Modern Headlights

[bianchini]

I'd be interested. My top questions would be: 

 

- adaptability - how much work will it take to get them to fit in the current config? ballasts, plug and play, upgrading fuses, etc

- cost - price of a kit? 

- adjustments/ fine tuning - everyone's car is a little different, so how universal will you make them to dial in beam pattern, look, etc. 

 

Cheers, 

B

 

 

[burndog]

9 hours ago, dlmrun2002 said:

 

H4"s (real glass hella) with hid"s in them. Now we're talking.

 

dlm ny country

This is how I am rollin'! I love them!!!

[ray_]

[bens1088]

20 hours ago, ray_ said:

Cool, Ben,

 

How do you address this remark from Daniel Stern?

 

It's tricky to judge headlamp beam performance without a lot of knowledge, a lot of training and a lot of special equipment, because subjective perceptions are very misleading. Having a lot of strong light in the foreground, that is on the road close to the car and out to the sides, is very comforting and reliably produces a strong impression of "good headlights". The problem is that not only is foreground lighting of decidedly secondary importance when travelling much above 30 mph, but having a very strong pool of light close to the car causes your pupils to close down, worsening your distance vision...all the while giving you this false sense of security. This is to say nothing of the massive amounts of glare to other road users and backdazzle to you, the driver, that results from these "retrofits".

 

Do you have a comparison of beam patterns, your product vs. H4's?

 

Link: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/tech/bulbs/Hid/conversions/conversions.html

 

Cheers,

 

 

Absolutely. Daniel Stern has some great points but he is also selling products on his page, in that he makes money from scaring people away from other options. With that said, I think what he is really addressing is people putting HID bulbs into conversion housings unsuited for that kind or intensity of light. It may seem brighter, but you aren't necessarily gaining as much vision from the lights as you think. What he is addressing is really what we are trying to fix. There are a lot of people running conversion headlights with HIDs in them because it's easy to do so and you think you're getting brighter lights. This gave HIDs a bad wrap. 

It really depends what headlight housing your using for the H4. There are some great H4s and some awful ones. The E-code Cibies, Hellas, tend to put out a better pattern than your "typical aftermarket" H4 conversion. Our lights put out a ton of light and there is no doubt that it's an improvement over a sealed beam and the typical aftermarket H4 conversions. I need to dig up and see if I have any H4 conversion comparisons. I did take a quick photo set of the FAKE projector (also considered an H4 conversion) headlamps flooding the market compared with one of our projectors. Mind you these were quick shots but you can tell the difference. 

 

I hope that addresses some of the questions. I need to dig up some comparison shots (and probably take a new set of shots) but here is an interesting article comparing various lights on a Jeep forum. Mind you we design our lights to be as "stock like" as possible so many of these options won't work for you guys and they also don't take into consideration the dazzle that oncoming drivers experience. It's worth a read though. http://www.jkowners.com/tech/lights/.

 

Let me know if there are any more specific questions I can answer. I'm happy to help. I've attached a few photos below showing our cutoff as well as the intensity compared to sealed beams. 

 

Thanks!

 

20 hours ago, SydneyTii said:

How does it generate so much light, does it need any upgrade to the alternator etc?

It's using an HID kit which actually draws LESS amperage than a stock headlight. HIDs start off around 5-6A and drop to 3A once stable (30 seconds). A conventional sealed beam runs around 4.5-5A. We do recommend a relay harness with all our kits since old headlight wiring typically is awful. Cool fact: For each volt lost at the headlight, you lose 30% lumens on the road.

 

19 hours ago, alixta said:

Put me down as very interested.

If you can, shoot me an email! Ben@dapperlighting.com and we'll get you setup.

 

19 hours ago, arminyack said:

I'm sure this will appeal to a great many 02 owners....but a comparison on how it stacks up against H4's would be the crux of it

A lot of our customers have run H4s in the past. I've had a few that have said our units weren't as bright but then they told us they were running 100W bulbs... Not really recommended on classic car wiring and this really can blind oncoming drivers. This is also the point of finding someone to run our lamps and give some feedback. 

 

19 hours ago, gary said:

Price point will the first question in

many conversations

The V1s with an HID kit start at $369, V2s start at $469. Everything includes a 5 year warranty. It's definitely an investment but there really is something awesome about seeing the whole road at night. 

 

 

18 hours ago, 2002Scoob said:

I'd definitely be interested if you had euro beam-pattern, however, off the bat I can say i'm a bit critical of the the angel eye treatment. It's a bit to ricey for my tastes and I'd likely end up modding them for a simpler, cleaner look. Just removing that element so it's a less busy transition to the reflector could help. 

 

Do you have a blacked out model as well? A larger lensed, deeper set, or less centrally located (upper justified and deeper set) could be interesting. That said, I would do many illegal things for a set of Euro-compliant LED lamps with smooth, clear outer lenses, and a mirrored or smoked reflector that looked modern-fresh . That, or the above lights fully blacked-out without angel eyes might be interesting! 

 

I could do a writeup here, and on my fledgling brunhilde blog I'm just starting on my website @ jeffjuarezdesign.com. Either way, I'd be more than happy to put them on and give them a try!

 

We do have RHD pattern available. Yep Angel eyes aren't for everyone. Our job is to offer all the different combinations to find a kit that works for your style. We do have a black kit. The housings are black rather than the glass being tinted. Many companies often tint the glass which reduces output to your lights. Mind boggling lol.

 

Feel free to shoot an email to me: Ben@dapperlighting.com

 

10 hours ago, dlmrun2002 said:

 

H4"s (real glass hella) with hid"s in them. Now we're talking.

