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Hey everyone! My name is Justin, I was active here many many years ago when I had my '91 Lumina. Since then I've gotten married, had a few kids (2 boys who both inherited my car-guy genes), and owned a few Jeeps. I picked up an '04 Impala with a 3400 a few days ago, and heading back over here was one of my first thoughts when I started looking up sound system and headlight fixes / improvements. - Justin

Welcome back

Took a while to get into it but success! Forgot to take pictures for anyone finding this thread later but I'll describe it best I can. I took off the kick panel, carpet cover, metal support thing, and lower part of the plastic steering column cover to check out all the wiring. Nothing appeared to have been touched so ruled out crappy aftermarket remote starter right there. I found the cable that runs out of the ignition cylinder and followed that way under the dash to where it plugs into the rest of the wiring harness. Unhooked that connector and checked for resistance on the two terminals while the key was is in the ignition and got a big fat open signal on my multi-meter. Proper solution to my security light now would be to replace the ignition cylinder but with how much those cost and getting new keys made I went for the bypass. I cut that ignition cylinder wire about halfway up the steering column to give myself some length and went inside to solder on my resistors, then simply plugged in that same connector now with two resistors looped on the end. Turned my key and the security light went out after a second or so in the run position and off completely while running. The wires on the ignition cylinder lead seem to be covered in a weird type of plastic that you can't really strip off. Tried a few times but just ended up taking wires out with the coating. Solution was to just burn off an inch or so with a lighter.

Done the mini-quad LED upgrade on my '92 GTP. I used Opt7 (USA) off Amazon, 6K, 7000LM (3500/ea) in the lows and 8400LM (4200/ea) in the highs. Contrast that with about 1200LM on the HIRs. I think they were about $89/pr for the lows, and $109 for the highs. Obviously not the cheap route, about as expensive as you can buy on Amazon, but at $200 complete still way less than an HID upgrade. I had already done 9011/9012 HIRs in the housings back in 2013, so it was drop-in. You have to remove the existing bulb without damaging the housing itself. Then you need to rotate the new ones in the housing until the beam looks its best, and use hi-temp silicone (preferably the copper stuff) to secure them in place. What I found is you're better off finding (or buying) two more low-beam housings. They're rare to find good ones that aren't chipped or cracked in the junkyard, and matching two is even rarer. Depends on your patience and whether you care if they match. Only a handful of cars ever used them besides W-bodies. '93-97 Camaros also did. After 4 years with HIRs, I can say with complete and utter awe that the LEDs are jaw-droppingly better than the HIRs were. They are awesome once they're properly aligned and aimed. Especially the way they light up reflective signs, it's incomparable to incandescent. Pic below from a previous post.

I shipped my car to Botswana after i replaced the top, so i can't take pictures to show you. But what i did last year when i went, i installed three strips of stainless steel on top of the vinyl at the tack strip. One in the center by the third brake light, one across each seam where the quater meets the rear window. I secured these with long bolts (countersink heads) that go through the body. All this reinforcement then gets covered by the trim pieces. See if this is something you can try. The strips were scrap from a pile of metal i found at a metal shop.

Update: I'm mostly finished installing the top. It was very difficult to do as a daily driver, as I spent a lot of time getting out and putting away my tools and supplies. Plus I had to do every step two or three times at least because I did it wrong the first time or it didn't line up. Eventually I would just say "good enough", curse, and move on to the next step. The good news is that it rained this morning and the new top didn't leak! I was surprised to see the water beading up on the top surface because my old top, and my two fox-body Mustang tops didn't do that. What products should I use on the vinyl top to protect it and to keep it waterproof? The bad news is that my installation does not look professional, there are lots of little problems with the edges. I told myself I would be honest with you guys and show the blemishes so others trying this in the future don't feel bad (or they feel good for doing better than I did!). I didn't have time to re-paint the three plastic trim pieces or my windshield frame or my mirrors. Now they look really bad next to the new top. But if I wait until the car is "done", then I'll never take or post pictures because it's a 215k mile daily driver that is NEVER "done". I need to redo my cracked rear quarter rust repair. My paint is scratched and dull. The trunk doesn't line up right, etc etc. I'll post the pictures over the course of the next few days, in separate comments.