looking for strong, colored headlights

[Mordecai]

I am looking to put colored headlights on my '88 Civic HB DX, and wanted some opinions on the best brands, and where to buy. I do not know if I need to simply purchase colored bulbs, or if a complete upgrade of my headlights (such as to HID) would be in order.

I'd prefer that my lights had a green appearance, but have never seen green bulbs. Any help would be appreciated.

- Mordecai
T4Gen.net

[zzyzx]

try Ractive lights!!
They are great!!

http://www.toucanindustries.com

[Marc-OS]

Originally posted by Mordecai
I am looking to put colored headlights on my '88 Civic HB DX, and wanted some opinions on the best brands, and where to buy. I do not know if I need to simply purchase colored bulbs, or if a complete upgrade of my headlights (such as to HID) would be in order.

I'd prefer that my lights had a green appearance, but have never seen green bulbs. Any help would be appreciated.

- Mordecai
T4Gen.net

Have fun explaining your green headlights to the cops when they give you the fix it ticket.

[ci5ic]

Uh. you want colored headlight bulbs? or you want other bulbs in the housing along with the headlight bulbs? I've never heard of anyone actually making colored HL bulbs. Usually, it's some small colored bulbs that are drilled into the housing and run off a switch or something...

[Mordecai]

I apologize for my ignorance; I am speaking of the cars that I see driving down the roads at night with blue- or purple-tinted headlights. Low-beams only, I assume. If I am not mistaken, the blue-tinted lights are simply bulbs, such as Super-Blue Xenons, and the purple-tinted ones are HID headlamps. I am just looking for others' opinions on the subject of the best brand or method of achieving the colored-light look.

In regards to the legalities of such, I have seen cars regularly around the town where I work that have blue-tinted low-beams, and they continue to display them, so I assume they have caught no flak from the cops about it. I do not believe that the police here in South Texas are near as 'anal' about such things as they are in other places, such as Southern California.

Thank you, zzyzx for the Toucan Industries suggestion. I will check out their wares as soon as I get past their expansive flash intro.

As always, your help and discussion is appreciated.

- Mordecai
T4Gen.net

[90civicrider]

I got a ticket for my headlights a couple days ago. $34.00
they have a blueish tint

[crxlvr]

the cars you are seeing have HID systems in them, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, etc all use these systems to give a nice blueish white tint to the lights.

[zzyzx]

Thank you, zzyzx for the Toucan Industries suggestion. I will check out their wares as soon as I get past their expansive flash intro.

they like flash

they are from Canada, and export for US. Probably you'll find Eurolite products.

[optimuspeterson]

or you could be like travis and have pink headlights.


just ask him about that one

[Shadowkahn]

If you do anything to the lights, you want the HID lights. There is a kit out there to convert the 88-91 civic & CRX headlamps to HID. The HID system is an excellent lighting system that throws a HELL of a lot of light while not blinding the people coming toward you.

DO NOT get the "ion blue" bulbs or any other tinted bulbs- - that cuts your light output by a ton. All they're doing is taking a regular headlight bulb and painting it or putting a colored gel over it. Doing that not only reduces the potential light output due to the loss in transmission through the filter material, but when you restrict the output to only one color, you lose ALL of the light that's composed of the other colors. In some cases you can cut your light output by 85%. This isn't something you want to deal with at night.

Additionally, the painted/tinted bulbs are illegal as hell, while HID lights are not.

[Mordecai]

A big thank you to everyone who has posted a reply; I appreciate your help, and the information is invaluable. I had no idea that the "painted" bulbs were illegal.

Looks like HID is the way to go; any suggestions on where to purchase this light kit online? I am not sure of any place around San Antonio, TX (the closest big city to where I live) that would even come close to offering such a select product.

Again, many thanks.

[Shadowkahn]

do a google search for "civic HID"

now that you're not gonna get the crappy stuff, is it really important to you to have that color, or do you just want more light? If you just want more light, go look at a set of PIAA 1100X driving lights. They cost around $150-$200 and throw an unbelievable amount of light. It's a much cheaper route than getting HID which costs MUCH more.

[Mordecai]

Depending upon my future finances, I will most likely go with the HID, in order to procure those tinted lights. Thanks for the suggestion of the PIAA's, though; I may purchase those in the interim. I still have a fair bit of work to do on my poor Hatchback before I upgrade the lights; it never hurts to plan ahead.

[Shadowkahn]

i hear you there. These cars are great but after 12+ years on the road they require a lot of work to get 'em where we want 'em.