my '94 A'star's lights are so bad, I drive with my brights on all the time and have never been flashed by oncomers, I am going out in 10 degree weather to remove the lenses and polish them right now. I just discovered this sight and have to thank everyone responsible. I prefere my A'star over any other vehicle I have owned (always used vehicles) and this sight rocks.

 

The standard 6054 series sealed beam lights will not fit into your flush mount buckets. This is why I mentioned that you need to find the mounting hardware from the earlier models to replace what you have. I've never looked at the headlight mounting hardware of a newer model before, so I don't know what are all the pieces you will need, or whether any farbication will be needed. In the simplest case, it's just a matter of unbolting your existing parts and installing the older parts, and replacing the electrical connector.

Once you have those hardware replaced, you can go get one of the standard sealed beam headlights, such as the Sylvania Extravision (model H6054XV is what I'm using in my 1990 Aerostar right now). I also got a set of E-code H4 lights from Daniel Stern (www.danielsternlighting.com) for my Mustang. He carries Cibie', Bosch, and Marchal brands, which are the best in the world. You will want the 200 millimeter rectangular model. You can even get the version with the "city lights". Either model will provide much better illumination than the stock lights, but the E-code lights will be better than the XVs, at a much higher price.

You can check out my site to see some light patterns:

geocities.com/eycchu

Click on the european lighting link. You might want to disable pop-ups, as Geocities gets a little carried away with those.

If you want to perform minimal modifications to your van, you can look at some of the auxiliary driving lights from makers like Hella. They have light kits that come with wiring harnesses and fused relays. The model 450 is a low profile rectangular light that can be hung from under the bumper. You can use two of the stock bolts (with the tor-X heads) that are holding the bottom of the bumper cover on to mount them. You will have to watch out for steep driveways and tall parking blocks.

Hella also makes a set of H6054 lights using the H4 bulb they call "Vision Plus". But their performance is so poor compared to the Cibie' or Bosch that they are often referred to as "Vision Minus", and they cost almost as much as the good ones. I do not recommend those. Also, avoid anything that says things like "superwhite", "HID-like", or "blue" as they are gimmicks that usually make illumination worse.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

 

I stopped by the local AZone to get some of that Meguiar's polish, but nada. I saw this stuff called "Blue Magic" plastic polish. They suggested to get the Metal polish too (for bringing out the shine).

Wow, those items worked pretty good. I went from a near brown-yellow stain to nearly clear in about 10 minutes of work. When I turned on the headlights, I was amazed at the clarity of the lenses.

94' Aerostar