Started my HID retrofit....56k die!

san~man · Jan 5, 2007

Well, it took me a few months to get off my ass and finally start, but I've made some progress.

Bought some "Eagle Eye" brand lights from eBay. Cheap enough (about $145.00 or so with crappy expensive shipping to Hawaii):

Horizontal/Vertical adjustment screw (top corner), Left/Right adjustment screw (bottom corner):

To open up the light, I baked it at 250* in the oven on a cookie sheet for about 10 minutes. Beware of the glue...anywhere it gets on the plastic it sticks! To disassemble the light, you need to remove this small, metal peg from the top corner of the headlight housing:

There is also a screw underneath the sealant pictured here:

Light opened up, front view:

Halogen reflector is held in by these plastic adjustment bases:
Inside base:

Plastic bases removed from reflector housing:

Outside base:

Full view of housing holding reflector:

Side view of reflector mounting in housing:

Opposite view of reflector mounted in housing:

I dremeled out the inside portion of the reflector, leaving only the ring, front view:

Rear view of reflector housing:

Projector wouldn't fit deep enough into the reflector for mounting purposes, so I had to dremel some of the top portion of the reflector off. Here I made some lines to base my cuts upon:

Different view:

Cut the reflector and got this:

Lined up the projector in the housing and drilled mounting holes into the reflector:

Next, I have to go and get some long nuts, bolts, lock washers and other items to mount the projectors to the reflector base.

I'll add some pics of the projectors, ballasts, wiring harness and bulbs later.

Questions?

blackink00 · Jan 5, 2007

wow. thats alot of work. cant wait for the end product.

mineralgray2002 · Jan 6, 2007

If you dont mind me asking, How much is this gonna cost you in the end, looks like something that will turn out really cool and actually function

san~man · Jan 6, 2007

mineralgray2002 said:
If you dont mind me asking, How much is this gonna cost you in the end, looks like something that will turn out really cool and actually function

Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily the "average" prices one would pay. Some things I got really cheap, some things free, and some things I bought new. Here's an idea of the costs involved:
Headlights: $145.00 new, eBay
Custom harness: $65.00, new from member on Hidplanet.com
BMW bezel: $75.00 used. Will use it to cover the area between the projector and the reflector housing.
Genuine Hella Gen 3 ballast, Phillips 4300k bulbs. Hella ballast covers: $275.00 (all new parts but sick deal on eBay). Priced individually would be: ballast ($170-200, but used), bulbs ($75.00 used), ballast covers (40.00, new), all that doesn't include shipping. Hidplanet sells the exact same setup I got new for $375.00, so I saved at least $100.00 using eBay.
TSX projectors: $110.00 for the pair. Most sell for about $180.00 on Hidplanet.

All that above doesn't include the dremel I had to buy, sandpaper, JB weld, masking tape, etc etc.

Stang|ess · Jan 6, 2007

Finish yours so you can do mine

san~man · Jan 6, 2007

Stang|ess said:
Finish yours so you can do mine

Since I have to absorb all the intial costs (time and money) in terms of experimentation, placement, cutting, drilling, dremel, sandpaper, paint, etc etc, I will SURELY pass them on to YOU

Mustang5L5 · Jan 6, 2007

DIY HID retrofit > tossing HID kit in halogen headlight.

Sure it's more work, but the end product will be 10X better in terms of light distribution and glare reduction.

sgarlic · Jan 7, 2007

What's HID?

mijo_latino · Jan 7, 2007

Sweet. Looks like you have it all planned out. Retrofit is the only way to go! Im sure you've sppent as much time as I did over on HIDplanet researching and gathering everything needed to do this. Can't wait for the end product.

a taste of what to expect
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j224/mijo_latino/sidebeam.jpg

hotmustang331 · Jan 7, 2007

Looks great so far man . My question, is how are you sure that its going to project light correctly? Im sorry, but I have almost NO experience with how headlights work...muchless projectors

Stang|ess · Jan 7, 2007

He has TSX projectors, so that aims the light from the bulb.

san~man · Jan 7, 2007

hotmustang331 said:
Looks great so far man . My question, is how are you sure that its going to project light correctly? Im sorry, but I have almost NO experience with how headlights work...muchless projectors

The only real thing we have to worry about in our case is the rotational adjustment, meaning being able to adjust the projector if the beam pattern resembles a "see-saw." If the rotational adjustment is off, one side of the beam will slant more than the other, whereas we want the beam to be perfectly straight when projected against a wall.

