hello everyone i have been doing some searching and come across several really nice headlight conversions from land rover discovery 1/2 to the face lifted 2003 discovery. i found this kit. it says it comes with a fitted or a non fitted version i suppose the fitted version is more bolt on compatible ?

Discovery II 2003 Head Light Conversion - Simmonites

reading further on the forms i came across a similar post which suggested getting newer housing. but that doesnt fit discovery 1 according to their website.

2003-2004 Discovery II Radiator Core Support

i called a custom shop to see if they could do it also but they were booked for the next 3 months straight unfortunately and im a bit impatient and would like to do it myself if its possible. does anyone know a decent guide to follow to do a conversion like this ?

 

theres a few threads on this.
some people fabricate it others put in a new core support - which mean you have to be able to weld.

I looked into it too but decided I prefer glass headlights since all the plastic headlights cloud - and if you put some good bulbs in the stock ones they are dam bright
dont get me wrong it looks cool as hell

 

Christ on a cracker...that's an expensive endeavor. That's a lot of maintenance or off road parts for the cost of that swap. Hell you could almost buy an entire 03 for that money.

 

I swapped my D1 headlights out with new ones designed for the European market (Not UK because I wanted to make sure it was correct for LHD). They were a direct swap and were a vast improvement over the lights used for the US market. They provide a distinct beam cutoff with a flair up to the right to help illuminate the edge of the road without blinding oncoming traffic. The originals were like shinning a 50 year old flash light down the road compared to the euro lights. Anyway; I have replaced my D1 with a D2 and plan to do the same upgrade to it and I removed the euro lights from the D1 before I sold it. They are about 1-1/2 years old and have a few thousand miles on them (3-5 thousand) and are available if anyone is interested. It will help fund the new replacements for my D2.

 

"new ones designed for the European market"
can you elaborate? pic?
what year was your D1?
- do you mean the 2003 type headlight or is this something else. B/c I thought the 2003 required fabrication for D1 and D2 (Pre 2003) fittment

 

I do not have the original US lights to set next to them but the difference in appearance is minimal. The glass fluting is different than used on the US lights which diffuses the beam and without comparing the 2 side by side: you will most likely not notice a difference. As I previously mentioned the Euro lights have a distinct horizontal cut-off with a right projection. Each light will have a horizontal cut-off to the center of the beam and then flair up from the center and continue up on the right.

All of the D1s in the US came with the same lights and these are a direct refit for any of these. Not that it matters but my D1 was a 94 model.

 

This shows the beam patterns but does not really do it justice. The US/NA beam is very diffused compared to the Euro.

 

I agree with someone else who said (paraphrase) 'thats a lot of work to make a 20 year old truck look like a 15 year old truck'. There has to be a less labor intensive way to get better lighting if thats the purpose.