It's amazing I've lived this long!

So, I've been waiting and waiting for months to get the headlights done on my Gloria, and finally got the last ballast I needed, WOOHOO! Both headlights were so dim they were yellow, the right worse than the left, and over the last few months the right headlight constantly flickered and went out. (This has been a bad summer for pizza delivery, barely making rent!) I didn't want to take the bumper on and off multiple times so got everything all together then started the project!

Got the bumper off, pulled out the left headlight assembly, and swapped the HID bulb. Easy as pie so far. Well, I had a hell of a time removing that damn ballast!!!!!!!!!!! An hour of struggling and I finally get it out, then reverse the procedure to put in the new one and 5 minutes later I'm remounting the headlight in its place. I took a break, had a pop, then started on the right headlight. Swapped the bulb, pulled out the ballast(another 15 minute fight), and went to put in the other new ballast. Uh oh!!! The lead from the ballast to the bulb is too short by three inches!

I figure that they were side specific, so I pulled it out and (being the idiot I am) removed the left housing again and pulled the ballast back out, only to find that it's too short for the left one too!

In abject despair, I put the left assembly back together and mounted it back to my car. I won't drive a car without both headlights so I put the old ballast back in the right assembly and connected everything back up, then put my car back together.

This whole process had taken so stinking long I was running out of daylight so I put aside the other parts for another day. I have purchased a new lower grill and side pieces for the front bumper to replace, along with the bulbs for the driving lights. I'll get to those soon. The old grill is flopping around and I am missing one of the side pieces. I also now own a ridiculous amount of plastic clips and expanding panel clips. For example, one panel required only three of one type of panel fastener, the smallest lot I could buy was 20.

Anyway, after putting my car all back together, I tried to see how the headlights worked, but it was still too bright out to see, so I got ready for work and headed out. After a while it got too dim out to see and, forgetting for the moment I had done the work, I casually flipped on my headlights. Holy Cow!!!!!!! The difference was mind blowing!!!!!!!!!! Pure white, bright, light illuminating the road in front of me like never before!!!!!!! I didn't get the ridiculous 6000K, or even the 5500K bulbs, I went with the stock 4300K HID bulbs, and I am so impressed with how well new lights work now!!!!! The final reason I went with the stock 4300s is because, as a professional driver, people with ultra bight headlights piss me off, and I didn't want to be one of those people. I was so happy I chose the 4300s. Road illumination is greater by a factor of 5, and brights are twice as good as the old bulbs, or more.

I will probably get around to the driving lights and grill pieces next week or the week after. In the mean time, I'm crossing my fingers until I can find a long lead ballast for my right bulb and hope the old ballast doesn't hurt the new bulb.