wgripp

iTrader: (1)

I've got a 1991 GTA, and my headlights suck. Sealed beam lights came with the car. Now one of my foglights is out, and its time to replace the bulb.

I hear HIDs are the best. Does anyone make a street legal plug-and-play kit (with high beams and low beams) for my car and my fogs?

I found this kit

http://www.hawksthirdgenparts.com/pr...%252d1992.html

But, it doesn't appear to have true projectors, it doesn't appear to have high beams, and I can't stand blue headlights.

Even if I can find a kit for the headlights, I doubt I'll be able to find a projector replacement for my fog lights. In that case, what's the best plug and play bulb I can use? It's important for me that the headlights and foglights are the exact same color (probably 4300K).

Thanks!
Bill

LAFireboyd

iTrader: (3)

Everything you're asking about is available, some inexpensive, some very expensive, so your wallet might end-up helping you decide what to get. Most of the better products will be available from online vendors, but ebay is a good place to search too.

HID delivers the best light output, about 3-5x brighter than Halogen. LED comes in at about 2x brighter than Halogen. 3rdgen sealed beams use an H4-type connector, so you'd want headlight housings that use replaceable H4 bulbs(dual beam--low/high, like stock). 3rdgen Camaro fog lights use 880-series bulbs; Firebirds use H3 bulbs(but with a custom-fitment that might not work with standard H3 fitting products). All sizes mentioned available in HID and LED, so you should be able to have matching color temperatures for your headlights and foglights with either light source.

Yes, there are plug-n-play products. Legal? Yes, but in 3rdgens, technically no.

Other than sealed beams, nothing else is "street legal" for 3rdgens, no matter how much legal documentation is carried by the product. This is because it's illegal to change the headlight-type in any car, if the car wasn't offered with that type of headlight as either standard equipment or optional equipment from the factory; there are no exceptions to this in any state. So just because a product is "street legal" or might be "DOT Approved," it's still, technically, illegal to use it in a vehicle that wasn't originally offered with that type of product, even though it's a better safer product. In a 3rdgen, that means the only "legal" headlight is a sealed beam. So not even the Hawk's kit is "legal," regardless of how much Hawk's claims it is. Will anyone actually notice or care? No, unless you're disturbing a police officer who might walk around looking for reasons to cite you, and if he notices the headlights, then they might become an issue. But most-likely, legality probably wouldn't be anything to worry about. And with a Firebird, if your car is turned-off, and your lights are down, then he won't be able to see them anyway. Now that all that ugly legal stuff is out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff.

About that Hawk's kit, no, they are not projector headlights. They're sealed beams that have been opened-up and adapted to use removable H4 bulbs(dual beam--low/high, like stock), in this case HID(but could also be used with Halogen or an LED kit). So the beam pattern will be just as poor as typical sealed beams, just 3x brighter. You'll have two very bright streaks of light shining ahead of you, with poor side-to-side coverage/visibility, just like with sealed beams. But again, they are 3x brighter than stock, so by default, you will see better with them. There are pics of the Hawk's product on this website, and they verify what I've just said about them. The TGO members who have them seem to like them, though. But as you noted, Hawk's sells them with 10,000K HID, which is very blue and one of the poorest color temps for good visibility. But even with a better color temp(5000K-6000K), these headlights would still leave a lot to be desired. IMO, even an entry-level reflector housing from ebay with a good quality Halogen/Xenon-Plasma bulb or an LED kit would perform better than the Hawk's HID headlights.

For a real projector headlight(not a fake "projector-style" reflector housing), there's only one 4x6 "bi-xenon"(low beam/high beam) plug-n-play HID headlight on the market that will fit your 91-92 pop-up headlight assemblies. It's of excellent quality, made-to-order, and it's expensive. I don't sell it, and I don't represent it in anyway; I merely found it while searching the net for exactly this kind of product for 91-92 Firebirds. Here's a link to my thread showing it: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...projector.html If its cost is an obstacle, then making your own retrofit-style projector headlight might be your only other option. There are threads here on TGO by Camaro-owners who have made their own, and there are videos on youtube by people who have made their own. So there's plenty of source material to review. Just remember, fitment is extremely tight in Firebirds, so you can't just use the same parts that most others have used; you'll need parts that allow for a compact finished product. But even making your own won't be inexpensive, just less expensive, plus it could take-up a lot of your time. But from having projectors with HID in my Formula, https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/auto...-bi-xenon.html it's my opinion that there's not a better headlight combination than HID and projectors. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes.

Then with an H3 HID kit in your stock foglight housings in the same color temp as your headlights, everything will match, just like you want. But if you want "projector foglights," then I suspect you'll have to make them yourself, which would be similar to a retrofit projector headlight project, if there's even a projector small enough to retrofit into stock foglight housings. It would probably be best and simplest to just use HID in your stock foglight housings. HID kits are available from just about anywhere, from inexpensive to expensive, so kits of your choosing should be easy to find.

The newer light-source for headlights is LED. There are a few completely sealed LED reflector headlights; they're less expensive than projector headlights, but still somewhat expensive because they're also high-end products. Here are some links to some that should fit 91-92 Firebirds, but without knowing the shapes of the rears of the housings, it's possible that minor modifications might be required for proper fitment in the stock mounting ring:
http://www.uapac.com/trucks/lighting...-low-beam.html
http://www.maxxima.com/products/prod...l#.U1_qOvfn_IU
http://www.headlightrevolution.com/G...tr-6010003.htm
http://www.headlightrevolution.com/O...ra-4x6-45w.htm
http://www.badwolflighting.com/led-h...x6-sealed-beam
http://www.badwolflighting.com/led-h...or-sealed-beam

New to the market are LED kits. Similar to HID, these LED kits are also available in all of the replaceable headlight bulb sizes and will fit into most projector and reflector housings that use replaceable bulbs(yes, even entry-level 3rdgen-fitting 4x6 and 7x6 H4 reflector "ebay housings"). Here's a link to one manufacturer's products, though these are becoming available from other sources too:
http://www.gtrlighting.com/led-conversion-kit/

These LED kits are even more plug-n-play-friendly than HID. Their color temp is in the range of 6000K, so here again, headlights and foglights would match. But these are so new that there's little consumer feedback yet, so it's hard to say if they're as good as advertised. I have one of these LED kits in my daily vehicle, but I haven't created a thread about it yet. Unfortunately, these might not be an option for Firebirds. Their heat sink bases are so large that they might not fit into the pop-up assemblies. I hope to test an H1 kit in my Formula's projectors soon, which will be a good indicator of whether or not these kits will fit Firebirds.

So just like I began this post(a long time ago!), I'll go out by repeating, everything you want to do is available to you. It's just a matter of research to learn what might be best for you.