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92Blue

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Here are 2 methods to do this conversion where your pop ups stay down and are "stationary" lights or the accually conversion. Taken from http://1000q.dsm.org/



Has anybody ever converted their popup headlights to non-popup headlights?
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This can be done too, but it is a significant amount of trouble. It appears that most people purchased the front end they wanted with their car, as information on this modification is limited.

According to Paul Bratina:

"The following parts must be replaced: hood, fenders, headlights, side marker lights. The front bumper can be kept (as in my case) but must be slightly modified. Replacing the bumper with a 92-94 makes the conversion easier. Replacing the hood is strictly bolt-on. The fenders are bolt-on except for where they attach at the very front (easily accommodated). Mounting the headlights (and to a lesser extent, the side marker lights) is by far the hardest part of the conversion, and is definitely not a bolt-on procedure. I certainly wouldn't consider it technically difficult. Mostly just time consuming.

I think it's worth mentioning a little bit about the costs involved in the conversion. First, assuming you get all the parts necessary at the wreckers, the parts alone would run somewhere in the $500-$1000 area. (Of course, some of this cost could be recovered with the sale of your old parts.) Then you have the issue of repainting the car. Unless one is interested in a multi-coloured car (all the various body parts that were necessarily replaced), I consider repainting the car to be absolutely mandatory. So whatever the paint job costs, could theoretically be added to the cost of the conversion. In my case, I was going to be repainting the car anyway, so that cost didn't "count". I really feel the thought process on this conversion should be something like: "I'm going to get the car repainted and while I'm at it, I'll throw in a conversion." Not the other way around--you know, do a conversion and throw in a paint job."

A quick & dirty method for keeping the headlights down is to remove the fuse that controls the headlight motors, or to rewire them under manual control. This keeps the lights down when they are on, and thus is sort of a 'non-popup' mod.

The Last Word:: George Johnson adds:

"I looked for what I believed to be a good amount of time for the popup to non-popup conversion wiring schematic. I apparently failed to find it, so I figured you might like to add it into the answer to the swap.


Popup Non-popup
Solid Red Solid Red
Red w/Blue Stripe Red w/Blue Stripe
Red w/White Stripe Black

Turn signal/running light assemblies will interchange." [Thanks, George!]



EDIT: IF ANYONE WANTS TO ADD SOMETHING TO THIS PLEASE DO. I KNOW A FEW DIFFERENT PEOPLE ARE HERE ARE WANTING TO TRY THIS! MYSELF AS ONE!
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Nothing really I was just trying to post a helpful thread for people having trouble finding info on this. If I had a question it would have to be how hard would it be to manually have the headlights flip up? this is the route I'm looking to take. How much light lost do you think you'd loose? If anyone has anything to add to this thread please do.
 
I drove my 90 at night for a little while with the headlights not popped up. It seemed to be enough light to get me around although I wouldn't suggest it. I was thinking of wiring in a set of bulbs and cutting a hole out of the "mock headlights" on the 1ga and installing them to see if that would provide enough light. Concern with this would be there isn't a whole lot of reflective material in there and I'm not sure how well it would direct the light. Another idea is to leave the pop-ups down and cut out backside of those said "mock lights" as to open it up for the light to shine through better and see how that works. Again I doubt it would be that great and you're not exactly getting rid of the pop-ups that way. The most you would get rid of with that method is the motors and if you're doing this for weight savings it's mostly in the pop-up brackets. You could always fab a bracket for the actual light with lightweigh pieces and weld it/bolt it in. Sounds like a lot of fabrication to me but I do agree the pop-ups are a pain and I would like a good solution to fix them, but I like the front body style 10x's better then the 1gb.
 
Discussion starter · #6 ·
I'm going the route to manual pop them up by a switch. I'm not sure how much difference it would make but it seems like when you'd be night racing, which they have legal ones around here, where certain streets are closed down, it would make it more aerodamic having them down.
 
90clipse said:
Why in the world would you want to get rid of those beautiful pop-ups? i definitely think they are better than the 92-94s.
I defenitely agree with you!!!

But, with some new clear corners and clear head lights... They are SEXY!!
 
92Blue said:
I'm going the route to manual pop them up by a switch. I'm not sure how much difference it would make but it seems like when you'd be night racing, which they have legal ones around here, where certain streets are closed down, it would make it more aerodamic having them down.
Eh? you lost me. So you want to...? What? Before the conversion, my 91' had a switch in the dash, you could turn them on and leave them down or pop them up. There was definatly more light with them up. Perhaps you could look into a foglight setup for some additional lighting.

The conversion wasn't difficult but I did have to do a couple some spot welds and I rewired the front end using a harness from a 92' Laser. Its mostly a bolt on.
 
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