Hit a snag on LED headlight upgrade

[myotis1134]

1992 SHO MTX

I've been working on upgrading my headlights to LED. The driver side went smoothly (relatively), but I've run into a problem on the passenger side, and want some advice before proceeding.

As you can see below, the LED bulbs are quite a bit wider at the base, than the stock 9007 bulbs. This is what has caused the snag.


Now the driver side installation was OK, since there was plenty of clearance for the LED all the way around.

Driver side with LED installed.


But the passenger side is such that I'm going to have to enlarge the opening in order to get the LED to line up with the assembly opening. This seems a weird problem to me, since there doesn't appear to be a major difference in the gaps between crossmember and headlight assemblies - suggesting that the lack of opening is a natural phenomenon...



There doesn't seem to be any obvious distortion on the passenger side, but it must remain a possibility until someone can tell me this is normal for this car.

My choices are thus:
1. This situation is a result of car damage which I was not told about when I bought the car, and it must be repaired so that the vehicle is structurally sound.
2. Somebody at Ford sneezed while they were designing the headlight bulb area on the passenger side, and forgot to correct the design, resulting in a narrower opening, which I must sawsall and grind to allow the LED to be correctly oriented with the lens assembly.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[sperold]

Just use your sawsall and zip grinder to open up the opening in your panel, and chalk it up to a natural phenomenon or designer sneeze.
There is no compromised structure.
Let us know how the LED lights turn out, and if you need to modify the light harness.

 

[myotis1134]

Thanks for the info sperold. I went ahead and modified the opening, and finished the installation. The headlights are pretty cool, and I'll throw up an overview later on - I gotta wait for full dark to take an 'after' pic of the light output.

 

[myotis1134]

Thanks for the info sperold. I went ahead and modified the opening for clearance, and completed the install. The lights are pretty cool, and I'll throw out an overview later tonight or tomorrow - I'll need to get some 'after' pics when it gets full dark.

No harness modification required with this setup, which included all necessary adapters. However, I'll be doing a voltage drop test soon, and if I find something's amiss - I'll be dropping in a upgraded harness from CE Auto electric supply .

 

[sperold]

Thanks for all the info on this swap.
You need good lighting when it is dark all day and all night too.
For some reason, the stock lighting was never great, even when brand new; so it is nice to see some experimentation on this topic.
I have seen other threads where a whole light assembly was placed in the back of the housing, but the housing had to be modified to a degree that most people would not attempt it.
Yours looks a little more do-able.