Strate L O S S' s Retrofit (in progress)

[Strate L O S S]

PIC HEAVY, 56k grab a beer this will take a while

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

got around to installing my latest set of retros for my car






the elusive photo of the rear




perfect seal using the oem rubber O-rings.


tsx hid projectors




installed







cutoff is level and wide. ill go out tonightif it isnt raining to snap photos

hey guys, heres an update on 2 more sets ive done

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

check out a retrofit i did a few months ago and finally got some pics for





utilized the factory rubberboot.






specs are

oem headlights, tsx projectors with clear lens and colormodd, e46r shrouds, blacked out housing, cleared corners.

i made these for my friend mitch (username Mitchy++)

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

heres a teaser pic of what im doing now.



these lights are finished, but atm i dont have any bulbs or d2s to amp adaptors so i cant install them yet.

specs are

oem lights, fresnel lens (its all i had), collormodded, mounted for maximum width, blacked out, semiclear cornered.

SCROLL TO BOTTOM FOR TAKE TWO !


HEADLIGHTS ARE FINISHED !

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

UPDATE 3/14/2009 12:45pm


sup bro's. after a long night last night of dissassembling my front end and fabbing up and baking the other headlight. this whole ordeal is finally at an end right now. the lights are finished.

heres just a few pics that i took to the best of my ability given the camera and surrounding lighting that i had






at the handcarwash




some cutoff pics
about 5 car lengths from the wall


these are the highs


since i have the bi-xenon projector, when i flicks my high's i have it wired that that projector goes into hi-beam as well as the factory halogen, so the halogen bulbs kind of dull the color out on my highs in the photo's. in real life it is just way way bright.


this is at 5ft or so from the wall




as you can tell the cutoff is nice, the aiming however i need to adjust a little bit. i need to bring the outsides just a lil lower.

i have access to my mounting brackets for adjustability but i didnt even bother lastnight since i was not going to remove the bumper in the parking lot @ 1am. will readjust a lil tommorrow when ill be installing the College hills honda 'accord horn upgrade'. watch for the diy on this as well since the accord setup consists of two horns. and only 08 and up si's have two horns this will be handy to many people.

about 20ft from the wall, and im on a 45degree angle to the wall





well thats pretty much it.

tomorrow when i tackle the horn upgrade ill be cleaning up my wires a little bit. the setup i have now is sufficient but only temp untill i actually finished the lighting. i purchased all the neccesary hardware and will most like document that as well as the custom horn integration. later guys thanks for viewing





some more pics of just my passenger light being installed that i forgot to post on here


the length from my car to the end of the brick wall is 120ft. this is with only one installed and let me say, it produces some nice output.
it will lightup street signs for no joke 15 city blocks no problem (about half a mile)





right now alls thats needed for me is a ballast upgrade, the generic chinese ones could be greatly improved upon

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ______________

Hey everyone, im in the process of doing a retrofit. this is my first time ever atempting such a task, ive never even split headlights before this. i am however very handy and at one point a professional contractor, so i have basic knowledge and plenty of tools/space.

after months of first completely not getting the point of retro's, then just complaining about the price, and extensive research. ive learned alot about the process and its plus's.

after checking out plenty of DIY'ers i decided to pull the trigger while on ebay. lol

i went ahead and purchased 2005 mercedes e55 Bi-Xenon projectors, this was not my first pick. i originally bid on some acura tl Bi-xenons but lost the auction. already hyped i just hit the buy-it-now on these badboys( of course after researching there high's and low's)

my next step was borrowing a set of loaner lights from a friend of mine (MITCHYY+) so that i can remove my headlights and keep his on while i work the retrofit.

