Just got done with my headlight replacement with LMC Truck headlights. They fit in the stock Firebird housing locations and allow for the conversion to 9005/9006 high intensity bulbs. All that is needed is two of the 36-0302 low beam housings and two of the 36-0303 high beam housings. The housings come with new bulbs, but I upgraded to 4200K headlight/high-beam bulbs and 4200K 880 bulbs for my fog lights to get the light bluer/whiter. LMC also sells a "heavy duty" harness, which is not needed for our cars. The wires are thicker than the GM trucks and can handle the full wattage of the bulbs.

The end result are headlights that are brighter and much more intense than the stocks. Driving at night is totally different with them! The housings are high quality glass and I expect them to last a very long time.

Pics of the final install and some other mods I made are below:







The LMC housings come with pigtail harness adapter for the new bulbs, but it plugs in to the old corroded harness and isn't very secure. Likewise, the LMC harness didn't include proper seals on the wires. (So, they will just get rusted out also.) So, I cut the old headlight connector off, and crimped on new female MetriPak 280 connectors and gray seals. (connector p/n - 12077411, seal p/n - 15324980, crimper p/n - 12085270, terminal remover p/n - 12094430)







The best part is that in the future, these new bulbs can be installed simply by lifting the hood. No need to take the housings apart any more!

 

I just did this to mine, but I threw in 100w 9005 halogen bulbs from Nokya @ 7000k

Should have came stock like this.

Also did an H3 conversion on the fog lights, and threw in 80w H3 Halogens from Nokya, again at 7000k.
The fogs have similar construction as the headlights from LMC do

 

that looks good and its amazing what some of these car designers were thinking at the time they opted for a sealed housing instead of just using same thing they did on camaros.

 

they're great improvement ove stock and im still yet to put my HID kit on them ..
i might get on that this weekend actually

 

pics/write up? lol

 

I know this is an old thread, but did you cut the wires on all of the lights & replace them with the female MetriPak 280 connectors? (Or did they only apply to the headlights?)... I am planning on doing this conversion on my WS6 & would prefer to install the MetriPak 280 connectors (instead of using the old corroded harnesses), but don't know if different sizes would be needed (for example, for the 880 fog light), or if it would be safe to order 6 total (2 for low beams; 2 for high beams; 2 for 880 fog lights).

Anyone else done this?

 

I only cut the wires to the headlights and high beams. (It gives me a direct connection and I didn't need the hotwire-syle converter to adapt the stock bulb connectors to the 9005/9006 bulbs.)

I haven't had to touch the bulbs since I wrote this thread, but I recall that the fog lights already have the metripack connector for the stock 880 bulb. I also have a super-rare Formula WS6, so I don't know if the run-of-the-mill T/A WS6 has a different set-up.

One thing if you cut the stock connectors and crimp on the metri-pak's: The stock wires are just BARELY long enough to reach the new bulbs for the LMC housings. So, taking the time to remove the stock connectors from the connector bodies and cut the wires right at the old connector will save precious fractions of an inch needed to keep some slack in the wires going to the new bulbs.

 

wssix99,

Due to you taking time to answer this post I will hold my reservations regarding your trash talking "run-of-the-mill" comment... lol

Nonetheless, thanks for you advice on the wiring... I will make sure to refrain from grabbing a beer until AFTER I meticulously cut & crimp the old wires & install the new metri-pak connectors & seals

 

Thanks for the hold on reservations. I have to check myself when talking about fog lights as I'm different than most of the other folks in the WS6 gang.

 

An update: After 6 years and almost 40K miles, we are getting some badness in the electrical department...

When I re-wired the electrical connectors, I re-used the connectors that came with the harness adapters that LMC shipped. They are garbage and so brittle that the tangs snapped off like dry spaghetti when I tried to change bulbs last week week.

As I went to change to new connector bodies, I've found that the low beam connectors were roasted to a char, like the turn signal sockets we are all familar with. I don't know if this is due to the cheap connectors that I re-used or just from the heat. We'll see - I now have proper Delphi connectors on.

