29 Nov - headlight door grille mod

I finally painted the mounting hardware.  The hardware will be installed after a couple of days of drying/curing.

25 Nov 2020 - Headlight door grille mod

 Today I made driver side and passenger side brackets for the headlight door grilles. The brackets allow for easier adjustment/removal/installation of the modified headlight door grilles.

Tomorrow I will disassemble the mods and paint the pieces.

 

 

I initially made this bracket out of 1" aluminum angle bracket.  After looking over the aluminum bracket I decided to make the brackets out of 1" steel angle iron.

 

 

passenger side grille door bracket and hardware

passenger side grille door bracket and hardware

passenger side grille door bracket and hardware

passenger side grille door bracket and hardware

passenger side grille door bracket and hardware

driver side grille door bracket and hardwae

driver side grille door bracket and hardware

driver side grille door bracket and hardware

driver side grille door bracket and hardware

driver side grille door bracket and hardware

21 Nov 2020 - headlight door/grille mod

Night test drive was good, beams are more centered and lower.  These headlights are now more downward pointing than what the Challenger headlights are showing.  Considering raising the beams up a bit and check again tomorrow at night

 Installed the left and right side headlight grilles.  I didn't install the headlight doors in case I need to make a few more headlamp adjustments.

On the driver side I made a bracket to connect the headlight grille to the radiator support 

19 Nov 2020 - headlight upgrade/replacement

I installed the outer hi/lo beam headlamps lenses both sides, and adjusted/aligned each.

18 Nov 2020 - headlight upgrade/replacement

Today I received two IPCW CWC-7003 5-3/4 headlamp lenses.  These are to replace the outer left and right headlights.

12 Nov 2020 - Headlight upgrade/replacement

Today I received two 5.75 H4 conversion lenses.  

These lenses fit the

H5006 lens alignment pattern of the Hi/Lo beam headlight holder. 

There are three alignment tabs on the headlight housing.  This particular housing fits the H5006 alignment pattern.  And with minor adjustments to those alignment tabs they will fit in the -H5006 headlight holder of the mercury cougar.

14 Nov 2020 - WTH

Driving at night yesterday, the driver side low beam headlight randomly flickered.  I checked the connections and they were tight.  Also checked voltages at the LED headlamp and they are good.  Decided to swap the driver side LED headlights from inner position to outer position.  During the removal of the driver side hi/lo bucket I noticed that the paint is peeling.  I checked all of that before installation of this headlamp and it  looked good.  So now I went a head and stripped the paint to bare metal and painted two coats of semi flat black.  Its 4 pm now so by lunch tomorrow I should be able to finish swapping headlights.  I went ahead and swapped the LED headlamps between lenses.  Tomorrow I just need to install the buckets and test the setup.

15 November 2020

Re-installed the headlamps and went for night drive test.  Did not notice any flickering, but I will monitor that issue over time.

Also noticed another headlight holder(one of the spares) has the paint peeling.  Tomorrow I will strip that down to bare metal and re-paint.

12 Nov 2020 - headlight upgrade/replacement

I installed both of the H4 conversion lenses.  I installed them in the inner locations both sides.  I will test this configuration for a few days.

These headlights line up like factory!

7 Nov 2020 - headlight upgrade/replacement

  I replaced the passenger side inner headlight with the LED lens assembly.  So now the passenger side has both headlights that are LED headlights.  On the driver side the hi-low beam is an LED headlight.  Still need to replace the hi beam/inner headlight.  I am waiting for the paint to dry on the headlight cup/holder.

To be able to install the inner left and right LED lens assemblies I used RH and LH outer headlight cups.  I was able to do that because I have a few spares of those parts.

I will drive test this latest change and note the results.

The low beam headlights had to be adjusted upwards and the driver side low beam had to be adjusted inwards.

Drive test was good, there is plenty of light getting down the road, might have to adjust the low beams down but I have to install the headlight grilles and test that setup.

6 Nov 2020 - headlight upgrade/replacement

Tested headlights and they are much brighter than the halogens.

The driver side light needs to be adjusted inwards and upwards

The passenger side needs to be adjusted upwards

Installed the driver side and passenger side hi/low LED lamps.  Need to test the lighting at night.

test fitting of the lense and LED assemblies

test fitting of the lense and LED assemblies

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