so the first thing i needed was to setup a work station in my basement, heres a pic


my next step was to rig a battery and charger to the workhorse so id have electrical supply to do some initial and temporary aiming. heres a photo


next was to get a basic idea of the difference between the pnp hid kit in the reflector housing, and the plus's of the projector to get me motivated
pnp 6000k bulb in stock reflector housing, notice the crazy crazy hotspot right in the center, plus the eybrow on top of it. it also has crazy glare everywhere and no width and lightoutput is very poor off of the center


heres some projector pics. this is using the same bulb, just i broke off the 9006 tabs so i can kind of fit it in the projector housing(d2s bulbs havent came in yet) there was crazy leakage from the base of the bulbs and since no shroud on the projector some leakage from the shield.



you can immediately tell the cutoff is spectaculer, light is much whiter, brighter, wider, and crisper. truly amazing picture do not do it justice.
next was to measure the rear of my projector and get the neccesary cutting piece, the e55 projector needed a 2 1/2" hole cutout in order to fit. so i purchased a 2 1/2inch carbide diamond bit ($13)





then for some odd reason i figured i would just need 4 screws per projector to drill thru the light and mount them, yeah right


what wound up happening was that the reflector light is round and it was extremely difficult drilling the holes where needed, then boring them out to accept the screw on an angle. i managed to drill out the holes and bore em out but then while mounting it would not stay in place at all, basicly no stabililty to temporarily aim the lights before mounting them in there permanant position. when i say aim i mean making sure the cutoff is level and pointing where it needs to be, height is adjustable through the factory bolts so its uneccesary to take that into consideration, but still try and keep it straight.


nexxt i figured id epoxy the bolts as to where needed, using this


i was successful at that, but when the time to get the projector in there, since there was no wiggle room, it would up being impossible. so i had to scrap technique # 2 as well

my next step was to fabricate some adjustable mounting brackets that i will screw into the reflector housing with some springs for tension, so it is easily adjustable. this technique takes the trophy here.



what i do not have pictured above is that i had to make a cutout on the bottom of the reflector housing as well to make way for the Bi-Xenon motor. i will remove the projector for the sake of capturing a photo for you guys.

i also had to grind away some of the extra metal on the projector housing. this is no way affected the projector rigidity, just wound up being some metal for shaping purposes.

i tried and take some pics with the projector mounted and the lights on, but i have a very crappy camera and they didnt come out as i pictured them, heres the pics



heres some pics of me just getting a feel of how this would look with the lens in place



nothing is permantly mounted so everything is still adjustable.

while i was in there i went ahead and put a custom touch on a few thing, went with a very subtle clearing the corners.

i liked the amber in there and couldnt put myself to doing this


also went ahead and purchased some amber rings on the cheap from Obert. thanks man





heres a phto of when i first got my projectors, this is using an led flashlight


these projectors are massive and now i know why 3" bixenon projectors are almost non existant on our cars. most people opt for the smaller tsx lens which ive learned require less fabrication and an asthetic only shroud(and painted flat black) heres some photo's to get a perspective on how massive they are






the tools needed to make this job alot easier for everyone would be, knowledge, an oven with preheat capability, a vise, a drill with spare batteries, any sort of grinder, and dremel(of course mine broke during this process and had to resort to the diamond bit)before mentioned diamond carbide bit, workhorse, empty wall, battery, charger, pliers, screws with springs, glue, patiance, money, and time scattered around.


i still have not tackled the shrounds since im waiting on my bulbs to come in, with the neccesary wiring, d2s to generic ballasts piggytails, and a wiring kit
once i get these items i will permantly epoxy the projectors then tackle the shrouds,

im striving for an all chrome oem look and the only possibilty of me going with a flat black reflector housing is if my shrounds do not come out FLAWLESS.

i think going black is the cheap/uncreative route.

i also tried to move this into the DIY and was denied access.

this is still a work in progress and i basicly made this thread for my friends on here to get a more detailed view of what im tackling.

everyone is welcome to view and comment as well, also if anyone has some recommendations for me i welcome them as well. thanks for viewing
- Victor


update 2/08/09 9:19 pm
recieved some stuff yesterday,
got my phillips d2s bulbs, piggytail adaptors, and hid ballast wiring kit for a nice charge to the ballast.




