Customizing my Front End - New Lights and Grille

[97CargoCrawler]

First off...this is going to be a progressive build thread. I'm still acquiring the parts and knowledge to do this swap.

My goal is to make my front end pop but not look too flashy. I'm looking for just the right amount of awesome but with minimal blingy, shiny crap.

I have sealed beam headlights, totally fogged turn signals and a spray painted black grille with the GMC emblem right now:



I like the GMC wide mouth grille and composite headlight configuration. So now I'm building up the set. So far I have a brand new blingy chromed grille and Sonar brand "angel eye" black reflector, projector HID headlights. I know, bling Mutha F'ing city so far. I'm debating leaving the chrome on the grille or painting it black. Maybe a little bling is ok.....





The headlights were sold as a set along with the HID 8000K lighting kit. The first thing I noticed when I took the headlight buckets out of the box is a sticker that says DO NOT USE HID LAMPS in this product. Excellent. I wonder if the seller is going to honor the warranty when these suckers melt. Anyway, I'm determined to make them work, so I think some heat conductive epoxy and some heat sink fins might need to be glued to the backside and tops of the housings....wherever they'll fit. These composite housings are designed to accommodate two headlight lamps, presumably LO and HI beam but the kit only came with one lamp per side. So I'm going to buy an additional HID kit and fit them in as well. Only problem I see with that so far is that the sockets are not the same for the two bulbs in the housing. So I need to figure out what type I need before I can proceed.

I will also be swapping out the incandescent bulb on the corner and putting in an Amber colored LED light. I think I'll have it on as part of the DRL but maybe also flash with the turn signals. I'm debating whether or not I want to make the second HID lamp a high beam bulb or keep it lower wattage and have it illuminated full time with the first bulb. I don't use my brights too often now so I'd rather have more LO beam illumination and use an entirely separate driving light system for HI beams. Maybe something mounted in the center of my brush guard. I want to put a set of 6"X9" pencil beam lights there anyway like I have in my sig photo. I'm not going to use either of these HID lights as part of the DRL. Instead I think I will only have the angel eyes on and the corner Ambers. In addition, I will have some of the turn signal housing lamps on for DRL duty. I don't see any point in killing these HID bulbs and melting the housings for daytime driving. Besides, I love the look of only having the Ambers on in the daytime.



Here are the preliminary bulb and housing tests:

The bulbs run on 23,000V according to the label on the converter box. They flicker a bit and change color for a few seconds on power-up. That's with my lab power supply, this might change under vehicle power. The bulbs have a slight blue-ish tint at 8000K. They get hot as hell and feel very fragile.



HID's in the projector housing, these are 35W LO beam bulbs:









The cutoff pattern is sharp but looks funky to me. I'm not too sure the higher section is high enough to illuminate street signs. This is the driver side lamp:





Here is the restrictor inside the housing:



More to come...hot pizza is here!

[justice]

ok, i has 2 questions for you..

1. Is the opening on the front of each grill the same size? (The part in the pic i attached)

2. what do you plan to do with your old grill? (is it in good shape?)

[97CargoCrawler]

Hmmmm...I think it's the same size opening. I'm counting on it anyways. I will have to measure.

Not sure what I'm doing with the old grille yet. It may be a while before I do the swap. If anyone were interested in it I might sell it. I did see some new ones one Ebay the other day for $25 plus shipping.

[doyoulikeithere]

Speaking of POP on the front... Are those pix new? Your front tires sure look toed out.
I thought (your sig suggests) that you have a winch on that Pavement Princess.
When are you going to install a 4 link coil suspension & solid front axle under your 2wd subframe?
Thats a Nice new grille, should look purdy with those black headlights.
Keep the pix coming...

[97CargoCrawler]

That front end pic is old but the problem still exists. That's what I get for taking my van to 4WheelParts for an alignment. I thought I could count on someone to do it right. You know, considering they have all that fancy gadgetry and lasers and whatnot to do it. When I put in my new springs this summer I will do my best to correct the negative camber myself. I don't think I have a toe problem. But I haven't really looked too hard at it. My guess is since the camber isn't done properly I can't expect they did anything else right either. My tires are wearing out along the outer edges which is a camber issue. I should check for feathering which is a toe issue. I think I may have some feathering too, but it's hard to tell when my lugs are spaced so far apart in the tread.

You can see the problem better in this photo (The wheel is not 90* to the pavement):



Apparently my 2WD can't handle even the lightest local trails...so I had better stick to the pavement, according to an ace mechanic I know. So no plans in the future for that set-up...at least not on this van.

I don't have a winch. I do have a nice spot to put one. I just don't think I need it, you know on the highway.

I should have a box with new tail lights sitting on my porch when I get home. LED ricer crap, but I hope they will look ok. I plan to mod them a bit too. I will have pix of those up tonight if nobody swiped them.

[justice]

what i want to do with my 2004 Astro is get a GMC grill like yours and then put in a billet insert like this one

http://www.ebay.com/itm/95-05-GMC-Safar ... 4cf7e9e335

that has no logo on it.

[97CargoCrawler]

I too am contemplating a grille overlay but I want to retain the GMC logo. I think I will go with a black satin emblem and an overlay made out of perforated steel painted flat black:



My tail lights have arrived! According to the housing they are also made by "SONAR." They came with an expired "Notice of Equipment Compliance" too. Here's what I bought from ebay:



And here's what I'd like to do:



Here are the bulb tests:

Running light intensity:



Turn signal intensity: (note how the side marker is not part of the signal circuit. That would have been nice.)



