Euro headlights-what's the difference

[RayC911]

between them and the US version. Saw these are eBay last week. Are they just bolt on? I want to get better lighting since I've been using the 02 as my daily.

Note to self: install the driving lights that I bought last year soon.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=018&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=280056615605&rd=1,1

[albawhore]

I am pretty sure that they are a factory version of the H-4 upgrade. They have the removable lamp capsules. What made them "euro" was the U.S. limit for brightness.

Good Luck

JB

[cj]

They are bolt on. Come on by, I'll help with the install and the wiring for the city lights! I also have a spare PIAA wiring harness for your fog lights.

Cris

[Mars]

Euro lights themselves are somewhat brighter but the main difference between what you see on Ebay and what you probably have is the buckets.

Euro buckets are longer than US buckets. As a result, your headlights will stick out further than the ones you have now.

These do not work on shallow grilles. You need the deep dish grilles (like the replacement ones that Mobile Tradition sells). See pics below for the difference. However, deep dish grilles in return can accomodate the regular buckets like you have now. Usually there is a trim ring (filler ring) that surrounds the headlamp to make up for the gap between the lamp and the actual grille.

Bill Williams' Pikachu Euro buckets example:

Deep dish grille type:

Shallow grille type. Notice how thick the bottom bowls are on the above compared to this one:

And my old 72Tii with Deep grilles and regular buckets (with trim filler rings - hard to see) just for good measure:

If you just want brighter lights just go buy yourself some H4's or any other headlight with a swappable bulb and put those in your current buckets. You can improve your lighting by just upgrading the headlamps. You DON'T need to upgrade the whole bucket system to upgrade your lighting. The ones on Ebay will require you to get new grilles and who knows what kind of headlamps are even in them (unless the ad tells you).

hope that makes sense.

[RayC911]

Mars,

Thanks for the explanation and pics. I'll probably just upgrade my headlamps like you suggest.

Cris, I'll drop by sometime next week just to say what's up.

[cj]

Cris, I'll drop by sometime next week just to say what's up.

I'll let you in on other lighting improvements.

Cris

[Harv]

What made them "euro" was the U.S. limit for brightness.

This may be true. Another reason all these lights are not legal in the US is that they don't have the 3 protruding dimples on the lens. This is the offical way the DOT expects a headlight to be aligned.

I would also like to see more of the comparison between deep and shallow bucket grills.

John

[Mars]

Harv,

I can't find any pics of the 2 grilles side by side at the moment to show you the differences between deep and shallow grilles. But, I can lead you to a few other car examples on one of my websites which show the difference.

If you notice the shallow dish/bowl grilles allow the headlight to actually stick out a little bit from the bottom. It 'passes' through the grille.

the deeper dish/bowl grilles actually engulf/envelope the headlight completely. Usually a trim ring is required to fill the gap between the headlight and the grille. Otherwise, you are left with a gap between the two that you can see through.

This only applies to pre 74 grilles. The black plastic grilles from 74-76 are all the same and can support both the deep headlight bucket systems and shallow (US) buckets.

And, for the record there are some minor differences between some of the early alum grilles used on early 1600's too but we won't get into that here.

Here's a pic of a shallow dish grille. It's a pic I took in 04 at Carlisle (Daryl Spangler's car):

Here is an example of a deep dish grille. Notice how the headlight sits completely inside of the grille:

Personally, I like the shallow buckets. I think they look nicer.

Now, onto post 74 models:

The euro buckets when used on post 74 grilles just actually stick out but there is a black trim ring you can use around the headlight which makes them look ok (like Keith did on Stella) photo courtesty of my2002tii.com:

And, finally another pic of the euro bucket and regular US bucket (courtesty of my2002tii.com):

[John_in_VA]

(nt)