Let there be light... I can see... Finally!
10-17-2009, 05:57 PM
#1
Let there be light... I can see... Finally! I've recently been having a ton of lighting issues with my 95 Camaro that I DD. Out of the front 6 lights, 1 of my normal headlights, 1 high beam, and 1 fog light were all out. I was also having rear electrical issues with my zero of the bulbs in my passenger side tail light not working. I've fixed this and then some.
At first I went to discount auto to get some bulbs or so I thought. I got there only to find that they don't sell the bulbs by themselves as they are, "non removable" BS I later found out. I looked at the prices and they were around $30 a pop for the low beam and high beam reflectors with bulbs. I wasn't too apt to spend $60+ dollars on two lights and remembered that I had a bunch of random bulbs at home. When I bought my 93 Camaro the guy I bought it from gave me a ton of parts to put it back together, everything from fuel filters, water pump, wipers, and light bulbs.
I got home and checked them out. I checked them out to find that I had 2 BNIB Sylvania fog light bulbs and three high beam bulbs. Two of the high beams were Sylvania 60W and the other one was a no name 51W. I decided to use the Sylvania ones, but quickly noticed a couple things:
The first issue was that for some odd reason the bulbs are glued into the lighting fixtures. That was an easy fix considering that the bulb didn't work any ways. I just pried it out. It just didn't break evenly and left an odd shape:
I then noticed that for some odd reason out of the four head lights I have they are three different brands all having their own mounting system for the bulb. This is the bulb that came out of my other low beam:
This one was truly removable by the way and all I had to do was twist.
These are the new bulbs that I put into the low beam sides:
Here are a couple comparison shots of the old bulb with the white stuff on it and the new bulb:
The new bulbs had these three pieces that stuck out and the flanges were much thicker on them:
I started grinding with a dremel tool to make them fit inside of the ring:
While doing so I noticed that the plugs for the high beam bulbs are different than those for the low beams. The high beams have two pieces of plastic that stick out compared to one central one for the low beam side. That was an easy fix and again broke out the dremel:
Once I got it ground to the right size I used this yellow adhesive I had to hold it in place temporarily:
I then used hot and crazy glue to permanently seal it.
At first I went to discount auto to get some bulbs or so I thought. I got there only to find that they don't sell the bulbs by themselves as they are, "non removable" BS I later found out. I looked at the prices and they were around $30 a pop for the low beam and high beam reflectors with bulbs. I wasn't too apt to spend $60+ dollars on two lights and remembered that I had a bunch of random bulbs at home. When I bought my 93 Camaro the guy I bought it from gave me a ton of parts to put it back together, everything from fuel filters, water pump, wipers, and light bulbs.
I got home and checked them out. I checked them out to find that I had 2 BNIB Sylvania fog light bulbs and three high beam bulbs. Two of the high beams were Sylvania 60W and the other one was a no name 51W. I decided to use the Sylvania ones, but quickly noticed a couple things:
The first issue was that for some odd reason the bulbs are glued into the lighting fixtures. That was an easy fix considering that the bulb didn't work any ways. I just pried it out. It just didn't break evenly and left an odd shape:
I then noticed that for some odd reason out of the four head lights I have they are three different brands all having their own mounting system for the bulb. This is the bulb that came out of my other low beam:
This one was truly removable by the way and all I had to do was twist.
These are the new bulbs that I put into the low beam sides:
Here are a couple comparison shots of the old bulb with the white stuff on it and the new bulb:
The new bulbs had these three pieces that stuck out and the flanges were much thicker on them:
I started grinding with a dremel tool to make them fit inside of the ring:
While doing so I noticed that the plugs for the high beam bulbs are different than those for the low beams. The high beams have two pieces of plastic that stick out compared to one central one for the low beam side. That was an easy fix and again broke out the dremel:
Once I got it ground to the right size I used this yellow adhesive I had to hold it in place temporarily:
I then used hot and crazy glue to permanently seal it.
Last edited by Beaflag VonRathburg; 10-19-2009 at 02:13 AM.
10-17-2009, 05:57 PM
#2
I then moved onto the driver's side housing that had the removable bulb. I broke out the dremel again and ground the **** out of the bulb to make it fit into the housing:
Yes, I dremeled my thumb.
