'99-'01 Headlight/Xenon-HID and Fender Upgrade

I wasn't going to do this upgrade but if you're here you should know that this is a disease. I collected the '01 Xenon headlight assemblies and told my self that "I'm going to sell them". Well, you know what happened.

Below are four pictures of the original 97 appearance.

I didn't want to replace the fenders mainly becuase I didn't want to go through the process. Inevitably, when the fenders are replaced, something is not right and the car is not intact in the "original condition" anymore. I decided to try the "JCarey Method(tm)". I trimed the old lights (thanks to the donation by James Lin), shaped them, sanded, primered, painted, and epoxied them to the old fenders. You can see below how it worked out. I think this method looks good on JCarey's car because Bettie is black and the gap is less noticable.

I also decided to go with the amber lens to match the amber in the rear. I know this is unconventional for those who upgrade. Again, amber seems to look better with the color of my car.

The gap just didn't look right on my car so I decided to take action. I've never done body or paint work before but figured that I had nothing to loose. I bought some polyester reinforced filler and went to work. After two weekends of filling, sanding, and painting, the gaps are gone! The only problem was that I just couldn't get the passenger side fender paint to match (I was using custom mixed lacquer paint, a big mistake). I decided to get professional help and get real urethane paint. Look below: know that that's the old fender with the banana-shaped lens and body fillter!

Notice the "City Light".

Several people have asked for close up pictures of the fender fill. They are now available on Page 11.

Take a look at the pictures below. The first is from my old HID upgrade (the "Crystal White" 6000K purplish color) and the second picture is the OEM Philips HID (~4300K). What a difference in color temperature!