rhino grill light's

[oldasme]

from the search and all the stuff i have read on the search. it look's like the round bezel's on the cj7's,should be available,and should work to trim out the round headlight's in the old wag's. most of the post's on rhino grill's seem to stop with the latch. has anyone found a good light similar to stock or as k/c,piaa light that fit's that smaller inner headlight hole? somebody said that the old volkswagon's had one that might work. don't see any old jaguar's around. are there any regulation's to headlight's that we need to know about,like distance's and candle power? calling all electical junkie's. these thing's do look cool with the rhino's, kinda cult classic.

[Stolen76]

I think the VW trim rings will work on the headlights. As for the small hole, a 4" big truck turn signal works well and looks pretty good. I cut a 7" circle out of some 18 gauge sheet metal and then used a hole saw to cut out the center. I welded in one side but I don't think I had the other one in when I took the pics. I ground my welds back off and went with sheet metal screws on both of them. I saw a headlight job one of the other members did that looked great. He cut into the fenderwell behind the headlights and recessed his behind the sheet metal. It looked awesome, that's another for my project list ! Click my link in the sig file to see the 4" turn signal conversion. I'll be swapping them out for LED's like I did on the rear, then I'll post more pics.

[porkchop]

For the inner lights on my wag I used some light buckets from a 70 something ford. I know that doesn't narrow it down but I did fid it in the desert and they worked great. I believe it was a 75' ford LTD. Once I pulled the light buckets from it I just bought new 5" lights for them. they work great. I wired them so they came on whenever the lights come on. I still need to find some bezels for the 5 inch lights.

[Marvin Gates]

Turners 4WD sells the head lite rings for CJ's that fit perfect for $25 new. I forget the guys name but he is from Florida, he used MB lites in the inside holes. MG :D :D

[Jerk]

I reccessed my headlights, and the offroad driving lights behind black speaker grill material cut to fit the holes. the headlight rings I made from 9ga. steel and the inner lights rings are the stock aluminum plugs with the center section cut out. These are simply screwed in place over the holes/
speaker-grill holding it all in place. the lights in the inner holes are actually the pivotting (balljoint-mounted) offroad lights w/ the plastic grids over the lenses, I don't know the brand, I got 'em 2nd or 3rd hand from a bud. they are bolted to the core support (or whatever) behind the face panel, they are about as bright as the halogen headlights on highbeam.

The rings on the actual headlights are a little complicated , they were originally made with the cut outs on the top and driver side to fit the adjustment screw stuff. after I reccessed the buckets and lights behind the rings 2", those cutouts are not needed. if you want general pics check out:
www.geocities.com/j20offroad/artPg1.html (http://www.geocities.com/j20offroad/artPg1.html) ...there are actually a few different pics of my truck on the site. - Matt W.
p.s. I was pulled over by city cop for not having headlights last week...until she actually saw the bulbs and I turned them on for her tongue.gif nyah nyah! no ticky for me! :D

[ July 14, 2002, 02:18 PM: Message edited by: Matt W ]

[gbarrett]

I used lights from a Mercedes but after a stroll through the boneyard I found lights from a late 80's model Towncar - the kind with the hoods that open for the headlights. They already have mounting tabs so it's a 5 minute job to install. I used a relay and put another switch under the dash to enable the lights.

Email me if you have any questions.

Later,

Greg

[Stolen76]

Matt is the guy I was talking about ! Hit his link and check out his recessed lights. Awesome pic looks like a cover shot for an outdoor magazine. Thanks for the idea Matt

[Marvin Gates]

Matt, that really looks good, I might have to rethink how I'm going to do my Rhino in my J20 now. Thanks for the pics MG smile.gif

[Jerk]

Its rougher up close, because I used 2 or 2.5" long 1/8" or so pan head machine screws to mount the buckets back in there, and so the threaded ends of the screws stick out the FRONT of the trim ring, and are held in place withe nuts, but very small ones. if I had it to do over, I'd maybe double the thickness of the rings (two pieces of 9 ga steel on top of each other) and make the inner one the mounting one and the outer one just have reccesses in the face big enough to get a sockoet on the nuts, then weld the two rings together so it would be basically flat on the front instead of having nuts sticking out from the face of the rings....oh well, when I get the rust fixed and the body painted gun metal grey metallic, then I'll deal with finishing trim issues.

If any one needs close up pics and isn't in a big hurry, e-mail me and I can shoot some, scan em and email them to you...what angles of which pieces might be helpful info too...there is some wheel well cutting to do and some small fabricating and such to be done if you want to take the "Non-protruding" profile look. for me though, I cant stand big, gaudy chrome trim rings and bulbous headlights, except on a Cobra!

[ July 15, 2002, 12:19 PM: Message edited by: Matt W ]