A lot of ideas need to be weighed in this idea. How would they be mounted to the body? I originally had my projectors mounted to the factory header panel. Of course, this destroyed the factory aiming mechanism, but the Hellas had their own aiming built in so I was ok. When I started, I was going to do them like the car in Mikey's picture. I found out that the projectors would have sat too far back into the housing creating glare (and almost no side illumination) when the projectors beam pattern hit the housing. I had even gone so far as to build a Morette style side marker. The one I built didn't have the ability to be a turn signal but that could be changed easy enough. I also lost my factory side reflectors and the sidemarker lamp (I have since added that back onto the car). Whatever was done to the sidemarker would need to have the reflector and the sidemarker built in, or the kit would need an aftermarket sidemarker/reflector. We want to stay legal dont we?
Anyway, here is a pic of the parklight I created into the factory housing. I did touch up work on it to remove the flaws that are visible in the pic. I also changed the lens because I was unhappy with what that one looked like. I used LEDs for my light source.
Back to the headlamps. Since I was unhappy with the glare that would have been created with the Morette style lamps in the position I had them in I made a new header panel out of aluminum. Doing this allowed me to raise the Hellas quite a bit. This also netted me a few more feet (10-20' maybe?) in down the road illumination, but every little bit helps. Currently, I am running the Hella 90mm lowbeams and the 90mm highbeams. I tried Milan's style of the quad projectors, and to be honest, I thought it sucked. I used the now spare projectors for foggies, but I will get to that later. So, the lamps are on aluminum panels now, I have a empty spot where the stock turn signals went. I am trying to figure out what I am going to put there, probably some DRLs. My turnsignals are near the center of the car, they are LEDs, and right now (until my LEDs from the group buy come in) are doubling as my park lamps. I am thinking of finishing the housing in aluminum or thin steel and having all of it coated. I am yet undecided if I want to leave the lenses on the Hellas intact and run the assembly without any kind of form fitting lens (think Morettes), or put some clear lenses over everything, remove the lenses off of the Hellas and have angel eyes. Im not going to go much more into what they will look like though. I will leave that up to your imagination.
Lowbeam (pardon the darkness my camera sucks). A better idea would be to look at the next two pics and subtract out the high pattern.
Lows and highs:
Highbeams only (reflector based lamps, not projectors like in Milans lamps):
All of the above pictures completely own what Ford gave us from the factory. The lowbeams put out almost twice the light that the stock pieces do. The highs put out about ~300-400 lumens more, each.
For the foggies, I am running modified 90mm lowbeams. The only downside I have run into with having a bulb that powerful for a foglamp is in foul weather (rain) I need to turn them off because they glare off the road onto the car in front of me. When they are on and the road is dry, the illumination is awesome. I can put out more power with my lows and fogs then a car with HID can emmit (~8000 lumens compared to ~6400). I would suggest that if the headlamp package comes with foggies, run the 90mm projector (I think they have a reflector based lamp too) that takes, IIRC, the H8. These bulbs only consume about 35w and still emit about ~1000 lumens. The downside would be less illumination but you would still have more then stock, and you would be running an actual foglamp instead of a lowbeam pretending to be a foglamp. If the lowbeam projectors are to be used for a fog, the cutoff shield inside needs to be changed so they can be aimed level (with a full tank of fuel and all of your usual cargo). Otherwise, if the shield is stepped like the lowbeam, you MUST aim them with a 2" drop at 25' and that will put them completely hitting the ground only about one hundred feet in front of the car. Your foreground illumination would be very bright, but it would probably blind you for distance because your eyes would be adjusted to the brightness. I would HIGHLY suggest running some kind of stone shield, after only 6 monts of road use, the lamps in the foggy spot had seen so many stone chips their lenses were almost frosted. For my newly modified foggies, I used the 3M stuff that X-Pel Automotive (
Clicky!) sells. This way I know that my ~$100+ a piece foglamps will stay clear for a long time to come. I used the 7" round pre-cut pieces and then trimmed them to fit the 5.75" lamps. My foglamps were modified because they no longer fit my bumper cover. They now have a selective yellow filter inside of them, and fit the now 5" openings in the bumper cover. I am awating a affordable source for coatings for the internals.
Beam pattern with both sets of lowbeams on. Notice the rockwall...
Here is a pic of the (ghetto) setup I used to mount the foglamps behind the openings in the pre-98 bumper. They are too heavy to mount from the bumper cover so they needed a dedicated mount. Its not pretty but who will see it? Function before form.
You can see the slightly different cutoff on the foglight in this pic. They are now perfectly flat and have more color shift:
This will give you an idea of what my new foglamp looks like. It has been painted since that picture but the paint didnt like the heat that was created inside of the lamp.
Oh, this setup is not for the faint of heart or the cheap if you try to build it yourself. So far in the project I have spent over $300 on headlights alone. That doesnt count supplies, time, etc. To give you an idea, I am currently putting a value of $100 each on the foglamps, they are not complete, and that is counting the $54 lamp that I chopped up and made fit into the new housing. I am guessing that my entire project will set me back $1,000 - $1,500 by the time I am complete. However, at that time, I will have bi-xenon projectors, angel eyes, DRLS, LED front signals, LED front markers, LED sidemarkers, LED signal repeaters, perhaps HIR highbeams (havent decided and havent priced), etc. I have also had body work to make the bumper cover accept the sidemarkers/reflectors. So far, I have kept the entire project removeable. If the car is sold, a factory header panel will go on, stock headlamps and turn signals and the headlights will be destroyed to be used in a different project.
If someone is serious about doing at least the foglamps, I do have the template for one of the lamps. You would need to make a mirror image for the other side. It would require welding, and it does require drilling into the car (nowhere visible) to mount the light. Like I said, I would HIGHLY reccoment the shields from X-Pel. I have delt with them, they are helpful, ship fast, and cheap protection for expensive lamps.
Linabby, I do still have the one park lamp. It could be used as a template for Morettes clones.
The creative can find the rest of my pictures for my old setup.
I
WILL NOT build this for anyone either. I have not completed my project and I wont do any copies until it is done. I am also not sure if I want the legal liabilities about selling aftermarket headlamps. I also dont want to go through all of the hoops to making the lamps DOT legal either. So far, mine have been built by me, the consumer, and that is legal. If I sell them then they must pass all of the laws as outlined in FMVSS 108.
If anyone is intrested in any other info that isnt covered here, feel free to PM me.
Holy [censored] that was a long reply.
How do I do that? I'll ask a veteran-that way I'll get the right answer. Thanks