there have been a few threads on this in the past, but i'm not finding any of them now and thought maybe some new experience is out there with you guys.

as my rebuild project moves along, its nice to have to start thinking about the finishing touches like lights and things.

my headlights are definitely shot - those stupid little studs in the plastic came right out instead of the nut coming off, and the adjusters are totally seized. so, i'm considering going with aftermarket assemblies instead of straight stock replacements.

this is more-or-less the look i'll be going for in the end (though OBS, not SD, obviously), so i'm thinking of doing smoked or at least clear lenses to go with the overall monochrome look.
http://www.mautofied.com/adphotos/10...0930123612.jpg

i know some people hate this look, but my mind is made up. feel free to vent on me and my non-purist view on automobile restoration if needbe, though!

anyway, one of our site sponsors, CarID seems to have a decent selection of clear and smoked headlights. anyone have any experience, or other suggestsions?

1996 Ford F-150 Custom Headlights at CARiD.com

as of now, i'm leaning toward these specific ones:
Spyder® HD-JH-FB92-SET-AM-BK - Ford F-150 1996 Black Euro Headlights with Corner Bumper Lights

funny thing is that these don't come up in searching for 96 F250's and 350's, but only 96 150's. i'm 99% sure, but the were all the same bodies in 96, right?

for tailights, my current ones are OK, so i'll probably just run those for now (maybe with LED bulbs) and swap them out later if they don't look right... but if anyone has any suggestions there as well, i'm all ears!

 

Mine was from xtralights.com

 

Thanks for posting. I like those a lot. Monochrome but not over the top. The quality was good on them?

 

Check out complete performance. I think the website is cptrucks.comThey have smoked head lights, tail, and cab. Ebay has a large selection of lights too. And you are right f150 lights are the same. I have heard befor when searching for lights, to look for bronco or f150.

 

Cool, will do - from a computer, not this dumb phone though.

Are bronco tail lights the same as our trucks as well?

And I wish I hadn't bought stock replacement cab lights. They were super cheap, so I may try to 'smoke' them myself. If it doesnt work/hold up, I'll chuck em and buy new.

 

Also for led bulbs, i went to superbrightleds.com

 

I like the ones you picked too JP. I just wish they didn't have that little bit of orange on them. I'm looking at getting some too.

 

For what its worth Bill, you you get that style of lights with out the orange too.

 

I like the ones Aaron has on his truck. I want a set of those!

 

They are very much in the realm of what he is looking at I think.
I had my buddy I used to work with smoke my oe cab lights. I first masked the lense and based the basses black then unmasked and tinted the whole thing.he adds black toner to regular clear and imo its perfect.

 

I did the same thing to my cab lights.....masked the lenses off, then painted the bases black, then unmasked the lenses and sprayed the whole light with this....



Turned out pretty good.

 

Thanks for the link and pics bill. That's exactly what I'm going for!
Maybe I'll try a real light tint on the tail lights too to save some dough for now.

 

I like the orange for the cab lights myself but the lightly tinted looks pretty good. I like the blacked out approach to just about anything. Did my old Harley that way except for the side panels (red was my daughter's favorite color). It's kind of a Mad Maxx look and I think our trucks look really good that way. I used the rattle can bed liner and it is tough as nails too. The new headlights will look really good.

One question - I run the Silver Star bulbs but when I bought my truck the guy had a 80/100 bulb in there. I know they are not rated legal, but I can't find them anywhere...sure would like to get a set....just for off-road wilderness use, of course.

 

Here you go, Dan.

9007HW - 100/80 Watt High Wattage 9007 Halogen Low and High Beam Recreational Vehicle Headlight Bulb | Bulbs.com

I'd be careful with these though. As bad as the OEM headlight wiring is and as often as the switches and wiring overheat and melt, I would recommend doing the brighter headlight mod first. More or less, the mod allows the headlights to draw power directly from the battery instead of through the switch and all the associated wiring. That mod alone will really help brighten up your headlights.

Edit: here is the link for the aforementioned mod
There is also one available from JC Whitney (or someone like that) that is all pre-made, but I can't seem to find that link right now.

 

Thanks - I did the LMC harness that routes it all through the relays.