I got a few emails a while back from people interested in my headlight kit I'm designing, and I told them I would give an update as they got further along. Well here's the update. I've been REALLY busy, but I've worked on them everyday in some way or another. First off, here is the first picture I showed everyone with the lights just shoved into the stock housing...


Well as I started making the bracket and putting the lights in various places, I realized an offset with one higher than the other would be perfect. Well I overshot it a little bit (see in the photo below), so I think I'm going to close that gap up a little bit on Monday (unless everyone likes it, but I have a feeling it's a little too much). Ok next, I had wanted the low beam on the inside, but as of now, I see no way it'll fit (the back side of this thing is HUGE!), but it fits perfectly on the outside, and the high beam fits perfectly on the inside, so it'll probably stay like that. Here's the picture I took Thursday....



I had mentioned before how easy the install will be, well it'll still be easier than say, the RE lights, but it may require one of the stock stoppers to be cut off (you will be able to easily weld it back on later if you need to, but the light hits it when it goes up, so it has to go), and a hole or two may need to be drilled, but I'm trying to avoid that if possible.

It's getting VERY close to going to an aluminum shop or someplace to have them made up. It's obviously taking a lot longer than expected, but I've shown one of the big RX-7 tuners what I've done so far, and he seemed to like it, and my plans for what I want to do, so it appears the results will be well worth the wait. I'll add more information as it happens or as I remember it.

 

whoa that looks good, love the first one!

 

I like the first one. The low beam should def. be a projector. I love the way they look from different angles.

 

I love them. However, If you do make the outer lamp offset, I think no more than about .5" to .75" higher than in the top photo would be ok. I agree, way too much in the bottom photo.

BTW I missed the original thread on this, what kind of lamps are those, the Hella 90mm?

 

I had been working on a similar setup but temporarily I have stopped working on them since it is somewhat difficult to fabricate things if you don't have the skills. And the other reason is because I knew that you were working on them. That way, I would just have to purchase them from you intead of spending hours on producing 1 set of lights - probably a one-off.

I would suggest that you try to make them as low profile as possible. I think that way they are more aerodynamic and I think they look better.

I have atttached a pic of my design study.

 

Yea, I was wondering what was missing from rx7even's look, it was that low profile/sleepy-eye effect. Ryan, if you can integrate that in your design it would be perfect.

 

yeah, i agree with most people on this the first pic seems the way to go with both the headlight setup and the arrangement of the hi and low beam. and it would be great if you can keep the headcover as low as possible.

luigi

 

I agree, keep it as sleepy looking as you can. From your pics there dons't seem to be much of a difference in profile ight now. I'm tihnking maybe getting them to open about half way compared to stock would be great.

 

They'll definetely be very low profile, I just missed my original mark the first try. When I held them up when I was making the bracket, a 1" height difference seemed to look good, but as you can see it's waaaay too much. Tomorrow I'm going to change it to a 1/4" to 1/2" and it should look perfect and be a lot lower obviously. As it sits right now, the cover is about 2" lower than stock, an improvement, but not even close to where I want it to be. Expect the height to be around where the first picture is at, maybe a tiny bit lower and things work out like I think they will after I move the lights around again. The "sleepy" look is #2 priority on the list after lighting performance, which these lights should take care of. So far I can't do a thing about the low beams on the outside and high beams on the inside. If you look at a picture of the Hella's, you'll see that the backside of the low beam is like twice the size of the high beam, and it just won't fit. I'm still trying different thing's though, who knows.

Sidekick - yes those are the Hella 90mms. I hooked a jumper wire up to the low beams the other day to see how well these lit up, and I have to say the lighting looks VERY nice.

Mr. Stock - You're lights look good. I FULLY understand what you mean though about not wanting to spend hours on them just to make one set. I could probably make a rough one of set in no time, but it's nothing I would even remotely consider selling. I'm trying to get these absolutely perfect and also trying to make it as easy to install as possible. So far I'm able to pull my stock lights and put in the new ones in about 5 minutes, so hopefully I'm getting there (of course I've done it like 50 times, so I've found little shortcuts here and there). I started seriously working on them over 3 weeks ago and spend 14 hours the first two days alone on these. I've wanted to launch these things across the shop many of times.

Keep the questions and comments coming guys. They keep me pumped and ready to keep working.

Ryan

 

Just wondering, & it may be way too early for you to tell, but approx. what price would you be looking at for a set?

 

I love that style of headlights, I'd definitely buy a set once you have them all worked out.

 

At this point, you're right, I have no idea. I'm hoping it'll be around $600-$700, but I dont know yet what all the machining is going to cost. I'm going to try and keep it low though, and I'll probably try and organize a group buy for the first few sets.

