problem mounting European heallights with parking lamp

[jtauxe]

In restoring my Mexican single cab to its original factory configuration, I am compelled to honor the wiring to the headlights. Since this truck was built to European specifications, it had the extra grey wire into the headlight buckets for the "parking lamp" -- a small extra bulb that lives outside the main bulb cluster, and which provides the feature of having lights on the vehicle when parked, which is apparently standard in some countries.

In this photo through the front of the headlight, you can see the white rubber penetration that holds the parking lamp:

Here is is from the back side:

I found the cool H4 headlights with the extra lamp at BusDepot, and went to mount them, when -- hold on. These won't fit in the housings. As you can see, the white rubber penetration wants to occupy the same space as the ring on the housing:

Now, it could well be that the headlight housings are not original. Or, if they are, some other sort of parking lamp was in the headlights.

I am thinking of modifying the housings to accept these headlights by cutting them to clear the white rubber. Something like cutting out along the pencilled line here:

But I'd really rather not cut on these. Ideally, I would learn that indeed the Euro housings are different, and wouldn't someone like to sell a pair to me?

Short of that, out comes the Dremel tool...
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[otiswesty]

The european headlights have a mounting ring that is integral to the headlight. It is all one unit.
The US version has a separate mounting ring with the 3 depressions to hold any standard headlight.
You will need to clearance your mounting rings if you want to run those lights. No biggie.
_________________
1978 Sage Green P22 Westfalia
1989 T3 Syncro Single cab

Just a regular guy

[busdaddy]

Seems all your questions are already answered here John: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=684259&highlight=
From the looks of what you are trying to fit you opted for the cheapo Whoknowswhattheyreallyfitbutaslongasthere'sastrongmarkupwhocares?sincethestupidcustomerwillfallforit lights instead of the real Bosch or Hella lights meant for a bus. You may have barely saved enough to justify the Dremel time, but 10-20 years later are those Asian attempted facimilies going to look as good as the real deal still does after all these years? Not only are you sacrificing fit, the quality is probaby suspect, and years later when the supply of the genuine ones has completely dried up you'll be kicking your ass and throwing in sealed beams because they are the only option.

I think you are making a mistake, YMMV.
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[notchboy]

Yep. You are not dealing with the OG European parts for which you wish to turn your bus back to Like they said ^^^^
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[jtauxe]

[busdaddy]

Your mistake is using the wrong parts IMO. If I had your truck I'd want the Euro lights for sure, but I would source a pair of the correct OGVW parts and do it right.
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[jtauxe]

I agree. This is the time to make this factory correct.

What that tells me, then, is that the headlight mounting rings were probably replaced with some '73 or earlier version at some point in the past. These are not going to work without modification, and, as you point out, they would still be "wrong".
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[otiswesty]

Here is the OG set up
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1928651

_________________
1978 Sage Green P22 Westfalia
1989 T3 Syncro Single cab

Just a regular guy

[notchboy]

Your parts are for sealed beam US spec type bulbs - used here, Canada and Mexico. The one otiswesty shows is the euro spec type.
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[busdaddy]

Aaannd there's two different styles of those, the later ones shown with the separate basket, and the earlier ones which use the chrome ring as the mount.
I have no idea when the change took place.
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
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[notchboy]

[jtauxe]

[notchboy]

Yes John. Glad you found some. Now you know why I called them "Euro" headlights
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[zerothehero]

[quote="jtauxe"]

[furgo]

[notchboy]

[jtauxe]

Well, damn. I got a pair of these lights from the UK, and it looks like they would mount to the bus' headlight buckets, BUT...

...the lights will not accept the trim ring that goes directly around the glass. The trim ring (not the outer ring that goes to the body) will simply not fit over the Hella headlights. Nor will the BusDepot headlights (which accept the trim) fit into the Hella frame.

So, crap. At this point I have two different pairs of headlights that support the parking lamp feature, but neither of them can I get to fit in my bus, any any combination. WTF?

Does anyone really know how this would have been built at the factory in 1975?

Are there any European folk out there with a '75 (or so) bus that has a setup like this? HELP!
_________________
John
"Travelling in a fried-out Kombi, on a hippie trail, head full of zombie..." - Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
http://vw.tauxe.net
1969 Transporter, 1971 Westfalia, 1976, 1977, 1976, 1977, 1971, 1973, 1977 Westfalias,
1979 Champagne Sunroof, 1974 Westfalia Automatic, 1979 Transporter, 1972 Sportsmobile, 1973 Transporter Wild Westerner, 1974 Westfalia parts bus, 1975 Mexican single cab *FOR SALE*, 1978 Irish 4-door double cab RHD

[sjbartnik]

Do make sure that the lamps you got from the UK seller are set up for LHD vehicles. The lens design would be different for LHD vehicles vs. RHD vehicles, throwing the upward kink in the beam pattern to the wrong side of the road if RHD lenses are used in a LHD country.

In other words you'd be blinding oncoming drivers.
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1965 Volkswagen 1500 Variant S
2000 Kawasaki W650

[static]

[sjbartnik]