also took it upon myself to bring my tools and wiring kit to work lastnight to install indoors in the after hours, heres how it went.


starts by removing the front bumper, there are numerous diy's that include instructions on this and sorry i didnt even bother trying to photo or document it.


i unwrapped the wiring kit and routed the powerwire up to the battery


this is the wire that plugs into the ballasts feeding it power


the wiring kit consists of two harness that connect to your ballast, one harness that connects to a stock headlight harness to feed the replay(remote), a power wire that connects to the battery to run power to the relay which in turn sends a strong signal to the ballasts, and a ground wire.

heres where i grounded it



heres where i ziptied the relay



heres how i connected the powerwire, i covered it with black electrical tape so it will be more subtle and wont pop. not a fan of red wire under the hood



i routed the passenger side harness onto the crashbar/ bumper support. usuing just some electrical tape





put the bumper cushion right on top and beside the electrical tape you cant even notive it. voila !



thats all thats needed to run a wiring kit, havent connected any ballast to it yet cause im running halogen for now until this retro gets complete(yes i feel like a coward, at least i have fogs tho)




update2/08/09 10:00 pm

i took it upon myself to tackle my headlights today and it did NOT go as planned, for some odd reason i decided to remove the projector from the housing and make sure i had it on the right side, as i was putting it back on i though id address why the projector looked straight everywhere except from looking at it from the back.

then i realized the setup which i had made it impossible to have a correct beam pattern,

heres the picture i promised earlier.



i removed the reflector as tried to mount it on the black plastic backing, this is a good method to go by. but since i didnt have a working dremel, i went at it with a 4 5/8" circular cutting bit for my drill. this is an exact size for both the projector and fits right into the round part on the back of the housing.







got that baby on there and when i went to put the reflector back ontop of it, it need some trimming. using my drill and bit, i managed to reuin the reflector. effectively ruining this headlight :fail:





of course i was pissed, i lit up a stoge walked away and it hit me. i was having bad karma cause my working station was a mess. i cleaned up shop. put all the crap i wasnt using aside or in a box, swept. took the f*cked up headlight and just pput it in a corner, lit up another stoge and was calm and felt great. not even worrying about the messed up headlight.

i can always reuse it if i decide to go flat black, but remember im striving for the chrome OEM look

now i have 3 options and 1 issue, the issue being HAVING to purchase a set of headlights.

my options are to

scrap the project in all
leave it alone and continue another day,

or grab the other non molested headlight



i went with option 3. my nervs all packed up
workstation clean and neat

i grabbed my drill, and circuler bit. put it to the rear of the housing and started cutting, first went through the black plastic, then onto the reflector all in one stroke. of course this came out flawless : )



heres some with the projector in place, plenty of space for it and the bi-xenon motor. perfectly positioned !





if you notice in the first picture, i also have plenty of space for any shroud i choose to go with, be it gatlink mdx e46 m3 e55 or w/e i decide


once again these projectors are massive, 3 1/4" lenses, 5 1/2 total width. making it so much harder to work with . but its also that much more rewarding having 3" projectors with excellent output. these do not have the best cutoff or best width, but come close enough and imo have a very bright evenly distributed beam, plus THE best high beam for sure.


i will also update tomorrow with some pics of the cutoff with the d2s bulbs in there, much better then the POS pNp bulb that i de-based for pic purposes.

hope someone can enjoy this and maybe can be informative for someone as well
- victor


UPDATE2/13/09 1:15 am

so today i decided to get off my highhorse and see what i can do with these mofo's. at first i was just planning on aiming the one i thought was left. turns out last night i had an epipheny so i went to home depot and purchased this


a sheet of 1/8" gage sheet metal for $5

to make these



the soft sheet metal allows me to screw into that for height adjustablilty verses the thicker gauge metal forcing me to use springs. which makes it much easier. i mount two on the bottom for horizontal leveling, and one up top for vertical adjustments




drilled a couple of holes here to run the bolt through, those lines point forward, and underneath th housing it has the vertical line that needs to be followed so you can mount it str8


heres a shot of the rear perfectly flush


some frontal views



random shot of the fresnel lense.



