S15 Sylvia Headlight Conversion [Merged 11-8]

[eagle97talon]

I do not like swaps, and this is why:

I believe that the intrinsic personality of car is contained in 3 specific regions (pretty psych stuff, but please read on):

The headlamps (the eyes, enterance to the soul of the machine)

The front bumper (the mouth part of the face, defines the characer of the car:aggressive, passive, nonchalant, etc)

The rear bumper (less significant thatn the above two, but still determines the overall personlity of the vehicle, e.g., eclipse rear = classic chunky butt, unique to eclipses/talons)

When people add body kits or lips to the front of the car, the character changes, but the essense remains the same: the headlamps, the eyes, are still of the original car, and hence retain a lot of its personality as that particular type of vehicle. It's like putting on your Sunday best; you don't usually dress that way, but you are still recognizable as you because your face is what defines you.

A person does a headlight swap on his car. Now, suppose a "Dave" decides to go wear colored contacts, masking the orignial color of his eyes, and decides to shave off his trade-mark goatie that he's worn for years, and grow his hair after a lifetime of supporting a buzz-cut. He has essentially changed what defined him as "Dave". He is now someone else after this facial change; just like getting the headlight of another car. Here's the important thing: it is clear that "Dave" has changed, but whether people think this change looks good on him (like some people appreciate the S15 light swap), others might want the old dave back because that is what defined him, though they don't mind the tux he's wearing (original headlamps with a good body kit = okay).

I hope I didn't sound like too much of a crackhead. But I'm afraid it's too late....

I can agree with this to a certain degree, but do you really think that this particular conversion is changing what makes a dsm a dsm? The s15 headlights are nearly the same as our stock lights, except for the upswept corners. I can see your point if this was applied to maybe a supra conversion or something like that, but this conversion is fairly subtle, and, I think, only adds to the agressive "face" or charecter of the car.

 

[DarkstarTsi]

I'm planning on changing the pop-up headlights on my 91 Talon. I want to go for a fixed setup but DON'T want to use 92-94 headlights. Besides, the plastic turnsignals on the 1G cars always tend to leak water and trun yellowish. Has anybody done this kind of mod before??? If so please post some pics. I was thinking of going for a proyector style headlight, maybe de JDM silvia S13 headlight which is really narrow. Any input would be welcome.
Thanx

 

[JOEY A]

CUSTOM


A few people, it doesnt look so good since they didnt take alot of time into making them.


No one has made them, this is always talked about but somone gets a idea and plans to make them. Ends up making a mold and they never come back with anything finished.

 

[sk8shorty01]

actually im in the middle of changing my 2g headlights to the 2002 honda accord projectors.... i wanted to go for something different that not everyone does because its a show car and doing the same thing as everyone else wont get you anywhere... i am also doing a del sol trunk conversion with a straight up and down roll down back window and a s2000 tail light conversion... This car is making its way towards the hard to tell what it is catagory which is exactly what i want. When i finish i will post some pics but it will be a while because i dont have a lot of time to work on my own car, to busy working on customer cars... If you have any questions on doing the fiberglass work just send me an email at [email protected] and i would be happy to answer as soon as i can

 

[DarkstarTsi]

Thanx for the comments, I think I'll go for the mod. The shop says it'll take about 2 weeks to finish the car since I'm also doing a complete paint job. I'll post some pictures of the outcome.

 

[sk8shorty01]

This would be much cheaper to do on your own. The fiberglass work might seem overwhelming but it is really quite easy. It would be worth it just to do yourself because you would save so much money. The only place you would really be spending a good amount of money is buying the silvia headlights because they are sort of pricy, but other than that the paint and glass is relatively cheap. Plus you get the satisfaction of saying that you did the work on your car whenever someone asks you

 

[gofer]

i know this thread is old but... i live out in san diego and went racing at qualcomm last friday. anyway, a white TSi AWD talon had this conversion done to it with a body kit front bumper. i noticed the bumper but i couldn't figure out wtf he had done to his headlights... it did look really clean and im not a fan of conversions. im going back out there this friday (14th april) and ill be sure to snap a pic or two if i see the guy out there.

go for it man and unless someones a true DSM'r they probably won't even notice if you keep the stock bumper on there

 

[sk8shorty01]

I got the 2001 honda accord black projectors to do my headlight conversion because the s15 headlights are just so expensive. I think they look pretty good, well actually almost stock but thats alright, you have to do custom work to get places at the shows, and thats what I tune for. I am also doing 2001 S2000 tail light conversion. I bought the smoked out ones (real smoked glass not a film stripping or anything) and I am working on doing the install now. I will post pics whenever I actually get it done.

 

[sk8shorty01]

Heres a pic of them. They dont have all the silver circles in them though, they are solid black with an angel eye in them. The inside lens is black chrome so its still reflective but not shinny silver. I dont like them as much as the s15's but for 200$ shipped I dont really care. They look much better sitting on the car, the pic looks kind of funny.

