Yes I have done a search. The neo 914's hellas are about $700. I do not plan on driving this car at night and I have removed the factory headlight buckets . I would like some light to come on when I flip the switch so they appear legal.

I've been using my light wt driving lights to replace the standard headlights. It gets me to the autocross in the early morning hours and so far I haven't really needed them at night. FWIW

Thats good, but you still have the standard headlights if the police give you a hard time.

I used some cheap ebay driving lights to mock up mine. They worked so good, I kept them in.
Anything you do will be full custom. The key is having a parobolic lens. Many cheap ones have poor polishing and look spotty at night.

BTW, I drove in the SF Bay Area for years with only the stock driving lights. My pop ups were broken. Never got pulled over.

Not exactly in the turn signal. That route looks most difficult. These are Nissan 240sx, cut down and fiberglassed. The small round lens on the inside is the HID low beam. It would fit in the turn signal area. It would take some master metalwork to really look good "frenched". A clear/smoked flat plastic lens could be fabricated and this could sit on a bracket in the fender well.

Edit: The "halo" LED surround is actually the halogen lamp on the left, sectioned and applied to the driving light.

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Thanks Mike. So Nissan 240 sx low beams will fit. Our turn buckets are 2 3/8" at their widest. I don't mind cutting.

I think I have something that will fit with minimal work... I think. PIAA 492 004XT Series Xtreme White Round Silver Driving Lamp. What do you guys think?

Oh yea, new $127 on Amazon.

If you just want something that looks like passable light in that space, go LED. Bright enough nowadays, no heat problems, and cheaper.
If you want REAL light, don't fuck with the turn signals. Larger lenses and reflectors make a million times more light.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/12V-55W-H3-Univers...#ht_3914wt_1249

This is what I used...

Mike those will fit with some big cutting. They get a lot wider going back. The price they list does not include ballasts or bulbs. I still like the PIAA I found, but I am going to look at leds and see if I can get ones to fit. Iirc polycorbonate has a high melting point? Higher than H3s??? Thanks for your help Mike.

They come with H3 lamps. There is a guy in San Jose that sells HID kits cheap; Around $40 pair. Good quality and he's on Ebay. Just narrow the search to san jose to find him. These lights are all metal and glass. No plastic.

So this may be a dumb question. These Piaa lights are tinted blue. I know that I've seen cars on the road with blue lights. Will the fact that they are blue draw attention from law enforcement? During the day?

I'd say that you would be safe running those lights especially in our area.

Mike

Hey Mike! Ha, legal in Sonoma county, but not CA?
Are you coming to the swap on Saturday?

Hey Andy,
I'll be there!!

Cool Mike! I spoke with the PIAA guys today. The lenses on the lights pictured above are clear. The blueish bulb makes the lens appear blue in the photo.

oops double post

I got my light and trimmed the plastic housing on my belt sander. I also took off the mounting brackets.

Where's the pic of the light IN the turn bucket?

I ground off 6 protrusions (they look like tits on new tires but of course they were metal) on the inside of the turn bucket so their was more room. Otherwise these lights fit snug in the turn buckets with no other grinding! I drilled a hole in the back of the buckets the same od as the hole in the back of the new lights. I am reusing the rubber grommet that I took off the new lights.

I ground down the back side just enough so that it barely sticks out past the horizontal plane of the outside of the bucket. Yes flat lexan will be coming my way. They are snug in there.

I was planning on running one of those yellow bulbs for a running/turn light. I was thinking for "headlight" adjustment another small hole on the bottom of the bucket directly below the new lights housing. One long screw coming in from outside the bucket housing and a couple of small screws on the "light" housing....or just point them where I want them (by hand with the lexan cover off) and squirt some seam sealer under the light to hold them. Probably good enough for a track car!

What do you plan to do for indicators? Still as normal?
I wouldn't want to intrude much into the space they occupy on a road car

Cool! Looks like it's coming together.

