New headlight mod

[Bushwack]

FWIW... Interesting modification of Reatta headlights - http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/ctd/4461131017.html

[handmedownreatta]

i like it.

[Guest 89 Maui]

Erv -

Whoever buys this car is subject to being ticketed. The Reatta like the 60's Corvettes had to have "pop up" headlights because the slope of the hood would not allow the headlights to meet the minimum height from the ground per the requirements of automotive industry. Thus by utilizing the "pop up" headlights this met the minimum height from the ground.

Woody

89 MAUI

[Booreatta]

I didn't know that. Woody is that a fed thing or just a local thing? I know the height of the front end of hot rods were once an issue, but good info to know.

Chuck Kerls

[Bushwack]

Erv -

Whoever buys this car is subject to being ticketed. The Reatta like the 60's Corvettes had to have "pop up" headlights because the slope of the hood would not allow the headlights to meet the minimum height from the ground per the requirements of automotive industry. Thus by utilizing the "pop up" headlights this met the minimum height from the ground.

Woody

89 MAUI

Chuck - That's a Fed thing.

Woody - Reatta didn't need to have pop-ups. That was a design cue. Nevertheless, for that era (even this era w/ Xenon or HID) I wonder if positioning falls out of compliance. *I* don't particularly care for this mod but thought others might. I'd prefer to see a mod where LEDs tastefully replace the front amber/parking lights and/or addition of HID headlights.

[zoltanb]

Anybody find a good hid conversion? or led (cree) conversion?

[Guest r_wright]

That doesn't seem very practical as far as proper lighting in front of the car. You have what looks like four rectangular headlights that are recessed and the front opening is very slim. The shelf in front of the lights would inhibit the down angle of the lighting towards the road.

I personally don't like the look. With the use of the partial original headlight covers it looks unprofessional. I would have welded the covers to the hood and repainted the modified hood to have a more finished look. Even then, it still wouldn't be my preference.

[wws944]

Anybody find a good hid conversion? or led (cree) conversion?

There are two LED headlights that I know of in the 6054 form factor. They are the Trucklite 27450C (http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&productId=92027) and the JW Speaker 8900 (http://www.jwspeaker.com/products/headlights/#product=100161) Pricey though.

As for HID in a 6054 form factor, I haven't seen any that seem legit.

[2seater]

I have been fiddling with doing a mod like that using Pontiac quad headlights. They will just meet the Federal minimum height requirement but the look is a bit less than desired in this app. I planned to weld in the piece of hood over the headlights with the possibility of a clear piece in the front. All the adjustments to headlight aim would be accessible with the hood raised.

[Guest Kitskaboodle]

Looks cool.

However, I have been there and done this same thing with my Fiero. Only difference was the Fiero kit came with a clear cover to replace the door. It used the same staggered Camaro light setup. As indicated above by Wright, the light cutoff was too much and general light output was below standard and even downright dangerous!! Be warned that these types of conversions are not well thought out and often of poor quality.

Notice the Craigslist seller did not mention anything about the performance of the converted lights and even mentioned he kept the original parts. My bet is that the light output is pathetic!

Anyone care to email him and ask? I wonder if he is willing to be honest and truthful about them?

Kit

Edited June 4, 2014 by Kitskaboodle
Grammer (see edit history)

[Guest Corvanti]

kind of like this Olds:

as stated above, some hood work, etc. would make it look better to smooth it out.

not anything i would want or do!!!

[Guest Dan Gibbs]

Corvanti, that pic of the Olds Cutlass is exactly what came to my mind too! The tight aperture works on that and looks to be close to the same on this Craigslist car. Not necessarily something I'd want to do, but looks interesting.

To my eye, the original headlight covers were not cut-up/modified. If you look closely at the pics, you can see that the covers here don't exactly match the curvature of the originals and "dip" in the overall slope. This indicates to me that these housings were handmade from sheetmetal (with a lil english-wheel work too) and then painted. The paint isn't an exact match either but pretty close. I say good job for the work involved, but I would have spent that time just finding a way to repair the existing problem - of course we all know about that problem here and can correct it.

For posterity's sake, here are the pics of the headlight treatment on this 1990.

Cheers,

Dan

Edited June 6, 2014 by Dan Gibbs (see edit history)

[wws944]

'Looks' are one thing. But if night time vision is a concern, those Cutlass lights are not what you want.

Here are a couple of photos of some composite Lesabre lights that saw in a Pick-N-Pull Reatta a couple of years ago:

Aiming is easily performed by unsticking the duct tape, moving the light around, then re-sticking the duct tape.

[Guest Dan Gibbs]

GOOD LORD!!! That's horribly desperate and seems to be even worse than general redneck engineering!!!