Euro lights from Holland

[tnas@dtpdirect.nl (Tom Nas, DTP Direct bv)]

Fellow Audians,

After a long silence on my part, induced by being away from work for about
a month, I'm back. The backlog of q-digests is huge, I've missed quite a
couple of interesting discussions. Well, I did what I promised, and here's
my 0.02 qewsas.

For those of you interested in Euro headlight conversions I've collected
the following info. All part #s are for Halogen H4 headlights, dual bulb
system, with 55 watt for low and high beam. Caveat: I cannot guarantee that
these units actually *fit* US versions, I've had my share of problems with
that in the past.

        1987-1991 model years Audi 80 (should fit your 80 and 90 models,
Euro 90s had different headlights with the turn signals in the front
bumper)
part # 893 941 029 H and 893 941 030 H are headlights. They cost about 480
guilders each here (1 dollar = 1.59 guilders), so that makes them about $
300 each. (Ouch! I hope I never break one on my car).
These are Bosch units, Hellas are no longer available. As I have these on
my car, I can comment that they are only worthy as an upgrade if you
currently use candles. Even my crappy 1982 Opel Kadett (RIP) had better
headlights.

        1986-1988 model years Audi 100 (should fit your 5000)
part # 443 941 029 A and 443 941 030 A are headlights, they cost about $
350 each. They're Hella units. Made of solid gold, by the looks of it.

        1985-1987 model years Audi 80 (should fit your 4000)
part # 811 941 029 H and 811 941 030 H are headlights, they cost about $
205 each. They're Hella units.

I can probably get all of these in a scrapyard for about half the price,
but they'll probably be peppered with pits from grit. (As are mine, after
eight years). Older ones will be cheaper, about $ 60 each, but hard to find
without rust damage and seized adjuster mechanisms as well (BTDT with my
1980 Jetta). And then there's the question of shipping *intact* to the
US...

I've changed the turn signals on my 1988 80 for some cool-looking white
ones recently. For those of you interested: they're Hella parts, come
complete with orange bulbs, the Hella part # is 2BA 005 296-801, they cost
about $ 125 for the set. I really like the look of them, makes my car look
much more modern than the orange ones fitted before. They should fit your
87-91 Audi 80 and 90, if I'm not mistaken. I also fitted the Audi 90 rear
light cluster (which continues between the rear lights, has a space for the
licence plate and is all red, including the reversing lights (they do emit
white light though). Hella part # 2NR 893 931, cost about $ 235. It makes
the rear end look much more aggressive.
Next job: painting the lower half of the bumpers body colour. They look
horrible at the moment, being all greyish black. Any hints or tips, anyone?

I would also like to take of the door handles to paint them in body colour,
but I gather that taking off flush type (1988 80) door handles involves
taking apart the entire door. That's a bit too much for me. Any comments?

Sorry it took me so long to get the headlight info, but I've had some
strange things happening to me lately (not car-related), which made reading
and answering e-mail all seem kinda trivial. Hope you can use it, if you
want to ask anything about the above subjects, please feel free to e-mail
me personally. I will be away on holiday to the UK next week and will be
back by June 10th.

Happy Quattro-ing!

Tom.

 _______________________________________________________________________
   Tom W. Nas, graphic design                        tnas@dtpdirect.nl
   DTP Direct bv                              Voice +31 (55) 5 790 799
   Apeldoorn, the Netherlands                   Fax +31 (55) 5 790 125

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Lister: What's a purple alert?
Holly:  Well, it's like not as bad as a red a alert, but a bit worse than a
        blue alert -- sort of a mauve alert.

                            (From the BBC TV series 'Red Dwarf')