Headlights for a 97 Civic

[Schister66]

i have the two stock headlights on my Civic. I used to have other ones with clear corners, but they had cracked seals and were clouded over badly. I have these 'new' ones out of my friend Joey's 98 Civic, but i kind of want some new ones and don't know what to get, any suggestions. Keep the total budget under $350. Thanks a lot!!

[Silverbolt]

look on ebay... theres some clear ones, black housings, cf housings, JDM, smoked, projectors, halo projectors.....

[eckoman_pdx]

My first question is are you ever planning on doing an HID conversion? If you do, projectors would be the better idea, as they will produce less glare to oncoming traffirc, etc...probably a good idea if you live in an area like cali where HID conversions are illegel and cracked down on.

As for headlights, if you arn't going HID, I always like Type-R headlights, you can do the DIY type-R headlight conversion to your stockies as well. Lots more people do "angel eye" projectors than regular non-angel eye projectors, so thats something to consider if you want to be a little different. I always perfer darker colors, like black housed headlights (type-r, black projectors), etc.

[96CivicEX06]

Type-R's, which I think are the stocks with black housings... r da bomb! Im gonna get me some of those once I see a good price on eBay

[eckoman_pdx]

Originally Posted by 96CivicEX06

Type-R's, which I think are the stocks with black housings... r da bomb! Im gonna get me some of those once I see a good price on eBay

Why don't you just do a DIY Type-R conversion and save yourself the money? Likely thats what you'd be buying off ebay for cheap, someone else's DIY type-r headlight conversion. Save yourself the $$ and do it yourself. It's not that hard to do.

[96CivicEX06]

It's an OEM part straight out of the box.

Could you link me up a site that explains how to do or, or even better yet, tell me how to do it? Cuz the ones I have now are all fogged up and I tried baking them in the oven for about 15 minutes and the condensation or whatever in the inside did not come out.

[eckoman_pdx]

Here are 2 links where you can read up and see pics for how to do the DIY Type-R headlights. You can ue any color, not just gunmetal. Also, I personally think the smoked reflector (link 1) looks better than the reflector covered in reflective chrome tape (link 2).

http://www.honda-acura.net/forums/sh...ctr+headlights

http://members.tripod.com/brokenlimitsorg/hbake.htm

When you're all done and they're back thoghter, re-seal them. Mask off the edges and use silicon sealent to seal off the seams better. Most of the time when headlights leak, re-sealing them by adding another layer of silicon sealant in the cracks; filling the edges so theres no gap, air, or anything, will solve the problem and do the trick.

If you opt to re-seal them and not do the DIY trick, make sure ALL the water is out of there first, as you don't want to trap the water vapors in there.

[Silverbolt]

A 96-98 civic's headlights are different from 99-00. They have a bottom reflector on the side where as the JDM ones dont. So you really cant do a DIY jdm that actually looks JDM. You also dont get the cool city lights :]

[eckoman_pdx]

Originally Posted by Silverbolt

A 96-98 civic's headlights are different from 99-00. They have a bottom reflector on the side where as the JDM ones dont. So you really cant do a DIY jdm that actually looks JDM. You also dont get the cool city lights :]

IMO it's not worth the price for real JDM CTR's to get the city lights and bottom reflector (it it's 96-98), epsically if you are only looking for the neat colored housing look. Besdies, free versus WAAAYYY to much for REAL JDM lights. If you buy cheap knock offs you get cheap knock off qaulity. I'll take the free. Besides, you can paint it the color of your choice, and you get OEM qauility to boot. It's refered to as DIY JDM cuz of the painted housing. Most of the ebay JDM light knock off's don't look real JDM anyways, and are very cheap lights. OEM JDM CTR lights are a buttload. The DIY is easy to do, looks good, and is free. Hey, can't beat that. Better looking lights, you have more conrtol over how you want it to look, and you save more $$ to put torwards other things. Can't beat it IMO, especially for the price.

IMO the DIY can look real nice if someone takes there time, and they real JDM ones arn't worth the high price unless yuo absolulty can not like without genuine JDM lights with a city light!! I say do the DIY. If you don't have the $$ for real JDM's right now, then do it now. If you want real JDM's later, then buy real ones later and sell these on ebay as "JDM style lights." A good amount of the "JDM" lookalikes on ebay nodays are someone DIY'in the inner housing anyway, so why pay for it? DIY!!!

If you want the real JDM lights, then pay for them. If you are not willing to pay for the authentic ones, the do the DIY. As I sadi above, even if you want to buy the Genuine CTR's later, do the DIY now in the mean time, since it's free. That's my 2 cents.

[96CivicEX06]

I have paint and clear left over from when I painted my spoiler the same as the car, I'm now planning on sanding and painting the housing the same color as my car (the stock Honda dark green) so it'll look nice and not flashy. My question is if I do use the paint left over for painting the housing... do I have to apply clear coat too, or just the paint?

[eckoman_pdx]

Originally Posted by 96CivicEX06

I have paint and clear left over from when I painted my spoiler the same as the car, I'm now planning on sanding and painting the housing the same color as my car (the stock Honda dark green) so it'll look nice and not flashy. My question is if I do use the paint left over for painting the housing... do I have to apply clear coat too, or just the paint?

Most stock honda paints are a 2-stage Basecoat/clearocat type. On a baecoat clearcoat type, the basecoat (the color) tends to look flat and dull when it's painted and dries. Once the clearcoat is applied, it comes to life and looks like you what you see on the outside of the car. Clearcoat is also what gives the paint the deep wet glossy look.

The paint you have left over from painting your spoiler to match the car should be a basecoat/clearcoat type, so you'll most likely want to apply the clear to get the proper result.

[96CivicEX06]

OK, seems logical enough. Would it be possible to get an aerosol paint can with the same color code as my honda stock color?

[eckoman_pdx]

Originally Posted by 96CivicEX06

OK, seems logical enough. Would it be possible to get an aerosol paint can with the same color code as my honda stock color?

I likely won't match perfectly, but you can look around and see if anything comes close enough. If you already have the paint laying around though, I'd use that.

[96CivicEX06]

So far this mod has been a sinch. I just got done painting it now I'm gonna let the paint sit for a night then reassemble them. I would highly recommend this mod.

[eckoman_pdx]

Originally Posted by 96CivicEX06

So far this mod has been a sinch. I just got done painting it now I'm gonna let the paint sit for a night then reassemble them. I would highly recommend this mod.

You have a picture you can post of how it turned out?