I recently acquired a 1994 Silverado 1500 for my granddaughter, and like most of that vintage the headlight lenses are pretty badly worn. I know the usual tricks to clean them up temporarily (and have them ok for now) but I'm thinking that I'd like to replace them completely in the near future.

She thinks she'd like "HID" headlights, but doesn't really understand what those are - she's thinking more about the bluish color generally associated with HIDs and the notion that they are brighter. I am absolutely not interested in any so-called HID Kits that try to stick HID bulbs in the existing headlight assembly, and I'm not particularly interested in any of the real HID assemblies that might be available (off hand, I haven't seen any, but that might be because I haven't looked for any).

What I think I'd prefer would be a complete assembly with projector headlights for at least the low beams - my experience with other cars has been that the sharp cutoff of real projector headlights does put more light where it belongs and much less glare towards oncoming drivers. This would be a major plus considering that she frequently drives a 15 mile stretch of totally dark rather twisty two-lane up and down hills in the middle of nowhere between a farm I own and where we live.

The two considerations would be cost and getting headlight assemblies that are pretty much a direct swap, so I can pull out the old assemblies, stick in the new ones, connect the wiring and aim the headlights. The wiring and the aiming are both jobs that I've done plenty of times in my life so I'm not worried about those parts of the job but I don't want to have to put a lot of work into making things fit.

My problem is that any place I could get replacement headlight assemblies are basically all mail order or online, where I can't examine the product before buying it - and in most cases there isn't even a picture of the specific assembly that supposedly fits my truck.

I don't care one way or the other about stuff like halos or LEDs although I suspect she'd like something fancier than the pure stock look.

I'm thinking something similar to these SpyderŽ PRO-YD-CCK88-C (5009296) - Chevy C1500 / C2500 / C3500 / K1500 / K2500 / K3500 1994 Chrome Projector Headlights
although shaving a few bucks off the price certainly wouldn't hurt.

So, I'd really like to hear from anyone who has swapped out the headlights on one of these 'fourth generation' Chevy trucks.... Any recommendations? Anything to watch out for? What works - and perhaps more importantly what doesn't work?

Thanks in advance.

 

first time poster, long time driver of lonely dark roads!

do what ever you have to do to convince your Daughter to NOT put ANY type of light that has a bluish or more tinge

blue light only APPEARS to light better, but it does NOT reflect back. It fools the eye into closing the pupil some.

wildlife do not reflect back blue light much at all.

Also, because the eye sees blue as more of a glare, it is very blinding to oncoming drivers.

blue lights should be banned.
IIRC, France has mandatory yellow/amber headlights.

stick with white, or slightly yellow/amber, and she'll be safer for it.

with after market kits, you also need to be concerned WHERE the light is thrown

on LowBeam, you want the light to be thrown DOWN and RIGHT

on HighBeam, you want the light to be thrown a distance down the road, and have little to no light down in front.
What happens with some aftermarket setups/replacement high output stuff is they throw a LOT of light right in front, so it appears to be VERY well lit ahead, but your eye closes up with near light and you'll not see through it to the distance light.

the best setup on HighBeam would have perhaps 50-60 yds of darkness then the start of the beam pattern.
LowBeam should always point down and right, that way, IF you have a loaded trunk/truckbox, the lights shining higher will not blind oncoming vehicles as bad, as if you have projectors pointing straight out, and when they lift, they can blind oncoming drivers, causing them to lose spatial orientation and leave their lane, perhaps entering yours.
Ever notice on lifted trucks, their lights are ALWAYS blinding? that is because they are not smart enough to reset the beam direction down to offset the height increase.

many jurisdictions have specific rules regarding the "center" of the beam's location in relation to the vehicle. Usually it is not directly forward.

 

Thanks for the reply, but that is all information that I am already aware of and matches advice that I would give.

Actually France is one of the few countries that ALLOWS yellow headlights.

US (SAE) and European (ECE) standards both require headlights to produce white light.

In France a law was passed in November 1936, based on advice from the Central Commission for Automobiles and for Traffic in General, required yellow headlights to be fitted. The requirement initially applied to vehicles registered for road use after April 1937, but was intended to extend to all vehicles through retrofitting of yellow lights on older vehicles, from the start of 1939. Later stages of the implementation were disrupted by the outbreak of WWII. Yellow headlights remained mandatory for cars registered in France until January 1993, and violations were punishable by fines (although any theoretical obligation on cars registered outside France to convert to yellow lights when used in France had by that time long ago become inapplicable). In 1993 white headlights were authorized for French registered cars, and they rapidly became virtually universal. Nevertheless, yellow headlamps remain legal in France, as the current French regulations stipulates that "every motor vehicle must be equipped, at the front, with two or four lights, creating in a forward direction yellow or white light permitting efficient illumination of the road at night for a distance, in clear conditions, of 100 meters".

 

Yeah, I am a little out of date with my France Comment


a really great webiste is h t t p://www.danielsternlighting.com/


He has some really good comments about color

and I was able to read some updated studies

 

I purchased an 92 Chevy Silverado K1500 extended cab 4X4 (with a small lift kit) for my son and I replaced the headlight assemblies with the same factory style but used the brighter "SilverStar" bulbs. I also have an 92 Chevy K1500 4X4 (no lift) and we adjusted/aimed his headlights to match my truck. They are brighter than the factory bulbs but do not blind on coming traffic. We tested it out on the road were we would meet each other. We did this several, several times before I would let him drive it on the road. This coming February will be two years of him driving it and no issues with the headlights. But he wanted the newer style HID's or projector fixtures.

 

Yes, SilverStar are about the best of the available halogen bulbs.

Unfortunately new bulbs can't completely correct for the worn lenses.

Real factory headlight assemblies cost way more than they should. Factory style headlight assemblies come in all prices, and so do replacements with projectors for the low beams. This is definitely a product where price does not necessarily equal quality.

Unfortunately it is impossible to tell much about the quality of any of the replacement headlight assemblies without at least handling them, which is why I was hoping for some feedback about any specific brands or models that people had found to be either good or bad.