my own smiley.

[Quailane]

I'm pretty sure the smiley is actually to prevent light from being projected upwards.

Euro smiley lights use H1 bulbs, which don't have a block on the tip to prevent blinding oncoming traffic. The light hitting to top of the reflective surface is projected downwards, and the light hitting the bottom of the reflective surface is projected upwards. The cut prevents the light from shining too high. Think back to grade 9 science class, and light patters on concave surfaces.

That isn't accurate. Many E30/32/34 euro projector lights which use H1 bulbs do not have the smiley cutout. On US lights the cap on the end and the use of 9006 bulbs in the low beams of US projectors has to do with DOT requirements and not any engineering perspective as 9006 is intended to be used in a reflector, not a projector type headlamp. In my unscientific testing the only difference between the light patterns between a 9006 and 9005 bulb in the US E30 projector is a spot of greater brightness at the center on the cutoff line.

Also, that convex lens doesn't direct any light at the chrome surround. Any light that hits it that came from the bulb is reflected off the outer glass cover. At that point, light reflected from the chrome surround would be going everywhere and you would need to black out the entire thing to prevent light from going in any specific direction. But the diffusely reflected light from the outer lens is so weak that making the surround chrome for cosmetic purposes is no big deal.

[accident]

best. caliper. ever.

[Cha Ching]

OK, I feel really lame...What exactly does the "smiley" portion do (besides look really fuckin' cool?)?