Onyx_Black_Z28

iTrader: (2)

Hey guys, the headlamps on my Camaro look AWFUL - they are a nasty shade of yellow/white from all the fogginess. I've been looking over the past few days on LS1tech/eBay/Amazon/miscellaneous online retailers and found numerous "OE Style" Replacements for the about $200-$250 a pair. I was only able to find one website - GMPartsDirect - that carried the OEM set, and they were going to be $500 a pair!!

For those of you that have replaced yours, what brand did you use? How did they fit? Would you recommend them? I greatly appreciate any feedback.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

I have Depo lights in my car (retrofitted by BLS) and they fit like my stock lights did.

ricers4breakfast

Why not just head up to walmart and buy a headlight restoration kit for like 10 bucks? Mine were terrible, I just used the kit as directed and it cleared them right up. If i had pics id post em but I'm lacking a camera at the moment

Drokkers

iTrader: (2)

i used a kit as well and it looks pretty good. but if you want new ones, i would go to 6LE website and buy the whistler headlights. Thats what i was going to do if the headlight restore kit didnt work out.

Onyx_Black_Z28

iTrader: (2)

SparkyJJO, what did those set you back? I've read more than one thread about the Depo lights (which are supposedly what GM actually carries now) not fitting right. When I saw the price of the stock ones on GMPartsDirect, I thought to myself, "hell, for that price, I'll just buy the BLS projector headlights." Lol.

Did those kits really work well for you guys? I'm surprised to hear that - I figured it was a gimmick. I guess mine could be worse, but they are pretty bad - as bad as I've seen on any other Camaro personally. But for $10-$20, I suppose that would be a good first step. If they could make a 70-80% improvement, I suppose I could live with that over $200-$300 for the assemblies. I'm going to check out the whistlers on 6LE also. Thanks for the feedback, Ricers4breakfast and Drokkers!

Did the headlight restoration kits work for anyone else?

Drokkers

iTrader: (2)

yes they work. I bought 3M's kit (should be a gold color one, a white one, and a grey one sanding pads, with a buffing pad and polish in the kit). I will post crapy cell pics but you may see a difference. I saved my money for headlights and spent it on a new SS spoiler.

Drokkers

iTrader: (2)

here are the pics, the first one is before, and the second is after. Going to be replacing the seals around the headlight soon. You need the kit though, not just the polish.

Black96z28

If you were looking at paying $500 for 'OEM' I would just pay a little extra and get the BLS kit. IIRC, they were starting at 525 shipped during the group buys.

98-02 kit on their website lists pricing for options as well. Like it says on their website, send them a message to check current pricing.

Those headlight restoration kits do work but you can buy other things separately cheaper. The kits do improve them but not to brand new looking. There has got to be a write up on wet sanding headlight lenses, If you follow one of those (not a 20 minute deal, can take over an hour per light) then you will get better results.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Well I got them via BLS already retrofitted, and since I went crazy with them they also were the most custom and most expensive set they made in the last group buy I paid like 700 bucks by the time it was all said and done but it is awesome and was worth it IMO.

Chrismikeb

iTrader: (2)

Depo headlights leave a huge gap between the bumper and the bottom of the headlight. And when I received mine the damn rubber around the headlight was coming off so u could see all the white residue from the tape that tried holding it on. U get what u pay for. I actually have a set of brand new oem headlights from a Chevy dealer, for sale. Definitely not the same headlight.

And if I knew how shitty the depo headlights were I would have sent BLS my old original lights and told them to put new lenses.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Maybe if you don't have them adjusted right they leave a huge gap. No worse of a gap than my factory lights had.

Pardon the dirty car, I just drove nearly 100 miles of interstate.

Regulator

iTrader: (7)

I just finished polishing my headlights yesterday, I used the Meguiar's Heavy Duty lens restoration kit. I had sanded the headlights before by hand but they didn't turn out worth a damn, but with the kit they look amazing. I'll get you some pictures in the morning.

Chrismikeb

iTrader: (2)

The driver side was worse. And the bottom post (that connects the light to the bracket) on the headlight is shorter than the one on the Oem headlight, which makes the gap. I had to unscrew it almost all the way to fill the gap. I have a pic of what I'm talking about but I'm not at my computer.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

My driver side one looks similar to the passenger side. A tad larger gap but again so did my factory lights.

Maybe this just means that Depo has some inconsistency in how well they fit. Oh joy.

bad_408_vert

iTrader: (6)

Sparky - so what crazy ideas can we steal from you with the headlights.

JOHNNY59

iTrader: (398)

PM sent

Regulator

iTrader: (7)

Here are my headlights after I used the polishing kit. I didn't get a before picture but they were very yellowed and oxidized. I spent about an hour or so going over them with the sanding pads, then hit them swice with the plastic polish.

Andrew1989

iTrader: (4)

I bought these just a few days ago. I am happy with them. They look great and the fitment was pretty good. I haven't level them and they probably still need a little adjusting.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/390379194963...84.m1497.l2649

Here is a small comparison picture I took.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/appearanc...headlight.html

Onyx_Black_Z28

iTrader: (2)

Wow thanks a bunch for all the feedback, guys! Johnny59 e-mailed me some photos of his that he restored. He used the method I've seen other people talk about on here using multiple stages of sand paper and then the polish - and they look nearly brand new. I have previous experience with wet sanding and buffing, so I think I'm going to give that a shot first. Money is tight right now (I just bought an MGW shifter, TWM **** and redline boot for this car a couple weeks ago LOL) so if that will work, I would much rather save $200-$250. If I could find a set for $50-$100, that may be a different story - but $200+ for ones that may or may not fit properly depending on who you ask is just a bit more than I can stomach. I hate to see the inconsistency with Depo and these other brands - very disappointing. I'll post before/after pics when I complete the sand/polish.

Thanks again guys - really appreciate the help.

Onyx_Black_Z28

iTrader: (2)

That's very close to what mine look like - but mine are a little bit worse. Glad to see you had great results with the eBay ones.