Modded My JDM BE Headlights

[MoclovFlop]

So, I was getting tired of blinding on coming traffic with my JDM headlights. I love having OEM HID's, but in order to get the road lit up enough, I would have to blind traffic due to the beam pattern slanting up to the left (thanks to the LHD vs. RHD).

Any way, long story short, I wanted good lighting and wanted to make these work until I do a retro fit because these have the in cabin height adjustment ( a nice little feature).

I had most of the day off, so I took them apart and made the beam go from this:

Right:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1157-1.jpg
Left:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1158-1.jpg

To This:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1178-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1176-1.jpg

I know it doesn't look like much, but I was able to get the defined up-slope that went into traffic completely removed. As you can see, there is still some glare that is on the left of each beam. But this is 100x better than how it was.

Here is what I did:

Follow the steps you normally would for clearing OEM headlights (oven, silicon, etc). Once you have the lens off, this is the area you'll want to paint:

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1162-1.jpg

You can see it when zoomed out where it's located:

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1163-1.jpg

Now, I chose to hand paint this because I didn't feel like masking off everything and spray painting it. If you have the time and patience though, I would recommend doing it. Hand painting gives the area texture and is not so uniform, it's not that noticeable with the lens on, but I wish I did it that way simply due to perfectionism.

I also recommend painting with a high-temp paint. The paint will be right near the bulb which can reach very high temperatures. I went with something that could do up to 1500 degrees, and of course, you want black.

Here it is painted, and I also decided while I had everything apart to black out the headlights as well, so I did the reflector as seen here, and also the corner of the marker lights too (next pic):

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1165-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1166-1.jpg

And that's it. If you do this you'll see that the reflector is almost the exact same on the other side, so just paint the same area.

Installed pics:

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1170-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1172-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1175-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1173-1.jpg

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2009/05/IMG_1174-1.jpg

nice work bro, looks much better now... :smt023

[legacyB4RSK]

Not sure why you needed to black out the signal light housing, looks weird.

[decke48]

cool. nice little fix, the "black out" looks wierd but it does on all white cars. but it looks good

[Airgne]

very nice. i have eyelids and 50%smoke and i get flashed sometimes. i just flash them back with my 2 atp 520 6in piaa lights. they turn there shit off real quick.

[MoclovFlop]

Yea, I wasn't too sure about the black out look either. I did a Pshop on it to gauge how it'd look and thought it would look good. It looks ok in person and with a few more black accents it'll look better.

It's not worth going back in to undo it, and it's not ugly enough either, so it's just going to have to stay until I do a retrofit.

Live and learn, now if anybody is curious about smoked JDM headlights on a BE, they can search and see for their selves.

[Airgne]

heres my smoked JDM headlights.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2008/10/DSC00158-1.jpg

and mine at night.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2008/11/DSC00205-1.jpg

and with all of them on.

https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2008/11/DSC00207-1.jpg

[4WDFun]

Ver nice. Did the same to my 99.

[anothernord]

Hats off to you sir for the DIY work!

:smt023

[Shale]

Good bit of work there!

How is it without the signreaders? I have the opposite problem with the Impreza - it's got Chinese knock-off clears in it (or did), and since they are LHD over there and we're RHD in NZ, oncoming traffic was getting blasted with the signreaders. Which meant...road signs weren't.

I imagine since they are Legacy headlights you have there and not epic fail Impreza ones, you still get enough light to see everything you need to...

[MoclovFlop]

They actually light up the signs just fine. Partly thanks to them being HID's, the signs are plenty bright. And although there is no dedicated up-sloped beam for the signs, they are aimed to the right just enough to work like my OEM ones did.