Has anyone removed the orange reflector from the headlight housing?

I plan on it - but with the last 11 days being over 100 degrees I have not had much motivation to do anything. I have had 100sqft of megamat sitting in my garage for almost a month now - too hot to work on car.

 

I would love to get the clear versions of the headlight reflectors, as seen in pretty much all the Aqua that were shown at the Tokyo Auto Salon last autumn. Even more so, the partially blacked out headlights look fantastic!

 

I believe they are required by law in the US. I consider their removal not much more serious than coloring outside the lines in a coloring book, but anyone who is going to remove them should be aware of any federal or state requirement to have them.

 

What xs650 said. Although I have to admit that I was unaware that there was a federal regulation governing coloring outside the lines.

 

Coloring outside the lines isn't covered by a federal regulation, but if you had a kindergarten teacher like I did, you would realize the seriousness of the transgression.

 

Yes they are required by law to have amber reflectors, but in my 13 years of modding one of the first thing I always do is remove all the amber from the car - have never been ticketed or even had it mentioned. My guess is most officers do not even know that is a law. Rye - my future plan is to bake, then colormatch all of the chrome in the housing to the body color, then to tint the reflectors black since removing them leaves a funny spot in the housing. A more expensive option to get the clear ones would be to purchase some JDM headlights - but then you have the RHD headlight focus issue.

 

Damn I like how it looks.

 

+1

 

FWIW, I'd rather not remove them, but change them to the JDM clear reflectors. Having the fronts being orange and the rears being red is the USA regulations letting people about to T-bone you that they're travelling that way ---> Having some reflector there is better than not, even if it's white instead of orange.

*I found out the headlights in the Aqua picture above are actually factory optional LED headlights! The low-beam is LED, high beam still halogen, and the marker lights are still there. The bezel around the lights is blacked out. All from the factory. I've already contacted a US importer to see if they can get those headlights, because having LED forward lighting would kick major butt.



Just for the record, I don't necessarily crayon outside the lines, but I do have a tendency to make new lines that fit my interpretation of the drawing at hand.

 

There is some good reflective tape on the market in various colors. Would one of these do what you want to do?
Amazon.com: 3M 03456C Scotchlite Reflective Tape, 2-Inch x 36-Inch, Silver: Explore similar items
I've seen some of the 3M stuff used on a motorcycle and it held up for years exposed to the weather.

 

Actually I was a kindergarten teacher long, long ago. I was always happy if my kids colored on the paper!

 

I'd probably just get the JDM headlights. When I was in Asia, Japanese OEM just looks better. Base model cars here look like junk.

 

If you are going to go through the effort of baking the headlights you might as well just do a projector retrofit while you're at it and get rid of those awful OE projectors. I hear the S2K projectors fit fine and the new FX-Rs should pop right in as well. tRS is also developing a quick retro system for the GenIII that may work for the c.

 

Do you have a source for importing JDM parts? I've asked Carson Toyota and Micro Image to look into them, as they've both said they can likely get them. I'll update as I hear back.

 

Remember that JDM headlights are for right hand drive. We are left hand drive. The light pattern will be reversed.

 

You can try this site:
Aqua / Prius C

 

Yup, I'm aware. Depending how the optics are designed, it could be fixable with reasonable ease.

Thanks for the tip. I sent them an e-mail. The LED headlights aren't in their catalog; we'll see if they can source them. Pretty much someone just has to call a Japan Toyota parts counter and make it happen. If I spoke Japanese I'd just do it myself.