The driver's side has this plastic ring with three pieces that stick towards the middle to retain the bulb. I made it to where the bulb has three low spots so as you twist it will engage the pieces of the ring:
I just had to reattach the light housings to the car and test them out. I will say that the small metal hooks that hold the bottom of the head lights together are a gianormous pain in the ***. It took me a long time to get them reattached.
Once I got them in I decided to test out my one high beam bulb that still worked versus my new Sylvania 60W bulbs. The normal high beam bulb is on the right and the new bulbs are on the left:
Ungodly bright:
I then took the car outside and decided to do some cutoff testing on the lights and make sure I am not going to be blinding people. Out of the box the headlights were pretty good, but the fog lights were way off.
These are the low beams only:
This is an odd picture, but shows the cutoff of the light. It is nice and low as not to blind people:
As I said before the fog lights were way way off:
This is both with a little adjustment to them:
Here are just the fog lights after I adjusted them:
This is the final result as of now:
Before anyone says anything about the cutoff being horrible, I would like to point out that there is a street light to the right of where the pictures were being taken. Those giant posts you see in all of the pictures hold my deck up. The way the street light shines in makes a diagonal line of light from the top right to the bottom left of every picture. It makes it look like the headlights have some odd angle to the light they project.
So far I am pretty happy with them. I still think they need more adjustment, but I was kind of done messing with it last night. I also managed to fix my tail light issue that was simply one of the wires going into the tail light connectors had come out. I plugged it back in and now I can drive around with out fear of getting pulled over for a light being out.
I do still have to do the high beam bulbs. I went and bought the brightest 4100K bulbs that I could find and plan on modifying them to fit my high beam sides. I am sure that this is illegal, but with all of these people now driving around with their OEM HID / Projector headlights I have no issues with this.
I took the car out and drove it around to see what it is like to actually be able to see out of an Fbody. I drove by a couple new cars that had head lights that looked exactly like mine. I was driving around for a while and didn't get flashed or have any issues. I have to say having all of my lights work and now brighter than ever it is extremely nice.
Comment away....
Yes, I dremeled my thumb.
The driver's side has this plastic ring with three pieces that stick towards the middle to retain the bulb. I made it to where the bulb has three low spots so as you twist it will engage the pieces of the ring:
I just had to reattach the light housings to the car and test them out. I will say that the small metal hooks that hold the bottom of the head lights together are a gianormous pain in the ***. It took me a long time to get them reattached.
Once I got them in I decided to test out my one high beam bulb that still worked versus my new Sylvania 60W bulbs. The normal high beam bulb is on the right and the new bulbs are on the left:
Ungodly bright:
I then took the car outside and decided to do some cutoff testing on the lights and make sure I am not going to be blinding people. Out of the box the headlights were pretty good, but the fog lights were way off.
These are the low beams only:
This is an odd picture, but shows the cutoff of the light. It is nice and low as not to blind people:
As I said before the fog lights were way way off:
This is both with a little adjustment to them:
Here are just the fog lights after I adjusted them:
This is the final result as of now:
Before anyone says anything about the cutoff being horrible, I would like to point out that there is a street light to the right of where the pictures were being taken. Those giant posts you see in all of the pictures hold my deck up. The way the street light shines in makes a diagonal line of light from the top right to the bottom left of every picture. It makes it look like the headlights have some odd angle to the light they project.
So far I am pretty happy with them. I still think they need more adjustment, but I was kind of done messing with it last night. I also managed to fix my tail light issue that was simply one of the wires going into the tail light connectors had come out. I plugged it back in and now I can drive around with out fear of getting pulled over for a light being out.
I do still have to do the high beam bulbs. I went and bought the brightest 4100K bulbs that I could find and plan on modifying them to fit my high beam sides. I am sure that this is illegal, but with all of these people now driving around with their OEM HID / Projector headlights I have no issues with this.
I took the car out and drove it around to see what it is like to actually be able to see out of an Fbody. I drove by a couple new cars that had head lights that looked exactly like mine. I was driving around for a while and didn't get flashed or have any issues. I have to say having all of my lights work and now brighter than ever it is extremely nice.
