Upgrade to newer style LED surround type head light help

[MaicoDoug]

The one aftermarket type I purchased said they were "polycarbonate", but after 6 months they were crazed badly with the thinnest film peeling off of some sort of clearcoat. Typically like clear acrylic. During the conversation with the manufacturer I inquired why their statement of polycarbonate construction when after only a few months his comment was "if it's parked in the Texas sun.....". So they became 90% better looking with my spraying them with the clear water based poly urethane. / Black ABS for sure!

 

[Jtrussell1890]

So time for an update. Managed to get my header panel and grill mocked up just to see if I could "redneck engineer" then to fit with out having to replace the fenders and core support.

They hung pretty nice honestly and I could see some serious possibility in this. Really need my truck back on the road since my significant other situation has changed and I won't be able to have her give me rides much longer. I really do want to do the full front clip, but time and money are hindering that at the moment. No time to drive the 2 hours to Houston to find junk yard parts and can't afford the shipping to buy new ones on line. Did manage to get a new tire, just need to get it mounted to the rim. Also got my headlights in.

Old on the left, new on the right. Left the protective plastic film on the lens while I was doing some testing and playing with the wiring. Was able to power up the whole assembly and everything looked great. Went ahead and soldered in the new pigtails got everything heat shrinked and wrapped up for weather proofing. Plugged in one of the lights with the new wiring installed and it drained the battery in like 2 minutes. I think I may have missed something in there. Running late for work, be back at it again Friday morning.

As soon as I got home this morning I went to work. The other day I made a trip to both the hardware store and the O'Reilly and picked up what I thought I would need to custom fit everything. Nothing I did altered the new parts in any fashion, just built some home made mounts and made the header panel work. It's actually very solid and quite sturdy for a shade tree type of job lol. At any rate, it's there, so it's the new grill and the new lights. I still need to look into the battery issue and see why it killed it so quick, but it's all mounted. Both of the park lights are LED bulbs, the head light bulbs are the mid grade Sylvania (blue package) because the LED ones were almost $100 for a pair. The new assemblies anyway came with the 3157NA bulbs installed for the turn signals, so didn't have to worry about those. Was able to get all of the mounting finished and fixed the dent in the hood (mostly lol). Just need to work on a bumper and get the new tire mounted and fix the electrical and it's on the road again. Final pics from today below.

It looks a bit goofy on the driver side because the fender is still off being straightened. I'm happy with it though. Also, going tomorrow to find some wbp clear coat for the head lights. No paper work or anything in the box when the arrived, so not 100% on the material. Going to treat them anyway so I can the most life or them as possible.

 

[bobbywalter]

yup

 

[Jtrussell1890]

Current progress. Installed a makeshift bumper made out of a 2x10 painted black. Used the original bumper brackets and while it's not what I wanted to do, sometimes, we do what's necessary to move forward. So need to get the new tire mounted, charge the battery and still need 2 more headlight clips (all the local parts stores have been out since they only carry one pair at each store and I needed 3 pair). Only 2 stores in town. Yay for small towns lol. Oh well, I'll try again next town over on Wednesday.

Edited for spelling