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Composite Euro Style Headlight Housings for HIDs on my '99

That's a horrible pattern for low beams. My projectors, because of the internal mask behind the lens, throws a nice, wide, flat beam with a very sharp horizontal cut off that is stepped up so that they throw out further along the shoulder/ditch and dip lower in the oncoming lane. Properly adjusted, even with 50W HID lamps, I can see out about 300' without annoying oncoming traffic. Are you sure your HID lamps are properly seated in the headlight housings, so the capsule is in the focal point of the reflector? I'll have to scrounge up a digital camera and post some photos of the beam spreads seen from the driver's seat at night, and some frontal shots of the installed lights.
 
Husker6.5 said:
That's a horrible pattern for low beams. My projectors, because of the internal mask behind the lens, throws a nice, wide, flat beam with a very sharp horizontal cut off that is stepped up so that they throw out further along the shoulder/ditch and dip lower in the oncoming lane. Properly adjusted, even with 50W HID lamps, I can see out about 300' without annoying oncoming traffic. Are you sure your HID lamps are properly seated in the headlight housings, so the capsule is in the focal point of the reflector? I'll have to scrounge up a digital camera and post some photos of the beam spreads seen from the driver's seat at night, and some frontal shots of the installed lights.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the bulbs are in right. They just push in, twist and lock. Only thing that could change is the position they start at when you push them in and that is determined by tabs.
 
Husker6.5 said:
OK, this is not the vendor I got them from, it took a lot of scrolling through "98 Silverado projector headlights" to find ones that looked the same as mine, but these are it. I have them sitting over a set of black LED marker/turn lamps in a black grille. Looks pretty good on a white with black flares/trim/running boards 'Burb.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BLACK-PROJECTOR-HEAD-LIGHTS-LAMP-1988-1998-CHEVY-GMC-C10-CK-C-K-PICKUP-TRUCK-SUV-/310561172440?fits=Year:1998|Submodel:Silverado&hash=item484ee36bd8&item=310561172440&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr

The HID kits I retrofitted in (some modification was necessary on the H1 projectors for the HID lamps to fit in and lock in place) were 50% off on a sale by a reputable eBay vendor.

I did not have to silicone the edges of the lenses to waterproof them, I've had NO fogging or leakage in two years with mine. The mounting bases were a good grade of fiber-reinforced nylon, not cheap, thin recycled milk jug plastic. I can't speak for these, but they LOOK identical to the ones on my Burb.
Click to expand...

We got some projector housings similar to these (without the center LED) for my son's '95. They have glass lenses. However, even with modification it was impossible to get them to seat level and flush with the grill like stock housings. The reflector globe on the Lo side looks like crap on these Square GMT-400 style trucks. That said, they did throw out a nice beam.

In terms of looks, my preference would be for the current style I have. If I must, then I'll go to the style you've recommended.
 
See my comments above about quality of the Chinese replacements. Most (not all, but most) of the eBay vendors out in California are sourcing their stuff from China by the cargo container load. They all are within a few dollars of each other in price, and lots of times offer "bundle" packages of headlights, turns and marker light combos ridiculously cheap. The first set that I ordered were Euro-style multi-reflector similar to what you posted. I returned them because of their poor quality. The biggest three problems with them (and the other set I bought before I found my true projector set) were:

1) The base plate that bolts to the radiator support, while looking similar to the factory OEM part, is not of the same quality. Instead of being made of fiber-reinforced, thick, very rigid nylon like the OEM (almost like Bakelite), the CKO backing pieces were thinner and made from polyethylene (recycled milk jugs) and flexed when the adjusters to aim the light assemblies were used, so that the lights didn't move, the backing plate did. Also, while looking similar, and the four mounting bolt slots pretty much lined up with the radiator support backing nuts, the base plate did not fit flush to the radiator support's contours like OEM, thus the base plate also flexed when bolting it to the radiator support, so the horizontal and vertical adjusting screws didn't quite line up with holes in the lip of the radiator support. Additionally, the lead screw for the vertical adjustment that came out of the back of the base plate didn't line up with the hole it's supposed to go through in the radiator support, causing interference and making the headlight sit cock-eyed in the grill opening (very similar to what was described above in post # 25). The CKO design on both sets were such that you couldn't interchange the base plates with the OEM ones so you could use the new lights with the old bases. The adjuster assemblies and light mountings, and how they mounted, were totally different than the OEM and not interchangeable or adaptable.

