Headlights s13 popup weight

[a_ahmed]

Just for those that wana know I just took the driver side out completely and weighed each bit... eh...its not as much as internet rumor mills claim that you save 20lbs... thats bull**** when basically both sides weigh 10lbs roughly.

The silverstar headlight I had + metal bracket/motor + headlight cover all came out to be 9.5lbs... and give or take +0.5lbs with the bolts I did not weight which were light anyways...

So unless i missed some magical bit... the whole assembly came out.

Now MAYBE the stock headlights were heavier than the silverstars but the silverstar was featherweihgt at like 0.5lbs-1lbs...

Anywho the thin frp/carbonw rapped c-west prototype I plan to put in is 0.5lbs-1lbs roughly... very light... and I am planning to try to fit 60mm hella lights im not sure how much they weigh yet as I have to order them.. I am going to go ahead and do this properly with a low beam 60mm projector (h7) x2 and high beam 60mm project (h9) x2. They cost roughly 50 bux each.

Not sure how much they weight but basically some weight will be brought back up and it wont be the 20lbs saved as some people claim...

If I use an hid ballast theres some weight in that to be gained back for sure... I have h7 hid ballast... but eh.. whatever... i think im a stick to regular halogen crap and no hid... we'll see... we'll see.. can always do a proper hid setup down the line and keep this simple for the first time.

In a nutshell again... the weigh saved is minimal but one benefit i see is the lights staying down.. mine are permanently stuck up now so... when i went to those track days im sure I could have slightly accelerated better, gotten better gas milage and definetely had a better top speed on the straights :)

Just thought I'd share this. :)

Going to be putting up for sale the hella 50mm rectangular driving lights and supermade housings. I dont dig the supermade housings...

[Def]

Yea, I always thought the weight for stock pop-ups was a bit high given what they are(aluminum hosed dinky motors + pretty normal looking headlights). You might save a few lbs going Silvia headlights there, but I think most the weight is in the different bumper support.

[Def]

BTW - thanks for weighing them - love good info like this.

[a_ahmed]

np, i like to weigh stuff. I've also weighed my wilwood calipers/rotors and the bn blister body kit and a buncha other misc stuff (eg; rear z32 uprights) and posted months and months ago if anyone cares. The wilwood stuff was bigger but lighter than the z32 equivalents if i recall... mostly due to the 2 piece design...

I'll weigh the stock fenders/skirts/bumpers/hood/etc... individually when I take them off too.

All going at a snail pace... I'm on vacation today for two weeks roughly.. and my wife and I moved back to the city where the car is in storage.... hence my excitement and ability to do some stuff... poor thing is so dusted and in need of attention :o

These are the 60mm hella projectors I got in mind, they come in both lo beam and high beam config:

http://www.rallylights.com/images/57000.jpg

I was actually hunting for 50mm hella projectors... but those things came in at 120$ EACH.... in halogen non hid/xenon setup... and 500 for xenon/hid setup... EACH... ridiculous... and i think actually it was 500 for high beam and something like 600 for low beam... I was like hmm.... but then by accident I ran across a corvette guy that made a really sweet setup with 60mm projectors and they cost 50 bux each :) Considering I have two 2.5" holes... I'll hopefully pull it off :)

[2Fass240us]

I weighed the two headlamps and harnesses at 4.2 pounds, years ago. IIRC, this did NOT include any metal, but I can look up a picture to confirm.

In case I haven't mentioned it enough, use this Excel sheet (http://www.mysportscar.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/s13_weight_savings_guide.xls) as a guide before you go weighing something else. :)

[a_ahmed]

ya what i weighed was with the metal obviously... as that out it goes :)

[a_ahmed]

**** i thre wout the jack i shoulda weighed that its not on the list LOL.. i mean the oem one... it was busted anyway lmao

[5upra]

you aren't talking about a lightweight pop up are you?

[a_ahmed]

i am talking about popups being gone and i am making a fixed light setup. But my point was the popups themselves are not as heavy as people claimed. I guess one down side is aerodynamics with them being high up.

[5upra]

ok you said something about a c west prototype but the main topic was the pop ups. so wasn't sure.

[a_ahmed]

c-west prototypes are these:

http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m404/Casilvias13/fixedheadlights.jpg

No I wont run those ugly blue lights but hopefully those hella 60mm projectors with actual lo/hi beam.

They weigh half a pound... not sure on the hella lights... just waiting to sell my supermade stuff then ill order them... I'm sure they cant be more than 0.5-1lbs themselves when giant silverstar housings were 1lbs themselves. So say I'll save roughly 10-15lbs (still not bad assuming its half the weight or slightly less than half ideally speaking)...

[2Fass240us]

I have fixed lights and will try to keep the OE metal headlights covers in some fashion, as there are no affordable alternatives in polycarbonate.
http://i116.photobucket.com/albums/o20/2Fass240us/Project_240/VeeAteSwap/BayBefore_001.jpg

[a_ahmed]

Clever, thats kinds of what i had in mind at one point as well. In fact I was pondering if I could use the metal covers to make a mould for a lens... i honestly dont know how or who could... i wish i would find out though... i would love to sport clear covers like the many rare and discontinued kits (eg; abflug) or say oem car slike nsx and c6 vette.

