Alright, from what i can tell no one has tried this, but i want to know if anyone has even thought of it, or what anyone thinks...
I love my explorer and all others, but it's no secret that the stock headlights and lenses leave a person wanting more. I have a set of blue headlights, and they look nice, but they really aren't very bright and it's sorta hard to see at night. I've been hoping that the dull stock lenses have something to do with that, and the Diamond cut aftermarket lenses look like a good alternative, providing a clear lens to let more light through. However, i'm still left with the (in my opinion) crappy "1 bulb for both bright and low beam" setup. In comparison, we also have a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, and it has very nice looking headlight assemblies 2 bulbs, clear lenses, and a nice, shiny interior to them (http://www.speedyautoparts.com/cgi-bin/speedy/JPGRANDCHEROKEE10.html the 3rd and 4th ones down if you want a close look). And i've noticed that many Chrysler products tend to have the 2 bulb design, and i love it. So, what i'm thinking about doing is taking one of those assemblies from the above site, CAREFULLY cutting it open, taking the mouting brakets off, and outer lens off, leaving me with just the area for the 2 headlights (with all the shiny interior housing all intact) and then cutting that down to a depth that will fit in an explorer's headlight assembly (a set of the diamond cut kind, i guess, since they are the only ones with clear lenses, and without them being clear, all this is kind of useless) this is assuming it will fit (and also after taking away the original explorer headlight area). Then i'd probably put some rubber sealing material between the Jeep headlight housing and the explorer lens area, then lots of epoxy i imagine, and maybe some pieces of plastic or metal cut to make everything fit right, and then to remount the explorer brackets onto the back of the whole thing. I did some rough estimates with my tape measure, and the actual area for the headlights seems to be about the same for both vehicles, if not, i guess there are other vehicles' assemblies with 2 bulbs to choose from. And then i'd have to worry about the angle at which these are set after all the mounting (don't want them pointed straight at the ground, nor in peoples' eyes) and then also to make sure that the right and left housings look the same... but i'm pretty sure i can handle that. Then i also have to consider rewiring some things to make the low beam bulbs come on with the switch, and the high beams come on with their switch, but again i'm not worried about that. I'd then put high quality blue blubs in both the high and low beams, they'd have to be the number to fit the Jeep, but i'll probably have to do something about the wattages being different in each vehicle. Don't worry, i'm not going to dive right into this, first i'll see if i can get some crappy Jeep and explorer assemblies cheap from a junkyard, and tear them apart, to make sure it can be done before buying expensive assemblies and tearing them apart to find it can't be done. I know in the end if it can be done the way i want it will be expensive, but i have no problem with that. I just want to know what anyone thinks.
I love my explorer and all others, but it's no secret that the stock headlights and lenses leave a person wanting more. I have a set of blue headlights, and they look nice, but they really aren't very bright and it's sorta hard to see at night. I've been hoping that the dull stock lenses have something to do with that, and the Diamond cut aftermarket lenses look like a good alternative, providing a clear lens to let more light through. However, i'm still left with the (in my opinion) crappy "1 bulb for both bright and low beam" setup. In comparison, we also have a 2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, and it has very nice looking headlight assemblies 2 bulbs, clear lenses, and a nice, shiny interior to them (http://www.speedyautoparts.com/cgi-bin/speedy/JPGRANDCHEROKEE10.html the 3rd and 4th ones down if you want a close look). And i've noticed that many Chrysler products tend to have the 2 bulb design, and i love it. So, what i'm thinking about doing is taking one of those assemblies from the above site, CAREFULLY cutting it open, taking the mouting brakets off, and outer lens off, leaving me with just the area for the 2 headlights (with all the shiny interior housing all intact) and then cutting that down to a depth that will fit in an explorer's headlight assembly (a set of the diamond cut kind, i guess, since they are the only ones with clear lenses, and without them being clear, all this is kind of useless) this is assuming it will fit (and also after taking away the original explorer headlight area). Then i'd probably put some rubber sealing material between the Jeep headlight housing and the explorer lens area, then lots of epoxy i imagine, and maybe some pieces of plastic or metal cut to make everything fit right, and then to remount the explorer brackets onto the back of the whole thing. I did some rough estimates with my tape measure, and the actual area for the headlights seems to be about the same for both vehicles, if not, i guess there are other vehicles' assemblies with 2 bulbs to choose from. And then i'd have to worry about the angle at which these are set after all the mounting (don't want them pointed straight at the ground, nor in peoples' eyes) and then also to make sure that the right and left housings look the same... but i'm pretty sure i can handle that. Then i also have to consider rewiring some things to make the low beam bulbs come on with the switch, and the high beams come on with their switch, but again i'm not worried about that. I'd then put high quality blue blubs in both the high and low beams, they'd have to be the number to fit the Jeep, but i'll probably have to do something about the wattages being different in each vehicle. Don't worry, i'm not going to dive right into this, first i'll see if i can get some crappy Jeep and explorer assemblies cheap from a junkyard, and tear them apart, to make sure it can be done before buying expensive assemblies and tearing them apart to find it can't be done. I know in the end if it can be done the way i want it will be expensive, but i have no problem with that. I just want to know what anyone thinks.
