Headlight housing question

Stangman

Stangman

Project car a.d.d.
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I just got my housings out of my Mark, and I can see the chrome burnt off. But I also have another question... Should I (while I have the housing apart) Take out the deflectors on the low-beam side?

Wouldn't that give me the effect of a set of high beams? I am just about to cut them apart. So I hope I can get some answers quick on this one.

Thanks!
 
The sticky at the top of this page explains everything that you should do to fix the crappy light output on a first gen.
 
return the refractors to the low beam before sealing back together, trust me, they were put in for a reason.
 
Yeah, keep 'em in! Once you re-chrome, polish up the lenses nice and put the HID's back in you will see great! No need to permanently remove those things at all.
 
i just redid another set of headlights for a gentleman in oregon, and i will be doing the ones on my green 93 this week also since i have a new 6000k hid kit coming for it, i want them to be the best they can be, my headlights arent bad, but i know in time they will be, so screw it, its worth the day in labor i'll have to make them new again, the ones i did for my customer came out better than any of the ones i have done in the past, they look brand new.
 
Well, I went ahead and left out the deflectors. I held the housings together with rubber bands with and without the deflectors. And I liked the looks of the headlights without the deflectors. I figure it will help me out a lot, especially out in the country like I am...

All I have to do now is re-aim them (they were off before I cut them apart) and I think I will be very happy. The chroming turned out pretty decent. After I epoxied the lenses back on, I used my buffer I use for paint to buff out the lenses... WOW what a difference!

I put 2 coats of wax on them and stuckem in the car and took a ride.

unbelieveable!

I'll be doing HID's in everything I own now!

I'll definitley be going with a Bi-Xenon in my '94 and my '88
 
you shouldnt have asked if you werent going to listen anyway, what you just did was turned your low beam sockets into high beams, not only are you going to totally blast the people coming at you, but you just totally distorted your light beam, the refractor shines the light backwards to the back of the housing and the housing is shaped and ribbed in such a fashion that it disperses the light evenly and lights up the road in a certain spectrum, but bu you leaving them out, all you are going to see is what is way up the road in a narrow beam, if a deer or another animal is to run from the side of the road in front of you, you will not see it as fast as you would if your beam was more concentrated like it was from the factory, but, its your car and you made the decision, the cars flashing their lights at you constantly will be a good indication of what you did by leaving them out.
 
Don't worry, I took my refractors out as well, They do not glare or blind on coming traffic (honest) The low beams still aim low as they should & the high beams aim high. If I had it to do all over again I would have left them in, just because it throws a wider beam that is better IMO. We all live & learn though, so what can I say? The main reason that I pulled them out in the first place is because they reflect all of the heat right back onto the chrome finish, that's what helps to burn the finish off. If you look on an old headlight, only the rear portion behind the metal piece is normally burnt. Just basically trying to preserve them. As far as the HID's burning cooler, well maybe a few degrees but that's it.
 
well i'll argue till im blue in the face that it does not blast on coming traffic, how would you even know if you are the one sitting behind your housings and not having them coming toward your face? trust me, unless you aim your headlights all the way down as far as you can, you are affecting oncoming traffic. just look how your headlights are when the high beam is on, your low beam is now the exact same thing without them left inside.
 
On my 95 I was desperate for more light output and I removed the sheild in front of the low beam.
The difference in output was negligable and probably more "placebo" than any actual increase in output.

and.. after I did this.. I actually got flashed by an oncomming car.

Tiffany and I couldn't believe that the car coming the other way flash it's high beams at us..and.. we still had to play the "name what we just run over" game.
 
jamie97lsc said:
just look how your headlights are when the high beam is on, your low beam is now the exact same thing without them left inside.
Click to expand...

Well it's "ALMOST" the same.

The low beam has refractors in the lens where the beam concentration focuses..The high beam has less of the refractors in the center portion of the lens.

I thought about "milling/sanding" removing some of the fluted refractors from the low beam side.. but before I "got a round tuit" the car got stolen.

look closely at the lens in the center where the beam exits.
Low beam is different than the high beam.

AND.. of course the low beam side is gonna be dimmer due to the lack of reflective stuff in there.
 
turborich said:
I pulled them out in the first place is because they reflect all of the heat right back onto the chrome finish, that's what helps to burn the finish off. .
Click to expand...

That's a pretty good point and I agree.. for the most part.

I thought about putting some fans (computer fan) on the top of my first gen housing to pull the heat out.. but couldn't figure out how to let the heat out without letting moisture in.
 
These were brand new housings that I pulled the metal refractors out of too! I popped them lose & bent them up with two needle nosed pliers until I got them out, I never opened up the headlights.

Jamie, Because I have had others drive my car toward me just so that I could see. They don't blind you.

Regardless, I wouldn't do it again. I think the factory light pattern was better & wider. I am not telling folks to do this, I'm just saying that if it's already done don't sweat it. I am not about to fork out another $400 just to get the refractors back in there.
 
I removed my diffusers over 2 years ago before HID kits on ebay were all the rage, re-aimed them (since they were so dim with halogens before the HID's were installed it didn't matter WHERE the so-called 'beam' was pointed) and have NEVER had anyone flash their lights at me since I did the HID's-and, I can actually see where I am going, even on a very dark, rainy night.

The trimbrite I installed still looks like it did the day I installed it-nice, wide and bright light, properly aimed with lenses that i periodically maintain with polishing compound.

If I could do it over again, I might have left them in to see if it mattered at all, but I am happy with the way it turned out anyway, so...anything is an improvement over the halogens that were in it IMHO.
 
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