deep or shallow front grill for european headlight buckets?

[Armond]

just scored a pair of euro headlight buckets. I dont believe I have the "deep" style grills. TIA

[dapbmw]

all the side grilles are the same us or euro., plastic or aluminum

[Armond]

all the side grilles are the same us or euro., plastic or aluminum

so what's the purpose of making Shallow and deep style grills?

[wegweiser]

There were a few variations on the Euro light bucket assemblies - if you're talking the WHOLE Euro set-up - not just the aftermarket H4 stuff.

One series of part numbers for Hella brand assemblies

One series of part numbers for Bosch brand assemblies

There's at least a third one used in the pre 74 carsm that I've seen - using really wacky mongo sized bulbs as well.

then..there are different bucket assemblies for the Euro plastic grille era cars I think.

Now....with that said - as long as you have either Hella or Bosch early type bucket assemblies - you'll want the deep grilles (used on US cars until mid 72 I believe) - this makes the glass come FLUSH to the grille opening - no "chrome rings" used - just a rubber gasket.

it's a sweet look. Cost me plenty to get 'em new a few years ago for Emily....5w city lights and all. it's fun to shut the car off and flick the signal switch from left to right and see the car "wink" left and right through the headlights. :-) heh heh!

Paul Wegweiser

[mtriple]

There were a few variations on the Euro light bucket assemblies - if you're talking the WHOLE Euro set-up - not just the aftermarket H4 stuff.

One series of part numbers for Hella brand assemblies

One series of part numbers for Bosch brand assemblies

There's at least a third one used in the pre 74 carsm that I've seen - using really wacky mongo sized bulbs as well.

then..there are different bucket assemblies for the Euro plastic grille era cars I think.

Now....with that said - as long as you have either Hella or Bosch early type bucket assemblies - you'll want the deep grilles (used on US cars until mid 72 I believe) - this makes the glass come FLUSH to the grille opening - no "chrome rings" used - just a rubber gasket.

it's a sweet look. Cost me plenty to get 'em new a few years ago for Emily....5w city lights and all. it's fun to shut the car off and flick the signal switch from left to right and see the car "wink" left and right through the headlights. :-) heh heh!

Paul Wegweiser

Paul,

Do you have a pic that you can share with us? This sounds pretty sweet.

Thanks

Hamada

[wegweiser]

I looked for a photo of Emily close up before posting....couldn't find one. I'll snap some this week. They're definitely a cleaner unique look compared to the US ones. I never realized how clumbsy looking the American stuff was til I got rid of it. FYI - Mine are Bosch - at the time BMW wanted a bit less for Bosch vs. Hella part numbers.

Paul Wegweiser

[BillWilliams]

Only Paul's/Emily's grills fit better

[wegweiser]

Egg---zactly like those, Bill is correct.

paul

[jdirecto]

So does this mean the euro buckets have holes to accomodate the city light bulbs? I have Hella H4's with city lights but I'm unable to put them on due to the US style buckets.

Joey

[wegweiser]

Yep!

In fact - when wired correctly - the little rubber grommets at the 6 O clock position behind the headlight actually "make sense" - no longer having a parasitic non-grommeted wiring addition feeding the turn signal assembly "USA" type parking light.

Another item of note - I recall US buckets being uniquely left and right, whereas the Euro ones I have are the same part number for each side.

Paul

[Mike Self]

very difficult to tell apart, so if you take yours off, mark 'em so you won't mix them up...Otherwise the lights will point everywhere but up the road (ask me how I learned that!).

And Paul, the "mongo-sized" bulbs you mentioned (pingpong ball sized) are the pre-halogen Euro bulbs whose use goes all the way back to the late 20s. I have a Marchal headlight that's probably from a late 20s Amilcar that uses that bulb.

mike

[BillWilliams]

[mtriple]

Only Paul's/Emily's grills fit better

Bill,

I never knew anything about this Euro setup. Now these two pictures are super hot. Amazing!

Hamada

[Harv]

Dan Stern lighting has a halogen bulb on the early base for retrofit. They have H4 halogen bulbs on the P45t base

John

http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

Also

http://www.rallylights.com/

[cj]

I did the "Euro" bucket setup with a hi/low HID setup. I like how simple the bucket assembly is.

I also added Lamin-X to help protect against rock chips.

Cris