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| Hyena |
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My latest stroll down mod street has seen me yank out and open up my headlights so I thought I'd post up some pics for those that may be interested.
Getting them open aint so hard, I just whacked them in a the oven for about 10 mins each and they prized open fairly easily with a butter knife. There's ALOT of black goey rubbey glue holding them together, and I didn't manage to get it all out/off the joining surfaces because it started to set as it cooled but there should be enough out to re-seal it. There's 3 layers inside the headlights, the outer plastic lens, a chrome dress piece behind that and then the body of the headlight which houses the reflectors and globes. 
An up close look at the main beam shows the chrome on the relfector is looking a bit flakey but will probably be ok, but of more concern the deflector cap thingy-ma-jig blocking alot of the light from the bulb. I'm wondering how the headlights would go without this in place. I know alot of different types of headlights have something like this in place, or a darkened tip on the bulb or something but this seems like it'd block alot of the foward light. I dunno, anyone more knowledgable on the topic ? 
Now to try some more intensive polishing on the lenses which keep yellowing despite sanding and polishing ever few months. 
Ok yeah, I'm going to paint the surrounds black when they go back in, and fit more bigger, brighter LEDs for the parkers. 2x 10mm 80,000mcd white LEDs in each side should do the trick 
(my parkers are going to wind up brighter than my main beams  )
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| Rapier |
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finds som projectors to mould in there
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| Andrew J |
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Painting it black probably wont look any good! but if its your wish its your decision. Id say the cap is to reflect the light back onto the reflector, and the globes with the black tip... Well, the black tip is actually a mirror on the inside
_________________ The problem with America is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
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| blackjack_original |
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Posts: 3516 Joined: 8th Nov 2004 |
[self-deleted]
Last edited by blackjack_original on Fri Jun 06, 2014 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total. |
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| data_mine |
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agreed with blackjack. It allows the beam to be focused.
_________________ 1998 DL LTD in Sparkling Burgundy, daily, 302W, stereo, slow |
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| Happy |
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bake on 180 degrees for 10mins for medium rare ... lol that defelctor cap is to limit direct light and make is reflect only back out to the front.. if you take it off you'll burn a hold through your lens..
_________________ Owning 1 of 67612 EF GLi Sedans made
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| EFFalcon |
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i've seen the black surround done beofre, it looks good.
_________________ FALCN6 - EF GLi Turbo, 20" Rims, Air Bag Suspension, Straight LPG, 225rwkw |
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| Hyena |
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OK, no removey the cap
They didn't totally fit in the oven blackjack, the door was open about 2" at the top because I couldn't quite shut it but it still put enough heat into them to melt the glue. Yeah the black surround should look ok, something like this artists impression
(keeping in mind the car will be phantom purple in a few weeks) 
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| XR~ADZ |
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I like the black surrounds mate.
Looks like my headlight protectors (see my gallery) But at least your way is permanant
_________________ "This is FORD country.... Where on a quiet day you can hear the HOLDENS rusting...." |
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| Mechan1k |
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Damn ... while you had it open ... you should have moulded in some Honda Euro projectors and used the HID system ... then you'd have a killer set of headlights
_________________ 04 Territory TX AWD - Winter White - optioned up |
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| EFFalcon |
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yeah you should have.. coz i'm sure that woulda been a real cheap way to go!
_________________ FALCN6 - EF GLi Turbo, 20" Rims, Air Bag Suspension, Straight LPG, 225rwkw |
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| Mechan1k |
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EFFalcon wrote: yeah you should have.. coz i'm sure that woulda been a real cheap way to go!
If you know where to get a set .. it's actually pretty damn cheap ... otherwise you can get the full kits from the US ... literally brand new Audi TT or BMW X5 headlights for a couple hundred dollars ... everything included ... they will give you the best beam pattern you can possible get on the road. Much safer than Halogen.
_________________ 04 Territory TX AWD - Winter White - optioned up |
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| mavs19 |
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Hyena wrote: My latest stroll down mod street has seen me yank out and open up my headlights so I thought I'd post up some pics for those that may be interested.
