slow_90firebird

Well, I was thinking of making a new headlight setup this summer. Maybe.

My idea was to get a spare hood, and a set of headlight doors. Then, weld and grind the doors flush into the hood. Also, delete the whole headlight assemblies. Finally, put some walmart foglights in as headlights instead:

Tmic87TPI

iTrader: (3)

redraif (or something like that) did that same type of headlight conversion, do a search for his name. I know she has a cardomain with lots of pics, not sure if shes a member here or not though.

edit: heres her cardomain http://www.cardomain.com/ride/715283/12

slow_90firebird

Thats kind of where I got the idea. However, her pop-up headlight assy is still there. The part I was more instered in trying to do would be to weld the doors and the hood together. Like in the pic.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

If you figure how how to weld the cast aluminum headlight doors to the sheet metal hood,that would be a neat trick!

Mathius

Redraif is a girl. Her name is Shannon. And she never used round headlights like that photoshop.

Mathius

slow_90firebird

Well that just rained on my parade, lol. I am we could fab some sheetmetal up to work in place, but that would defeat the whole idea of making it easy lol.

Personally, I think it looks pretty cool as a photoshop. Kinda gives it a mean look. I was thinking the regtangular foglights would be used as the low-beams, and for highbeams the round ones would come on and point farther down the road. I dont even know if fog lights would be powerful enough to use for driving at night though.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

I use my fog lights only right around town, all the time. But in my area, there is practically no need for lights anyways, since there are so many city lights, building lights, etc.

The fogs are only good for maybe 10-15 feet. Try it some time. Kinda scary, if you were farther out, with less lighting. Anything faster than idle speed, and I'd be screwed! And I've already upgraded the light output from mine.

FREE lighting upgrade

Still the stock 55w bulbs. I might getting brighter bulbs later.

The_Wraith

I have flushmount headlights in my t/a. All you need to do is put in brighter bulbs.

Tmic87TPI

iTrader: (3)

my bad, I just generalize like that sometimes, didn't mean to offend anyone. I know she didn't use round headlights, but its the same basic idea so I figured I'd share it.

slow_90firebird

Stephen, I have a formula. No fog lights. I was also talking about the walmart type lights that are really called "driving lights" I just called them fogs because they are made to mount underneath with a bracket. Sorry for the confusion.

What are flushmount headlights? Got any pics? Thanks

jtmcclain

You can weld these 2 metal together but it is a pain in the rear.

From: http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.c...=148077&page=1

As one cannot weld the two so different material direct, special bi-metal (Al+St) pieces/bars/plates are commercially available. They have been manufactured by explosive bonding, sometimes microscopic amounts of other metal layers have been added on the bonding for special properties. Anyhow, these bi-metal transition pieces act as adaptor between your parts; you weld your Al part to the Al-side of the piece, likewise your St part on the St-side of the piece. For example shipbuilding industry (esp. those building large passenger vessels and special craft) is widely using this kind of bi-metal parts for joining large aluminium structures to the steel hull, e.g. deckhouses, funnels or large upper deck structures of aluminium (Al used for weight saving purposes only) to the steel hull structures. Also the same type of connecting techniques is used in gas ships having their spherical cryogenic cargo tanks made of aluminium (Moss-type LNG Carriers) where the huge tanks are fixed to the steel foundation ("skirt") by welding which is possible only by such large bi-metal bars. The Al. gas tanks are maybe examples of the largest bi-metal transition joints (Al and steel parts are 40 to 70 mm by thickness, the transition pieces being up to 100 x 200 mm by cross section) whereas the smallest 'sizes' are for connecting material thicknesses of some millimetres only, the bi-matal bar then e.g. 10 x 20 mm. Round pad-like bi-metal transition pieces are available for welding an aluminium pillar onto a steel deck, so applications are many. The availability of bi-metal pieces (which allows welding) has superseded bolted connections between Al and steel which would require in most cases (at least in shipbuilding) a galvanic insulation between the different metals against corrosion. Bi-metal joints do not suffer from any kind of galvanic corrosion.

Stephen

iTrader: (12)

Solid aluminum to steel, sure. But not CAST aluminum.

Say like....6061 to steel (but I think 6061 would still be too soft) sure.

I know you can weld cast aluminum, like intake manifolds, etc. But cast aluminum to steel? I would think the melting point of the cast aluminum of the headlight doors would be too low to weld them to the shet metal. Although the THIN metal might have such a low melt/weld point, it might be possible, but Istill doubt it.

slow_90firebird

Or you could just trace the headlight doors out on a piece of 16ga steel from home depot. Then make it so 2 of the edges fold over and get spot welded to give you that nice rounded look on the hood edge. Weld them into the hood, grind the welds, and use a skim coat of plastic to make it nice.

But that is more work than it is worth. Plus, you would have to find the right fog/driving lamps and bulbs to work. It is alot easier to make stuff fit in photoshop than in the garage.

Arizona IROC

iTrader: (4)

I bet a set of headlights from a 90s Grand Prix would fit in there. I think some Oldsmobiles had them too.

BackInBlack86

no, they're too tall to fit in the opening.

my girlfriend's Cutlass had them on it.

and my headlight doors on my T/A had steel outer panels, dont remember what the mechanism itself was, but i do remember the sheetmetal outers.