R&R composites with H4s'.

[Fysh Guide]

Hey gang
Nice to see this site up with all the famaliar names and expertise! I tried posting this on the "Exterior" forum but as usual it would probably be better off here.
I'm looking at improving the lighting on my truck and want to move away from the lousy OEM composite set-up. I made the mistake of getting the "euro style" lights and have found they light the 30 feet infront of my truck on low and the tops of the trees on high. Great for spotting earthworms and owls I suppose. Not exactly what I was hoping for!
Daniel Stern of Candlepower has been very helpful and has suggested R&Ring my grill with one from a '98 that will fit the H4 type sealed units. I think he may have made a typo and meant a 93 or 94 grill. My question is, seeing as how it's the same body style, will a grill that houses the larger headlights just mount into the existing screwholes? I assume that I will have to drill for the differently located headlights, but maybe the headlight housings are built into the grille?
Anyone got an idea about this?
Thanks

 

[Edzzed]

did you buy the ones that have round projector beams and a square clear light. if so that's the ones i bought and resold on craigslist. got my money back. they aren't worth crap. i went back to the stock lights and changed the buld to 100 watts. they are pretty good now. next step might be HID. Ed

 

[Fysh Guide]

Both lights on each unit are the square, clear ones. I haven't liked any of the projection types, as I'm looking for spread as well as distance. What Daniel Stern said was....
"Basic problem here is bad headlamp optics. The *fix* for this situation
requires some legwork and investment on your part. You need to unhandcuff
yourself from the bad headlamp optics. This requires picking up the grille
and headlamp assemblies from a truck equipped like this: (picture of K1500 with 93-94 grille and headlamps)"
"That grille is available in numerous variants, with "GMC", with the
Chevrolet bowtie, painted, chromed, etc. Even if you were to use this
setup with the original low-quality sealed beam lights, you'd likely find
the seeing performance better than what you have now, but the reason for
making this swap is that it equips your truck with standard-size, large
headlamps. This means you can put good glass-and-metal H4 replaceable-bulb
units directly in place of the sealed beams."
"You've already got relays and heavy-gauge wiring for the low beams. You'd
want to have the same for the high beams, and you'd need to deactivate the
factory DRL circuit. Also, the "lows lit with highs" would need to go away
-- it is neither helpful nor compatible with the better headlamps; it's a
band-aid to try to wring half-decent high-beam performance out of the
original plastic lights."
"Move the DRL function to the front turn signals with a DRL-1 module....."
"Bulbs, you'd want -----------'s 70/65w H4s:"
"This overall setup will fix the nighttime seeing problem _all the way
fixed_ and then some."
I should note that my whole headlight harness is upgraded to heavier gauge, both highs and lows. Daniel also said that the composite wouldn't handle the heat of upgraded bulbs very well
I know that driving lights would help and I may do that but I want to keep it looking as low key as possible as well as not having to deal with more draw on the alt and more "stuff" on the front to install and maintain.
I like a sleeper and a 94 front on a 97 kinda appeals to me, especially if means better lighting.
Anywho, if the 94 grill is just a "slap it on" fit, great, that is the key. Is it the same mounting holes, and do the headlight assemblies mount on the truck structure or just to the grille like the signal and corner lights?