It's pretty much the only way to really go about mounting stuff as we're space constrained.

Thanks for sharing the pic.

By the way here is the supposed abflug kit but its NOT upon closer inspection, I contacted them and they can still get it... but look:

http://www.jspec.com/18fihe.html

Very similar as to what you have actually.

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/jspec_2093_156278009
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/jspec_2093_156889520
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/jspec_2093_19975793

And the actual abflug which looks quite nice imo:

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerofile/37226/008.jpg

[a_ahmed]

Just to add... I suppose if you are using stock covers you could cut an opening all inside while leaving the edges open then either by screws or epoxy of some kind stick lexan. Makes sense? And voila... kind of :) Simple and cost effective i think

Also what lights are you utilizing if I may ask?

[a_ahmed]

Well last night I sold my supermade housings and hella ff75 driving lights that was the initial plan. As such today I've just ordered the hella 60mm projector module puppies, the lo beam projector and hi beam :) Only one each in order to toy with the first housing.

Here is how they fit on a camaro lol:

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w170/bmdeluca/98-02%20Projector%20Retrofit/DSC01674.jpg

Here is something more like our setup on a corvette (sexy):

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/RadioflyerCustoms/IMG_0967.jpg

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/RadioflyerCustoms/IMG_1052.jpg

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/RadioflyerCustoms/IMG_1425.jpg

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/RadioflyerCustoms/IMG_1395.jpg

Hopefully I'll achieve something half descent :) Oh yeah and I'll weight them haha

http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/RadioflyerCustoms/IMG_1414.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/RadioflyerCustoms/IMG_1399.jpg
http://i606.photobucket.com/albums/tt142/RadioflyerCustoms/IMG_1452.jpg

[Equinox]

They look great! That guy did a great job. Looks almost OEM.

[veriest1]

It would create more drag but something like thbat with a "sleepy eyes" look would be easy to do.

[Tower240sx]

that Camaro looks deceptively like a c5 corvette

[SoSideways]

It's because it is one?

The hood opens forward.

[Tower240sx]

I was poking fun at Ahmed...but apparently I didn't read all of his captions...I'll go sit in the corner now and make parts quietly...DOH

[a_ahmed]

So since the stock complete assembly was 9.5 per side that's 19lbs total.

I got the 60mm hella lo beam projector module and 60mm hi beam. Their dimensions are sliiightly different but like miniscule.

Anyways they weigh in at 1lbs both together with halogen bulbs inside.

The frp/carbon thingamajig is 0.5lbs... >_> ...........


<_<...........


>_>

So technically I may be that lucky guy almost losing 20lbs :D Now I'll go halogen at first but since they are projectors i have an hid ballast ready.

Lets say my bracket is about 1lbs or less as well roughly say my assembly is 3lbs finished that'll be 6.5lbs weight loss per side or 13lbs total which isnt half bad. Maybe more if I get lucky.

The c-west prototypes had to be chopped up... if i wana get fancy i can get the housings really remade and who knows i might have an actual quality alternative that no one else had for both weight savings AND descent lighting... may not be in everyone's taste but hey heh. We'll see.... i'll keep you guys up to date

[2Fass240us]

I would LOVE to be proven wrong, but my experience is that no one makes an even-close-to-affordable, complete kit alternative to pop-ups. Most are just plastic "housings" that bolt in place and include no lighting or polycarbonate cover. Probably because it's prohibitively expensive to have moulded plastic parts made because of the manufacturing process.

The clearcorners.com kit is $2,200 and is still pop-up AFAIK. OMGWTFBBQ?

[Def]

Wait, you're saying EACH S13 pop-up assembly weighs 10 lbs PER SIDE? I thought you meant it weighs 10 lbs total in the first post...

20 lbs seems a bit heavy for those lights and some aluminum housed motors with some gears.

[a_ahmed]

well they are costly because of labour and "im the only one that did it" kind of thing not because of necessarily materials and such. Think about it, clearcorners probably sources LEDs and all the misc lil bits from God knows where in china and has the process down to a science so it takes little effort to produce most likely.. however its a quality product.

I'm just doing it for fun as a challenge and to lose some weight maybe and not have the lights up (drag) and hopefully actually achieve good light output unlike all the other crap on the market... HELLA produces quality products so we'll see...

And I am confused by myself now, I think i said 9.5lbs per side or maybe i meant total... both sides... im gona reweigh the stuff lol... However in either case being a total 20lbs loss when you go to some other oem lights+brackets didnt seem realistic to me... but since the stuff i have is really feather light... maybe ill be lucky enough to actually save that much. I'll confirm later. Back to work :)

[a_ahmed]

Just jumped and weighed the junk and it was 9.5lbs (one side not both) so that clears that up.

[Def]

Hmmm... so 19 lbs. I thought it'd be lighter.

What's the heaviest part, the headlight itself or the motors?

[a_ahmed]

It was the motor/bracket portion.