Marty'82T/A406

Does anyone make non-pop up fixed style headlights for third gen firebirds? Getting tired of replacing the pop-up ones. Anybody have any ideas or has anyone seen this done b4? Would like a camaro front-end bolt -on and match up with the panels of a firebird? I have never been a fan of the pop-up headlights and looks like ima have to replace them again, but I would much rather find a way to have a fixed headlight. I know they make this coversion for vettes, does anyone know if they make it for birds?

MdFormula350

what is actually wrong with the headlights, if the motor still runs, it might just be that the gears are stripped.. i believe you can just buy the gears for cheap i think..

Aviator857

Ive seen someone do it them self, saw it on the internet that is, don't rember where. They took some low profile lights and mounted them under the headlight panels, then fiberglassed the bumber so that it was a little lower in the headlight spots. He then put some smoked glass over them. Looked sharp, but if you rebuild your headlight actuator you will not have any problems out of them for another 100k :-)

I think if I was going to that much trouble I would use a camaro hood also, get rid of the squares all together.

You know you can unplug the actuators, and just lock them in the up position, looks like crap though, I drove around like that for about 3 mo before I got time to fix them.

Check this site out about getting the parts to fix them.

http://www.fiero-headlights.com

AT4 T/A

Follow this link: http://www.geocities.com/jptaylor2/FIREBIRD.html

Truthfully, I'm not a big fan of this look, but it's what you were looking for. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

FyreLance

Talk to Redraif

Nasty_Bird_'90

I had that problem with my Headlight motor too. It would spin like the gear was stripped or something. So i took it apart and it turns out that the gears weren't stripped. There's a weird way the gear connects to the shaft. Its hard to explain, but i just epixied it together for now. It works. If anyone really cares, i can explain in more detail. My point is don't buy a new motor.

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

The part that seems to fail on these is the 3 urethane pucks that are between the gear ane the motor. Ecklers sells the replacement pucks made of Delrin. Check the link: http://www.ecklers.com/product.asp?p...dept%5Fid=1476

Lon

redraif

Its all hand done. Check out my website

www.cardomain.com/id/redraif

I outlined how I did the conversion. Its on page 11 (2002) mods. I took some pics and explained what I did. Its not a step by step, but most of it depends on the lights you choose for the conversion. Its alot of hand cutting and filing to get things to line up and pointing the right way.

With the headlights I wish I had found a way to mount the lights to the headlight door instead of to the plastic case. It would have made adjusting them easier. But by dumb luck, I got these to work. It was a ton of work, but well worth it for me. The time frame on the conversion was considerable. It took me a solid month of filing and grinding after work, with fitting and the like to get it going. I was lucky because the car was down with engine painting and a front suspension rebuild. It was in the winter, so you can imagine being outside grinding in the cold. No fun. The problem was all the cutting of the bracing inside to clearance the new headlights.

In retrospect, I would have not used the coolest looking fogs/driving lights and gone more with the ones that would have fit best. But its a show car so I had to give it my all. I have heard of people using the light assembly from an older grand prix or ols cutlass. They had the small headlights and turn signals for a few years. I have yet to find either car in a junk yard to compare the light assembly to our birds. That might be the way to go though. That would be DOT approved I would think, since it is a sys off another car. If you use foglights/driving lights like I did, I would recomend some that are a bit smaller. That way you will not have to cut as much as I did. The stores are starting to carry more and more small fogs and driving lights. If you decide to do it, I can detail the wiring conversion you will need to do.

Oh some have asked about passing inspections. I don't know where you live and if you have them, but...I really don't know if they would. We don't have them here. I just have to hope no cop wants to give me a hard time. If you have inspections that would pose a problem. This set up is by no means dot approved. Though it would depend if anyone would even notice. I know there was a company trying to get corvette and 4th gen headlight conversions DOT approved and at the time, it was not possible. I never got the details, but the gov is pretty picky about that stuff. They don't want to get sued for backing a product they have not tested. Though with my set up I could almost swap them if it ever came down to it. I would just have to replace the whole assembly (headlight, headlight housing, h.l. door, and h.l. bucket). I think it is about 4 big bolts, but I'm not sure. I removed it from a junk yard car in case the cops gave me an ultimatum. I need to investigate again when I go to the junk yard. I will look at the loose ones in the basement as well. I would mess with mine on the car to see, but I just got them aimed right. I have a passenger and driver complete headlight assembly in the basement for the very reason that I might get in trouble with mine.