2) Reflector quality. As I stated above, I found the quality of the reflector casting/plating to be really bad. Ripples, drips, waves and "foggy" areas with incomplete/"pebbly" nickel plating over the plastic injection molded reflector assembly. While these small imperfections may seem minor, ask NASA what a small aberration in a reflector did to the focusing ability of the Hubble Space Telescope. Same thing with headlights. Those imperfections are amplified as the light leaves the lamp and spreads out to cause problems with the light pattern and create "bright" and "dim" areas in the beam, diffuse scattering of the beam (which would do things like throw light into oncoming drivers' eyes or light tree tops alongside the road on low beams). Then there's the issue of the lens not being completely sealed to the reflector allowing moisture into the assembly. Shouldn't happen, ever. That's just cheap assembly practices/materials. There's a reason why Hella lights and KC HiLites are so expensive: Precision design and exacting manufacturing of their reflectors for precise beam pattern isn't cheap. There's a reason why you get a package deal on eight pieces, including shipping, for $95 on eBay: They aren't costing the dealer crap to get per piece, and they STILL make a profit eating the shipping cost. You get what you pay for is still true to this day.

3) Lamp mounting. Look at how the bulb inserts and locks into place on the OEM housing. It's a nice, precision cam mounting that pulls the bulb base in tight and holds it in place. The first brand headlight I got, had a ring that screwed on over the opening in the back of the lamp that the bulb inserted through then twisted to engage the three lugs on the bulb base. Only problem was that the bulb was slightly loose in there and would move around. It would have taken some serious filing/modifications to either/or the ring or back of the light to get the thing to clamp the bulb base tight. The second headlight set I bought was even chintzier. It merely had three small button head sheet metal screws screwed into the back of the lamp opening for the three bulb base tabs to engage to hold the bulb in place. The only problem was that the heads of the screws didn't extend far enough past the edge of the opening to engage the rim of the bulb base - once "locked" into place the bulb could still fall out of the back of the housing, and did! Three very small washers under the screw heads solved that problem, I thought, until I tried it and found that the depth of the flange the bulb inserted into was taller than the base and the bulb still wiggled around. I wound up bending the edge of the washers so they would clamp down on the bulb base when the screws were bottomed out. That set also gave me unsatisfactory beam patterns, so I wound up going with the true projectors and am very happy with them.

Caveat emptor: Buyer beware. You get what you pay for. That being said, I'm not saying everything off eBay is junk, but you need to shop carefully, ask questions and compare images, be wary if they don't show multiple angles of the product in the photos (like the bulb mounting ring) and carefully read descriptions from vendor to vendor as often different vendors are getting their product from the same source and use the same stock photos and description.

Have either of you considered using a good headlight haze remover/polishing kit to get rid of and prevent the yellowing of OEM lenses that is so common and then going with either a 35W or 50W HID conversion kit with the stock housings?
 
Husker6.5 said:
See my comments above about quality of the Chinese replacements. Most (not all, but most) of the eBay vendors out in California are sourcing their stuff from China by the cargo container load. They all are within a few dollars of each other in price, and lots of times offer "bundle" packages of headlights, turns and marker light combos ridiculously cheap. The first set that I ordered were Euro-style multi-reflector similar to what you posted. I returned them because of their poor quality. The biggest three problems with them (and the other set I bought before I found my true projector set) were:

1) The base plate that bolts to the radiator support, while looking similar to the factory OEM part, is not of the same quality. Instead of being made of fiber-reinforced, thick, very rigid nylon like the OEM (almost like Bakelite), the CKO backing pieces were thinner and made from polyethylene (recycled milk jugs) and flexed when the adjusters to aim the light assemblies were used, so that the lights didn't move, the backing plate did. Also, while looking similar, and the four mounting bolt slots pretty much lined up with the radiator support backing nuts, the base plate did not fit flush to the radiator support's contours like OEM, thus the base plate also flexed when bolting it to the radiator support, so the horizontal and vertical adjusting screws didn't quite line up with holes in the lip of the radiator support. Additionally, the lead screw for the vertical adjustment that came out of the back of the base plate didn't line up with the hole it's supposed to go through in the radiator support, causing interference and making the headlight sit cock-eyed in the grill opening (very similar to what was described above in post # 25). The CKO design on both sets were such that you couldn't interchange the base plates with the OEM ones so you could use the new lights with the old bases. The adjuster assemblies and light mountings, and how they mounted, were totally different than the OEM and not interchangeable or adaptable.