Getting them open aint so hard, I just whacked them in a the oven for about 10 mins each and they prized open fairly easily with a butter knife. There's ALOT of black goey rubbey glue holding them together, and I didn't manage to get it all out/off the joining surfaces because it started to set as it cooled but there should be enough out to re-seal it. There's 3 layers inside the headlights, the outer plastic lens, a chrome dress piece behind that and then the body of the headlight which houses the reflectors and globes. An up close look at the main beam shows the chrome on the relfector is looking a bit flakey but will probably be ok, but of more concern the deflector cap thingy-ma-jig blocking alot of the light from the bulb. I'm wondering how the headlights would go without this in place. I know alot of different types of headlights have something like this in place, or a darkened tip on the bulb or something but this seems like it'd block alot of the foward light. I dunno, anyone more knowledgable on the topic ? Now to try some more intensive polishing on the lenses which keep yellowing despite sanding and polishing ever few months. Ok yeah, I'm going to paint the surrounds black when they go back in, and fit more bigger, brighter LEDs for the parkers. 2x 10mm 80,000mcd white LEDs in each side should do the trick (my parkers are going to wind up brighter than my main beams )Looking at the close up of your reflectors, it seems that you have used much higher wattage bulbs than recommended. Hmmmmmm. That is probably why the “chrome on the reflector is looking a bit flakyâ€. Unfortunately, because of this your beam pattern has been effected. The “deflector cap thingy-ma-jig†is there for a very good reason. Don’t remove it. What you could do is to visit a wrecker and find the version that is made of chromed metal and change yours with them. Not only it is going to look better, but also it is going to reflect the light emitted from the top of the bulb better back to the main body of the reflector thus giving a much clearer beam spread and a sharper cut off point. By the way you can buy that “gooey rubbery glue “ stuff. We always replace all of the old “gooey rubbery glue†with new one. Make sure you got enough of it to properly reseal the lens or it will be leaking at the first sight of water and you don’t want that would you? AND, I totally agree with Mechan1k. Do it now that you have removed the lens. Otherwise you will have to do it all again. Especially now that your reflectors are damaged and “looking a bit flakyâ€. And since you are about to respray the car, you could do the same with the reflector housing. Instead of black do something different.
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| Hyena |
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It's not all back together yet, I'm waiting on some new high intensity LEDs to arrive to fit to the parkers (from the inside) before I put it all back together.
I've been thinking about the HID thing for ages but it seems like alot of hassle to do a conversion from another model and then getting the lenses to align properly is going to be hard too. I was going to just get a H1 replacement HID kit, but if my reflectors are buggered then they're still going to be suboptimal. There's also the option of a whole new set of aftermarket headlights if it doesn't work out, and they're only $150 delivered so not that expensive. I'll look more into the complete HID swap over though. I've gotta find some small projectors that'll fit into the somewhat narrow EF lights... As for the flakeyness, I didn't use brighter bulbs than recommended, but I suspect the previous owner did because the plastic connectors on the back of the bulb spade connectors was melted off. I'm also going through alot of headlights - 4 sets a year or so which is annoying. I've been using the standard 55w globes, but I suspect what ever damage has occured is already done. Mavs what is best to use to reseal the lights up ? I was going to use black mastic windscreen sealer - or is that stuff silicon based (It didn't mention it on the packet ?)
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| Mechan1k |
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Hyena wrote: It's not all back together yet, I'm waiting on some new high intensity LEDs to arrive to fit to the parkers (from the inside) before I put it all back together.
I've been thinking about the HID thing for ages but it seems like alot of hassle to do a conversion from another model and then getting the lenses to align properly is going to be hard too. I was going to just get a H1 replacement HID kit, but if my reflectors are buggered then they're still going to be suboptimal. There's also the option of a whole new set of aftermarket headlights if it doesn't work out, and they're only $150 delivered so not that expensive. I'll look more into the complete HID swap over though. I've gotta find some small projectors that'll fit into the somewhat narrow EF lights... As for the flakeyness, I didn't use brighter bulbs than recommended, but I suspect the previous owner did because the plastic connectors on the back of the bulb spade connectors was melted off. I'm also going through alot of headlights - 4 sets a year or so which is annoying. I've been using the standard 55w globes, but I suspect what ever damage has occured is already done. Mavs what is best to use to reseal the lights up ? I was going to use black mastic windscreen sealer - or is that stuff silicon based (It didn't mention it on the packet ?) Speak to Dave MRE-40L ... he has been able to source projectors to fit the EF/EL headlight (even the narrower Fairmont headlight) ... I am still sourcing HID projectors for mine ... its a case of finding the whole kit with ballasts/wirintg/globes/shields/projectors ... etc. It's going to be a slow process for me as my spare time is limited .. but i will get there sometime.
_________________ 04 Territory TX AWD - Winter White - optioned up |
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