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I FINALLY finished my Dapper Lighting 575 HID w LED Halo Light & Harness Install so I wanted to post a review.
Dapper 575s: What you get / can get:
https://www.dapperlighting.com/colle...cts/575-chrome
5.75" circular, glass projector headlights available in Chrome (I went with Chrome) or Black, and available without LED halos or with "Classic" round halos or the Iron Man-style "Modern" LED halos (I got the modern halos).
The dim housings come with a proper physical cut-off that ensures that you don't blind oncoming traffic and they're made in the US by a shockingly small company. You can use standard halogen bulbs, LEDs, or 35watt or 55watt HIDs. (I got the 55watt HIDs). You can also get the halos in white or amber and you can get lens tint in a number of colors and make the whole light a color of your choosing. (Note: Probably not legal anywhere.)
I bought a set used from a guy who was abandoning his pro-mod project and parting it out. Chrome, standard halogen brights and chrome, 55watt HID dims -all with modern LED halos.
I also bought Dapper lighting's, fantastic quality 575 relay harness to take the electrical load off of the stock wiring and switch. The harness for $25 is the best deal around in a relay harness bar none and everything fit just perfectly. I wired mine directly off of the alternator, but I believe it would stretch to the starter lug if you wanted to go that route. Note: If you're in Canada the relay harness includes a built-in fuse, which I believe isn't strictly up to Canada's safety standards as a blown fuse means no headlights for you. I mounted the relays on the front of the driver's side wheel well ahead of the radiator.
Support:
You've just never seen support like this; not ever. The entire company has some sort of Google Voice account or something setup where anytime you call Dapper's 800 number, or text message their support number, it goes to each and every employee's personal phones. -They answer the phone and respond to text messages even when the company is officially closed. I've never encountered anything like it.
I ran into a problem with one HID bulb just being bad from the get-go and they sent me new bulbs and an extension wiring harness for the high-voltage side of the HID ballast because the stock wires just aren't long enough for an install in a C3.
Install:
Harness: The install of the harness was pretty easy- just laid out the harness and looked at the diagram. I chose to run the power into the harness directly off of the alternator and kept most of the wiring focused on the driver's side. The relays went on the front driver's side fender ahead of the radiator. Just run the wires from the harness to each headlight bucket, where the OEM wires go, and then plug the male end plugs from the harness into the driver's side's stock high and low plugs and ziptie it all out of the way neatly. The original plugs on the passenger's side go unused and I just taped them up with masking tape and zip tied them out of the way.
HID Ballasts: Finding a spot for the ballasts that was out of the way and would still reach each bulb was impossible. I mounted them to the side of the support bar that runs down the center of the car from the front bumper to the vacuum canister. I drilled a small hole and then painted said hole and used the included hardware, adhesive, and some heavy duty zip ties to mount the two ballasts.
This mounting location was definitely ideal but required high voltage (AMP) extension cables to reach the bulbs. One problem that I ran into was that the voltage-in cable going into the ballasts IS reversible, even though it only actually works in one direction...
Installation of the Projector Light Housing into the Stock Buckets:
The Dapper 575 light housing's 3 tabs on the rear of the light were just slightly farther apart than the C3 (1979 for me) light buckets; if I used a LOT of force, I could make them fit flush, but instead I just used my Dremel to remove maybe 1/8" from the tabs so they fit properly.
Installation and wiring of the LED Halos:
This was probably my biggest disappointment; the LED halos do not come with any sort of connector or harness at all, they're just two bare wires hanging down on the front of the light- you have to figure out how to wire them and either make your own harness or splice them up. Because they stick straight down in the front the fairly sharp metal chrome headlight bezels are scarily close to cutting the wires and I could definitely see vibration slowly cutting a wire.
I added GM-style Weather Pack connectors to each LED halo and then spliced into each of the front parking lights and wired the LED halos off of the parking lights. I really love this setup as I can just turn on my parking lights and pull the vacuum override under the dash if I want to drive around with only the halos on.
I ran into a bunch of ground problems at this point, which was mostly caused by me liberally using dielectric grease in all of my connectors and creating a small short- oops!
-When I find the photos I'll update this with how I wired these but you'll definitely need to figure out whether it's the brown or blue wire that runs the actual parking light vs. the hazard lights. (oops x2!) -I had my halos flashing with my blinkers for a while which was pretty amusing.
Challenges / Complaints:
LED Halo wires are just bare wire; need some sort of sheath to protect them and should come with some sort of connector (Weatherpack?)
Light housing "tabs" very slightly too wide for stock headlight housing
Included high-voltage AMP wires that go between the ballasts and the HID lamps are not long enough to be installed on a C3 Corvette (need extension cables).
1 HID bulb came non-functional and because I wasn't the original purchaser (even though they were in the original saran wrap when I got them) I had to pay for a new one. In Dapper's defense they sent me 2 for $20 and also gave me the AMP extension cables for free so I'm not going to complain; consider this a "challenge"
VERY minor: Wire connector for power-in to the Ballasts is reversible; why not just use a non-reversible connector type so it can't be screwed up?
