Head light upgrade Dapper "575's" with LED's

[Robert Haas]

Installed the Dapper classic halo's with the upgraded fan cooled LED mains.

A lot bigger job then I expected but what an amazing difference.

I pulled the grill out and mounted everything up there. the fan cooled LEDs require a bit of room so I had to cut holes behind the lights to give them the needed clearance. kinda of a bummer, but it is hidden and I will be able to cover the back side inside the wheel well with some sheet metal and it will be invisible.

I used the harness from Dapper, with a few modifications and some concessions to the fact the folks up at Dapper are not quite up to full speed on these old "chassis" ground electrical systems and their persnickety and primitive protocols.

http://[ATTACH]1659328[/ATTA...1[/ATTACH]

[Robert Haas]

[LostMy65]

Those look pretty cool.

[Clyde65]

Beautiful truck...but it will take some time for me to get used to headlights like that...just too modern for me is all.

[Robert Haas]

If you drive one of these trucks at night,...You just can not believe the difference.

The other appealing thing is how little these type of lights draw off the electrical system. The sealed beams on high beam put a heavy draw on my alternator, in fact if the two cooling fans fired up it put me in the negatives.

[Clyde65]

Originally Posted by Robert Haas

If you drive one of these trucks at night,...You just can not believe the difference.

The other appealing thing is how little these type of lights draw off the electrical system. The sealed beams on high beam put a heavy draw on my alternator, in fact if the two cooling fans fired up it put me in the negatives.

I completely understand that, I have HID bulbs with Relays and a harness from Classic Parts. I don't drive my truck much at night but I got these in case I needed to. They are real bright and still kinda look like sealed beams. Sort of..

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by Clyde65

I completely understand that, I have HID bulbs with Relays and a harness from Classic Parts. I don't drive my truck much at night but I got these in case I needed to. They are real bright and still kinda look like sealed beams. Sort of..

I totally get that. These do not look like the OEM sealed beams. I could not see any person that has done a restoration type build being attracted to these lights.

I am a hot rodder and very little if anything on my truck is still original so I actually like the way these look (on or off)

[theastronaut]

I had Dapper Lighting's 7" V2 HID's in my Miata. Had to send them back due to a problem with the high/low shutter not functioning properly (happened within a week of installing them) and I decided to not have them send another set to replace them. My biggest issue with them was the beam pattern was worse than my 30 year old Cibie H4 headlights, so I couldn't see as far or as wide. The beam pattern was so narrow it was almost scary, only about 90* wide.

They're not actually HID projectors, they're H1 halogen projectors with HID kits in them, which is part of the reason the pattern is so bad. They instruct you to bend the bulb mounting bracket to "focus" the headlight's hot spot to the center of the beam pattern- the quality control of the Chinese parts is so loose that the beam pattern isn't repeatable from one headlight to the next.

Of course, comparing them to sealed beams they'll be "brighter", but that doesn't really mean the light is distributed where it needs to go to be able to actually see better (pics below show that).


For the price, you can buy Cibie H4's which will be better for actually seeing where you're going, or if you want more modern looking headlights then JW Speaker or TruckLite LED's would be way better than Dapper's attempt at a HID headlight. The Dapper's are ok if you want to look trendy and don't have to drive much at night.



Dapper's HID's. Very narrow pattern, too much foreground lighting, and not enough light out at the cut-off. These were their better/newer Version 2 lights.





Cibie H4's with a relay harness and Phillips X-treme vision bulbs (standard wattage). Much wider pattern, evenly lit from the bumper out to the cut-off.

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

Blah Blah I don't have what you posted about but feel I need to complain anyway......]

I do not have the shuttered single bulb units. I have the 5 3/4" quad headlights with dedicated high beams

I did not buy HID's I am using the LED upgrades

The build quality is first rate

The customer service with Dapper has been fantastic.

The fit and finish in my vehicle is better then 98% of the aftermarket parts I have purchased for my truck through uncountable sources (many advertise right here)


If you feel you had a bad experience with this company or their products, you have every reason to complain. However since you bought a completely different product and do not even have them as you returned them.....posting in this thread is just bad form.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Robert Haas

I do not have the shuttered single bulb units. I have the 5 3/4" quad headlights with dedicated high beams

I did not buy HID's I am using the LED upgrades

The build quality is first rate

The customer service with Dapper has been fantastic.

The fit and finish in my vehicle is better then 98% of the aftermarket parts I have purchased for my truck through uncountable sources (many advertise right here)


If you feel you had a bad experience with this company or their products, you have every reason to complain. However since you bought a completely different product and do not even have them as you returned them.....posting in this thread is just bad form.