 

dlm ny country

*Cue "Blinded by the Light"*

 

6 hours ago, esty said:

not the right look for older cars...i'd never use them

 

how about some 24" chrome spinners 

It's not for everyone and we're okay with that!

 

2 hours ago, laundromatt said:

Interesting.  While "angel eyes" are a sought-after mod in some BMWs that didn't come with them (e.g. E36s), it doesn't look quite right on a 2002.  Just my opinion.  

 

I'd definitely consider a version without them, though, depending on the usual factors - cost, work involved in installing, etc.  

Yep we offer them without the halos. Installation is pretty easy (everything is plug and play). That 2002 took about ~2 hours to get everything installed and tucked neatly. 

 

2 hours ago, Sassen said:

I personally think that ellipsoids and bi-xenons incorporated into the 7" headlight would be the way to go, I did this for my 2004 G-wagon that uses the same diameter. I can do without those rings personally. I currently have bought 7" LED substitutes and I will probably get a dremel and install morimoto's into the housing, Morimoto's are perfect in distance and brightness. (No I don't work for morimoto, it was just better than using the factory MB or BMW ellipsoids). 

This is exactly what our kit is. Bi-Xenon 7" Headlights. Our product is basically a retrofit (that was designed and manufactured to be a retrofit). No cutting involved. 

 

1 hour ago, bianchini said:

I'd be interested. My top questions would be: 

 

- adaptability - how much work will it take to get them to fit in the current config? ballasts, plug and play, upgrading fuses, etc

- cost - price of a kit? 

- adjustments/ fine tuning - everyone's car is a little different, so how universal will you make them to dial in beam pattern, look, etc. 

 

Cheers, 

B

 

 

 

We offer everything needed to make it plug and play into your system. We've been doing this for a while now and there are only a handful of cars we haven't been able to get them to fit into. Mainly 50s Chevys. No need to upgrade fuses with our relay harness.

 

V1s with HIDs start at $369, V2 HIDs start at $469. 

 

They use the stock headlight mounting rings and adjustments so you shouldn't really have to adjust anything. Maybe just a little bit of horizontal and vertical alignment based on how your previous setup was.

[ray_]

Thanks Ben,

 

I'll have a look at the link you provided, and hope to see a comparison between your setups and good H4's.

 

Cheers,

[bens1088]

39 minutes ago, ray_ said:

Thanks Ben,

 

I'll have a look at the link you provided, and hope to see a comparison between your setups and good H4's.

 

Cheers,

 

Their comparison uses a different brand but the general idea between projector/H4 conversion is well illustrated. We are doing a night shoot as soon as the weather gets better so I'll get those up when they come in.  

 

Thanks!

[jrhone]

Funny you posted this...I was just about to post for info on HID conversions for classic cars...

 

email sent...

 

 

[photog02]

Without knowing what the actual beam pattern of these headlamps are, it is impossible to know if they are an improvement over stock, or if they are even worse than stock. The perception of color and light levels in photographs are subjective and subject to the settings of the camera; the actual illumination on the ground is not. Photographs are great for illustrating what the documented beam pattern of a given headlamp is, but they are no substitute for that documentation. For example, the headlamps shown in the initial photographs appear to be sending a lot of light to the left, at a very high cutoff. This would cause discomfort or disabling glare to oncoming drivers, is a safety issue for other drivers, and could lead to the driver of the vehicle with modified headlamps getting a ticket.

 

Just as a general note regarding all headlamps - please do not purchase any headlamps that do not conform to the headlamp beam pattern for your car's market. Headlamps are market-specific.

[bens1088]

4 hours ago, photog02 said:

Without knowing what the actual beam pattern of these headlamps are, it is impossible to know if they are an improvement over stock, or if they are even worse than stock. The perception of color and light levels in photographs are subjective and subject to the settings of the camera; the actual illumination on the ground is not. Photographs are great for illustrating what the documented beam pattern of a given headlamp is, but they are no substitute for that documentation. For example, the headlamps shown in the initial photographs appear to be sending a lot of light to the left, at a very high cutoff. This would cause discomfort or disabling glare to oncoming drivers, is a safety issue for other drivers, and could lead to the driver of the vehicle with modified headlamps getting a ticket.

 

Just as a general note regarding all headlamps - please do not purchase any headlamps that do not conform to the headlamp beam pattern for your car's market. Headlamps are market-specific.

Yep you're spot on. We're actually working on doing a headlamp shootout comparison of sealed beams, H4 Conversions, our lamps, and a few others but we're just waiting for the weather to get better here. The rain/wet roads make it pretty difficult to shoot properly. The projectors we use are a widely used projector that we get direct from a manufacturer. We're waiting on the photometric data to come in (which is what I think you're asking for). All the issues you pointed out are the same adjustment issues that every headlight needs to deal with. We have both LHD and RHD projector setups. I'm not sure if the photo down the alley is on a RHD or LHD vehicle but they do look pointed somewhat high. We provide documentation on how to properly align their headlights in our installation guide. What the user does from there is somewhat out of our hands but it's the same issue as any other headlamp.

 

We offer both LHD and RHD versions. If anyone needs clarification on which is suitable for their country, please feel free to ask. 

 

I'll post up that PM data when it comes in. 

[bens1088]

Someone had asked for a comparison between stock lights. Here is a pretty good comparison video. 

 

 

[svgarage]

Okay. I'm interested....

[2002Scoob]

Unfortunately I gotta be out. Without proper EU approval they're likely Verboten here. They're pretty strict on beam-patterns.


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[alixta]

Deleted

[pollenstein]

Hi Ben,

 

I just placed an order (about 5 minutes ago!) for a set of V1's for my 2002tii over here in Dubai.

 

Drop me a private message and let's talk about a write-up!