P38 Headlight Conversion to Mark III Style

Introduction
Ruben Sesa's Conversion
Roy Nasser's Conversion
More Information


Introduction
I have received a lot of inquiries on whether the P38 models can be upgraded to use the headlights from the Mk III. The photos on this page are kindly supplied by two owners, Ruben Sesa and Roy Nasser, who managed to do the conversion.

I have heard conflicting reports about how difficult the conversion is. One owner on the Range Rover forum reported that his body shop was unable to make the new headlight fit unless he was willing to cut into the fender, headlight frame and bumper. "Also, the headlamp has to sit on the bumper for the hood to close down enough and when it does, the contour of the fender to lamp is out of whack."

However I have heard from at least 3 owners who have done the job successfully (or had it done at a body shop), and the final result is certainly impressive. Two of the successful conversions are illustrated on this page.

Ruben Sesa's Conversion
Ruben Sesa (FAT96RANGE) managed to do the conversion all by himself, including the grille from the new model! The finished result is extremely professional looking. Ruben reports: "I didn't take to a shop to get it done -- I did it by myself. So if a shop does it should come out better. And they said it couldn't be done!"
The pictures directly above and below were kindly supplied by Ruben.

Regarding the procedure to do the installation, Ruben reports: "I took my front bumper & lights out, and started cutting away at the radiator support. Then I had to cut the new headlight housing, and also had to cut into the front fenders which are going to need bodywork."

The finished result looks pretty cool, and you can almost confuse Ruben's Range Rover for a Mk III! We are hoping he will also be able to provide us with some instructions on how to accomplish the conversion.

Roy Nasser's Conversion
Roy Nasser of Brazil is another owner who managed the conversion, having it done by a local body shop. He reports: "The only cutting in my case was a non-support section of metal, that was basically a vertical stop for the old lights. These lights are deeper and need that cut. The lights don't rest on the bumper - at all - there is even a gap between the bumper and the lights."

A certain amount of rewiring is needed for the new bi-xenon lights: "It was pretty easy.... opening up the lights you will see the bi-xenon solenoid, as well as a small PCB with 3 wires going to it... one of them is connected to the ground of the headlight, one of them is connected to the xenon hid transformer, and the other is what you connect to the highbeam, in parallel to the smaller circle light (near the grill). This should be easy for anyone to solve though... it was rather simpler, although I thought it wouldn't be... tell your shop to fix it up, if they cant figure it out go to another shop maybe!

"The turnlights have a very slight discrepancy. Electrically it is perfect... xenon working, bi-xenon working, everything working fine, no faults. Because the truck didn't have headlight leveling this feature is disabled."

After the conversion (photos above by Roy Nasser), Roy says his lights are working 100 percent like the 4.4, except for the headlight leveling feature which was never provided on the 4.0/4.6/P38.