Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1999 03:02:17 EST
Reply-To: SyncroHead@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jim Davis <SyncroHead@AOL.COM>
Subject: Randy Bergum's Vanagon H4 Headlight Upgrade
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Hello,
Last Sunday evening I paid a visit to Randy Bergum's place and checked out his
Vanagon Headlight upgrade. This upgrade is for 1986 through 1991 Vanagons
which have the rectangular headlights and replaces these headlights with
better ones.
His kit includes two new Hella H4 headlight assemblies with bulbs, mounting
brackets, wiring connector adapters, and instructions. The Vanagon's square
high beam headlights are not touched in this upgrade.
In short, his headlights were a big improvement!
I brought my Vanagon along for a direct comparison. And noticed these
distinctions:
Beam pattern: The H4 were much more focused and placed light in a definitive
pattern, flat on the left and angles up on the right. By comparison, my
lights just showed a dim "blob".
Brightness: Looking at the lights from 50' in front of the vans, there wasn't
too much of a difference, but the H4 were brighter.
Distance: Here's where the beam pattern does it's work, the H4 clearle
illuminated objects a couple hundred feet away, while my original lights
barely got there.
While all this is good, I had set my expectations quite high and was actually
hoping for a little more difference. Still, a significant change & big enough
for me. I want a set of these.
Workmanship: The brackets (the parts Randy makes) I saw were Randy's 1st set
and actually looked a bit rough. These brackets are required to adapt the new
H4 to the Vanagon's mounting points. He's made a second set for another van
that I didn't see, so he's had a little practice now.
He said he'd like to get at least 5 orders so that he can make them in a
reasonable size batch, and will make up a couple jigs to bend the metal, and
hold it while welding, etc. I am sure these jigs and Randy's practice with
sets will make the "production" sets more "polished" than the set I saw. I
saw many other item's Randy's made (for pipe organ refurbishment) and was
impressed with his skill & attention to detail.
Look of the finished/installed lights: From a distance, they look just like
the original lights. Upon closer inspection, the new lights don't sit at the
same angle as the originals. The angle I'm describing is from side to side.
The original light's front surface follows the contour of the front of the
van. That is, it is forwardmost toward the center of the grill where it meets
the highbeam and rearmost at the outer edge of the grill. The replacement
lights, to be aimed correctly, have their front surface perdendicular to the
direction of travel. This means that their inside edge and their outside edge
are not in exactly the same position as the original lights, exposing a bit
(3/8") of the side of the highbeam light. This looks a little bit odd, but is
not a really big deal.
Replacement lights: Randy says these lights were in very common use several
years ago. He indicated that you can't find them at every FLAPS, but if you
hunt a bit you'll find them. They are not something exotic, cutting edge, or
requiring import from Europe, etc. If you need to replace a light (like if it
gets broken), you'll need to tap three small holes in the mounting sheet metal
of the new light to be able to screw the upgrade bracket to it.
Not included with the kit, but practically required are replacement, are
three, white, plastic mounting pieces that are on the headlight mounting pan.
These are typically brittle with age and will break when fooling with them.
Randy might include them in the kit if he found a cheap source for them. List
vendors?
These could be reused if you're very careful, but I'd suggest planning on
replacing them.
I do not have a financial interest in Randy's sale of these kits, but wish him
well with them. I believe Randy said the kits cost $200.
Randy's email is:
organslave@earthlink.com
I've posted Randy's instructions with some photos at:
<A HREF="http://members.aol.com/jmdavi/Headlights.html">
http://members.aol.com/jmdavi/Headlights.html</A>
Regards,
Jim Davis