VERY minor: LED halos are polarity-sensitive LEDs; if you wire them backward, they won't come on. Non-Polarity-Sensitive LEDs are widely available now.
Final Words:
They're of the highest quality and drop-dead gorgeous; the light output is phenomenal. They're US made and glass. The 575 Harness is the best deal in a relay harness bar none. The packaging rivals and probably bests any Apple product. I've never encountered such good support for any product of any kind.
If you're buying them from Dapper they DO have a huge backlog and it can take weeks and WEEKS to actually get the product in your hands.
Dapper has created super high-quality HIDs for our C3s for a super reasonable price.
My dumb video (a good 30 seconds in you can really see the LED halos); the upload to FB gave the video a strange, super interlaced kind of look:
My parking light hack for the halos: 1. Remove stock front parking lights (yes, I've converted these to LEDs, too) 2. Cut black and brown? (60% sure) wires, then crimp 2 black wires in with the original black wire and crimp 2 red wires in with the original brown wire and run one red and one black wire to each LED halo on that side of the car (via Weather Pack quick disconnect cable connectors). Note: Buy Weather Pack crimp tool: $20-$30 on Ebay; $50 @ Autoparts store
nice write up....do you have any pictures of the lights at night and against a wall to see the beam pattern? The most important aspect of lighting is the quality of the lens and lens material (lead crystal is best)....sounds like you have a winner from what I can tell.
In my experience, a projector lense can take just about any bulb type and provide the proper beam pattern. My first HID conversion was back in 2005 in a Chrysler 300 halogen projector with a McCullough HID conversion kit ($279 back then) and 170,000 miles later, I still have them and they give a perfect beam pattern with a proper cutoff..no glare!
I recently bought these LED bulbs for the highs of the Chrysler and my halogen high beams and foglights of my 2012 Lexus IS350 F sport:
These bulbs make my 35 watt HID conversion in the Chrysler 300 and the factory Lexus HID lows look sickly. Pricey but these 35 watt LED bulbs are the brightest I have seen on the market...perfect for high beams. I have to be Careful with the Lexus LED foglights...they cannot be used all the time due to the light intensity..
Nice Info.
I did the relay mod a year ago. Ceramic plugs and upgrade wire gauge. I even was able to keep the fiber optics working by modifying the new plugs.
Do these bulbs have any "back-splatter" like an old incandescent/halogen bulb that makes the FO work?
I like them! I have been thinking about buying a set of these for awhile now. What are the housing made of, metal or plastic? Have you driven at night with them yet?
Sorry folks, I was out of town Friday and Saturday and just beat on Sunday so obviously, I didn't get to the pictures; I'll be home alone tonight (after putting my 2 toddlers to bed) so hopefully I can get a picture out tonight.
The housings I THOUGHT were metal, but no, they're plastic covered in a very good looking chrome-like coating.
I live in Seattle and we've entered monsoon season already so I haven't driven the car at night yet (I've still got a bunch of belts off at-the-moment, too.) .
I have Hella Euro lead crystal lenses with the European Z beam pattern cutoff on the lows to prevent glare to on coming traffic on the 78 C3 since 1983. Currently and since then, these lights have housed 55/60 watt halogen low beam bulbs and 100 watt halogen high beam bulbs. Based on my experience with the LEDs I described above and attached the website link, I may try the 35 watt LED bulbs in the hella high beam lenses of the 78....These bulbs in the high beams of my lexus where halogens previously were housed should be incredible...just another option.
Aren't the halos intended to be daytime running lights? If so how are they of any use on a C3 with retractable headlamps? Am I missing something?
The halos are intended to look cool (at least for me). ;-)
You can easily use them as daytime running lights by wiring them into the parking lamp harness and using the vacuum override switch under the dash (reach straight between your legs under the steering wheel and pull down- VIOLA!) to make the headlights come up with just the parking lights on.
You could go further and buy one of the daytime running lights circuits from many of the Corvette suppliers and wire the LED Halos to come on automatically when the ignition is on- then just pull the override switch- you wouldn't even need to turn on the parking lights that way.
Adam
Last edited by NewbVetteGuy; 10-26-2017 at 03:25 PM.
The halos are intended to look cool (at least for me). ;-)
You can easily use them as daytime running lights by wiring them into the parking lamp harness and using the vacuum override switch under the dash (reach straight between your legs under the steering wheel and pull down- VIOLA!) to make the headlights come up with just the parking lights on.
You could go further and buy one of the daytime running lights circuits from many of the Corvette suppliers and wire the LED Halos to come on automatically when the ignition is on- then just pull the override switch- you wouldn't even need to turn on the parking lights that way.
Adam
Call me a nit pick or just "old school" but daytime running lamps burn without parking (or any other) exterior lamps. Not only do the headlamps add a surprising amount of air drag when open but IMO they detract from the cool lines of the car
I can't take credit for the idea but the DRLs I made for mine have received a few "those are cool" comments.
10-19-2017, 03:18 PM
Dapper Lighting 575 HID & LED Halo Lights & Harness Review
