sjgrimsley

You also mentioned something about wiring going from the ballast to the bulb that was a PITA. Is that shown in the pics above or?

???

iTrader: (5)

nah, its pretty much all hidden under everything and i didn't get any pics. i can snap one tomorrow of the wiring that you can see.



you might come up with a better idea than me too. i mean its not hard as in its just plugging stuff in, but i was worried about getting stuff run so you couldn't see it and it didn't rub or pinch anywhere.

all that plus the ballasts need to be mounted somewhere. if you don't mind seeing them, it will be much easier to mount.

sjgrimsley

The eBay store looks to still be kept up to date and they have a kit that includes everything: here

???

iTrader: (5)

well hmm i did a search and couldn't find it when i was looking, thats why i searched thru my old messages and replied to it.


thats is deff them thou.

sjgrimsley

Hmm. Maybe I'm looking at it wrong but there doesn't appear to be any threaded portion to the projectors in the link I provided. That would make them harder to mount.

???

iTrader: (5)

nah, that's them. the collar is just screwed on on the pic hiding the threads. but if group look close in this on, you can see it.



http://www.omgcar.com/webedit/Upload...2141630802.jpg

sjgrimsley

Well, my friend. You have inspired me to give this project a go on my '82 'Bird. Wish me luck! Lol.

???

iTrader: (5)

just as a follow up, 6 months later, they still work great.


ive driven in rain and all kinds stuff. no troubles, i'm so use to them now, when i drive my 02 z28 i complain about the lights not being any good haha.

i'll get around to putting some on there someday too.

sjgrimsley

Here's a follow up:
I only have two pictures since I did my projector retro. They are both output shots.
Tomorrow I will get pictures of how they look in day time.
The difference is amazing!
Projectors are Mini D2S Bi-xenon from TheRetrofitSource.com; bulbs are their Morimoto 5000K 50w 'ers.
DDM 55w ballasts and wiring harness.

Low beam:


High beam:


I have also upgraded to TRS's 50w Morimoto ballasts because the cheap DDM ballasts took too long to warm up and also output in DC current where the higher quality ballasts output AC, like OEM does. DC wears out one electrode in the bulb heavily whereas AC wears on both evenly. The cheap ballasts will cut bulb life in half. They also have much looser tolerance on output wattage. 55w DDM's may only put out 42w where the Mori's put out 50w.

I'm also playing with the idea of popup deletes so I can fit TRS's FX-R projectors. The output on those is absolutely amazing. They literally blow these away. And Phillips 85122+ bulbs are much better too.

Will post more pics tomorrow!

???

iTrader: (5)

very nice..



the light output looks sweet. i'm sure they will make night driving a joy.


looking forward to more pics of how you installed them, and if you get the pop up deletes done.


edit, and i see you've dove deep into the hid tech. i need to read up on that stuff some day. where did you get your projectors from?

sjgrimsley

Yessir. City driving is the most fun. Especially when the lights cast shadows of other cars on the road haha

The Retrofit Source

Their forum is www.hidplanet.com. LED lighting is a big thing there as well.
Both sites are a great wealth of info.

Go take a look and dive in for your self. But be warned. The path to better lighting is one way. You can never be normal again!

edit: I've had these in since I think early February. Just too lazy to post up.. lol

1ADan

iTrader: (4)

you got some great results from the swap, definitely on the list of upgrades for next year. thanks for the link to retrofit, some very good looking kits over there

sjgrimsley

Oh, hey. I was gonna get some pics... haha just a little late on that. But, here they are.

Still more to come of the back side.

I bought the cheapest 6x8" sealed beam "conversion" headlight housings I could from eBay, heated and separated the lenses from the housings, mounted projector, used some 1/4" thick plexi with a 2.75" hole in the middle for the projector to fit thru. The front cover lens was heat molded over the projector using the oven.

Umm. Anything I forgot to mention just ask.

sjgrimsley

Output shot. Garage is the best wall I got to show the cutoff on.
Pass side slope is a little blurred because of a small bulb base issue. It just doesn't ever want to seat in the projector properly. New Phillips 81225+ bulbs should cure this. They will have better output and more usable light as well.

sjgrimsley

Oh and by the way OP, I hope I'm not hijacking your thread! Lol

???

iTrader: (5)

nice pics.. no hijack at all. i love the true diy part of your install too. just heat the cover and stretch it over the projectors. nice. cause i have other things to spend my money on then buying stuff and learning to blow mold laxsand. and from what i've seen, they don't turn out any better than your's anyways.


i just happened to check back in since i took mine back apart to get rid of the step down cut off. it seemed like a good idea at first, but it didn't grow on me. always seemed like either one side was to high, blinding traffic in front of me. or to low on the left that i couldn't see like i wanted to in left corners. i started checking out cars with oem hid projectors and all of them seemed like a straight cut off. so i modded my little hi/low flapper to get rid of the cut off.

mods are done, but i need to put everything back together and test drive. but i think over all i'll have better light where i need it, and less light for cars ahead of me. bad part is, if i like it. i'll want to re do the bike next. and thats like 3 times the work haha.

sjgrimsley

Yea it's pretty tricky getting them hot enough to form without them bubbling up.

Do you have any output shots from before you modded the shield? Did it look like mine does? I hate the slope cutoff shield. The FX-R's I ordered a couple days ago have the stepped cutoff which I like way better. And honestly, if you wind up with them aimed perfect (which is pretty difficult) you should be able to see fine and not blind the people directly in front of you. I assume you meant the people in your lane and not oncoming traffic?

EDIT: I forgot to ask, post some pics of your bike retro? Lol

???

iTrader: (5)

yeah i have one, this is on my fence durning the day, but you can still see it. maybe 30feet away. its just to much. the small step would be nice. and i could have made it with a small notch but eh, straight seems good enough for me.




disregard the halfassed gate opener lol its sense been redone.

???

iTrader: (5)

i don't really have any good pics of the bike stuff. it was much harder thou. lots of fabing inside the housing.


here's one of them done, with the halo's on. just for the pic, i never use them lol loaded up and heading to the mountains of NC for some good riding. the headlight mod was great for the night we got stuck on some random foothills of the smokey mountain national forest on a moon less night. its crazy dark up there.




low




high




the wiring i think haha





just a random pic of some step in the process lol. don't remember waht i was don't here or why i took the pic. probably cause it was funny looking. big *** mess. but you can see how much different the stock projectors were from the ones i put in.

sjgrimsley

That's great output man. What projectors did you use?

???

iTrader: (5)

those are the ebay china projector retro fit kits i use, links are back in this thread a few posts.



i finally got around to getting mine back together and adjusted after the reflector mod to get rid of the stepped cut off. i like them better like this the more i drive it around.

2 quick pics, from my cell phone so they look dark and don't show how good the amount of light put out really is, but you can see the cut off well. and the car's not level, the lights are straight when the road is, i just pulled up to the wall on a angle.



and high, reflecting off the white wall messed with my phone camera badly, i could hardly get a clear pic at all. they don't look discolored like this in real life at all. although i do like the white of the 4300s on the bike a little better than the 5000k on the car. but that was my fault when ordering. i forgot what i had ordered before.



the light output didn't change at all from the pics above, just the cam lol. and getting rid of the step in the hi/lo flapper worked well. not to find the time and motivation to pull the bike back apart to do it to them too.

still want to order 2 more sets to upgrade the lights on my daily driver ls1 too. 4 low beams would put out a crazy amount of light lol