My Gem is undergoing some mods b4 it’s taken all apart and refinished. The stock headlights are kind of a joke in my opinion. The internet is full of aftermarket LED off road lights. They are priced very well (some under $100) and offer both brighter light and draw far less power then the stock lights. I chose to go with a square light that houses 6 Cree Led lights. They make the same light with 4 Cree Led lights (it’s a flood light) I would rather have distance then flood but you might choose the opasate. Most light manufactures will show a pattern to better help you decide. The lights I bought were $97. They are very well built and feel heavy duty. They came with real nice wire harness and water proof quick disconnect . You simply UN plug your stock lights and make 2 connections and your good to go.
The differance in light output is huge.
I’m sure you can find these lights in a Round configuration so it will make it easyer to retro fit. But like I said I wanted squares and don’t mind doing a little cutting and later I will fill in the gaps and make them look more stock but I just wanted to get them installed and check the alignment and see where they need to sit for now. Here is what they look like
Here is a pic with them on.
Very nice. I’d love to replace the stock bulbs (they are a joke) but I didn’t want to do any cutting/filling. Wasn’t confident I could ever make it look correct afterwards. I thought about mounting a “multi-LED light bar” rather than removing the old bulbs. I also was concerned about the “beam focus” of LED lights since typically they’re ganged together in a multi-LED configuration and don’t spot focus very well unless special reflectors are involved. In the end I decided it was just safer, at least in my area, to not drive my GEM after dark.
Might I ask where you got them?
Incidentally my understanding is that the LED lights are sold as “driving lights” rather than “headlights”. The difference I believe is that “headlights” by law have to have a high beam/low beam configuration and some form of technology to cut off the light in the top half of the beam when on low beam to avoid blinding the oncoming drivers. “Driving” or “fog” lights apparently don’t require the same consideration since they’re supposed to be aimed down at the road just ahead of the vehicle and not far ahead.
Al
Yes this mod is not for the Timmid!! Thoes afraid of D.O.T regulations and rules need not attempt . 
I wouldn’t worry about it. Just make sure you aim them so they don’t bug people and u will be ok
AR; I got the lights from this place SideTracked Offroad - Off Road LED Lights, HID Lights, LED Light Bars you can get colord lenses for the lights should you choose they sell spair lenses for $3 each
So I decided to flush mount the lights
First step was to build a border where the expoy would fill in the gaps
I used a 2 part epoxy that drys hard in about 10 mins
After you mix equal parts you can pour it into the Aera
Once it drys you can sand it into a rough shape
After you have your rough shape I them used a traditional plastic auto body filler to refine the shape
I did a few fine skim coats of filler and then primed it
That’s it for now. I’m gonna block sand it a few more times and prime it again. I was sure to leave enough of a gap so that the paint has room.
Nicely done and looks great! You’ve obviously had some experience w/ auto body repair work.
How did you end up mounting the new fixture? Is there a way to “aim” or adjust (up/down/left right) the lights? It appears the lights have a side-mounting bracket so perhaps you fabricated a bracket to mount from behind?
AR; the lights mount the very same way the stock lights mount. I mounted the lights (temporarly) to aim them side to side. And when I was happy I tightend them down. This was just a quickly put together fab. I will clean it up and refine it before I send it off for paint. And yes I’m quite handy with fiberglass/carbon fiber, but I think I will have a Pro paint my stuff and I will do other upgrades I feel more comfortable doing. My winter time hobby is boat Audio installation and fabrication