was going to mount them today but 40mph made it not happen

have some great news for myself today as well, my "ruined " headlight is salvagable and i will be using it, did not take pics of it since i had to run some errands and get ready for a meet in LONG ISLAND. will work on these babies agian sunday and will take more pics


update 2/24/2009 12:21am

whassup all, havent done anything as of late. i ordered and received my shrouds. heres a pic, they are authentic bmw 5series shrouds

these truly are stunning

hopefully i have some time to play with these over the weekend.


off topic, but i also lowered my car on some sportlines yesterday. looks great imo and drives butter smooth




update 2/24/2009 12:35pm
well i received m 5series shrouds yesterday, so this morning i went to test fit the shroud. perfect fit to the projector.




once i put the projector into place and put the shroud on, the top of it needed some trimming to make it even with the reflector housing. this is for clearance purpose.

here what i did


i have a stationary grinder that im useing for this, not sure of the type or grit of the wheel im using.

test fit of the lens


need to cover this


using this


just a $3 of gutter ducting, need some sheers tho


thats all for now, i got hungry and decided to leave it alone

UPDATE 3/6/09 5:35pm

so today i dunno what made me go back to these lights, been in layz mode lately

i went in and cut up my shroud extension, due to the motor andcutoffshield going all the way to the reflector was no possible(for me atleast, remember im a newb)


here it is checking clearance once again, everything fit fine


although you can see past the shroud and extension, the black rubber trim covers that right up and makes it barely noticeable


heres a shot of the trim cut and roughly fit into palce. it will be caulked into place and give me a water tight seal, while still giving me flex to aim hi and lo with the factory height adjustments.

yea i know, looks ugly but once its sealed it will look much cleaner


here are upfront shots



put onto the car for aiming, i was almost spot on with my mounting but needed minor adjustment. the outside was pointing higher then the inside.

put light on for aiming, wiring harness worked great.pretty clean radiator as well for an almost 2 year old car


i dont have cutoff pics since its daytime when i did this, but i used a sheetrock board that my brother was holding up.
i took a kneecap shot of the of prism effect .


also installed some red turn signal overlays incase you guys wanna see, plus a smoked plate cover and frame. i think it looks smoking heres some flicks. my car is so filthy as these shots were taken yesterday once the snow storms stopped and the roads melted up a bit. washed the car right after these flicks







UPDATE 3/7/2009 12:40PM

guess whattt, seemed like it would get finished huh? well i beg to differ.

the weather was/is so beautiful out today as i came home from work, i couldnt resist not to finish this baby up.

i went and got my light, cleaned it up and baked that baby to seal it. here it is


sealed the rear with black rtv gasket sealant. may not be real neat but who gives a f*ck, as long as it works


also sealed the lens with some goop as well





then i disassembled my whole front end again, this is getting tiring uhhh



there it is installed, i did the wiring for the bi-xenon motor but first lemmy give you some finished pics of this headlight








absolutely stunning imo, after all of this trial and error. and all the learning ive done with this baby for it to actually look beautiful is amazing to me. im so happy with it and feel kind of relieved now. lol

no cutoff pics since i just finished this up and it is still daytime out, hopefully the cutoff will be good (crossing fingers)
if not even if its a lil off i could careless, their beuty makes up for it



ok now for the boring part, the wiring schematics.
first things first, the bi-xenon motor comes with two black wire and the factory harness comes with a white with gray dot and a black with gray dot. you can assume white is power and black is ground, but as always with manufacturers you never really know.

