Suguremashita, hai!
Congratulations Mark. Your description details all of the things I would have remarked upon should I have been the lucky one to have discovered such a gem. Every "con" you identified are all endearing qualities to me too.
I assume you have a 5-speed manual which is the H55 Toyota transmission. You'll find that 1st gear will come in handy should you ever need to pull a century old oak tree's stump from a field. Pretty tall - you never have to bother with it in normal operations - most honorable transmission.
Can't wait to see your truck when you return. In fact I may have to take a run by the Marsh Center and talk to your monitor and see if we get you stationed at Quantico...
If you feel free to find my monitor and superman punch him in the d!ck! Id be eternally grateful. Or have him give me orders back to Yuma. I reckon option #1 is more likely to happen.....
. . . . . . . . but he is right
This is why I reluctantly posted the photo. Maybe it's just me, but the lights just seem to disappear into the bezel. Thanks for chiming in, Bob. It would be hard to say goodbye to this:I really don't see the issue. I may not have really even noticed them unless you had pointed it out.
I'm very much a form follows function guy... The only reason they're still on the Cruiser right now. The output of these are such a tremendous improvement and do not require any wiring upgrades common with other halogen solutions. The lenses of these are completely clear and don't create any diffusion of the beam. I'm contemplating removing the lenses and using a "chrome" spray paint on the black bits inside the housing. I think just applying a silver finish on it would brighten up their appearance quite a bit. My only fears would be safely removing the lenses and creating glare for on coming traffic.Like Bob mentioned, I wouldn't have noticed it unless you pointed it out.
Function over form? That's something I might overlook if the light output was that good, but aesthetics sure do make or break it. I'd say run with it and see if it grows on you. The headlights do somewhat fall into the dark colored bezels though. Are the lenses clear or are they meshed like the old glass halogens to direct the light?
Yeah, melting the lens would be really bad. I've used this method once before to do housings on a car I had. Ironically, it was to darken them a bit. Turned out to be a total success. The black piece on these doesn't seem to serve any part in the reflector design, so I think it would work. But, I'm no lighting engineer.I was going to mention the same thing about brightening up the blacked out bits. Just don't heat it too much and melt the lenses/housings. I've done that before and it just turned into a lump of melted plastic and a sad trip to the nearest auto-parts store. Are the blacked out bits anywhere near the reflectors? And is it an integral part in defining the light pattern? If not, I'd say you wouldn't need to worry about glare and distorting the beam pattern.
Yeah, melting the lens would be really bad. I've used this method once before to do housings on a car I had. Ironically, it was to darken them a bit. Turned out to be a total success. The black piece on these doesn't seem to serve any part in the reflector design, so I think it would work. But, I'm no lighting engineer.