Before you put a bunch of work into forming Lexan covers, I'd place a piece over the top and leave the light on for an hour or so to confirm that the heat production of the lamp doesn't damage the lexan. You may want to add some 'breather' holes on the top and bottom.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-MINI-STALK-MOT...09938%26ps%3D54

how about something like this for the turn signals? maybe remove/modify the housing to allow the lens to be jammed up near the top edge...

how are you going to shape the lexan? I've been looking into using a pair of 60mm Hella Hi/Lo projectors in the buckets, modifying the lift to halfway, but I'd rather go with the turn signal mounting location instead... keep us updated..

Thanks Mark. Its good to be almost done. I think I am going to stick with flat pieces of Lexan for now. That is some good advice to see if this stuff melts. I asked the techs at PIAA how hot these lights will be. Of course the bulb burns at something like 4000 kelvin. The best I could get from these guys is under 200* F. Most people mount them 1/2" below a plastic bumper with no issues. I plan on using the stock location for turn indicators, but with yellow bulbs. I was at Napa auto parts and I saw some that looked correct.

Any updates?

This has been done for a while. Buckets polished out and clear coated with a POR 15 Glisten PC clearcoat.

The headlight is snug in there. If I wanted it to adjust I could drill a hole through both housings with a long screw from outside and two nuts on the lens assembly. NAPA autoparts orange bulb.

Flat Lexan cover, cut on band saw. Belt and hand sanded for final shape. One of AA repro seal. It's a nice fit and reasonably priced, just like the repro rubber elbo for the backside.

Oops double post.

I used the rubber grommet from the PIAA lights on the back of the turn bucket. I glued the electric covers back on with 3M seam sealer.

I put some of the original PIAA plastic tubing and plug back on the wire ends and wrapped it with silicon tape.

The front!

Look out!!

Are the lights bolted or just wedged into the housing? A few miles down the road they may be pointing at the sky...

They couldn't go very far they would hit the outer cover. I do not plan on driving this at night.

Wait, what?
Q. Are they bolted in or just wedged into the housing?
A. They couldn't go very far they would hit the outer cover. I do not plan on driving this at night.

I guess I missed the point. How are they mounted / adjusted?

You need lights to legally drive on the road. I meet that requirement. I mentioned in a previous post that with a little more work they could be made to adjust with a long thin screw through both housings and a nut on either side of the PIAA. I got tired of this project and it is enough for now and can be revisited later.

Vent the lamp housing with a 1/16th inch hole at the lower rear of the bucket. It will keep the lexan lense from leaking and heat crazing.

Cut off the handle and JB Weld. 1,000,000 candlepower gets the job done

I love it.

Other than not having high beams, how does the illumination compare with the OEM head lights?



$128. with free shipping on Amazon

I haven't driven the car yet, but the lights seem to be brighter than the stock units.

Andy, did you have to cut out the headlight wells to allow the hood to fit?

I didn't have to, but I did. I think it would have fit over them without any problems.

Like your set up, I totaly know what you are doing it's probably a track or auto cross car that you drive to and from the track instead of trailing. And you want it look legit/legal to be on the street so you don't get pulled over and get a VI....


WHat are the specs on you build? engine, wheels, do you have a link to your build I like everything butwouldmaybe make that mesh black instead.

I've had this idea since the 914s first hit the market. I never did like the pop-up headlights (and still don't).

Andy's modified lights appear to sit at a height very close to the stock headlights. Since 914s are fairly scarce, and many cops today have no idea what a 914 is anyway, one with modified headlights and a hood that eliminates any evidence that there were pop-up headlights there previously, may not even raise an eyebrow

I was looking at some Yamaha R6 headlights a while back. They have both high and low beam bulbs and I believe they would fit the turn signal bucket with a little trimming on the R6's reflectors. They'd appear to be a little more 'legal' since they are DOT approved headlights.

The reason I asked if the original headlight wells were retained was just in case I was cited and would need to convert back to original lights.

I would also see if the clear (Italian) turn signal lenses could hold up to the heat ... as they look more 'stock' than flat lenses do

Dasnowman, you hit it on the head. Here is a link to my build:F-914

Euro911, I do not think those Italian lenses are that clear. If you had to I bet you could make some brackets that clip to the front of the car to temporaily mount your headlight for inspection.

Yea I couldn't go back. Not easily anyway: No wiring or bucket assemblies.

Looks good!

I have always liked your innovative ways of doing things.

Your car is looking great.

John