USA Lights Modifications

Once your car arrives from the USA into Europe, the lights work slightly different than we are used to in The Netherlands and Belgium.

Just a few observations:

The orange area at the side of the head lights unit, burns continuously. This is a marker light and is not supposed to burn when the head lights are on. I do not know if this is allowed on Netherlands/Belgian roads...
The same applies for the orange lights below the bumper. They burn continuously when the head lights are on. This is not allowed in Belgium and The Netherlands AFAIK...
The orange lights below the bumper are also used for parking lights. Not sure if this is allowed. Normally a light in the head light (so white) is used for this...
When the turn signals are used, only the orange lights below the front bumper blink. Wouldn't it be good if the marker lights in the head light unit will blink as well?
The Sealed Beam headlight have a different light distribution compared to H4 head lights. Although not an item to not allow the car on the road, why not replace it with a light with a better light output?
The orange bumper light has three functions: turn indicator, marker light and park light

When purchasing the car, I also bought a set of H4 head lights from Vemu Car Classics:

As you can see, there is an extra small light bulb present. I think this can work perfectly as clearance light ("stadslicht") as well as park light...

The battle plan

So, I have come up with below overview:

Red (X) s incorrect, green (V) is already fine, yellow (O) is new

So, weaponed with this knowledge, the following changes need to be applied:

In orange bumper light, we need to disable the marker light and park light: luckily both are fed with the same wire...
We need to disconnect the side marker in the head light unit and connect it to the turn signal wire...
We need to connect the small light bulb in the new head light to the marker light wire

Execution

Unscrew the two screws to remove the surrounding of the head lights

Remove the two screws of the lower section, bend a slight forward and remove it by pulling to the outside of the car

Remove the 4 screws to release the whole unit from the car

Lay a towel for precaution on the bumper to avoid any damage

There are three connectors attached, the one in the picture, one below to connect the orange lights in the bumper and a very small one for the mass connection

The three connectors, connector 1 (towards the bumper orange light) already disconnected

Connector 2 is the supply cable towards the head light unit as a whole

The 3rd connector is the Mass-connection

Unscrew the four screws te remov the chrome ring from the light units. Leave the screw with the spring untouched...

You can clean the light bulbs coming off. I have just cleant my high beam light...

For easy access I have removed the screws that hold the connections

This is what we need: some tools, three wires with connectors, two extra connectors and three cable joiners

The only irreversable action: cut the grey wire going to the marker light into the orange section

Attach the two connectors to the two grey cable ends. If you wish you could reconnect them as if nothing had happened ;-)

The green/black wire is the turn signal wire. This is the cable we need for next action...

Attache the blue wire created earlier with the black/green wire with the cable joiner.

And connect the other end to the grey wire toward the orange section in the head light unit. We now have turned the side marker in a turn signal marker!

Now connect the yellow/green wire to the small grey wire between the male and female connector block. This is the marker light wire.

Finally, connect the brown wire to the brown wire that goes between the low beam and high beam head light.

Now you can see the headlight connector as well as the yellow/green and brown wire ready to be connected to the new H4 head light unit.

The yellow/green and brown wire connected to the small light in the H4 head light unit

The new H4 head light unit mounted again and the chrome rings screwed back to hold the light units (both low and high beam)

The connected H4 head light with the two extra wires (yellow/green and brown) to small ight

I took the opportunity to clean the interior behind the head light unit ;-)

Now it is time for the magic trick... We are going to reposition the metal pin closest to the plastic pin to the hole in the connector...

This grey wire is the marker light wire that goes to the orange light under the bumper. There is no further need for this wire, so we put it in the other hole, as...

...this pin will end up in an empty hole... There is no wire connected to it.

And reattach the head light unit to the car. Be aware of the cable towards the orange light below the bumper: it should go in front of the screw attachment of the head light unit:

Cable in front of the attaching screw...

Reattached the frame around the lights...

And close the lid of the motor compartment... Done!

Evaluation

Most work was in the cleaning of wires, connectors and car areas.

Basically we have created a situation where the situation of the rewiring of the lights is reversible:

For the orange light below the bumper: just reposition the pin with the grey wire in the three pin connector, and your are done: the light will function as both marker/park light and turn indicator;
Disonnecting the newly attached blue wire and re-connect the grey wire will recreate a marker light in the orange section of the head light unit.

Of course, it would be even better to make the connections by soldering, but this was my first attempt and I want to see that this situation is acceptable at the inspection...

Final call will be when I go for the inspection to see if everything is in line with expectation according to Belgian road regulations... I will keep you posted ;-)

[Edit 31 May]: Today at the inspection, some remarks were made, but none about the lights! Even the adjustments of the beams were still OK! Hurray!