Yellow Headlamps The Cheap'n'easy Way

[Loopy]

After my earlier post regarding 'frenchifying' my headlamps I got no reply from the company about the supply of globes that I'd intended to hack about.

I bought a bottle of glass paint from my local hobby shop (Vitrea 160 is the brand and the colour is called Sun Yellow) for three quid.

My initial experiment was to paint the H1 bulbs with it, my assumption that being cured in the oven at 325F the paint was heat proff proved wrong; on fitting the painted bulbs I had yellow headlamps for about 20 seconds, then the paint vapourised and by 30 seconds I had white lights again....

As the stuff is water-cleanable until cured I decided to try painting the plastic covers over the dipped-beam bulbs, and was duly rewarded with perfect yellow headlamps. The paint dries crystal clear and one coat on the plastic was sufficient to achive the desired result.

There's been no discernable loss of power in the lights and I honestly feel that aside from the aesthetic appeal of the yellow lights, that night driving is easier and therefore more pleasureable.

While I had the lights apart I gave the rubber seals a light smear of vaseline and since then have the added bonus of no moisture in the units.

So if anyone spots an XM sporting a pair of yellow 'eyes' on the Watford one-way give a little wave; it'll be me!

Regards

Loopy

[jorgy9]

photo???

G

[Loopy]

Watch this space.... just popping down with the box brownie.

[Loopy]

Here goes; Never tried posting images before...

[Loopy]

And another...

[Loopy]

and another... there must be a way of posting more than one image at a time...

[Loopy]

this one is interesting, the car opposite is white!

[Loopy]

So there we are, quite effective I think....

If anyone is interested I'll take a couple of daytime shots over the weekend, it may be clearer how yellow they are and how noticeable the yellow is when the lights are switched off.
I am really pleased with the result and may make a yellow insert for the front foglamps if I can find suitable material...

Loopy


This post has been edited by Loopy on November 23, 2006 11:08 pm

[jorgy9]

yeah, looks very nice! How does it look in daylight (lights off) ? I've seen a couple of photos of..."real" yellow-lighted XMs and I agree it fits the car quite well! On the lower light units also (bumper).

G

[Loopy]

In daylight unless you actually look into the units its quite unnoticeable because the actual glass lenses are still clear; unfortunately it's dark when I get in from work, but I'll post a pic or two on saturday.
I have somewhere a piece of clear plastic about 3mm thick which I'll make a pair of masks to fit inside the foglamps so that they look standard until switched on.
It gets me out of wallpapering the front room.....
They do make the car stand out from other road users, a couple of friends said they passed me the other night;as if driving a large, elderly french car is not pretty unusual around here then one with yellow headlamps means I will have to be on my best behaviour...

Regards

Loopy