Comment away....
Last edited by Beaflag VonRathburg; 10-19-2009 at 02:15 AM.
10-18-2009, 12:17 AM
#6
Copy & Paste Moderator
I've seen something similar done before and its a good upgrade over the stock 1993-1997 Camaro headlights.
Are you using 9005 bulbs in all four reflector housings? 9005 is a high beam bulb. You should be using 9006 in the low beam reflector housings and 9005 in the high beam housings. The 9006 & 9005 bulb may look similar, but the 9006 bulb has a black cap. It helps in producing a more defined low beam pattern. It does make a difference in the sealed beam housings. I experimented a bit a while back with the Firebird's housings and noticed that when the high beam bulb was in the low beam housing it made a less defined beam pattern that had more light higher in the beam close to a high beam in pattern, but not quite.
It sounds like the mod you did is similar to this guy:
http://www.performanceworks1.com/headlightmod.htm
http://forum.camarov6.com/showthread.php?t=81804
The housings he used in that link were glass. Sometimes you can find metal housings which may be easier to work with.
In regards to aiming, it looks like your lights are aimed into one spot in the center of the car or is that only one bulb on? If all the bulbs are on and you only have that one bright spot, they aren't aimed properly. You should see individual bright spots (one per bulb). Basically, the beams should fire out fairly parallel with the car and not aimed towards the center. Aiming slightly inward may help with distance vision, that that is only a slight inwards aim, barely noticeable at the distance in these pictures. I typically aim the parallel.
Basically this is what you should see:
Low beams only:
--+------+--
Low + High
--++----++--
Are you using 9005 bulbs in all four reflector housings? 9005 is a high beam bulb. You should be using 9006 in the low beam reflector housings and 9005 in the high beam housings. The 9006 & 9005 bulb may look similar, but the 9006 bulb has a black cap. It helps in producing a more defined low beam pattern. It does make a difference in the sealed beam housings. I experimented a bit a while back with the Firebird's housings and noticed that when the high beam bulb was in the low beam housing it made a less defined beam pattern that had more light higher in the beam close to a high beam in pattern, but not quite.
It sounds like the mod you did is similar to this guy:
http://www.performanceworks1.com/headlightmod.htm
http://forum.camarov6.com/showthread.php?t=81804
The housings he used in that link were glass. Sometimes you can find metal housings which may be easier to work with.
In regards to aiming, it looks like your lights are aimed into one spot in the center of the car or is that only one bulb on? If all the bulbs are on and you only have that one bright spot, they aren't aimed properly. You should see individual bright spots (one per bulb). Basically, the beams should fire out fairly parallel with the car and not aimed towards the center. Aiming slightly inward may help with distance vision, that that is only a slight inwards aim, barely noticeable at the distance in these pictures. I typically aim the parallel.
Basically this is what you should see:
Low beams only:
--+------+--
Low + High
--++----++--
Last edited by VIP1; 10-18-2009 at 12:25 AM.
10-18-2009, 09:33 AM
#7
I've seen something similar done before and it’s a good upgrade over the stock 1993-1997 Camaro headlights.
Are you using 9005 bulbs in all four reflector housings? 9005 is a high beam bulb. You should be using 9006 in the low beam reflector housings and 9005 in the high beam housings. The 9006 & 9005 bulb may look similar, but the 9006 bulb has a black cap. It helps in producing a more defined low beam pattern. It does make a difference in the sealed beam housings. I experimented a bit a while back with the Firebird's housings and noticed that when the high beam bulb was in the low beam housing it made a less defined beam pattern that had more light higher in the beam close to a high beam in pattern, but not quite.
It sounds like the mod you did is similar to this guy:
http://www.performanceworks1.com/headlightmod.htm
http://forum.camarov6.com/showthread.php?t=81804
The housings he used in that link were glass. Sometimes you can find metal housings which may be easier to work with.
In regards to aiming, it looks like your lights are aimed into one spot in the center of the car or is that only one bulb on? If all the bulbs are on and you only have that one bright spot, they aren't aimed properly. You should see individual bright spots (one per bulb). Basically, the beams should fire out fairly parallel with the car and not aimed towards the center. Aiming slightly inward may help with distance vision, that that is only a slight inwards aim, barely noticeable at the distance in these pictures. I typically aim the parallel.
