john_a_carey's 1998 BMW 7-Series on CarDomain

I finally got to the headlights again to attempt a modification of the 95-98 housings which would fit the Gen II Angel Eye rings into these lights. This was begun by my cohort Dave K but he stopped short as I mentioned on page 2. I was fortunate to have a donor headlight sent to me by "bull" Derek from the Bimmerborad E38 forum. This gave me the freedom to tear into the housing wihtout fear I'd ruin my headlights. I am happy to report this worked out really well. The modification is illustrated in these photos below.

I succeeded in installing the Original BMW rings with fiber optic cables in the donor E38 95-98 headlight this weekend. The process required some cutting on the headlight housing, the diffusion lenses, the black plastic lens holder, and the lamp/reflector frame but not on the reflectors themselves. The result looks really good and the fiber optic cables allow us to retain the halogen light source. Here is a run down on how my weekend project progressed:

1. As Dave K found out, the BMW rings are taller than the E38's headlight diffusion lenses and bending them to fit is not desirable as this makes an oval not a circle. I laid the rings on top of the diffusion lenses and could see that they would lay perfectly flat with the elbows running just over the top of these lenses. I looked to see how this could be fit into the headlight as it is.

In order to fit them into the housings in this position I first cut away the top center area of the black plastic frame above the diffusion lenses. This let me squeeze them into the housing, but it was too tight and the elbows still would hit the reflectors in this squeezed configuration.

2. I next cut away top center area of the black plastic frame on the lamp/reflector holder. Once these parts were cut away, I test fit the rings into the housing, but it was still really tight. I could get it in, but the housing was bulging at the top, and now that the lens frame was missing the pieces on the top of the lenses, things weren't laying flat but I was committed to this plan, so I figured I could get things to compress enough to fit the glass onto it and clamp things together.

3. I then moved on to the fiber optic cables, thinking of how to get them into the housing and attached to the ring's elbow. I was going to try to squeeze them into the housing above the lamp/reflectors together with the elbows and hope for the best at this point. This did not fit well enough and was hard to determine if I could even get things to compress enough. As I continued to study the cable/ring-elbow interface, I recognized that the clips that Levi sent along would get them to stay together and make assembly and disassembly much easier. I began to test fit these clips along with the rings and found that there just wasn't going to be enough room inside the housing for all of this stuff so...

I cut away the top of the housing at the location where the clips would be located and also cut away the front lip of the housing where the rings can pass over the top of the lenses without being crushed by the housing or causing the housing to bulge out now.

In this way the clips are now located just over the top of the lenses, and the ring elbows run straight into them without hitting the housing or the frames. I worked carefully on the font lip to retain the integrity of the gasket seat, and on the cutouts for the clips to retain the integrity of the glass clips lip. About half of the gasket seat was cut away just where the rings pass through. This is no big deal as long as the gasket still fit it into the seat, it would seal things up just fine.

4. The trick to mounting the fiber cable clips was to make the openings in the housing just a tad smaller than the clips so they would be held in by the friction and I filed (sanded) the sides of the clips flat/square so they would fit into the openings better. I pressed them into the openings, and taped the rings onto the lenses and installed the frames to see if it would all work. It did!!

5. I cut a hole for the fiber optic cables to enter the headlight housing from below where the Xenon (HID) ballast would be mounted. Now I had to run the fiber optic cables to the clips and secure them so they wont move around during installation or use. This was done by drilling small holes in the headlight housing and using nylon cable ties to secure them in place out of the way so as not to interfere with the reflector/lamp frame. Next, I test fit the reflector/lamp housing frame for fit and clearance (headlight adjustment). I needed to trim a bit more off the reflector frame at the top to clear the clips, but once this was done it fit and was still free to move. Finally, I installed the diffusion lens frame with rings and fit the cover glass and clipped the entire thing together @ 9:00PM last night.

6. The fiber optic cable entry hole need a water tight seal and the small holes I drilled for cable ties should be sealed up as well. In fact this is now the only real concern I have because the top of the headlight housing is opened where the fiber optic cable clips are as well. I need to come up with some method of sealing up there openings to moisture.

7. I had fabricated a halogen bulb box from an electrical junction box and a scrap of aliminium to hold the halogen bulbfrom the E65 Dave K sent to me last month. This bracket was screwed to the cover of the junction box to fit inside.

8. The fiber optic cables tips are attached to the electrical junction box with a 3/4" flex electrical conduit clamp. Once this was done, then the box is mounted where it won't get in the way or melt something important behind the headlights.

New photos added May 31st.
Here are two shots of the 95-98 headlight with the Angel Eye rings installed, one on my bench and one with the unit mounted into my 98 E38. I cannot seem to photograph the Angel Eye rings very well, every time I try the photos come out grainy and very dark, no sharpness etc.. Sorry but this is what I have to show you. It looks a lot better in person of course.

Here is the 99-01 style headlights (modified from 98 lights), with the Gen II Angel Eye rings installed powered by my home made light box and a 10 Watt halogen lamp from an E65.