They do not appear to be waterproof, so I'll have to take care of that too:



They feel like decent quality. With a little TLC they should be good. Not really worth $120 though.

[snapple]

Love your threads CC!

[97CargoCrawler]

Love your threads CC!

Thank you Snapple, I appreciate your support!

In the coming days I will be purchasing these items to add to my build:

IPCW CWC-CE19 Crystal Diamond-Cut Bumper Light, i.e. turn signal:



I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do yet with the three reflectors. I would like the outermost to stay on as part of the DRL but also serve as an Amber colored signal. The middle and inner reflectors will serve as fog lamps, possibly on all the time as DRL's. It will depend on the construction of the housing and the type of bulb it accepts. I'd like to go 3000K HID for the fogs but I don't know if the housing can handle the heat yet. I might have to go with incandescent for this. The HID bulbs are very long and get very hot so I'm not sure there is enough space around the bulb to keep cool. All this could change once I have them in hand. It probably will. The innermost reflector is very shallow so it will likely only provide illumination a few feet in front of the van, which I actually like. The middle reflector is a mystery. I can't tell if it has a projector style lens in front of the reflector or if its a diffraction grating. I'm hoping for a projector lens with a wide angle beam. I don't want to blind people but I would like the fog light illumination to extend at least 50 ft in front of me. Again, this is all conjecture until I have them in hand. If all else fails they will all be Amber DRL's. I'm also not concerned that these housings are not blackened. I intend for them to be on all the time so the brighter the housing the better.

I want this style emblem for the grille: (note: do not reference the part number in the photo as it may not be the exact part that fits! This is just an example.)



I still have a long way to go on this. I welcome any CONSTRUCTIVE comments.

[97CargoCrawler]

A new bit of info:

[astroturf]

Now that will give you the light you need.

Good Job.

[97CargoCrawler]

My turn signals have arrived. I'm not too thrilled with them. They have way too much bling. I wish I could take them apart and paint them black around the reflectors but it appears they are sealed. I'm not sure I want to break them open considering they cost $110. Maybe I will.

These are made by IPCW and say "Crystal Eyes" on the packaging. I think that means "Overpriced Junk" in Chinese.

They came with an Amber colored bulb. I will be ripping that out right away and replacing it with a super bright Amber LED cluster:



The reflectors individually: (All the chrome plating makes me wanna )

Far left: (I'll probably use this as an Amber DRL that also flashes as a turn signal. The socket is not deep enough for HID bulbs)





Middle: (I will use this as a 3000K yellow HID foglight. It is deep enough for an HID lamp and it projects a halfway decent pattern)



Innermost: (I will use this as an Amber DRL also, but it will not serve as a turn signal)





In the grille assembly:





Of course things don't line up right or fit together as they should. Either my mistake or the designers, doesn't matter.....I have a Dremel.





Bulb tests: (I don't have the 3000K HID's yet so I tested with 8000K HID's taped in the sockets and corrected the color temp in Photoshop to give an approximate foglight look. I will get the HID's as soon as I figure out what the socket type is.)



The center reflector throws an X pattern. I suppose as a foglight it will give deep pinpoint penetration as well as wide shallow illumination.)



I have not decided yet if i will have the fogs turn on with the low beams or if I will wire in a separate switch. I'm worried that the combo of bluish low beams and yellow fogs will mix and give a green glow in front of me. I'll have to wait and see on that.

Keep in mind the entire grille will be painted flat black. If I can I will also paint the insides of the lamp housings flat black around the reflectors. I'm also going to put some of that clear protective film on the front of these lamps. The plastic feels like it will scratch very easily.

I should have another set of 8000K HID's by tomorrow. I will post up pix of what the headlamps look like with two sets of low beams on at the same time.

[astroturf]

Do you think that a coat of clear amber stained glass spray paint could tone down the turn signal indicators?

[97CargoCrawler]

Hmmm. I'll have to look into that. That would be a nice treatment for the inside of the lens. If I could get this sucker apart, paint the chromed crap AND tint the inside of the lens Amber.....schwing!

I really do like the look of an Amber lens. But for the life of me I couldn't find a lamp housing that had one for our vans.

EDIT: I'm really liking that idea! I've just seen a few other people who have done the same on other car forums:





That looks awesome! Not sure about the longevity. Perhaps some Krylon UV clear coat on top of this stuff.

[97CargoCrawler]

Today I received another 8000K HID kit for the 9005 socket. Two things to note:

1. Two bulbs from two different places labeled with the same X000K color temp are not necessarily going to match. Not if they are cheap bulbs anyway.

2. The "slim" HID ballast take much longer to get the bulb up to full brighness. The second kit I bought came with the larger ballast and it takes about 5 seconds to fully charge the lamp. The slim one takes more like 10 seconds and goes through 10 colors while doing it.

Slim vs. normal ballast:



I definitely like the larger ballast. I'm going to order another set with the larger ballast for both my 9006 socket and my 3000K fog lights. Cha-ching cha-ching.

I'll post pix of the 9005 bulbs in the other headlight reflector in the next few days. It is MUCH brighter and throws a nearly perfect circular pattern. Even though I bought low beam bulbs for that reflector I think it might be too bright to pass as a low beam.