Please Help me w/headlights!

[SilentWing]

So I got my BMW e36 headlights via UPS today, took them out of the box, and realized just how freggin huge they are.

The glass and the housing are all one big assembly, and I'm not worried about hooking the wiring up since my fiance already knows what he's going to do with that.

But I have one Big problem....

In order to fit the headlight w/housing into my header panel, from the looks of it we'd have to cut some of the header panel out (since the housing is so large). We won't have a problem getting the glass lense to look good since that actually fits in the alotted space. The problem is that the part of the header panel we'd have to cut out also contains a mounting point on each side where it gets bolted to the body. He was thinking move the mounting point, but the only place to move it to would have it going into the radiator.

So my question(s) is/are does Anyone know of anyone who's done this before? Or do you have any ideas that could possibly help us out? If not I'm sure we can figure something out eventually, but I'd really like to find out what other people have done to get this to work.

Any points in the right direction are greatly appreciated as always.

[white89euro]

There is NO WAY I would install any headlights other than factory on an A-body. Just return the BMW llights and get some Silverstar or GE Nighthawk bulbs to upgrade your A-body headlamps. If you want the super high performance of the expensive BMW setup why not add driving lights below the bumper? It is also possible to wire the A-body headlights so all 4 are always on (after lowering the aim of the brights of course).

George

[Duke George V]

Can you wire them so that all four come on when switching to high?

I think there was someone on the old board that put 00-05 Impala headlights on his Century...

[SilentWing]

Yeah you can wire it so that all four come on, I had my car where when you turned the brights on the regular headlights stayed on too. Right now I have it where when you turn the headlights on the foglights come on with it. It's all a matter of hooking the wires up to the headlight supply power through a relay (so you don't overload the headlight supply).

[turbokinetic]

Sounds like an interesting project - would love to see some pictures of the progress. I am not any good with bodywork or sculpting...

I hear ya about the relays. I've got a 2 relay system, with a high beam and a low beam relay. Used Bosch 75A relays. The relays have a #10 AWG wire bringing power from the battery + stud. On the output side of the low beam relay, there are 2 breakers (left and right) sending power through a #12AWG wire to each lamp. The high beam wire has one relay for both lights, and #12AWG wire. This circuit gives a FULL 14 volts to the lights when the engine is running, and none of the power actually comes through the in-car wiring.

I rewired the connector at the dimmer-switch so the low beam has power all the time the lights are on, and both high and low have power when High Beam is on.

Makes the lights noticably brighter!

[SilentWing]

I'll get some pictures of it today since we're going to be hopefully at least getting the header panel back on the car tonight since wiring up the HID's and CCFL's are going to take a couple of hours.

Relays are my friend... I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I've got a total of 10 horns under my hood now, although I may donate a couple to my mom's car since she only has the high tone lol