DIY low profile lights

Snapfrozen · Post by **Snapfrozen** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 8:36 pm

Now team, I figure someone here has to be the poor fucker who volunteers to do this. On Wednesday (My day off) I am going to undertake the task of trying to find a headlight that takes a standard H4 bulb that we can use to create a low profile headlight.

What I would like to know before I waste an entire day, is if anyone knows of ANY rectangular headlight that is readily available from a wrecker that takes an H4 bulb so I can start looking there

siren676 · Post by **siren676** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 8:45 pm

Would like to see how you get on with this, the factory lights annoy me a little with how far they stick up

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:13 pm

pretty sure Hella do a (6x4?) rectangular lamp assembly...here it is in LHD format.
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=421210

heres a couple of likely hella nz candiates:
http://www.hella.co.nz/3-188-144/produc ... eam-Insert
http://www.hella.co.nz/3-188-145/produc ... eam-Insert

and heres the 90mm round units used in the low pro kits..
http://www.hella.co.nz/3-557-136/produc ... ---24-Volt
http://www.hella.co.nz/3-557-1668/produ ... ---24-Volt

and heres a brilliant site in the states that has everything you ever want to know about lights.
http://www.rallylights.com/hella/HeadlampsMain.aspx
includng th e90mm H9 units.
http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=128 at $60 and $65 USD each they are getting tempting with the U.S exchange rate thats just US 250 for the 4 lights...

if your looking for used lenses then a commercial wrecker may be your best bet.. i think the jap import hiaces with the 4 rectangular lamps used these although not sure if they are low/high beam in one lamp though.

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:40 pm

Been planning to do it with the 1042 Hellas. By planning I mean I was going to pull stuff out and somehow make it work

there are some Hellas in germnany which are much nicer and slimmer but for lhd only

Here are a whole stack of how to guides for the rectangular lights (sexy):

http://www.diymiata.net/60-low-profile-4x6-headlights/
http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=426283
http://www.miata.net/garage/bsplow/page2.html
http://www.aus-cartalk.com/forum/viewto ... 55&t=41479
http://www.mx-5.de/html/929-scheinwerfer_in_na.html
http://forum.mx-5owners.nl/viewtopic.ph ... 75&start=0

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=421210 <-- I wish these light units came in RHD

The difference between the 1042 and 1044 Hella units is that the 1044 ones come with parking lights I believe whilst the 1042 ones don't.

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 9:44 pm

I have used the Hella 90mm for my low profile lights, and the attached photo show them when they are popped up, the height. It works out to be less than half the height of the standard light.

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 11:11 pm

Got lazy. http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.p ... 81#p688981

Born_disturbed · Post by **Born_disturbed** » Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:03 am

Snapfrozen wrote:Now team, I figure someone here has to be the poor fucker who volunteers to do this. On Wednesday (My day off) I am going to undertake the task of trying to find a headlight that takes a standard H4 bulb that we can use to create a low profile headlight.

What I would like to know before I waste an entire day, is if anyone knows of ANY rectangular headlight that is readily available from a wrecker that takes an H4 bulb so I can start looking there

Already been on this a bit...

AW11 MR2 lights will give us a 15-20% ish decrease

However Early Mitsubishi GTO lights will drop us by about 50% from eyeballing it.

Good luck! Very keen for some good ones

Mr Revhead · Post by **Mr Revhead** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:17 am

If using the Hella rectangle ones mentioned above, you will need 1044. As pointed out it has park lights in it.
You will also need 1024 mounting for them as well.
You should be able to get them for under $100 a side if you can get some trade discounts. The plus of using those is if you ever need a replacement you can get one pretty much anywhere cheaply.
These are the same as in the AW11.

Donovan, your's looks pretty damn good, how did you make the mounts and covers etc?

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:27 am

Mr Revhead wrote:If using the Hella rectangle ones mentioned above, you will need 1044. As pointed out it has park lights in it.
You will also need 1024 mounting for them as well.

http://www.hella.co.nz/3-360-1084/produ ... p-Housing-

The 1024 mounts are for the larger headlights (200x142) and not the 1044/1042 (165x100) headlights I believe.

