Headlamp Lens

[Clark]

Hi,
Considering the trucks and roadwork we've endured for many years now, I should feel lucky. Today while driving to work on the 215, I saw something fall off a dirt hauler and bounce across the lanes toward our Seven. Does anyone have a Caterham headlamp lens or lens assembly they are not using anymore? My car's headlamps are about 7" in diameter, with a chrome housing.HeadlampLens.JPG

[rzempel]

Is that not a standard sealed beam headlight?

[vstryker]

I have a spare oem 7" set, you have pm

[Clark]

Hi,
The headlight uses a seperate halogen bulb, not a sealed beam. The lens is attached to the front chrome ring, and that assembly comes off when the bulb needs replacing.

Is that 7" OEM the chrome Caterham light assembly?

- Clark

[vstryker]

It's the black housing

[Sean]

If (when) this happens to me, I intend to replace mine with Cibie H4 lamp assemblies. I understand they work much better.

[Clark]

Hi,
I had a set of the 7" Cibie lights on both of my BMW 1600's and they worked fairly well, especially the brights. Going with your suggestion, I still need to perform a dissection tonight to see how the 7's lights are constructed. If the Cibie unit would fit into the Caterham headlight housing, that would be a natural for an upgrade.
Thanks,

[Clark]

Hi Sean,
Do you have a line on the Cibie's? I got a quote from Clearcorners.com. 10-12 weeks delivery and $275 for a pair with high performance H4 bulbs. Hmmm. Is there a better way?

[JohnCh]

I have the 5-3/4" H4s on my car. Checkout Daniel Stern Lighting, very good prices and no BS. He has the 7" version for $79/ea plus bulbs.

-John

[Sean]

What he said. :)

[perry]

Drag Specialties Wave Headlights (for motorcycles) look great on my car, less areo drag, are smaller & lighter than stock, & are not in my line-of-sight. Same height as my bonnet! They don't make a ton of light but I don't drive much at night anyhow. Just an idea for ya.

[Clark]

Hi,
First off, I would like to send my appreciation to everyone for sharing information about lights. Solving my broken headlight problem was a journey all in itself. As suggested, I did send an inquiry to Daniel Stern Lighting and he replied with a comprehensive summary of what's available and what my options were. He seems like an excellent source of information and hardware for anyone desiring the equipment for turning night into day. However, our Seven is my daily driver and having it out of commission for any length of time was out of the question. Also, its uses are mostly track days, normal daily trips around town, mountain drives for breakfast or lunch, etc. My days of midnight canyon burning are way back in the past. So I took a tip from one of the employees at our Riverside O'Reilly's store and searched online to see what our local 4-Wheel Parts store had to offer. Their catalog indicated availability of the Hella brand 7" headlamp units. Last Saturday, I took the short drive across town to their store and picked up a set of Hella headlamps from stock! If anybody needs a similar set, they are Part Number HLA 002395991. Web address is http://www.4wheelparts.com . I can say, after using the new lights during my evening commute, that the Hellas are superior to the stock Wipac lights supplied with the Caterham kit. Nice even low beam spread with sharp cutoff, and much more evenly distributed high beams with good distance penetration. Total cost for this repair and upgrade was $84.22, including tax. Considering all the trips up and down I-5 to Buttonwillow, Laguna Seca and Thunderhill during the wee hours, I should have done this a long time ago!
Thanks again to all --