Date:         Sun, 4 Aug 1996 11:56:44 -0700
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Mark McCulley <raven@halcyon.com>
Subject:      87 now has round eyes

I "upgraded" my 87 Westfalia to the old style (pre-86) round 7" headlights 
per Joel Walker's suggestion. Installed Hella H4 lights, now I can see 
those possums in the road with my low beams. Dramatic improvement in 
nighttime driveability, I think. Changes the look of the van, too, not many 
syncros out there with the round headlights. Cost about $200 all told, 
guess I could have bought some nice Hella aux low beams for less money, but 
I really like the low-beam cutoff pattern of the H4 bulbs. Here's a summary 
of costs:

$25  - pair of round headlight mounting assemblies (used)
$50 - upper grille (used)
$125 - pair of Hella high performance headlights with H4 bulbs (new)
$0 - pair of headlight connector pigtails from junkyard

Project took about 2 hours to complete. First I replaced the rectangular 
headlight assemblies with the round ones. They screwed right on with no 
modifications. Then I spliced in the connector pigtails for the round 
lights, leaving the original connectors intact in case I ever want to go 
back to the stock rectangular lights. I soldered all connections and 
covered with some shrink-wrap tubing. Dropped in the round lights and 
snapped on the grille.

There are a couple of details left to complete, but they aren't critical. 
The 87 body only has 3 of the 5 receptacles for fastening the grille. I cut 
off two receptacles from an junkyard 85 and will rivet them in the proper 
place on my van. For now, though, the grille feels solidly connected with 3 
fasteners.

-Mark McCulley
87 syncro Westfalia with round eyes