Inner "Angel Eye" H4 Headlamp

[Rissy]

I am of the understanding that the Hella lamps require you to cut the buckets!?

[Dan 6511]

I am of the understanding that the Hella lamps require you to cut the buckets!?

I didn't realize that. I have stock on my car, and my first delorean had Valeo ones which definitely didn't need the buckets cutting.

[arranj]

Pictures for reference. This is taken with the rubber seal that goes over the back of the light removed. Also in this case I have removed the side light holder. You'd obviously need to drill a hole for that anyway.

[Rissy]

So how's it looking WITH the rubber seal in place? That's the real trick isn't it.

My outlets right now are Hellas. Obviously I have the seals on them to protect them from the weather. And because of the seals (I think), they don't sit in the buckets right.

[arranj]

This is with the seal on - hardly any difference that I can see. Yes the 4 bezel screws are what would be holding it in place, but I can't make it "swim" very easily - mainly because the rubber seal has decent friction all round with the back of the bucket. Agreed though it isn't perfect - it's protruding by about 6mm more than it should I think.
Not only would you cut the back of the bucket off to get it in, you'd also need to chop off a lug from the headlight or modify the bucket there too because it doesn't quite go in on one of them.
I have Hellas though, and no bucket modification - you can't tell it's sticking out.

The old Valeos had a much shallower profile, so didn't have this problem. Only problem is now they don't make them any more.

By the way - these Hellas have spoons covering the middle, yes.

[Rissy]

You're not showing the back side there with the rubber in place.

The "swimming" I'm referring to is the fact that once the lamp is in place within the bucket, the stance it takes is dependent on the amount of pull you have applied with each mounting screw. This is obviously very difficult to get even all the way around when you're trying to mount it while everything is on the car, and the littlest of offset from where it was when the proper adjusting screws were set produces a different result in the alignment. It's this situation I'm trying to sort out, simply because I'm fed up having to have my lights realigned, or fail the MOT as a result of misalignment.

[arranj]

Yes, I know what you mean.

I don't have a set of OEM ones to look at, but I assume they are much shallower too.

[MikeWard]

There are no rubber boots on the oem headlights Arran.

The Hellas need the buckets cutting to get them to sit flush. There is no other way around it.

[arranj]

There are no rubber boots on the oem headlights Arran.

Yeah but there doesn't need to be - since they are sealed beams. The Hellas aren't sealed, hence the need for the rubber seal.

[MikeWard]

Which is why the buckets need the rear holes making bigger in order to get the Hellas to fit properly.