slcsubaru.com

I was doing a bit (okay, a lot) of reading on lighting upgrade for bugeyes, and I don't really like the conclusion I've come to so far.

Basically, stock bugeye lights suck. I've improved them with a relay harness and Philips Xtreme Power bulbs, which was a worthwhile upgrade. But I don't get enough good range out of the low-beams and the high-beams just plain suck. A lot of wasted light and not enough of it where it matters. I understand that this is the problem with bug-eye optics. The possible upgrades I've thought of are below:

1. EDM projector upgrade. Looks like $800 used. Ouch, but pretty. Optics aren't supposed to be bad either.
2. Lightwerkz HID projector retrofit (the service itself, new replica housings, wiring harness and HID kit). $1200. Major ouch, but simply awesome results possible.
3. Hella 500FF fogs and FF50 driving lights on DIY through-grill brackets. $120 for the fogs, $180 for the driving plus good bulbs. Pros: Major improvement in blizzard/snow conditions and rural driving. Cons: No improvement in low-beam driving (freeway, which is important when driving to/from ski resorts).

I do not want to DIY a projector retrofit. I do need better low-beam performance on the freeway for animal detection. I don't use my highbeams on I-80 because of the major amount of traffic between SLC/Ogden and Evanston. I'm not sure I would not get flashed using my high beams, to say nothing of using driving beams along with them.

One thing I need to take into account is that I can turn over EDMs or Lightwerkz lights for about the same amount I bought them for because they are so rare. Might take a hit on Lightwerkz but not much. The last pair that sold on Nasioc went for $1300.

What say you? Is there anything else I should consider? I've read practically every applicable lighting thread on Nasty Sock, and don't want to post there because they'd probably say "search n00b" anyway.

Bump for needing an opinion.

i had jdm headlights with hids in them. They were really nice, good vision. There were no high beams on them. On one of my other bugeyes i had the stock headlights so i threw in a 100 dollar hid kit. We installed it ourselves and it worked beautifully. Just as bright and just as good of visibility as the jdm projectors with hids. Again, no high beams. But you seldom needed them. What I would do, is do a hundred dollar hid kit because they work wonderfully, especially if you already have a relay. Then save up the monies to throw some auxiliary fogs on there to light up the night when there is no one around

I thought you weren't supposed to put HID's in reflector housings though? I would love some hid's but I have never done it because the hid will reflect all over the headlight housing and blind the **** out of people..... if that's the case. I could and probably am wrong.

You're not supposed to put HIDs in any housing that was designed for halogens, projector or reflector. It brings unnecessary and illegal amounts of glare. I've done what I can with the stock reflectors, which is why I'm looking for either a better halogen projector or go all out on an HID retrofit.

Flame suit on: Ive been running one of the hid kits in my stock bugeye headlights for alomst 2 years now and have never had anyone flash me or had any problems with the police. I love them much much brighter then the crappy stock lighting.

Can you post a picture of the cut-off?

projectors will ALWAYS be better than reflectors, even if its a halogen one with HID's
my morettes dont have HID projectors in them, but still have a pretty clean cut off with the HID's. and my HID's light up the road quite a bit

my projector hids and my reflector hids looked exactly the same visibility-wise driving at night. My wife drove the car several times behind me in when i was in a different car and the hid's in a reflector housing didnt bother me at all when it was behind me. It will look good and work well in both types of housing, no modifications needed

I found a good source of retrofitting supplies. I'm now looking into a DIY retrofit depending on how difficult it is.

the lightwerkz stuff is so sick i was looking at it before i even bought my car.. but $$$.

as for not putting hid's in relfection housings, take a peek at the 2004-2005 sti people.. i know there are different designs for other cars for projectors and i'd love love to have them, but if you just buy a quality hid kit you won't be blinding people.

Well, I read the guides on retrofitting a bugeye, and aicheewawa I don't think I want to do it.

My new idea is to gather the parts I want cheaply (such as buying used OEM headlamp housings and the projectors I want) and then paying Lightwerkz to do the labor. Should save me a couple hundred bucks in the process.

if it were me, i would just pay lightwerkz to do it all. i know its expensive, but you are paying an arm and a leg for them to retrofit anyway. so just pay them to get all the right supplies and do it right the first time. they might not even do it with the customer supplies, they may require you buy it from them

You can supply your own headlamps. Not sure about supplying your own projectors. Either way, they can acquire what you need anyway. I have an inquisitive email out to them right now. Hopefully I'll have an answer soon.

I probably will upgrade the fogs to Hella 500FFs with selective yellow bulbs anyway just in case of blizzard driving again.

yes i know you can give them your headlights, but i dont know about the other hardware (like you said, the projectors and such)

and i have 500FF's as my fogs with yellow covers on them...they are bright!
just make sure you buy the kartboy mounts for them
i also put the gtspec covers over mine so they wont crack and stuff, but thats optional

but like i said, they are bright.