European 7" Headlight Conversion: 70-87 XJ6, XJ6C, XJ12, XJ12C
Exciting
News: Our European Headlight Conversion Kit is available again!!!!
Many of you who are familiar with the 1970-1987 Series 1, 2 or 3 XJ6 and XJ12 models know
about the 7” European Headlight Conversion. For those maybe not so familiar, in
those years, all of these models in every market except the US, used larger 7”
headlights in the outer fenders, which worked well with the car’s styling and
also gave much better lighting at night. However, only the US market cars were
equipped with a very small 5 ¾” outer headlight that looked odd and gave poor
lighting. To give you an idea of the difference this hardware change made in
appearance alone, below are pics of identical year XJ6 cars; the white car has
the standard US outer lights, and the gold car has the European conversion. What
a difference, yes?? And you haven’t even experienced the difference at night!!
Anyway,
converting the US cars to the larger lights was a very popular upgrade and
we offered a European Headlight Conversion Kit for many years. It was a
relatively simple bolt-on upgrade. However, about 5 years ago, one key
component-the special chrome outer trim ring to accommodate the larger 7” light-
went out of production so doing the conversion wasn’t possible any more. That
was a shame as this was a great upgrade and Jag owners who wanted to do it
were out of luck.
We have great
news- our European Headlight Conversion Kit is available again. About a year ago
we began working with a specialty casting foundry on this problem and I am very
pleased to say that we now have the capability to reproduce those key trim rings
to a specification likely better than even the originals from Jaguar. Our new
repro pieces are fantastic and have the look and feel
of the originals in every way. And this version of the ring also includes the
opening at the top for the fresh air system (like the originals) so they will
work properly with all models in the range.
Below
are some pics for you of the repro part alongside an original (original on
the left, repro on the right), and there is also a pic of the actual casting
mold made for this part. The new part is zinc die cast and chrome plated, just
like the original. In fact, it is virtually identical in every way. These reproduction parts were developed
and engineered specifically by Jaguar Specialties- no other supplier or retailer
was involved in the project in any way.
Doing the conversion is easy-
- Remove your existing headlight trim rings and buckets
- Transfer your existing wiring to the new buckets (a new
bucket wiring grommet is included if you need it)
- Mount your new headlight buckets into the fenders with
the provided 4 new screws
- Install your new 7" headlights and adjust them to your
liking
- Install the new outer trim rings with the original
screws from the old trim rings
- Enjoy your car's new look.
This whole process should take about 30 minutes.
Our 7" Euro Headlight Conversion Kit includes the following:
- New 7"outer headlight chrome trim
- New 7" plastic outer headlight buckets with improved
adjuster mechanism
- New bucket-to-body gaskets
- New hardware
- Instruction sheet
- Customer provides the headlights (standard US pieces
from any auto parts store, either sealed beam or H4 replaceable bulb style)
For more info and current pricing on the kit,
please Email or call.
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