Pop up headlights, better solution?

There is a long thread about this with some pictures. I try to post a link: http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/...0045562/m/5731084336
I think all alternatives with 4-lights require some cutting but can be done without repainting.
Most vendors can deliver ECE approved lights. SACC restorations probably have the best price of the vendors.

Mikael, there is an alternative (that requires radical surgery): covered, non-pop-up lights. One of your compatriots in Sweden has a really nice setup but can't remember his name. For a better light pattern, a significant part of the fender ahead of the old buckets and down to the top of the pre-L front bumpers was removed and dual projectors mounted rigidly in the resulting plexiglas covered opening. This might not be fully legal in some countries, though.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not under thhe illusion that I can cut and weld and fabricate anything that would look good enough for me to not be embarrassed driving it...

Is this what you are talking about?

Here's what I'm looking for, or even less of a gap. This is 65mm, and maybe a Hella 60mm could fit? And yes, maybe just one, why have double headlights, that's not typical for a 70s Italian car? Not many buy these kits because they actually need the superior lighting for their all night races across the continents, right?

So why not have one Hella 60mm with both main and high beam. And if placed in the middle, it might not require any cutting, there's a gap at the top?

For me, I'll do nothing right now. While there are good solutions out there, and we all appreciate the choices the vendors give us, I can't find exactly what I need. And it may be years before I need to raise the pods again as I have Haas' excellent white/yellow park lights as driving lights (law in Denmark). And after using a rubber mallet and some fine tuning today, the paint is not scraping anymore.

This winter I might buy some 60mm Hellas and fabricate something where the opening gap will be as small as possible.
(would the look of only one 60mm per side be the first. I seem to remember having seen it before on a Pantera?)

quote:

Not many buy these kits because they actually need the superior lighting for their all night races across the continents, right?

That's exactly why I got mine. Just about got a deer one night coming home through the mountains and promised myself right then and there to get some lights in this thing so I can actually see the road.
Doug M

I'm using Kirk's 60mm cat-eye quad version.

Not bad, and the opening is about 3-3/4" tall with the 60mm version.

Mikael, I built steel inserts for 60cm lights for my car. They are the smallest lights I could find that were approved for street use in the U.S. I know there are a lot of lights that light up the road way better than the stock lights in our cars but if something ever happened I would be in deep shit if the lights weren't legal. I built them out of a single piece of 20ga steel and there was very little cutting of the light buckets (a little in the corners of the top of the stock circles and can be re-straightened easily and returned to stock). One of my big concerns whenever I try new things with my car is that I can return it to stock easily and it has to be showable. The second is that it functions better or is faster on the track(or roads if chasing one of our Canadian friends). Hella dosen't make a dual beam 60cm light. It would still be the same height if there were one or two next to each other; it still isn't perfectly level but it's real close. The lights are so much brighter than stock that it's scary to think I was driving with the stock ones. I have all winter here to try new things with my car and some thing work and some things don't(air dam I will try again next winter) but the lights rock. The light's are about $200.00 dallors US for all four but the rest is just time and a little material. If I was to do it again I would not take the buckets out. The hardest part was to get them back in and adjusted to fit and close right. Here's a picture of what they look like if you want more info let me know.

I'd like to see from the front and maybe some close ups?

#1755, I would love more info, too. Please post here or PM to me. Thanks.

Mikael, there is a front end picture of them in the Specific Car Photos forum under Mistress gets a make over. I will post some close ups when I get home tonight I don't have any picture on my work computer.

Ted Mitchell sells these quad, low profile headlights through his site. No fabrication or sourcing of parts necessary.

http://www.tmitch.com/

The larger 90mm versions are available from 3 sources; Amerisport (Kirk Evans), Ted Mitchell and SACC Restorations (Scott).

I only know of Kirk producing the 60mm version and that is what I have on my GT5.

Julian

This is a bit off topic but I see Hella is now producing 90mm LED low beam modules for the European market. Apparently, they are even brighter than HID but with a more defined beam pattern.