SO I DECIDED TO INSTALL THE E36 BMW HEADLIGHTS IN MY 88 CAMARO, I KNOW ITS BEEN DONE A BUNCH OF TIMES, BUT HAVNT SEEN ANYONE RETROFIT PROJECTORS IN THE E36 LIGHTS, THE PROJECTORS THAT CAME WITH THE HEADLIGHTS WERE A JOKE, PUTTING HIDS IN THE PROJECTORS THAT CAME WITH THE E36 LIGHTS WOULDN'T BE ANY DIFFERENT THAN PUTTING HIDS IN THE REGULAR 4X6 CAMARO LIGHTS, MEANING THEY WILL BLIND ON COMING TRAFFIC, THE E36 LIGHTS DO HAVE A CUT OFF LINE IN PROJECTORS BUT THEY AREN'T VERY GOOD AND SCATTER THE LIGHT EVERYWHERE SO I DID ALOT OF RESEARCH ON RETROFITTING AND JUST DECIDED TO JUMP RIGHT IN AND BOUGHT A PAIR OF TSX PROJECTORS, AND SOME E36 HEADLIGHTS TOOK THEM APART AND FITTED THE TSX PROJECTORS, THEY LOOK GOOD AND HAVE A AWSOME COLORFUL CUT OFF LINE, HAVNT GOTTEN AROUND TO MOUNTING HEADLIGHTS IN CAMARO YET, HOPEFULLY ILL GET IT DONE THIS WEEKEND AND POST PICS OF CUT OFF LINE,THE HIDS IN LIGHTS NOW ARE JUST CHEAP ONES I BOUGHT OFF EBAY A WHILE AGO, WAITING FOR MY PHILLIPS 4300K BULBS AND BALLASTS

 

NEW TSX PROJECTORS

 

THESE ARE THE CHEAP PROJECTORS THAT COME ON THE E36 LIGHTS I BOUGHT, I KNOW THERES MANY DIFFERENT E36 LIGHTS OUT THERE, THE ONES I GOT WEREN'T GOOD, AND WHAT I HAVE READ FROM THE BMW SITES NONE OF THEM ARE GOOD,

 

Looks good! This is definitely something that I would like to do in the future. What was the total cost of this mod if you don't mind me asking?

 

I THINK THE E36 HEADLIGHTS WERE $250, I GOT THE CHEAPER ONES WITHOUT HIDS, CAUSE I KNEW I WOULD BE REPLACING THEM, I GOT THE TSX PROJECTORS OFF EBAY FOR $200, AND THE GOOD HIDS LIKE PHILLIPS BULBS AND BALLASTS USUALLY RUN ANYWHERE FROM $200-$400, I GOT LUCK MY DAD WORKS IN AUTO BODY AND WAS ABLE TO GET FREE PHILLIPS HIDS, HE HAS TONS OF THEM HANGING AROUND. TOTAL COST AROUND $650-$850, IF INTERESTED THERES AN AWESOME WEBSITE CALLED theretrofitsource.com THEY HAVE GREAT DEALS, U CAN GET HID COMPONENT KITS WHICH WILL HAVE EVERYTHING U NEED TO DO THE RETRO, EVEN HAVE USED KITS

 

Please look to the left hand side of your keyboard. . .there is a key labeled "caps lock". Please push that so you are not yelling at everyone.
Thanks, your friends on the board.

 

I just want to say GOOD JOB! And commend you on doing an HID swap the RIGHT WAY. Its very refreshing to see someone do some research, and do the extra work to do something right.

You probably have one of the best functioning sets of lights in the thirdgen community at this point. Regardless of whether or not the halos are your thing or whatever... I bet they throw down tons of useful light, and dont blind anyone any worse than a factory HID setup.

Can you put up some more pics? Maybe some night time beam pattern shots?

J.

 

Ya I I'll get some night pics this weekend an post them

 

just got my matsushita gen IV ballast and Phillip bulbs Ill take some pics of the cut off line tonight as i try to aim them , and find away to mount them headlights,

 

wow i didnt realize this is the full 1 peice, thought they were 2 peice head lights. wow alot of people have gaps on the side, this was done so well! great job man! wish I could do this.

