Hopefully someone else will find this helpful and informative. Instead of paying 55-75 bucks for a JDM headlight bracket, just make your own! After looking at a few different mounting options I decided that this was the best way. I used basic materials you can get at any home depot. You can use any material, but for the price I found that metal flash works great, is light weight, and when bolted up correctly...is also suprisingly strong! Here is a step by step of what I did.
BE AWARE: THIS IS FABRICATION, PLEASE ENSURE SAFETY BY WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR. METAL WILL BE SHARP AFTER CUTTING!!
This first set of pics will be step 1. Know what you are doing and working with. From left to right: Pic 1 shows the drivers side headlight with no bracket, and also where you will be mounting, or points to pay attention to. Notice how the headlight it not flush along bumper line. Pic 2 shows the passenger side headlight, same points of interest. Pic 3 shows the location of the screw securing the corner light to the headlight. Pic 4 shows the location of the headlight body mounts. Pic 5 shows the piece of metal flash I will be using. I got this from Home Depot for $2.99 for a 10ft. piece.
Last edited by Sheazy0219; 05-23-2005 at 05:04 AM.
Pic 6 shows me holding the metal to test fit it. You want to make sure it is long enough to support the lights, but not too long...as you dont want it to rub into the lights and wear away the plastic. Mine had about a 1/4 inch clearance on both sides before it touched the actual headlight housing. Again, you just want it to support the lights under the mounting locations shown. I made all my marking with a silver sharpie to keep it clean. Pic 7 shows the mounting locations for the original USDM headlight mounts, I assume if you were to buy the JDM mounts they would still mount here as well. Pic 8 Shows the cut-out I made to make sure the hood latch had completely free and unrestricted movement. I made a mounting bracket out of the same flash metal we started with. I decided to use 3 low profile bolts with lock washers, for clearance and vibration reasons. Also, using a metal file to smooth the edges a little doesn't hurt, as the flash can be very sharp when you cut it. Pic 9 shows the bracket and how it was mounted from the backside. Pic 10 shows the finished product after all neccessary cuts and clearances are made. From the very top there are the "V" shaped grooves for the pokey thing sticking out of the back of the headlights. There is a hole drilled for the mounting locations of the headlights, and also a lower "box" cut on the bottom to accomodate attaching a grill to your lights.
Pic 11 shows the bracket all bolted in and supporting the headlights. Pic 12 shows how it should look from the back. This is where the pokey things are I cut the "V" shape for. Also, try to use small length bolts here...that way if you do happen to get in a fender bender they wont go through your radiator. Pic 13 shows the washer/lockwasher combo used to make sure they wont vibrate loose. Also you can see the clean cutout on the bottom. This is a mounting hole for your grill, dont forget to make clearance for it! Pic 14 shows the A/C line, this might be a little in the way when you start off, just push it a little toward the radiator. Pic 15 shows it all finished up. Notice how the headlights run even with the bumper lines, and no more sag!
nice job, i was wondering if anyone had made their own instead of paying a rediculous amount of money for 2 pieces of metal... I hope to have silvia front some day.
Awesome.
Would have been easier to create a bracket just like the stock ones though.
I can give you measurements of the stock ones whenever I take my headlights out again.
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