I'm glad you had a better experience than I did. I already had the Cibie H4's in the car before I bought Dapper's lights, I thought the Dapper HID's would be an upgrade in lighting performance. I was wrong, and the build quality was also sub par. They didn't perform as well as the 30+ year old halogen lights they replaced and broke within a few days, so yes, I did have a bad experience with their product. The fact that the instructions say that the bulb base may have to be bent to focus the hot spot of the beam pattern says all you need to know about their build quality.

No, I didn't buy the exact same lights you did. The 7" V2's use "larger/improved projector" than their other lights so according to Dapper mine had better projectors than the 5.75" lights. In emails with Dapper, they admit that they are stuck using a halogen "mini H1" projector to keep the overall depth as slim as possible. They know that they're cutting back on the lighting performance to sell lights that fit more older cars. Installing an HID or LED light source in the place of a Halogen bulb throws off the beam pattern, anyone who understands headlight optics knows this. Their marketing literature doesn't state that anywhere, unfortunately.

I posted so others could make a more informed decision before they possible placed an order. Headlights are a major SAFETY item and if they perform poorly then people need to know before they buy. If you you look at my older posts you can see that this is just one of many posts where I try to inform prospective buyers of the pitfalls of poor aftermarket lighting.

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I'm glad you had a better experience than I did. I already had the Cibie H4's in the car before I bought Dapper's lights, I thought the Dapper HID's would be an upgrade in lighting performance. I was wrong, and the build quality was also sub par. They didn't perform as well as the 30+ year old halogen lights they replaced and broke within a few days, so yes, I did have a bad experience with their product. The fact that the instructions say that the bulb base may have to be bent to focus the hot spot of the beam pattern says all you need to know about their build quality.

No, I didn't buy the exact same lights you did. The 7" V2's use "larger/improved projector" than their other lights so according to Dapper mine had better projectors than the 5.75" lights. In emails with Dapper, they admit that they are stuck using a halogen "mini H1" projector to keep the overall depth as slim as possible. They know that they're cutting back on the lighting performance to sell lights that fit more older cars. Installing an HID or LED light source in the place of a Halogen bulb throws off the beam pattern, anyone who understands headlight optics knows this. Their marketing literature doesn't state that anywhere, unfortunately.

I posted so others could make a more informed decision before they possible placed an order. Headlights are a major SAFETY item and if they perform poorly then people need to know before they buy. If you you look at my older posts you can see that this is just one of many posts where I try to inform prospective buyers of the pitfalls of poor aftermarket lighting.

Again, I am sorry you had a unsatisfactory experience with your purchase.

The optics on mine are extremely good. The beam pattern is very wide, and being that my headlights themselves are 22" off the ground the distance forward is outstanding. I adjusted them so they are exactly level so 100 feet out the "horizon" is still under 24"

[1hihum]

Originally Posted by theastronaut

I'm glad you had a better experience than I did. I already had the Cibie H4's in the car before I bought Dapper's lights, I thought the Dapper HID's would be an upgrade in lighting performance. I was wrong, and the build quality was also sub par. They didn't perform as well as the 30+ year old halogen lights they replaced and broke within a few days, so yes, I did have a bad experience with their product. The fact that the instructions say that the bulb base may have to be bent to focus the hot spot of the beam pattern says all you need to know about their build quality.

No, I didn't buy the exact same lights you did. The 7" V2's use "larger/improved projector" than their other lights so according to Dapper mine had better projectors than the 5.75" lights. In emails with Dapper, they admit that they are stuck using a halogen "mini H1" projector to keep the overall depth as slim as possible. They know that they're cutting back on the lighting performance to sell lights that fit more older cars. Installing an HID or LED light source in the place of a Halogen bulb throws off the beam pattern, anyone who understands headlight optics knows this. Their marketing literature doesn't state that anywhere, unfortunately.

I posted so others could make a more informed decision before they possible placed an order. Headlights are a major SAFETY item and if they perform poorly then people need to know before they buy. If you you look at my older posts you can see that this is just one of many posts where I try to inform prospective buyers of the pitfalls of poor aftermarket lighting.

While I get (and appreciate) the feedback about your experience with them, you are kind of past point of "my experience" and more in the "Screw that company" category.

I have the V2 7" headlights myself. I love these lights. The quality is first rate. The light pattern is way better that my old headlights. based on your pics of the lighting pattern it looks like the Dappers aren't properly adjusted. Once they are they put out a great amount of light (right where I want it!)

[graymage]

so I bought mine over a year ago off hand I can't remember the brand but I sure like the look

[Clyde65]

I love the quad headlights!!

[rvrfoot]

I got these i like the leds park lights.

[mafosa]

robert, can you display your lights to?



larry

[Robert Haas]

Originally Posted by mafosa

robert, can you display your lights to?



larry

I will get you some shots of both the truck head on and the beam patterns on the side of my building the next time I drive the truck at night.