I've been moving right along with my complete exterior lighting conversion; i.e. rear LED Halo, Rear Adjure Reverse Plate with LEDs, Rear Adjure side markers with LED, new front corners with LEDs, new front HID Fogs and finally the ACA headlights.

All has gone pretty smoothly, even after reverse engineering my Euro tails to to LED tails and the PITA rewiring I had to do under the dash.

I have now gotten to the point of (trying) to shave off the two stock OEM cross bars in the stock OEM headlight housing and after two hours, I've barely gotten one done with three to go!

Does anyone have any tips on how to make this process faster and cleaner? Any special tools or tricks? I have used a utility knife and vice grips, however it's been a very long tedius process and my hands are killing me. I even tried using a dremel, however no such luck.

 

Allen, are you talking about the ridges that need to be taken down for clearance? Hmm, was a pretty straight-forward process when I did mine.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1563817454-post3.html

 

You may want to spend a few minutes making absolutly sure you need to shave those ribs down. I had to "clearance" one side a bit but saw no need to mess with the other. A few minutes with the Dremel is all it took. Good luck on the install and before you button everything up, make sure the balasts are good. I had a bad one which made the hid flicker from brighter to dimmer. Patches post on the installation is great information. I read it several times beforfe I started and it helped greatly (Thanks Patches!)

 

As I recall mine snapped right off in three good sized pieces. I didn't grind on them at all as it wasn't needed and no one will ever see this part of the lights.

 

Yep, that's the part I'm working on. It seems as though they just aren't breaking off that easily. I've scored them with the utility knife just like the pics, however when I try to break off pieces with the vice grip, they don't budge. I go back and continue to cut the soft metal, however it doesn't seem to do much good.

Note, I did not remove the housing units like you did Patches as they are still on the car per the instructions that came with the kit. The stock light units are obviously removed, however the actual frame casing is still on. So basically, I'm going at it from underneath. Lack of leverage might be working against me.

 

Thanks. I will try a quick fit to see how much I actually need to remove or trim down. Perhaps I'm trying to take too much off and I don't need to.

I've installed the HID fogs and the 4300 temp look great. The headlight HIDs are also 4300 and I can't wait to finally see how well they light up the road (safely). I will definitely check the ballasts for the headlights once I have them wired up before I close everything up.

 

You might want to take SWT_86's advice and just nibble away a bit and try the fit before going all the way.

And, Jim - That's just how I am. OCD always kicks in during projects - little to no control over it . . .

 

I just did mine last week using Patches instruction (HID for Fogs and Low beam and brass gear changes on the motor) and no problem at all. I didn't use the wiring harness that came with the kit but I did use ballast with CAN-BUS on it. After aiming the low beam and fogs, all I can say wow - it's awesome.

 

I removed the ribs working on the kitchen table and it was a PITA. You just have to get real aggressive with the vice grips.

Are you installing ACA's with the H9 projectors for the hid's? I'm not convinced I needed to trim the ribs at all with H9's!

 

I'm not sure if I have the H9 HID projectors. They are the newer version kits that JW Motoring sells that have the twist in bulbs.

I just finished triming the four ribs down and you're right. After a test fit, I don't think I needed to trim the back rib down as much as I did. The front ones definitely needed to get trimmed down some.

In taking the previous advise, I got aggressive with the vice grips. The instructions I'm following does not require that you remove the complete light housing, so I had to perform this step with the units still on the car. It's tough cutting up into the unit and then getting enough leverage to chip off the pieces.

They key is to make sure you cover the lighting and fender areas with towels, covers, mircofiber towels, etc. to protect the finish. I even put blue painters tape over the edges before placing the towels on top.

Things are progressing. I stopped for the night because I need to get a pair of larger terminal eye outlets to connect to the fuse panel. The positive terminal eyelet that came with this wiring harness (kit) is a little too small and needs to be replaced or drilled out. I tried drilling it out, but it's still too tight without much metal left. Better be safe and just get two new eyelets. Off to the hardware store tomorrow! Hopefully I can finish this project up in the next couple days.

 

Take your time ... I did mine in three days.

 

Thanks. Things are progressing. I installed the fogs today and I attached the slim fog ballast to the inner frame rail as suggested by others. However I hope the headlights close all the way. It looks like they should, however it might be tight.

 

After having my lights out several times I think you are really making the job a whole lot harder by leaving the frame casings in the car. Once you have them out of the car EVERYTHING is so much easier and there is so much more room to work. And while they are out you can easily clean an lubricate the headlight adjusters so as not to have them break.......as they have for so many folks.

 

Understood........I just don't have the patience.

 

I had a rough time breaking the ribs off...but, if you put it in a vise it is a lot easier to snap off the unwanted areas. However, it is very important to set the piece in the vise in a way not to break off a nearby tab like I did. The replacement part from Gene is $78. In retrospect I would not use the break off method suggested; it would be way safer to grind off the material with an air tool or equivalent. Also, this step may not be necessary.

 

Dremel with a cut off wheel, 5 minute job.