MikelZ

Anyone know of a fixed headlight kit for a 1st gen? I think they look a lot better than the flip ups and would like to lose the weight of the light assemblys and motors.

smnc

Firstly, No.

Secondly, you want to get rid of the pop-ups? Please don't take offense, but what the heck are you thinking?
It just wouldn't be a 1st gen without pop-ups. Not to mention the fact that you would get dick-all light out of a flush headlight kit. Man, even thinking that is like sacrilege.



-Spencer

SilverRocket

Maybe you could get some of those altezza tail lights, and then stuff em' into the headlight holes. I'm sure you'd save a solid 1 pound of weight lol.

Dude, pop-ups are the ****. Keep em', and spend your cash on something worthwhile.

MikelZ

You want sacrilege? I'm putting a 5.0/T5 in it. I'm trying to explore all options to reduce front end weight and bring the balance back to 50/50.

Secondly- The Pop ups aren't really all that great to me, I think a set of tasteful fixed headlights look a lot better, weigh less, and create less drag, just my opinion.

MyRxBad

I've only seen a couple of 7's with that done and I think it was a complete custom job. No bolt in products out there.

The look is a 50/50 thing. I don't think it does the car any justice on a 1st gen IMO. But that's just my 2cents

smnc

Don't know how much weight and drag you hope to save with fixed lights, but an alternative might be the low-profile "sleepy-eye" kits that BasAssRX-7 is working on.

MikelZ

Link?

smnc

He says they're almost done. You can search the message board for the thread, or e-mail BadAssRX-7.

The should look somthing like this, but with the bigger reflectors on the outside.

MikelZ

Looks pretty good

I was really looking for something like this, so I could lose the weight of the motors and pods: (pic stolen from a different post).



It looks like I will have to fab up something myself if I want to run headlights like that though..

smnc

No offence guy, but those are FUGLY!
Plus, wouldn't that leave a huge area in front of the car unlit? The lights look REALLY far back to me...

Seriously tho, how much do you think the headlights and motors weigh? Can't be more than a couple pounds? What are you doing that would make that kind of weight important?
Unless you're turning the car into a race-only machine...?

Anyways, I've never heard of a kit like that for the 1st gen. You're probably looking at custom fab.

SilverRocket

Those lights look extremely homemade IMO.

I don't mind the sleepy-eye lights tho.

Why the hell would you spend so much time and effort just for those things?!?! You're not going to save **** all in weight. If you really care about weight that much, get a smaller battery and relocate it, get a fiberglass hood and fenders, lexan windows, lighter seats, gut your interior, etc.

But whatever, to each his own I guess.

jimmyv13

If you hate the flip ups so much then take out all of the lighting hardware; lights, motors, buckets, etc.... and install some kick *** fog lights in the air dam.

MikelZ

Have you seen the motors and all the linkage to move the headlights? Has to be something in the neighborhood of 10# per side just for that, the pods are a few more pounds, and they are placed at the very front of the car, magnifying the effect. I am already planning to go to a dynabatt battery and relocate it to the trunk, most likely over the right rear tire.

I'm not planning on really competing in the car, as it doesn't really fit into any class, I just like making things the best I possibly can, I am not realy one for comprimise. As they say, its hard to find one place to remove a pound of weight, it's easy to find 16 places to remove an ounce.

Also, I'm not to concerned with looks, IMO going fast is looking good.

Someone mentioned lightweight body panels...since it is going to be a street car I would like to avoid fiberglass fenders, the hood will be replaced with a 'glass or aluminum, I have heard the GSL-SE's had an aluminum hood from the factory..anyone know for sure?

As far as just putting foglights in the air-dam, around here I would be pulled over every 30 seconds for illegal lighting, so I can't go that way. I guess I will leave the stockers in their for now, and once I finish the motor swap either get the sleepy eye lights or fabricate some mounts for fixed headlights myself.

JIMMY54

iTrader: (2)

GSL-SE's just have the regular steel hood. There are aftermarket fiberglass hoods that look completely stock. As for fiberglass panels for street, your car won't dent at all. It'll break for you actually get hit by a car. The problem I see with fiberglass is painting it, it's really hard for a body shop to get all the imperfections out of it. As for the lights I like them all, I personally thought of all the different options but I feel that it will end up costing too much, I'd rather spend that money on something else on the car. But whoever has it, it's nice to see differences between all our cars. Go for it. I do think it will be really hard. Try and get in touch with the shop that rx7 is sponcered by and talk to them, they own the car I believe. They also have a website. That rx7 even has clear tail lights. It looks soild cause the car it white.

jimmyv13

Why are fog lights illegal? I have heard of them being illegal if being used in conjunction with other headlights, but never by themselves, as long as there are only two headlights, why does it matter where they are placed on the car?

speckamp

DOT has regulations that say how high the headlights have to be on a car. The 3rd gens had popup lights in part because of this fact. So running the fog lights ALONE would probably cause the local boys in blue to wonder.

--matt

jimmyv13

I used to run my fog lightsw/o my headlights a lot b4 I removed them. They weren't a very good brand, I guess the owner b4 me just wanted fog lights and didn't care how good they were.