If you want more details let me know.

redraif

A shot with them on:

Aviator857

Are they bright enough to drive at night. And technically if the running lights are DOT approved running lights, with the DOT stamp on them, the police have no ground to question it. I had a friend here in GA get a ticket for euro tail lights on a truck wich are legal, but he didn't have dot approved ones. $20 tail lights cost $96 in fines ouch.

lonsal

iTrader: (2)

Regardless of DOT approval rating, they are not being used for the purpose DOT certified them, threfore would not be legal. Lon

redraif

Yep they are bright enough to drive at night. But its up to the cops disgression what he/she decides...ticket worthy or not.

For the most part there are things being done to cars that there are no guidelines for on the books. An honest cop will tell you this, some will lie and say xyz... is illegal.

Heck, I have been stopped before because my lightbulb for my rear licence plate tag was a red. He said it was illegal. Uh why? Its red and its on the back of the car. Red can be on the back of the car. Well I played dumb and did not argue and he let me go, no ticket. Its just an excuse to pull you over. Probable cause to check up on you & to see who is driving. Same with window tint and red turn signals up front. Like someone is going to see the turn signals and think that is the rear of the car. If they think that they don't need to be on the road to begin with.

Aviator857

True you might get a ticket but if the lamps are dot aproved I would guess you would win in court. Of course if you take it to court most of the time you will get it reduced atleast. The judge would probably tell you to go back orginal.

Actually in GA atleast there is word for word law for the lights color, it was added when they made euro/clear style lights legal. You can have dot aproved clear lenses as long as you have dot approved colored light bulbs. And it specifies the colors. Just about any cop I know will ticket you for any color except white on the tag.

of course technically in GA its ilegal to lower or rase a car by more than an inch.

redraif

Yeah a buddy of mine got nailed for altered suspension and loud exhaust. I'm surprised about the bulbs. I did not know they had put that on the books. And here I was talking to a cop about it 2 wks ago at a show and he did not mention it. We were discussing bogus stops and window tint. He told me tint and colored bulbs was more an excuse to stop a person. He said the cop would have to be a real ***** to actually site the person for it. He has a bagged low rider truck. Funny, eh?

After I went round and round with East Point, I think the word about my car spread fast. Though I went to every local station near me to be sure my tint exemption was ok. There was still the occational cop that would say the tint exemption was crap and they would still give me a ticket, but they never did. Its the ones who think the badge gives them the right to be complete jerks. Most are really nice. We usually talk about showing and they check out the car, amazed at the detail and time it took. Most even want to look under the hood and check out the detailing.

Aviator857

I just relized something about your car, you took the black bumper inserts out and put a fiber carbon filler in, looks sharp, I want ground effects but I don't think they would look right with the bumpers I have. But I just found a 84 trans am that I will mod the crap out of if I can talk the guy down, he wants 1600 for the car. One of the rear 1/4 panels has alot of bondo in it. I want to get him down to 1100.

redraif

Its actually a type of plexiglass. The style that they use for florescent lights to diffuse the the light. Its got the square pocket built into it that gives it the texture you see. I got them initially with the idea of installing some type of lighting behind them, but I was never able to find anything that was skinny enough that would not cost a fortune, and would still look good when the light was not on. Neons sure, but the $$$ get up there quick for slim line bulbs.

I ended up spraying the backside of the plexi with transparent candy apple red from Testers and then backed it with crome tape. So now it reflects in when the light hits it. I had to bend the plexi with a heat gun to get it the right shape.

You can see from the pics its not as cheesy as it sounds.

Though they do make a red carbon fiber don't they? Hmmm... It could work. It sure would be easier to form. I may do that if I have to ever replace mine.