MP5 Eyelids...
 

All:

How is everyone doing today? Well, for me, it's been rough...

A while back I posted a thread about the quality of the H7 bulb "clips" on the headlights, how they easily broke and how Mazda didn't have a part for it, nor did they want to help. I mentioned in the article that I used black hot glue.

Well, last night after the car was on for about 15 minutes, the glue melted and the lightbulbs popped out. (I used black hot glue on my HIDS on my Type-R, but didn't realize how cool they were on temperature compared to a light bulb). That's the bad thing. The good thing is that I installed an Alpine amp and a JL subwoofer in a custom box (toys I bought while in Miami last week) and that install turned out flawless. Another story about that later.

Today, I was running around to stores like crazy to find wire that is very similiar to that of the stock clips, I ended up buying a part from Autozone that was used entirely for something else and utilizing the wire. I spent some time and managed to bend and make the proper clips. Long story short, the second clip wasn't as good as the first and the first headlight I was working on broke on the inside (not noticeable), so while fixing it, some glue ran down the inner top side of the headlight and screwed everything up, however the bulbs were in like stock (actually better).

So...I pretty much decided to do the ricey "eyelid" thing to both headlights to cover the messups. (yes, I painted the headlights, black, then silver, then clearcoat.) It turned out pretty darn good and I had test drove it at night, a little reduced light upper, but not too bad!

What do you all think?

http://www.rtekimports.com/mazda/eyelids.jpg

On another note - anyone know where I can pick up a set of headlights for a good discounted price? OR Anyone know if there is or any plans on any aftermarket headlights (with black inners or projectors)?

- Brian

Your car looks sleepy. :D If you didn't want to have them permanent, you could also use some vinyl and paint that. This way, you can remove them if you want.

how's the fuctionality of the headlights now? i've seen em with 'brows, but never that low.

The beams are still very very good. Yeah, if you read the post, it was not intentional to do this, I had to fix an issue and that is why it is so low.

- Brian

Out of curiousity - how could you say the pattern is "that obscured" to net me a ticket? Actually the lighting is pretty darn good, close to stock, and I did upgrade the bulbs. As far as a ticket, here in the Chicago burbz, as long as it is lit up and you can see 50 feet in front of you, that's cool for most. Any ideas how to get a new set of headlights fairly cheap $200 or so for both versus $400 for both?

It looks different, As for new one, the dealership for such a new car, MP3 or other new pro headlights might work.