 

[Galaxy]

Post some of the progress or where you are now or somethin,I love pictures of the actual work,not the finished product.Be interesting to see.

 

[DarkstarTsi]

I finally decided on doing the mod on my 1G. Got a complete set of JDM S13 headlights and corners for 150 bucks. All the body work has already been done and the car is currently undergoing a complete paint job. The shop says it will be done by saturday so as soon as I can I'll post some pictures. In my opinion it looks good, we'll see the coments when I post the pictures.

 

[Sivad87]

Nice to see somebody doing something different with the headlights. hope it turns out well

 

[swade]

i have thought about doing something like this... i know its on a VW but the general idea could be changed over... its kinda like a version of Sivad87 projector... and then mold the driver side light lid to the hood, and leave the passenger one functional to use as an adjustable/put up from inside the car hood scoop...

vw, but might work for 1ga

wade

ps Sivad87 hows the brights coming?

 

[jessebenner]

Couple more pics for inspiration...

 

[Injected]

Most all of you are missing the point, those on both sides of the argument.

People tell you to buy the whole car because it pisses a lot of those people off. The supra community gets pissed at eclipse owners to put supra tailights in the eclipse. First off it looks ugly as hell, doesn't match the bodylines of a supra, and doesn't even look right. To me it just gives me the impression that that person only cares about looks and really is only a wanna-be supra owner. Shit half the money you spend in your showy ass eclipses you could of saved up for a supra in the first place….(inclusive of the rest of his ramblings and so-called logic)

For this line of thinking, the main fallacy is that you overlook the fact that we all enjoy the pleasure of car modification, which means that we address the things about the car that we want to change. Some think that the stock turbo is smaller than it should be (which I agree to and can prove) and could use more power, some think that the headlights are not as aggressive as they should be and they want to make them more aggressive. They aren’t putting the headlights on because the lights are from an S-15 and they wish they owned an S-15, they are doing it because it is a good replacement that achieves what they are intended for, making the headlights more aggressive. The same is true of most all body kits and body modifications. Also, many of the members here don’t care about making their cars fast at all and just want a car that they can be proud of by making it more unique. Projecting your values onto other members of the forum is ridiculous.

A person does a headlight swap on his car. Now, suppose a "Dave" decides to go wear colored contacts, masking the orignial color of his eyes, and decides to shave off his trade-mark goatie that he's worn for years, and grow his hair after a lifetime of supporting a buzz-cut. He has essentially changed what defined him as "Dave". He is now someone else after this facial change; just like getting the headlight of another car. Here's the important thing: it is clear that "Dave" has changed, but whether people think this change looks good on him (like some people appreciate the S15 light swap), others might want the old dave back because that is what defined him, though they don't mind the tux he's wearing (original headlamps with a good body kit = okay).

Shpyder, you have earned my respect many times before, so I’ll be nice when I disagree. Dave is the same person wearing Elton John style glasses, or a nice set of Oakley’s. The difference? One way looks like he should also be wearing a fanny pack, you know which. Not to say that the stockers look bad. Even you changed yours for dual projectors, added a lip and a hood, side-mirrors, and turbo wing for a more menacing look. Think of the S-15 conversion like when Dave furrows his brow and squints. He’s still Dave, he just looks more pissed off now.

I also noticed that at the point in which this is written, many of those replying have far less than 100 posts. As pointed out, there is a reason this site is one of the largest single platform dedicated sites on the internet, respect and understanding. Especially the understanding part. If you can’t understand the desire to modify the appearance of a car, as stated before, stay out of the appearance forums.

 

[DarkstarTsi]

Finally finished the headlight swap on my 1G. Threw away the pop ups (those things are like candles) and converted to a set of JDM Sylvia S13 headlights. Feel free to throw in your comments.
Thanx

 

[DarkstarTsi]

www.dsmtuners.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=61076&catid=member&imageuser=11194

The damn pictures don't work, use the link above to check it out.

 

[TangNinja]

Looks good man, nice work.

 

[GSTinCO]

How about a write-up and what's the light output light compared to the pop-ups? Looking good.

 

[norice4me]

hey manthey look grewat my friend as the same pair of head lights as you and he is not using them how hard is this conversion

 

[firehawk]

yeah wow....those are real nice. Did you do this? if so like everyone else asking...how hard was it to do?

 

[Xplicit93AWD]

WOW!!! Im super interested in this conversion and could it be done to a 1g-b and it is hard to make the fenders and hood and did you have to mod your front bumper...????

 

[pushin_gsx]

That looks awesome. Good work!

 

[L2RTSiAWD]

The headlights probably aren't cheap with all ub3r 733t dorifto's out there with teh 240's

 

[Deadly BlaZe]

The headlights probably aren't cheap with all ub3r 733t dorifto's out there with teh 240's

so true. oh and it's dorifuto not dorifto. what a n00b jk Anyways, nice work on the conversion, looks like it was worth the time.