BMW Headlight Swap How-To (Phase 1 & 2)

girlracer

PHASE 1 HEADLIGHT SWAP
PROVIDED BY BROOKSOFFROADZ24

I'm getting sick & tired of people IMing, PMing, & Emailing me w/ the "Where did you get your headlights? & How did you do the headlight swap? Was it easy?" So in advance to those of us who had the tough road I'm sorry, but I think it's time to let the other in on how EASY it really was

I'm posted the STEP-BY-STEP pictures the best I can remember, & if you have more than a 3rd grade education then you should be able to figure it out.

2/3/4 DOOR BMW any 3 SERIES '92-'98

STEP 1: AFTER REMOVING YOUR STOCK P1 HEADLIGHT IT SHOULD SOMETHING LIKE THIS

(minus the ink markings)

STEP 2: I PLACED THE BMW LIGHT UP TO THE CAVILER BACKING & ALIGNED IT THE BEST I COULD BY WATCHING THE Lines on the outer edge of the hood, the height w/ the corner light as well as the spacing w/ the fender to the hood -1/4 inch apart- & with the height of the grille & THEN TRACED AROUND THE EDGE OF THE BMW LIGHT

STEP 3: I BEGAN CUTTING ALONG THE BLACK LINE W/ A DREMEL TOOL....

STEP 4: THEN I'D PLACE THE BMW LIGHT UP TO THE BACKING & DID SOME MORE TRACING..... REPEATED THIS PROCESS A/B 5-8 TIMES ON THE 1ST SIDE.

STEP 5: THE PIECES THAT YOU HAVE TO DREMEL OUT SHOULD LOOK LIKE THESE,

STEP 6: NOTICE THE TOP OF THE BACKING NEEDS DREMELING TOO! WITH EVERYTHING OUT THAT DOESN'T NEED TO BE THERE IT SHOULD LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS,

(Notice I still have 2 of the stock caviler mounting holes.....bottom left & top center)

STEP 7: I MADE CUSTOM BRACKETS TO ADJUST & ANGLE THE LIGHTS TO HIT THE ROAD RIGHT

(Those are for the top & bottom)

STEP 8: A BRACKET ALSO NEEDS TO BE MADE FOR THE VERTICAL ADJUSTMENT

(This bracket adjust the up & down movement of the headlight)

STEP 9: THE LIGHTS MOUNTED IN THE CAR W/ THE TOP & BOTTOM ADJUSTMENTS

(The alignment across the front)

( The alignment from the top down)

STEP 10: MAKING THE ADJUSTMENT TO ANGLE THE HEADLIGHT BEAM (In order to adjust the headlight beam simply loosen or tighten the screw through the metal bracket I made, the tighter it is the further the light comes back into the engine bay & the closer it gets to the top of the backing piece, the looser the screw the less pressure there is on the light so the light goes down toward the bumper or out away from the engine bay.....By adjusting the side bracket under the corner light it adjust the height of the light raising it up & down to get the height off the bumper & under the hood when it closes)

girlracer · Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 3:37 pm Post subject:

PHASE 2 HEADLIGHT SWAP
PROVIDED BY IMCENSORED1

Before doing this swap you want to secure your center grille, so if ure gonna get a body kit, do this first and mold the grill to the bumper... other suggested methods are using custom brackets to support the grill to the metal bumper and to the radiator supports

Second of all, this may not work with the various OEM bumper setups.. i'll show an picture of my OEM bumpers... for comparison... modification to them maybe required to do this... if you have a body kit, you should be fine...

okai... first off you need to remove ure bumper... i positioned the lights on there to get an idea as to how they would look...

Then you want to remove the OEM headlights and brackets, by removing the four retaining bolts...

After than, sit your front bumper back on in place and sittuate the light how you want to position it... then i used a template to map out the spacing between the screw holes on the backets, but found it was unnessicery due to the brackets i bought...

heres the top bracket connected to the light and the OEM light bracket mount

Heres the lower bracket ... connected with a straight and L bracket to the headlight and OEM Lowet Light bracket mount (before adding spacers)

The third bracket, i cut one of the straight brackets in half... this one is very important how you position it as this determines how the level of the light beam..

Now after doing all that... the light beams were pointing to the ground, so using a level, and some washers, i positioned the lights to beam straight out...
heres the upper and lower brackets with spacers...

Now for the electrical
Phase II Cavaliers come with 9004 bulbs... and these headlights have H7s in em...

What you want to do is tie your grounds together... The black wire out of your 9004 socket is ground...

Next wire the low beams.. the Tan wire off the 9004 socket controls the low beams...

Then wire the high beams... the light green wire off the 9004 socket controls the high beams

Now the Halos/Angel Eyes...
Ground to the black wire off your parking light/turn signal bulb...
i beleive i used the dark blue wire so that the halos were on the parking lights ...
here are the pics...

And the final result

The corners wont be goin in till january... they have to be welded around, and im not trying to deal with all that right now...

Have fun with this...

PLEASE NOTE: This can be reposted elsewhere (such as j-body.org's second gen forum)... but i ask that my name be included with it (give credit where its due)... due to j-body.org's clueless admin, dave, i will not be posting this there myself... ... i also ask that if this does get reposted anywhere, that the reposter emails me the link to the thread where its posted... imcensored1@yahoo.com ... thanks a bunch =)

moonwell · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:29 pm Post subject:

I'll add this to the howto section if somebody has the pictures that are now missing...

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