JDM LGT conversion

My trusty ol Sube, had some tired eyes.  The headlamps have been getting cloudier and cloudier.  No amount of cleaning was restoring these.

I was noticing that driving at night the headlamps weren't lighting up the road like before.  I could either replace the lenses with the same reflectors or the other option was to install JDM's.  These are Subaru factory headlamps for the Japanese Domestic Market.  This is what they installed on the Japanese version of the Subaru Legacy.

I'd been reading and following threads on this conversion on various Subaru LGT forums.  Trying to evaluate whether it was worth it to do or not.  The headlamp themselves ended up being about $100.00 cheaper.  I've seen photos of what folks have done and it just looks way cooler than the old two piece reflector version.  It made the car look newer.  Since most new cars have projector lights.

So I ended up ordering a pair of headlamps off of ebay.  They came from Japan. It took two months to arrive.  I thought I had been screwed.  But I contacted the seller and he said the package was still sitting in the post office.  Finally it was on it's way and it took a week from when he finally shipped it.  This was the end of Feb.  They were so clean, it was like getting new head lamps.  It even had the harness and bulbs.  It was then a matter of waiting for warmer weather.

I then had to figure out the wiring of the JDM's and mate it to the North Amer version of the LGT.  Based on what others had done.
My first attempts were flops.  I couldn't get it to work.  I thought the wiring was straight forward, but it wasn't working, like it's supposed to.
I scoured the S-I forums for wiring info.  I found one.

It then took Mel and I tracing the wires back to the harness to know which wire lead to which light.  Whether it was low beam projector, high beam reflector, or the LED city light.  To really know how to wire it up.

But once we knew, it was easy peasy. It was matter of soldering the wires together.  Soldering wires with only two hands can be pretty challenging (not to mention burning hot), especially trying to rewire the signal light harness.  But I had rigged an old bike wheel spoke so that I could free up my hands. And it worked. And it looked so cool.

Driving at night is so much better.  I've noticed that signs are easier to see.  In the city there's so many lights so it's hard to tell if the road is lit up better, but I'm sure it is. I may have to adjust the projector beams a bit more.  I know I have to adjust the high beams still.

I had to do a bit more work.  Tresa said I should use my original signal lights, since they have a 2 filament bulb so they are lit when on as well as flash when signalling.  The JDM signals only flash.  It's just better to have more of the car lit up, for visibility.  With the LED city lights, the front end just looks cool at night.  I even restored my fog lights using one of those off the shelf light restoration kits to remove the oxidation on the existing fog lamps.  Now it looks complete.
Too bad I can't see it.  Since I'm behind the wheel.

It feels awesome when projects come together.  I know this car is old, but I like this car.  It's been so reliable for me.  And I like being able to work on a car, versus having so much electronics that I can't do the work on the car.  This car is simple and it works well.

It's also nice not having monthly car payments.