[siragan]

Well, folks, I just got my angeleye rings and BMW E36 headlights today in the mail! yay!

I already started measuring and everything and they look like they are going to roxxor j00r boxX0rZ.

Does anybody have the pics and the name of the guy who did the conversion to his GT?

 

[James92Scort]

Wasn´t it stripedmx5 that did it on his Red GT? It looked really really really really sweet. it´s in an old ´lighting´ forum post somewhere. ;-)

 

[siragan]

If somebody could hook me up with pics or his email addy, it would be GREATLY appreciated. I have looked everywhere for it and cant find it.

 

[siragan]

Okay, well I mounted the lights to the car with slight difficult and much trial and error, but they´re on the car.

problem now:

I´m installing angeleye rings, right? I can´t get the outer lens of the E36 headlight off the housing. If anybody has ever done this or knows of any compound that DISSOLVES SILICONE please let me know ASAP!

 

[rellimpk]

Don´t feel like using a heat gun?

 

[siragan]

I was thinking about sticking it in the oven actually, but the LAST thing I want to do is bubble the plastic or create any brown marks or anything. Especially because these headlights are in immaculate condition, perfectly clear lenses.

apparently DAP makes something called "silicone-be-gone", but I can´t find it ANYWHERE and when I search on the internet for it, I keep getting stuff about breast augmentation!!

 

[rellimpk]

Go to Home Depot or Lowes, either should have it. Here´s a link to something else that might work as well...

Home Depot

Click the second item on the list, it should be caulk remover.

 

[93EGTinLR]

using the oven is good...I did some 3 gen headlights using that method...as long as you do not go crazy with the temp....I went wirh 150 or so...it does a fair job but they are kinda warm to handle for the separation...lol

 

[siragan]

relli - I´ll check the hardware store tommorrow.

93egt - what "3rd gen" headlights were you using? Did the headlights use silicone caulking or glue to hold the healight together?

The beemer headlights I have the "5 series" headlights, so they use bastard-child caulking instead of metal clips which make them next to impossible to take apart.

 

[BlackMx-3]

use a heat gun or oven... just be careful with the oven.

 

[siragan]

An oven will loosen up silicone?

 

[93EGTinLR]

yeah it loosened up the factory silicone that was on the lights...damn tough stuff otherwise....all it really did was get it soft and then I worked out the rest

 

[rellimpk]

I believe silicone is effective up to approximately 200 degrees F. I could be wrong, but I hardly ever am! ;-)

 

[siragan]

Well the headlights are all mounted and installed, without the angel eye rings :-[

The headlights themselves look great, and I got some of those halogen blueish HID imitation bulbs and they make the escort look pretty high end, but I´d really like to get the rings in there.

Would the plastic bubble and distort at 200 degrees?

 

[Skuce]

200 F....maybe
200 C......yeah...bigtime!

 

[2EGTS]

How did they match up with the bumber, hood, and grille? Put some pics up so we can see.

 

[91scortgtboy]

how were you going to make the angeleyes?? I mean what do you use to make them glow or work or whatever? Oh yeah what BMW series headlights do you use.and what do you have to do to make the high and low beam sides to work??? I want to do this conversion but not sure how to do it. Thanks.

[ This message was edited by: 91scortgtboy on 23-03-2003 20:47 ]

 

[siragan]

I am considering withholding all information of how I did the mod so I will have a more unique escort and fewer people would be inclined to do it, but I´m not going to be an asshole about it so I´ll let you in on the 411. This mod is totally killer. It does for the look about what a set of new wheels will do. However, it´s very very dfficult to fabricate a bracket to hold the new lights, and in my case it required modification of the old bracket, the bumper, part of the frame of the car, the corner lights, adjustment of hood height, grille height, and significant modification to the original E36 bracket. If you´ve got a spare few days to toy around with different ideas and enjoy a challenge then you´re good to go, but this is definetly not to be taken as a "bolt in" mod by any means.

In terms of how they line up with the grille and bumper, they´re perfect width-wise, not quite as tall as the stock lights, but still look good, and run into the bumper when the bumper "ramps up" to the grille. You have to cut the bumper a little bit to get them to fit right. If I get a camera I´ll show you what I did. Brackets are a pain in the ass like you wouldn´t believe. Took me 2 days to get the brackets to fit right and I´m still working on fine tuning the beam trajectory.

Then the high and low beams... those are easiest part of the job. there are two sets of bulb holders in the E36 headlights I used, and you have to do a little splicing of the old wiring harness and you have to create a new ground for a bulb and you´re set. Took me about 2 hours to complete all the electrical work and it´s very clean and straightfoward.

The way it looks is great. I got the blue tinted halogen low beams and it makes the escort look really mean. If I can ever get the angeleyes in those headlights I´ll be as happy as a pig in shit, but I´m pretty happy with the results as-is.

The angeleye rings I got on ebay for a pretty penny, and they´re really nice quality and such, but I don´t want to destroy such a nice pair of lights to get them in so I may not do it.
Here´s a pic of the rings. If I had a camera I could show you what they looked like lit up. They´re really good rings.

 

[Beaverboy]

You said you have the "5 series" headlights.. but keep referring to them as e36 headlights.. which are they?

The e36 is the 3rd generation 3 series.

The best ones to get would be the european elipsoids. Not only do they have a far superior beam pattern, but they also have glass lenses which will wear less than the plastic US headlights.

So, before you go trearing those apart.. you may want to consider that.

 

[91scortgtboy]

thanks for the info. Now did you have to go buy bulbs for that or did you use regular scort bulbs?