Basically this is what you should see:
Low beams only:
--+------+--
Low + High
--++----++--
Are you using 9005 bulbs in all four reflector housings? 9005 is a high beam bulb. You should be using 9006 in the low beam reflector housings and 9005 in the high beam housings. The 9006 & 9005 bulb may look similar, but the 9006 bulb has a black cap. It helps in producing a more defined low beam pattern. It does make a difference in the sealed beam housings. I experimented a bit a while back with the Firebird's housings and noticed that when the high beam bulb was in the low beam housing it made a less defined beam pattern that had more light higher in the beam close to a high beam in pattern, but not quite.
It sounds like the mod you did is similar to this guy:
http://www.performanceworks1.com/headlightmod.htm
http://forum.camarov6.com/showthread.php?t=81804
The housings he used in that link were glass. Sometimes you can find metal housings which may be easier to work with.
In regards to aiming, it looks like your lights are aimed into one spot in the center of the car or is that only one bulb on? If all the bulbs are on and you only have that one bright spot, they aren't aimed properly. You should see individual bright spots (one per bulb). Basically, the beams should fire out fairly parallel with the car and not aimed towards the center. Aiming slightly inward may help with distance vision, that that is only a slight inwards aim, barely noticeable at the distance in these pictures. I typically aim the parallel.
Basically this is what you should see:
Low beams only:
--+------+--
Low + High
--++----++--
I currently only have the low beam projects and the fog lights in the car. The low beam reflectors have the 9005 bulbs in them. The simple reason being that I already had them and it didn't cost me anything to install them, but a bunch of time and part of my thumb.
I knew right away looking at it that it was a high beam bulb, but decided to do it anyways. I figured I already had it and it couldn't be much brighter than the HID and projector headlights new cars are coming with from the factory.
In driving around with them I have noticed a different beam pattern like you are talking about. It definitely is a straight forward beam. There is very little horizontal lighting, but I think it has to do with how I have them adjusted also.
In those links those housings look similar to mine. I think they just left the metal part in the car to work on it. I honestly didn't think of that and it would have saved me a ton of time trying to reattach those metal hooks on the bottom and readjusting the lights.
I know the beams of the lights are aimed wrong. I think I am going to actually try to aim the beams outwards and slightly raise it some to get a better range of vision. I actually think the driver's side bulb isn't in there all the way. I think the stuff I used to stick it together may have melted. I can see a lot of light reflecting back towards the engine when I pop the hood. I just had to get them in the car to drive to work last night. I have to work overnight again tonight, but have Monday and Tuesday off so I will be going back over everything and sealing them in there properly.
I still have the high beams to do also. I bought a set of the 9005 Silverstar Ultra 4100K bulbs to put in the high beam side. They cost me around $34 as they were $8ish off. For me this is still better than paying $30+ a piece for housings with a bulb. I am going to leave the 9005 bulbs in the low beam side for now as I'd rather not buy replacements for brand new bulbs and they work pretty well.
I'll give up a slight disadvantage to the 9006 bulb, but take the massive advantage over an OEM bulb. When ever they eventually go out I will put a 9006 bulb in there and do it the right way. I'll have to look around to see if I have a picture of it with the stock lighting for comparison purposes. Those other ones are pretty good, but it doesn't really translate well to really seeing how large of a difference it makes when you are in the car.
I will try to avoid dremeling my finger again. It took me a couple seconds to really realize that I had done it. I had the thing going at full speed with a carbide metal cutting bit on it. It basically went straight through my finger nail and top of my thumb.
EDIT: I also want to wire the fog lights to stay on when I trigger the high beams. After that my front lighting issues will be completely resolved.
Last edited by Beaflag VonRathburg; 10-19-2009 at 02:19 AM.
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10-19-2009, 02:23 AM
#9
I am going to go back through everything tonight (I guess) when I get up. I am going to make sure my passenger side bulb is in there properly, use some sort of RTV to seal the driver's side, and realign the lights. I'll take some more pictures of the proper way to do everything now that I have some good links to follow.
