BMW E36 headlights

Looks a lot like the fatwudy did so many years ago! Only mine were projectors, too. Keep going, dude! Best lights that I ever had in a B-body!

Awesome keep going July is coming fast.

Having them done for WFNY is the goal. I have to come up with some cash so I can get a lighting harness from Gary, or rig somthin' up from the JY.

I separated the clear lenses from the euro lights, and made the first cut.....  
Gary should be shipping the new headlight harness out soon, if he hasn't already.
Might be done for WF.... I really hope they work.

Continued.... They are all cut, just need to be trimmed a wee bit more The clear
lenses don't fit as well as the stockers, so I'm going to have to trim the BMW buckets
a bit more on a belt sander.

Camera was dead, no pics of the progress.

I still have a bit to do, but they are coming together.



I have this feeling that when they're all done and mounted up, the light will be too far off to adjust....

They look GREAT! How much $ for a set?

Looking good ! You might be starting something here. If you start making sets I want to be on the list .

Wow dude. You got those to fit waaaaaay better than I did! Nice!

Once I get the harness from Gary, I'll hook them up and get them aimed right, then tweak the lenses as necessary for best fit.

There is not much of a chance I'll be making more... these are a pain in the back side.

Mike

You should be able to order the buckets from the dealer - most of the BMW parts are in stock for almost all of the years.

Through BMW Classic parts you can get almost anything, and you would be surprised how far back they have parts.
Take a look:
http://shop.bmw-classic.de/index-ClassicDE-WFS-en_EU-EUR.html

Ok, I got the buckets and the B body head light mounts fitted together, and the whole assembly bolted to the Caprice. The headlight harness from Gary showed up today, tomorrow I have to hook up the electrical stuff, and see how they look..... If all goes well, the grinder will be going to put the Buick.

The grinder went to the Buick..... re-wired the lights and a few other things to neaten things up, spray bombed the core support, put it all back together and..... They're done. They look pretty good imo. Pics coming after WF.

Mike

Looks awesome, dude! Now you need some clear corners with the buckets painted black.

How do they work?

I think they look killer ! All you need to do now is make enough for us all . Lol great job .

Although I'm not going to use clear corners.... Yet, I will be painting some buckets black soon.
The lights themselves are aimed a bit low, but the light is nice, so I can see the potential, and I think they look way better than stock. Thanks for the complements Bill, and GS.

Mike

Very nice...OEM look to them.

They look AMAZING in person!

they look great. i forgot to ask u to look at the back side i saw them with the hood closed. even my wife noticed them and liked them

I made him open his hood!















for the record I voted for this conversion as best exterior mod.

looks like a pontiac mod to me

I just found this thread and do find it interesting.

I have been tinkering with a project (96 9C1) cutting up old 91-96 caprice headlamp modules to install some well engineered aftermarket HID units inside.

These Hella units have been designed and built to perform very nicely.

Problem is, they are extremely expensive. Several hundreds of dollars each, and you'll need four units! (2-hi, & 2-lo beams)

Unfortunately our 91-96 B-body cars are woefully deficient in forward lighting.

My 88 boxy LS Brougham has far superior and more accurate light output and aiming performance in factory stock form than my 95 RMW.  

At work we've seen our newest fleet of New Flyer city transit buses come factory equipped with Speaker brand combined HID/LED/incandescent forward lighting.

The absolute best headlights I've seen on a NYC transit vehicle yet.  

Looking on Speaker's web site, I found some interesting alternatives to conventional lamps, but they focus most of their efforts and products toward very large vehicles.

On another note, I have yet to observe even one "HID upgrade" kit delivering remotely adequate forward lighting when installed in an OEM reflector housing. It's all junk, really.

I seem to recall that the folks at Pirate 4x4 have also done extensive homework comparing the various options for improved lighting, primarily for Jeeps.

Hi, I'm a new guy from Finland Europe.
Your Buick look absolutely fantastic!!!
Mine looks a lot the same, exept for the lights...
What color is your car, is it Black?
Mine is Dark Cherry Metallic, with wood delete, the paint is not very good at all.

I am about to make this E36 BMW Light conversion to my Buick RMW some day.
So i have a few questions about these lights.
What were the biggest differences between E36 and Original-type lights?
I have read this thread, but i can't see the differences.
Propably because there is no pic with the E36 light just mocked up in your car with out doing any mods to them.
Do you have any of those pics to share?
So that us, who would like to make ones too, could see how much work there is a head of us.
Thank you anyway for this thread so far!   

RoadMonster FIN wrote:

I am about to make this E36 BMW Light conversion to my Buick RMW some day.
So i have a few questions about these lights.
What were the biggest differences between E36 and Original-type lights?
I have read this thread, but i can't see the differences.
Propably because there is no pic with the E36 light just mocked up in your car with out doing any mods to them.
Do you have any of those pics to share?
So that us, who would like to make ones too, could see how much work there is a head  of us.
Thank you anyway for this thread so far!   

The first biggest difference between the factory GM head lights, and the BMW head lights is the look of them. The Buick looks much better with the BMW lights in my opinion. A close second is the light output. I can see the road, and surrounding area much better with the BMW lights.I don't have any pics of factory stock BMW light mocked up in my car because they don't fit very well without modifications. They are close size wise, but I don't like the look of them just bolted to a B body.

This picture was my inspiration a few years ago. Looks good from a distance, but close up.... Eh?


Here are some pics of BMW E36 lights bolted to a B body wagon, followed by pics of how mine look.













There are a few more threads on this swap on the Impala SS forum.

You need to get the inner housings chromed to give it a stock look

1993 Roady-man wrote:

You need to get the inner housings chromed to give it a stock look

No way, I did this swap so it didn't quite look stock. Don't get me wrong, I love chrome, but a little bit goes a long way imo. I was originally going to paint the corner marker buckets black to see how'd that look.
Someday.

200OZ wrote:

Once I get the harness from Gary, I'll hook them up and get them aimed right, then tweak the lenses as necessary for best fit.

There is not much of a chance I'll be making more... these are a pain in the back side.

Mike

who is this "Gary" and how is the harness set up? do the low beams stay on when the hi beams come on?
Any chance of a schematic?

Yes, the low beams stay on when the high beams are on, but you can have them off too. your choice, Gary gives you a little jumper with the harness so you can have it either way.

No schematic, but there are a ton of them on line, just google head light harness schematics, and do some digging. I wouldn't waste your time though, just contact Innovative Wiring when you're ready.

Innovative wiring, the owners name is Gary. I was going to make my own harness at one point, but found the materials alone were going to be about $50. So I just ordered it by emailing Gary, and I had the harness in 2 weeks.  His stuff is top notch, larger gauge wiring, factory type connectors, and soldered wire connections... Looks like factory stuff, but much better.

http://innovativewiring.com/?page_id=232

The pictures on his site tell the story. The product you get in the mail is exactly what you see on his site.

Mike

Any pictures of the light output?

No, no pics of the light pattern. I was going to do some adjustments to them last winter to give me more adjustment, but one lens started to crack further than it had, so I left it alone for now. Right now the light pattern is two distinct beams aimed about 30' in front of the car, so they need to be aimed up a bit.

I didn't get them, but at the junk yard I found some 99' 750i headlights. Looks similar but the lows have projectors. Think these would work?