Our light housing, fortunately for us, has left/right and up/down adjustment, so that "should" take care of any misalignment of the projector in the housing should it be off. If it's "off" too much for the headlight adjment screws, I'll have to take it apart and deal with it then. Of course, you don't seal everything up until you're sure that the beam pattern is correct when the housing is installed on the car.

san~man · Jan 7, 2007

mijo_latino said:
Sweet. Looks like you have it all planned out. Retrofit is the only way to go! Im sure you've sppent as much time as I did over on HIDplanet researching and gathering everything needed to do this. Can't wait for the end product.

a taste of what to expect
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j224/mijo_latino/sidebeam.jpg

Mijo,
What projectors did you use in your retro?

Saleen4971 · Jan 7, 2007

i thought you coudl only adjsut left/right on ours? well you learn something new.....

are you goign to keep adding to this thread?

the TSX is bi-xenon right?

mijo_latino · Jan 7, 2007

I went with the complete Bosche46 package. I got my kit form HIDplanet and made my own harness. I think the kit went for $379 at the time.
The great thing was that the projectors were almost a direct fit with the apc housing I started with. the whole backside had to be gutted out like you did, but the face looks exactly the same.

san~man · Jan 7, 2007

Saleen4971 said:
i thought you coudl only adjsut left/right on ours? well you learn something new.....

are you goign to keep adding to this thread?

the TSX is bi-xenon right?

Nope, single xenon. The TL's are bi-x, but there's no way those will fit. The solenoid that actuates the shield to convert it to high beams sits on the bottom of the projector, and our headlight housing unfortunately doesn't have enough room for them. I have a custom harness built so that I can slap the factory headlight back in at inspection time.

I deleted the pic of the second adjustment screw....it's in the bottom corner, diagonally opposite from the top adjustment screw. I didn't know there was another either until I had to take it apart.

san~man · Jan 7, 2007

mijo_latino said:
I went with the complete Bosche46 package. I got my kit form HIDplanet and made my own harness. I think the kit went for $379 at the time.
The great thing was that the projectors were almost a direct fit with the apc housing I started with. the whole backside had to be gutted out like you did, but the face looks exactly the same.

Nice. Lucky for you it was semi-easy . I had no idea what I was in for until I started taking stuff apart and seeing what was involved.

That kit is actually a great price. I paid 270 alone for my same ballasts, bulbs and ballast covers, but that's actually cheap for all new components. I guess in the end, we paid about the same price for our gear. I had initially planned to use some S2K projectors I bought, but when I realized that they wouldn't fit I sold them on Hidplanet. I was disappointed at first, because those are easily the best single xenon projectors on the market. It's just that their mounting points are strange and I'd have to cut them up a lot and I still wouldn't be guaranteed that they would have fit. So, I hesitantly sold them. The TSX's are still very good, maybe #2 or tied for #3 after the S2K's, so I'll still have a sharp beam output when it's all said and done.

I went to the hardware store and bought some machine screws, but as luck would have it, they were too short lol. I have to go back tomorrow and get another set of 4. My car's still in the shop anyway so it makes no difference.

san~man · Jan 7, 2007

Saleen4971 said:
i thought you coudl only adjsut left/right on ours? well you learn something new.....

are you goign to keep adding to this thread?

I re-posted the pic showing the two adjustment screws in the initial post....sorry for the quick paint picture

Yes, I'll keep updating this thread as development goes along.

san~man · Jan 8, 2007

Pic of the hardware (ballast covers, ballasts, Phillips D2S 4300k):

View attachment 412809

Here's pic of one of the TSX projectors, and a BMW e46 bi-x shroud I'll be painting and using to take up some of the space between the projector and the reflector housing:

View attachment 412811

hotmustang331 · Jan 8, 2007

^Darn Red Xs

You guys would laugh SOOO hard if you were to see my cars lights lol. They are about half as good as the stock lights....seriously. They were the clear corners, but somthing bound up and the adjustment screws stripped out. Like all but one, before I could get them in the correct position .

Ill have to take a pic of the cutoff lines....I mean narrow uneven mountain tops.

Started my HID retrofit....56k die!

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