2) Reflector quality. As I stated above, I found the quality of the reflector casting/plating to be really bad. Ripples, drips, waves and "foggy" areas with incomplete/"pebbly" nickel plating over the plastic injection molded reflector assembly. While these small imperfections may seem minor, ask NASA what a small aberration in a reflector did to the focusing ability of the Hubble Space Telescope. Same thing with headlights. Those imperfections are amplified as the light leaves the lamp and spreads out to cause problems with the light pattern and create "bright" and "dim" areas in the beam, diffuse scattering of the beam (which would do things like throw light into oncoming drivers' eyes or light tree tops alongside the road on low beams). Then there's the issue of the lens not being completely sealed to the reflector allowing moisture into the assembly. Shouldn't happen, ever. That's just cheap assembly practices/materials. There's a reason why Hella lights and KC HiLites are so expensive: Precision design and exacting manufacturing of their reflectors for precise beam pattern isn't cheap. There's a reason why you get a package deal on eight pieces, including shipping, for $95 on eBay: They aren't costing the dealer crap to get per piece, and they STILL make a profit eating the shipping cost. You get what you pay for is still true to this day.

3) Lamp mounting. Look at how the bulb inserts and locks into place on the OEM housing. It's a nice, precision cam mounting that pulls the bulb base in tight and holds it in place. The first brand headlight I got, had a ring that screwed on over the opening in the back of the lamp that the bulb inserted through then twisted to engage the three lugs on the bulb base. Only problem was that the bulb was slightly loose in there and would move around. It would have taken some serious filing/modifications to either/or the ring or back of the light to get the thing to clamp the bulb base tight. The second headlight set I bought was even chintzier. It merely had three small button head sheet metal screws screwed into the back of the lamp opening for the three bulb base tabs to engage to hold the bulb in place. The only problem was that the heads of the screws didn't extend far enough past the edge of the opening to engage the rim of the bulb base - once "locked" into place the bulb could still fall out of the back of the housing, and did! Three very small washers under the screw heads solved that problem, I thought, until I tried it and found that the depth of the flange the bulb inserted into was taller than the base and the bulb still wiggled around. I wound up bending the edge of the washers so they would clamp down on the bulb base when the screws were bottomed out. That set also gave me unsatisfactory beam patterns, so I wound up going with the true projectors and am very happy with them.

Caveat emptor: Buyer beware. You get what you pay for. That being said, I'm not saying everything off eBay is junk, but you need to shop carefully, ask questions and compare images, be wary if they don't show multiple angles of the product in the photos (like the bulb mounting ring) and carefully read descriptions from vendor to vendor as often different vendors are getting their product from the same source and use the same stock photos and description.

Have either of you considered using a good headlight haze remover/polishing kit to get rid of and prevent the yellowing of OEM lenses that is so common and then going with either a 35W or 50W HID conversion kit with the stock housings?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the dissertation on ebay headlight housings.

I needed something fairly immediate as the capsule became dislodged in my former housings. I asked you repeatedly to post photos of the housings that you wished to sell, but you never did. Instead, you ring in with a full on dissertation on ebay headlight housings. BTW my former cheapo housings had their issues but they actually threw a good lo and hi beam with the HIDs.

I have scrolled through hundreds of headlight offerings on ebay. Very hard to tell them apart. If you want to be productive here, then please suggest a quality housing I can look at.

Thanks,

Big T
 
These were the housings that were on my sons wrecked '95 Suburban:

1358367279.jpg


Pluses:
Glass cover
Good beam
No leaks

Negatives:
Ugly
Sat cockeyed in the grill
Required "Matuva mods" to sit flush to the grill

The driver side housing broke off from its base, so I can't use these. Also lost the driver's side Xenon (HID) bulbs.
 
