Write-up: How to equip an 87-93 stang with HID's the RIGHT way. LOTS of pics.

Nice writeup.

I really like it when someone wants to do something and gives it a try.

It sounds very planned out and sounds like the idea was already in your head.

Nice documentation.

I to would have a few concerns with heat though. Not only with the fiberglass but with the plastic headlight itself.
 
  • Sponsors (?)


Thanks guys. I've been REALLY busy this past week/weekend so I haven't gotten a chance to get much more work done.

Michael - These projectors came out of a BMW E46 3-series. The way that the projectors that are mounted into the stock BMW housings creates its own "shroud" that only foucses the light through the projector lens.

Take a look at this pic:
headlights.jpg


When the lights are turned on, the light ONLY goes through the projector lens and nowhere else. Projector HID setups do not rely on reflectors in the headlight housing to project the light out. In the pic above, you can see that there is no reflector at all around the projector. The light just shines through the lense and onto the ground. If the light was allowed to escape around the projector lense, it would get directed in all different directions and would create a whole lot of glare.

As for the heat. HID bulbs only run on 35 watts at 3 amps compared to the 55 watts of a halogen bulb. Less power means less heat. There have been others who have used fiberglass shrouds around their projectors and have had zero problems.

I hope this didn't confuse you guys further. haha
 
It's going to be interesting to aim these. Last time I did the retrofit on my car, I did a horrible job of aiming the lights. So this time I'm gonna do it right. What I'm going to do is use my Impreza as a guinea pig. It has projector halogen lights, so it will give me a very good idea of where I need to aim the lights on the stang. I'll be aiming the lights in my driveway about 25 ft. away from the side of the shed next to my house. I'll measure how high the headlight is off the ground, and then how high the top of the beam projected onto the shed is from the ground. Then I'll use those measurements and do a little math to figure out the angle that the beam is projected at. I'll then use those numbers as a baseline for the stang.

The only problem is that we got a foot and a half of snow this morning, so the stang isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
 
For those people who bought the light housings from 50resto or eBay - those will not work for HIDs. They do not have the proper cutoffs and will just produce an insane amount of glare. Do a search, as someone tried this previously and posted the results - it may have been in 5.0 Talk instead of 5.0 Tech, can't remember.
 
didn't get to that yet. I'll be doing it this weekend. I took some baseline measurements using my impreza. Hopefully it won't be too cold and i'll be able to finish everything up by the weekend.
 
RacEoHolic330 - I hate you man.........:mad: :notnice: :notnice: It looks so ugly.....






























Na just kidding, dude, urs is coming out nice, your gonna love the new headlights with the retro fit I know i did....... Nice idea on the shroud to cover the projectors :nice: :nice:


View attachment 486422

View attachment 486424

View attachment 486426

View attachment 486428

Stll hate you though.......:D I guess im gonna have to do mines all over again :rolleyes: :D Sori had to put my pixs in here to....... :D
 
haha, thanks. Have you had any issues with your aftermarket headlight housings and condensation? I hear they sometimes let moisture in. I'm probably going to run a bead of clear silicone around all the seams to make sure none of that happens.
 
:D
ummmmm cant say that I had??
before I did the retro there were no condensation at all :shrug:
after the retro well, after a hard shower of rain i would get watter in, but its just that i didnt seal them good enough...... the only probz i got now is on the parking like the outer ones the chrome/mirror finish is fadeding away :nonono: but new ones will fix it :D hard to find these headlight now on ebay.....:SNSign:
 
I was going to have this all finished last weekend but I messed up my back bad snowboarding and I couldn't walk.

I was feeling better today so I got some more work done. I'm actually waiting for some JB weld to dry right now. I got the driver side headlight installed and aligned. I'll be doing the passenger side tomorrow so I'll have pics then.
 
first off i would like to praise you on the bold mod attemp. i did a retrofit of BI-Xenons into my 03 Bmw so i know your pain when it comes to proper aiming. it is especially not easy when you are doing it to a car that the option wasnt avaible. if i were you i would completely redo the whole inside bezel with a custom mold, made of fiberglass then wrapped in carbon fiber to give it a sleek professional look. another thing i noticed was the aluminum foil. that was a good idea however, you can achieve the same results using simple masking tape. because fiberglass wont resin to it. if you decide to go the custom bezel route shoot me a pm i may be able to help you out. i make custom air intakes for luxury cars down here in Souther California.
 
So did you ever finish?

I just got an HID kit. Was gonna put it into my GT but didn't want to deal with all the potential legal trouble from running an HID bulb in a halogen housing.

So now i'm consiering modding a Fox headlight with some projectors like this
 
Yea, I finished a few weeks ago actually. I just haven't had a chance to take new pics of the light output. Here are some pics of the final product. I still have to make some more adjustment to get the lights to line up nicely. Once the weather clears up, I'll have more pics.

DSCN1420.jpg

DSCN1448.jpg

DSCN1447.jpg


Some output pics.
View attachment 474885

View attachment 474887
low beam
View attachment 474889
high beam
View attachment 474891
side shot
View attachment 474893

These give you a good idea of how much light output there really is.
View attachment 474895

View attachment 474897