 

Im impressed, those look pretty awesome.

 

hey glenndale83 if you dont mind posting some pics of how you mounted your lights . i have mine in but trying to figure how to mount them so they are not just sitting there.
thanks

 

sorry i been so busy havnt had time to work on mounting lights, just had a baby boy, named Austin, and work has been real busy,i got some stuff done today, After getting lights on each side perfectly straight, (well i eyed it )didnt know till i got lights turned on, and placed against a wall. these pics are the cut off line i mention earlier, with the TSX PROJECTORS. I guess i did a pretty good job on cutting them in to fit cause i didn't need to do to much adjusting of housings. Now that i have the headlights exactly where i want them i used gorilla tape to hold them in place while i made a template out of cardboard, im using black plastic to cover top of lights, also will be used as 1 of the mounting points, Im gonna use L shaped brackets and sheet metal underneath headlight to give them support, and so they can sit perfectly straight, I now have to come up with some way to clip headlights in from bottom when they sit on the sheet metal, i cant find any other way to get underneath headlight and screw them into metal platform, so headlight will clip in from bottom and get screwed in from top using the plastic cover i made, i wanted to glue the plastic cover to headlight then screw it into rad support, but it would make it impossible to remove glass from headlights if i ever wanted to get inside to change anything.

 

still have cheap ebay hids in headlights, haven't had time to replace with my Phillip bulbs and ballasts,


Just ordered new angel eyes, if anyone plans on doing the e36 headlight in the camaro,and is doing it for the angel eyes, i wouldn't suggest using the DEPO E36 HEADLIGHTS, the depo headlights come with built in AE, the AE use the 3 194 leds to light the AE up, they look bright in picture but in person there really not that bright cant see them in daylight, i got the depo lights not knowing anything about the angel eye. Now i want the CCFL angel eyes and have to retrofit them in, you can see how its done by going to bimmerfest.com the link is for e39 depo lights, its the same set up on the inside of the e36 http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=528164

 

im saving up the money not to try this out I CANT WAIT TO SEE THE OUTCOME....

 

An upgrade to an already nice setup, good job

 

AWESOME job.


I love it! Thank you for sharing!

 

looks awsome Definately on the to do list

 

That goes for me too...looks AWESOME!

 

not to sound stupid, but did the tsx's just replace right into the light assemblies?

 

ya pretty much, just unscrew the projectors that come off the e36, and the tsx projectors fit right in, any projector with a 2.5' lens will fit in the e36 housing, the only tricky part is mounting the projector into the housing, u can make brackets to hold it in place, just make sure the projector is level, before taking out the original projector mark the position,

 

cant believe no one has asked what year range the E36 headlights were from........

What year range are the E36 headlights from?????????

thx

 

Have you ever heard of google? Seriously you can find that kind of information in about 10 seconds. Aw screw it I'll do it for you...

I typed in "BMW E36" into google, clicked on the very first link to Wikipedia, the second line of info on that page says...

1990-2000.

 

I'm new to the world wide webs, what is goodle and where do i buy it?

Thanks for buying it on account of my question. where do i find it in my circle flag menu?

 

so the CCFL is brighter than DEPO? what does it mean, or stand for? but i found a set of the headlights that come with LED halos, and it states its much brighter than CCFL, yet i dont know what it means. soo, would the LED halos be a much better buy?

 

Looks awesome!

 

Most LED halos are hard to see during the day, CCFL is brighter.Some halos however use 60+ LEDs.These are very bright, brighter than most CCFL units.The drawback, LEDs can fizz out or flicker when on.Mostly from the cheapo halos.So CCFL is better in this regard.

CCFL however doesnt function well (or at all) in colder climates.Sometimes the ballast burns out too.Again mostly from cheapo units.CCFL glass is fragile & easy to break.

 

great work will be looking to do this when money comes around

 

thought i posted a pic of the new angel eyes, guess not, but here are the new ones i put in a while ago they are the led angel eyes, think they are either 30 or 60 leds per angel eye, i forget now ts been awhile, these seam like the brightest leds ive seen on angel eyes, there are extremely bright during the day, there brighter than ccfl