Big T:

As I told you earlier when you asked for photos, I no longer own a digital camera since the scum who broke into my suburban this summer stole it when they ransacked the interior. The photo resolution of my cell phone's camera is crap. Since I am currently on disability and have virtually no income, buying a new camera or getting high speed internet connected at my house are NOT priorities, let alone feasible, for me. My only access to the web is via slow public WiFi, so I would have to interface from my cell via patch cable to my laptop, download to a file, then wait 40-50 minutes to upload to TTS via public WiFi a crappy picture(s) of the headlights I got off of eBay that I'm no longer using. I told you what I wanted for them plus shipping, and your reply was that you'd rather get some off of eBay with free shipping. Fine, then get some off of eBay with free shipping. I told you my experiences with the vendors and styles that I had bought off eBay, since you wanted advice. The pair I have that are now sitting in their box on a shelf look similar to the pictures on the links posted above of the multifaceted reflector headlights. You asked for, and I gave advice. If you don't like the answer, then don't ask the question. Bottom line is that it appears that the vast majority of what's being sold on eBay is Chinese manufactured and shipped here in bulk to be resold by multiple dealers on-line. You are going to run into all the issues/negatives that you've mentioned about appearance/fitment/construction. They all have their shortcomings, which I outlined above and you have experienced yourself (fitment, lens leakage, etc). Hence my caution of caveat emptor. The ones that I bought are no longer available on eBay, I got them on clearance. I looked, even with the vendor I got them from, also Google Searched for them, couldn't find the exact ones, just some on eBay that LOOKED similar and were priced half of what I paid, with quality unknown. I said that before, too.

Buy whatever you want for whatever price you want and deal with it when they arrive. Modify them however necessary to get them to fit and line up right with the grill, beware of the cheap adjusters and retainers. If you need them now, then get them now. You don't need me or any one else to hold your hand. You asked for opinions from people, you got them weeks ago, and you still haven't pulled the trigger? Who's problem is that? Not mine, and certainly not any more.
 
Husker 6.6:

You never gave me a price, let alone pics so that I could evaluate them. Here's what you posted verbatim:

To ship to Cali the lowest rate I could find for a box that size is around $20, and I'm not going to take a substantial loss just on the shipping for what I paid for mine. Take the $44 Chinese junk deal if the money is your only concern.

So all you said is that you would not be willing to take a substantial loss. Great, but that's not a price. In the interest of continuing the discussion towards a possible transaction, I asked you to post pictures (so that I could evaluate and make a more informed decision). That clearly never occurred and all I got was a laundry list of excuses. I don't deal with people that are full of excuses. I had to make a purchase fairly quick, as I do use the truck frequently.

So, please continue with your dissertation on aftermarket light housings. Frankly, without providing meaningful or useful recommendations or solutions, it's nothing more than color background and largely worthless to the readers here.

Carry on!

Big T
 
Dated 12/05/12
Big T said:
I ended up buying these. The seller happens to be located in Hacienda Heights, which is about 8 miles from me. I inquired if I could walk in to inspect and purchase and they declined. Not a good sign. However, I needed them so I ordered. They are actually better than the original ones you recommended here. Better in the sense that you do not need to make any modifications to get them to seat flush with the grill. They sit flush right out of the box. They do not have the nylon nuts the screws go into. I did place a bead of silicon all the way around the housing. It was apparent that the corners would be a likely spot to leak. The adjusters cannot be worked with a Philips Head screwdriver, only a tiny socket which I'll have to find. Otherwise, same level of construction as the prior, but without the modification headache.
Click to expand...

