aftermarket headlight idea! check it out! Options

[uberschall]

so, i got to thinking the other day. i'm just as disappointed as everyone else with the aftermarket headlight scene for celicas. everyone has made good points about the cost of production, design, and materials, which are the three biggest barriers to a/m availability. then it hit me. why not do an aftermarket impreza style light? they are nearly the same shape and don't have a fairing, which i think would make them pretty cheap...especially because we'd only need one projector per light, unlike the subie units.


here's an example of some aftermarket subie projectors:



and here's a crappy hand-sketched rendition of what i think they could look like on a celica:


sorry about the doodle, i'm not so handy with photoshop. anyway, one projector per capsule, and the plastic bezels coulg be left black, wrapped in cf, body-color matched, etc.

opinions, suggestions, comments?

edit: i forgot to mention that the impreza headlights shown above sell for about $150 a set on ebay. even if each set of high or low beams cost us the same (which isn't likely given the fewer components necessary for our application, see above), we'd still only be looking at $300 for all four!

This post has been edited by uberschall: Aug 28, 2006 - 9:36 PM

[uberschall]

i'm def gonna try it on my spare lights. dustin mounted a projector in the stock bucket if i'm not mistaken...but i recall him saying it wasn't nearly as cost effective as he'd hoped.

i'm probably going to try it with a halogen round first.

does anyone think we could pitch this to an a/m headlight manufacturer?

[coldbluesteel]

i'm def gonna try it on my spare lights. dustin mounted a projector in the stock bucket if i'm not mistaken...but i recall him saying it wasn't nearly as cost effective as he'd hoped.

i'm probably going to try it with a halogen round first.

does anyone think we could pitch this to an a/m headlight manufacturer?

You'd have to send off your lights to them, so if you've got spares or another car your ok. R&D is not cheap, so the first pair will probably be expensive. After they have a mold ( if they find it profitable, molds are not cheap to set up on a professional level) then they could mass produce. I think I'll still be going at it myself. I'm pretty confident that I can do it, I mean I do this kinda of stuff on 40 million dollar fighter jets. The shell of my passenger low is pretty much destroyed, so I think that ones out of the question. The hi has cracked glass, so no problem working on that one. I had planned on selling the two driver side lights to recupe some of the money I'm spending on the conversion. If I work on those and they turn out well I could sell them for more, or keep them, but if it doesn't work out I'm out some $. What do you guys, and gals think?