may already have some of what we are trying to achieve.
Also if possible a pic of the reflector.

By the way, this shield is only for blocking light emitted from the bulb inside the reflector. It directs light to certain areas inside the reflector which in turn bounces off the light out on the road in front of the vehicle. So it is a light shield and not a heat shield.

Ok im in the process of taking one apart now, ill post pics soon..

Last night with flash:


Spare headlight:

Hope that helps, OLD! Reflector damaged from 90/100w globes

Last edited by SIM on Sun Feb 12, 2006 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ouch, ouch and ouch again.
Are the reflectors in you car also as damaged as the one in the pics?
If they look anything like this or even a fraction as damaged as these are, stop everything.
If they are, It does not matter how much we shape or reshape the shields we will NEVER get rid of the glare.
You need a set of new or much better reflectors.
Majority of the glare is from the none existent chrome on the reflector surfaces and the milkiness of the lenses.

This is what happens when you over cook the reflector chrome with higher Wattage bulbs than recommended by the manufacturer.
Gone are the days of real metallic reflector housing and real chrome. Where you could use higher Wattage bulbs without any problems.
Now days the reflector base is made of plastic and then vacuum chromed.
All you need to do to damage the chrome is touch the surface of the reflector.
I have seen some guys even taking a rag and cleaning the chrome surface whilst taking the lens off for polishing the yellow colour gained by UV from it.
After that the reflector is totally worthless.

So how does the chrome coating on your reflectors look like?????

hehe stress less mavs mine are nothing like this one.. havent had any high wattage globes in em, thats just one i had layin around

Good, for a minute I was worried there.

OK, can you take a pic from the original shield from the direction of the arrow? Pic 1.

Here is the glare shield used by one of the more clever bulb manufacturers. This shield has shown to work fine with almost 80% of the reflectors out there. Pic 2.
I have not seen this bulb in the Land of Oz yet, but then again I have not been looking for it either.
If anyone knows where to find them, please post a line on this thread.

Now back to you SIM, the little I can see from the pic you posted earlier of the shield looks like it already has the pattern we need for cut off the light where it is not suppose to be.
All we need to do is to scale it down to fit the shield that came with your HID bulb.
Then we need to fine tune it until we get an acceptable beam pattern.

 

 

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looks like this but staighter and without black marker on it..

Just out of interest which side has the better beam pattern that u can see?

 

 

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I need to see the edge of the shield. Marked red.

They are both more or less the same.
The difference is in the hight adjustment.
Driver's side is pointing a bit lower and somewhat in towards the passenger side. Which is exactly as it should do.
The bit marked in red is the first bit of the glare blinding on coming traffic.
Almost every headlight assy has this sort of glare emitted from it, but by inserting HID bulb this problem is now magnified between 2-300%.
This could be from either the passenger or driver headlight reflector.
Can you cover one side at a time and see which one it is?
Then there is the overall glare around both headlights.

 

 

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