^ I think it's the heat, though. My wiring is of the same vintage and the wires for the low beams are really brittle and one has cracked down to the wire. All connectors also have a good bit of corrosion on them.

So... I think I have a complete re-wire from the bulbs back to the headlight motor connectors in my future. This is fine as the stock low beam wires are really too short for modding to the 9005 connector, anyway. (When I re-wire, I'll add some longer wires.)

If anyone wants to get into playing with these connectors, here is a full list of parts and tools:

2 - 12059183 - Metri-Pack 280 9005 Bulb Connector Assembly (connector and seal)
12059182 - 9005 connector only
12059184 - 9005/9006 bulb seal only
2 - 12059181 - Metri-Pack 280 9006 Bulb Connector Assembly (connector and seal)
12059180 - 9005 connector only
12059184 - 9005/9006 bulb seal only
4 - 12059185 - 9005/9006 Metri-Pack Connector TPA
8 - 12077411 - Female Metri-Pack 280 Connector
8 - 15324980 - Grey Connector Body Seal

12085270 - Metri-Pack 280 Crimper
12094430 - Metri-Pack 280 Terminal Remover

 

I used Nokya bulbs (which admittedly run brighter/hotter than the LMC provided bulbs) and did not purchase/use the Nokya sockets, but rather kept the LMC provided ones. I also hardwired mine just like yours wssix99--although I soldered everything with heat-shrink tubing to protect it. I kind of had to, as the stock sockets were getting pretty bad, and I did not want to reuse them, just as in your case.

About a year or so later, my sockets also melted with the LMCs. It actually fused to the lead on one of the Nokya bulbs, yanking out half the filament in the extraction process, and ruining a perfectly good bulb. I was not impressed with the light quality anyway, so I upgraded to the BLS kit and have been happy with my decision ever since.

 

^ Wow. That's really bad. At first I thought about cooling to the area where these bulbs are installed, but this charring is the connector - so I hope it's just the cheap plastic in the ones in the LMC adapter. We'll see.


Compared to stock, they are still a night & day difference!

 

Recently did this LMC mod myself. I wish I had done it esrlier. Next up are HIDs.

 

Please don't become one of those incredibly annoying people who put HIDs in halogen reflector headlights and blind everyone around them. If you're going to install HIDs then get the proper projectors retrofitted.

 

LED headlight bulbs, for the LMC housings, and LED fog lights. The entire fog light is the bulb. The white light from the fog lights and headlights, is............breath taking. See thread in Appearance & Detailing.

 

Trex, where is the thread about doing LED headlights in the LMC housing? Everything I've read says leds won't fit in them? Thx

 

Some can fit, but they throw out a negatively altered beam pattern.

trex600450 claims his are "fine" but hasn't shown any proof. Kinda like all those people running HID in Halogen reflectors.

 

. I am using the Broview fanless type. I also recently added the 4.5 inch Harley Davidson lights, for fog light. With both led option in use, the light output is fantastic. And no worries of melting issues with his. All light output is white, no yellow period.

 

What VIP1 is referring to is the beam pattern produced by LED bulbs in halogen reflector housings. It's not just a case of the light output being "fantastic". It's a case of how many others are being blinded by headlights that don't have the correct beam pattern cutoff because LED bulbs don't represent the same light source as the halogen bulb filaments that the lamps were designed for. Reflector lamps are much more sensitive to light source position and orientation than projector lamps. An improper source can cause huge amounts of glare and light scatter.

 

Exactly. The reflector is designed for the filament to be in a specific spot, at the focal point of the parabolic reflector.



If that "filament" is spread out along a length of a LED bulb in a bunch of different elements, the light will scatter and not be uniform. Even if the bulb looks "brighter", the stuff down the road will end up unevenly lit. (In addition to this effect causing the blinding of innocent passers-by.)