96-97 Replacement Headlight Assemblies

[Stanley]

96-97 Bird.
I see a few different assemblies offered for this type of Thunderbird on Ebay. I was wondering if there's a preferred vendor, or alternatively a manufacturer you should avoid. If it matters, I'll be looking to slap projectors in them.

 

[XR7-4.6]

If you’re putting projectors in them it really doesn’t matter. Generally aftermarket housings are considered inferior because the beam pattern isn’t as good as OEM, but with projectors all that matters is the lens is clear

 

[Irv]

In my experience, my tier list is basically as follows:

S: OEM
A: Depo
B: Eagle Eyes
C-F: Everything else

I got remanufactured OEM headlights for my retrofit because I refused to cut any corners on quality. A side benefit of the remanufactured ones I got was that the alignment nubs on the lenses were ground down completely flush and undetectable, which is fine because you wouldn't use those for aligning projectors anyway. They also would have gotten in the way of a clean cut of protective headlight film.

Getting a no-name headlight housing for a retrofit isn't inherently a bad thing, but I'd be cautious about how durable the plastics are. As some of us know, there were two versions of the '96-97 clear corners—the good one made by Depo that basically cleared out the egg yolk, and the shitty one that was completely clear with thin plastic lenses that got soft when heated. Likewise, I'd be concerned that any headlights less reputable than Eagle Eyes could use some sub-par materials in their construction as well.

I will say though, I did get lucky with this in 2017 both in availability and cost. Headlamps America doesn't have these in stock now, not that anyone should be expecting that.

 

[Stanley]

What are "remanufactured OEM headlights". I get the base concept, but what's involved and who does that kind of work?

 

[Irv]

Full disassembly, inspection, cleaning, polishing, parts R&R, and reassembly.

You can get most of the way there on the lens restoration part by using a headlight restoration kit if they aren't too far gone already. The problem is that most DIYers don't go that last mile to get a truly flawless lens or apply a permanent UV-protective clearcoat on the lens. When people take pics of their DIY-finished product, I often see that there's still a slight cloudy haze on the lenses.

 

[Stanley]

Okay, grabbed some Eagle Eyes. Excited to try this out. Thanks as always, gents.

 

[3_97_Sports]

following

 

[KevinVarnes]

You can also search around on ebay using the OEM part numbers. You'll get a lot of garbage, but you may find some new Ford assemblies there. That is how I got mine. Some guy had several sets of RH and LH for the 96/97. Not sure if he has any left.