The long-awaited post is finally here. I've gotten the pictures cropped, uploaded, and I've typed up a writeup so all of you fellow Bricksters can attempt this headlight conversion yourself, if you so desire. I'm pleased with my results:





Converting your post-'86 Volvo 240 Headlights to Quad Round Beams

Be warned that the page linked is a tad over 2 megabytes in size. I have 800-pixel-wide pictures inline, as I really didn't feel like making two sets of images and then doing all the linking. You're going to want to print the full pictures along with the text, anyway, if you're attempting this project yourself.

I owe a huge thanks to my dad, who has helped me immensely with all car-related stuff over my Christmas Break. He came up with many of the mechanisms for attaching various things, and of course it was his tools that we used on the car. I unquestionably couldn't have done it without him. He's the reason this project got done in only three days, and his help completing this project was the best Christmas present I've received from anyone.

The project took about three days of work, six hours at a time. I don't think I've done real work on my car for eighteen hours yet, and this stuff was exhausting. A vacation is supposed to be relaxing!

As I say in the writeup, the tough part was getting the headlight frames to look right. The headlight buckets fit in the bays pretty easily, but they have to be lined up very carefully if you want to have any hope of getting the fillers on over them too.

I spent right around $100 on this project. It was $60 to get the headlights, buckets, and wiring from Curt Mudgett. It was a little under $20 to get the headlight frames off of eBay. I spent probably around $20 during my ten-plus trips to the store getting washers, nuts, and everything else we used.

I've also ordered two high/low H4 beams from Daniel Stern. That's about $120 extra right there, but I've got some Christmas cash and I *know* the difference in lighting is going to blow these sealed beams away. I hope to get them in on Thursday, and I'll try to remember to take a picture just to show of my ECE headlights!

Only a slightly related note, I've also spent yesterday and today removing the side Volvo emblems and adhesive and installing amber side markers from VLVWorld. I've not taken the car for a drive yet, but I have confirmed that the lights work properly in the garage. They illuminate with my parking lights, but also flash with the turn signals (out of sync when both are activated, but the timing is right). My car is certainly now a unique vehicle!
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'89 244 GL -- 108,099 miles (see profile for info on car)