Mr Revhead · Post by **Mr Revhead** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:41 am

Oh shoot, yeah you are right. On the same page in the book...
They don't seem to list a mounting bucket for the 165x100 then. Kinda makes that option a no-go unless you can adapt a mount off a car that uses them

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 11:35 am

Yeah I've done much looking at those headlights

The only mount I could find for the smaller lights were the dual silver ones which won't work.

That's probably why I gave up and ended up on the group buy from Aus which is getting the IL Motorsport ones shipped over for RHD

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:27 pm

Mr Revhead wrote:Donovan, your's looks pretty damn good, how did you make the mounts and covers etc?

It was based around a kit out to the US, just had to then buy the right 90mm lights, which after much searching around, cheapest was again out of the US, which was strange for a RHD car.

tomtikki · Post by **tomtikki** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 5:31 pm

Donovan wrote:
Mr Revhead wrote:Donovan, your's looks pretty damn good, how did you make the mounts and covers etc?
It was based around a kit out to the US, just had to then buy the right 90mm lights, which after much searching around, cheapest was again out of the US, which was strange for a RHD car.

Um am I being dim (sorry for the lighting pun) but why would LHD or RHD make a difference for the headlights?

-Donovan those twin 90's look great btw, I'll have to put those on the shopping list!

Mr Revhead · Post by **Mr Revhead** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 5:39 pm

Being RHD our lights dip to the left away from on coming traffic. LHD dip to the right and are illegal in nz.

Narvo do a.90mm that will suit. Not cheap though

tomtikki · Post by **tomtikki** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:02 pm

Oh, I figured that was done by adjusting the lights not by the mounts having specific directions.

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 6:55 pm

Those 90mm units use a simple blind to get the correct cutoff pattern. For us its just a matter of flipping the blind around. Pretty sure the difference between the dot and euro ones is that the euros can be pulled apart and flipped but the dot ones are sealed together

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 8:46 am

Some of the Hella 90mm lights that I could have got, had the ability to be mounted either for LHD or RHD, as they had mounting brackets that allowed for either (so I suppose just sping the light around 180) but they were a bit more expensive (for cars that travel in the EU between countries that drive on the left hand side, cross the border and on the right hand side), and since I figured I wasn't going to need to flip them around, just got the cheaper ones. The Hella units that I got from the US where about a quarter of the price of the Narva ones that I could get here that would have done the job.

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 6:55 pm

yes basically the front lens unbolts from the rear housing and there is a plate which is sandwiched which creates the cutoff shape. by simply removing it, flipping it over and refitting it will transform from LHD to RHD.
you can see in the below pic the top edge of the blind and the very small step in its height which creates the cutoff pattern

heres a site that explains it all:
http://faqlight.shopower.com/hella-90mm/

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 7:34 pm

That is very nifty

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 11:02 am

http://www.miataroadster.com/jass_perfo ... 46141.aspx

Just in case someone can't be f'd

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Mon Sep 24, 2012 11:12 am

Kieran wrote:http://www.miataroadster.com/jass_perfo ... 46141.aspx

Just in case someone can't be f'd

Yeah those are the ones I've put an order in for which should arrive in a couple of weeks. I guess will post something about how they turn out

Blaster · Post by **Blaster** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 8:58 pm

http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=54590

Might be too late to join the group buy but I thought I'd share.

Blaster · Post by **Blaster** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:35 pm

http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=54590

Might be too late to join the group buy but I thought I'd share.

Angreal · Post by **Angreal** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:35 pm

Blaster wrote:http://mx5cartalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=54590

Might be too late to join the group buy but I thought I'd share.

Look at the list of names on the group buy

SLYDIT · Post by **SLYDIT** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 9:35 pm

Angreal wrote:
Kieran wrote:http://www.miataroadster.com/jass_perfo ... 46141.aspx

Just in case someone can't be f'd
Yeah those are the ones I've put an order in for which should arrive in a couple of weeks. I guess will post something about how they turn out

we expect a build thread with lots of pics!

DIY low profile lights

DIY low profile lights

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