YOU started this thread TWO months ago, 11/14/12. YOUR quote above was in reference to Matuva's post, and your point is what? You said SIX weeks ago that you bought eBay specials, basically because you're a cheap skate, to put on. Thread done, or should have been at that point. My extra pair of headlights wasn't needed at that time, you'd already said you'd bought new ones, so what was the point in trying to post pictures for your lame *ss or give you a price when you had already bought a pair???? Obviously I wasn't going to sell you a $140 pair of headlights for $24 plus shipping to beat the eBay Chinese junk price. Now you're STILL whining about not having the kind you want? Get real, pull the trigger, defecate or get off the pot, but quit acting like a spoiled child in a toy store who can't make up his mind what he wants so he wants it all, then throws a tantrum when he discovers that all of it isn't really any of what he wants. Mine are no longer for sale, or at least to you, I'll keep them in case an emergency arises, or better yet, convert my '94 Cheyenne to a quad composite front and put them on it since I have plenty of time on my hands and all the parts needed to do it.

Then, a MONTH after you bought your Chinese junk, dka99burb asked how they worked out. I was just letting dka99burb know my experience with dealing with those West Coast eBay Chinese bulk buyers after I checked his links, and the quality issues I ran into, since he asked. If you're unhappy with the purchase you made off eBay Big T, it's NOT my problem, it's YOURS, don't blame me, I didn't make that purchase, YOU did. Deal with the results yourself. Fix them or toss them out and start over. Not my problem.
 
Husker6.5 said:
Dated 12/05/12
Then, a MONTH after you bought your Chinese junk, dka99burb asked how they worked out. I was just letting dka99burb know my experience with dealing with those West Coast eBay Chinese bulk buyers after I checked his links, and the quality issues I ran into, since he asked. If you're unhappy with the purchase you made off eBay Big T, it's NOT my problem, it's YOURS, don't blame me, I didn't make that purchase, YOU did. Deal with the results yourself. Fix them or toss them out and start over. Not my problem.
Click to expand...

Dude, did I ever blame you? No. I answered dka99burb about my experience. I was not responding to you. Then you come in with some lengthy dissertation on headlight housings and offer no meaningful solutions to the problem at hand. I am simply looking for a better solution than I currently have. So go away already.
 
dka99burb said:
How about LMC trucks's? Are they cheapos marked up or are they glass lense/higher quality?
Click to expand...

I honestly don't know about that on their headlights on page 51 of their on-line catalog. I suppose you could call their 800 # and ask them about construction of the lenses, backing plate, etc. I do know this much, I've ordered replacement body parts/trim/headlights from them in the past and found the quality to be OEM at lower prices than the stealership. LMC supplies to restorers and body shops, and I think they'd want to protect their reputation and not sell junk. I ordered a driver's side composite headlight from them about eight years ago to replace the headlamp in a '94 Chevy service truck where I worked at that was broken by my assistant with an errant 24' extension ladder (He whacked the front corner as he was turning with the ladder to load it on the rack on the bed). Although not a genuine Chevy part from the stealership, it was OEM quality, right down to the fiber reinforced mounting base and lens fluting. Fit perfectly and couldn't tell it from the Chevy part and was less than half the cost.

Now, I do not know if they use the OEM suppliers, or have stock piles of NOS parts there. I do know for the 70's-80's GM trucks many parts unavailable through GM or other sources that they carry they have made for them, like the battery trays that bolt onto the inner fender well. They're made off-shore would be my guess, but they are made to OEM standards (same gauge metal, same stamping, exact fit, same hole locations, in other words and exact knock-off, not an "it's close but no cigar" quality). It's the same thing Bill Smith at Speedway motors here in Lincoln did for the IMCA stock car teams, he had the nearly impossible to find in wrecking yards but oh-so-desirable 68-72 GM A Body front spindles made off-shore to exacting standards of materials, clearances, machining, etc., so that they were identical to OEM in quality and fitment. He's done that for all sorts of street rod parts that are nearly impossible to find for 30's, 40's and 50's vehicles, suspension pieces, brake pieces, all sorts of things. You can build a '32 Ford street rod out of his catalog and not use a single stock Ford piece.

Now, I've been seriously considering when I do my next phase of visual modifications to the 'Burb to go with PN 39-9914 on page 57 and Rhino Liner the primered bumper, then take my other two 50W HID kits and install them in the included built in fog and driving lights in the bumper using my 3200K amber capsules in the fogs. That would make a really clean look, but it's way down on the priority list after getting out of PT rehab and back to employment and caught up on bills.
 
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