[tech Report] 5.75 round headlights.. an option to other than Hellasolution

[txrocco at sbcglobal.net (ATS - Patrick Bureau)]

for the MKI and the few that made the round headlight conversions on the
MKII, the issue that we all seem to face is, to find good quality lenses for
our cars, the sealed beams are just not worth it (max output 35w??), options
are available , all know about Hella or such high quality high dollar lenses
on the market, 80$/pair of Hella  that's, 160$ for 4 lenses.. price that
rivals Euro lights on the MKII. but I digress.

since I converted my front end to a MKI headlight assemblies, I have changed
2 times lenses so far in an attempt to find something suitable that is at a
decent budget with the minimal compromises of price and quality.

Let me advise that during my tests I only use 2 types of bulbs. The low/high
beam Bulbs is a Sylvania UK Rallye 100/130w high-power clear bulbs that
produces alot of heat and light and the high beam is a H3 Sylvania UK Rally
130w bulb. Why use these instead of traditional, simple those are the one I
used in my square Euro lights without a single issue before converting to
quad-rounds.

My first attempt was buying 2 sets (4) of identical "crystal clear
headlights" commonly sold on ebay.

The headlights themselves are a well made product, but with high wattage,
relayed bulbs, the pattern of light was very dispersed and did light up the
whole street with bright light, so much actually that I had to lower the
headlight position lower than normal to keep it from nailing cars in the
rear view mirrors, but the wide pattern did light up (driving in the right
lane of a two lane highway) both lanes very well, but after only 3 thousand
miles, a few problems arose.
1 - the edge of the bulb holding in the "saddle" of the back plate of the
lens assembly, started melting, and actually burning up (crispy plastic)
2 - the lenses used in low beam application, starting developing because of
plastic melting, a foggy film on reflective part of the lens (assuming
theses are the overheated fumes of the melting plastic by the high powered
bulbs that caused this.
3 - the glass front lens also where coated with the residue burned, and a
cloudy lens is what the permanently result because of these factors.

These lenses are decent quality, the clarity of the light used in a normal
environment (55/65w or perhaps 80w bulbs) would probably make this product a
trouble free item.

My second attempt is with AUTOPAL (
<http://www.stores.ebay.com/id=87021951&ssPageName=L2> ) lenses, 10$/ea all
glass lens, and all steel back plating, (much like Hellas perhaps a little
thinner metal - please note this is a finger feel I did not put a micrometer
to it), right away when you handle the lens assembly you know these lenses
is not DOT approved (no indication it is DOT approved).

First impression (only had these lights in for a few days now) is the
pattern of light, is much better than the crystal lights by far (better line
cut on the upper part of light dispersal, keeping the light on the road
where you want it, and not all over the place. I will update this in about
1-2 weeks time to see if there are issues with these lenses.

I hope this was informative to anyone who care to read it all the way down.



ATS - Patrick Bureau - txrocco@sbcglobal.net
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