Ryan

 

I wanted sleek lights for a long time, just because they were simple. But, it seems like none of the kits give good lighting, so I am now thinking that sleepy-eye lights like these are the way to go. I am interested in how they turn out. There is a good chance that I'll want some.

Thanks,
-Max

 

Great! The lower you can get them the better. I've loved the original KnightSports set for a long time, but the price was a little steep.

 

Hey Ryan -

Wow, you have been busy since we last spoke. First, I don't see why anyone would want the lows on the inside anyway - don't most dual lamp cars have the lows on the outside too? Isn't the wider dispertion of the low beams better since you use them the most? Just a thought.

I don't understand why you would want to have the inside lights lower than the outside lights. Is that the only way they will fit? If so for asthetic reasons I agree with others that any height difference should be reduced to the least amount possible, preferably zero. Maybe one light could be set in deeper than the other so they will fit? I'm talking out my *** here since I don't know the dimensions involved.

While I always figured I'd prefer to upgrade to HID (lamps, not those bulbs) at some point, I've heard the Hella's are pretty good. Are there even any dual HID lamps out there that could be used for this application if the brackets were made? I know Bill Brennan from the big RX7 list did this but I don't remember what kind of lamps he used.

Scott

 

You and I are on the same wavelength right now. The first advantage I thought of to having the low beam on the outside was that it would light up a wider area, although not really by much.

The main reason for having the inside light lower is pretty much asthetic. If you look the Miata kits or the 2nd gen RX kits, the light pods all have a flat bottom, so putting in a kit with the lights level looks perfect. On ours, the bottom is curved, so having them at a different height fits better I think. I did tear the bracket apart and move the lights around, and now have the lights at a 1/4" difference instead of the 1" difference, and I can tell already that this way is the winner. Also, following the curve of the body, the outside light is set back some from the inside light (you can't tell that in Picture #2 because the lights are actually on the outside of the bracket, not the inside where they go, so they'll be set back more in the car too). It's not much, so it shouldnt block the light any.

I'm still looking into HID's too, for these lights. Apparently in Japan they have a kit that fits. It's still a possibility at this point. I had an opportunity to look at Bill's headlights a couple weeks ago. While I'm sure he put a lot of work into it, you can defintely tell it was a one off production. I was looking at the way he had the lights mounted and just had to scratch my head and wonder why in the world he did it that way, but I suppose it does work. I also lit up one of the Hella's against his HID, and it doesn't really appear to be that much different (keep in mind also that it appears he used driving lights for his, the ones I'm using are DOT legal).

I have to install a Fluidyne Rad in my car tomorrow, so I'm going to try and take pictures of the install and maybe do a little How-To writeup, and while I'm there, I'll install the lights again and take some pictures of it with the new changes. Should have them up here tomorrow afternoon.

Ryan

 

I dig em. offset minimal. low-beams outside. sleepy. HID would be nice but not necessary.

count me in! i need different lights!

 

Alright guys, here we go. I promised this yesterday, but my radiator install took longer than anticipated. Anyway I went out tonight and put the lights in and took a pic just before dark. Here it is....



I'll explain a couple things. First the lights are switched. There's a stopper on the left side of the light that has to be cut or something before the new low beam light will fit. Soooo, I just swapped the lights (the lowbeam will still go on the outside though, I'm not going to change that). The inside light is also sitting JUST below where its supposed to be in the housing, so it will actually sit just a hair higher when it's all done. There's still a bit of finishing here and there to be done on the bracket, but its coming nicely.

Ryan

 

Lookin good If the cost is low I might look into them.

 

Cool - I was going to say bring it up a little bit more....

Was going to do this myself, but since yours is coming along nicely...

 

BTW, any possibility of selling it w/o the Hella low beam lamps? I might be sourcing the Hella HID version of those. It costs more then a HID 'drop-in kit', but buying the lamp version designed around the HID D2x bulb is more comforting...

 

Thats a good idea since I was looking for a HID system as well.

 

It's a possibility. However I'm also looking into having HID as an option. Are the Hella HID's set up the same way as the regular Hella's (as in the way they mount)? If so then they should mount in, if not then I'll have to redesign the bracket some to make them work. I haven't seen the HID ones yet so I have no idea. All I've seen so far is the kits that convert the normal Hella's that I'm using.

Ryan

 

This looks like it is coming along nicely.

I have a suggestion about the vertical alignment, which is basically that the lights should be at just about the same level. The reason I think that "works" is because it puts each light in the middle of the opening. I doctored your picture to show what I mean:

 

wow, while your at it you can sell the air inlet cover, an all in one package deal. this is great.