[V8] WAAAAAAAY off subject: NAC! not even close to Audi content, but....

[Roger M. Woodbury]

I know a lot of you have experience with all sorts of oddball car brands, so
I thought I throw out my question regarding this odd ball car brand.
 
I am speaking of a certain truck that graces my driveway...one of those
relatively limited production vehicles called a Chevrolet, or for those of
you who are in the inner circle, a Chebbie.
 
This particular one is a 1998 (old body style) 3/4 ton 4X4.  While it has
lived its entire life in Maine, it has had relatively little winter use so
it is not rusty at all.  Most Chebbie trucks of this vintage are already
waiting compaction in the scrap yard, but not this one.  
 
Anyway, my issue is the headlights. this truck is a relatively bare bones
version (CHeyenne), but it has the Silverado grille with the lovely
polycarbonate headlights.
Whoever ordered this thing originally spec'd it out with about every 3/4 ton
(and some 1Ton) stuff they could get, omitting some niceties like power
windows and locks...but about everything else is there, except right now,
with 120,000 miles or so, the poly headlights which were never great, are
useless.  So I am planning a serious upgrade as I find I like driving the
truck far more than I had expected and will continue to do so through this
winter anyway.
 
I have thought about just buffing the lenses using one of those buffing
headlight restoration kits, but that would only restore already weak
lighting to nearly new weak llighting.
 
I have a set of very nice driving lights that I had thought about
installing, but in order to do that, I will have to relay, double switch and
all that jazz, and I will still have useless low beams which is where a lot
of my night driving issues are with this present system.
 
What I think I want to do is replace the Silverado grille with a base grille
for the truck that would use large rectangular headlamps and install a set
of Hella rectangular headlamps.  Naturally, I'll have to relay the circuit
but that will be pretty simple.
 
The issue I am having is buying a pair of headlight mounting brackets that
will accept the rectangular headlamps in place of the polycarbonate lamps of
the Silverado grille.  I wonder if anyone here has had experience with
this...I think it is a bolt on situation, but I haven't pulled the grille
off to inspect.  I also have not been to the Chebbie dealer to see if the
brackets can be obtained from Chebbie, or if there will need to be a trip to
a wrecking yard.  I hope I don't have to replace the entire metal work that
holds the radiator in place, because if I have to do that, the driving lamp
installation becomes MUCH more attractive cost wise, of course.
 
Comments?
 
Roger