i just stripped the two black wires and plugged them into the harness untill it worked(only two options here)

then i cut into the factory harness


started attaching the matching wires, over here you have some options

solder- probably the best
knot em- probably not the best

i just knotted them and installed heavy duty electrical connectors that i use for 150w light fixtures, then covered it up with electrical tape






bam, thats basicly it. pretty straight forward

i only have 1 light finished and hopefully i can finish the other one tommorow.

enjoy lemmy know what you think



UPDATE 3/14/2009 12:45pm


sup bro's. after a long night last night of dissassembling my front end and fabbing up and baking the other headlight. this whole ordeal is finally at an end right now. the lights are finished.

heres just a few pics that i took to the best of my ability given the camera and surrounding lighting that i had






at the handcarwash




some cutoff pics
about 5 car lengths from the wall


these are the highs


since i have the bi-xenon projector, when i flicks my high's i have it wired that that projector goes into hi-beam as well as the factory halogen, so the halogen bulbs kind of dull the color out on my highs in the photo's. in real life it is just way way bright.


this is at 5ft or so from the wall




as you can tell the cutoff is nice, the aiming however i need to adjust a little bit. i need to bring the outsides just a lil lower.

i have access to my mounting brackets for adjustability but i didnt even bother lastnight since i was not going to remove the bumper in the parking lot @ 1am. will readjust a lil tommorrow when ill be installing the College hills honda 'accord horn upgrade'. watch for the diy on this as well since the accord setup consists of two horns. and only 08 and up si's have two horns this will be handy to many people.

about 20ft from the wall, and im on a 45degree angle to the wall





well thats pretty much it.

tomorrow when i tackle the horn upgrade ill be cleaning up my wires a little bit. the setup i have now is sufficient but only temp untill i actually finished the lighting. i purchased all the neccesary hardware and will most like document that as well as the custom horn integration. later guys thanks for viewing





some more pics of just my passenger light being installed that i forgot to post on here


the length from my car to the end of the brick wall is 120ft. this is with only one installed and let me say, it produces some nice output.
it will lightup street signs for no joke 15 city blocks no problem (about half a mile)







right now alls thats needed for me is a ballast upgrade, the generic chinese ones could be greatly improved upon









started my second set, learned alot on this first so this is definately much better

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

hey everyone, i started another set of lights. these that i have are nice and im happy that i completed them. but i want a cleaner setup install.

i went with tsx projectors this time around heres some photo's. i learned alot from the first attemp and still have no regret spending that money and hacking my lights.

here the pics


tsx cutoff, this projector seems to have a better cutoff with a bit more intensity. where it lacks is the color on the cutoff, the e55's are much bluer is stock trim



using a round bit with my drill, i drilled in a 3 1/4" circle into the reflector. thats whats need for the tsx projector no matter where you mount it front or rear



i put a halogen bulb in the reflector and made stands to hold it level, i powered it up and traced the stock cutoff angle. i put marker lines on the outer perimeter, and the center of the beam(stock hotspot) then i taped my wall but that didnt go well the tape fell. thank goodness for the marker lines.

as you can see the cutoff is level on all three marker lines.




heres some shots of the projected secured into place.




thats all for now. im waiting on a set of shrouds and once i make them fit right ill be painting the reflector housings black this time, my girl lobbied me into doing it that way

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

the light mounted for test fitment.


heres a shot of the cutoff. i am on unlevel ground as you can clearly see in the picture


the picture is not a headon shot, im clearly to the right of it.

the tsx projector is far superior to the e55, that is only 1projector from about 15ft. i took my coat off and covered the other headlight to block off the e55's cutoff. you can clearly tell while driving that its a much better projector, seems as if im driving with 1 hid and the other halogen.

im also very happy with the aiming, double checked it on a garage door and its dead even.

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

e46 everyone knows what they look like

heres some of those d8 shrouds




heres a shot of the gti's. these are the same size as the e46




im also attempting to sell these, but its not looking so good. no biggie to me, these are perfect size for the headlights of my jaguar.i also have a set of fx headlights so when im finished with the civic, i may tackle the jag using the fx projectors and gti shrouds

http://www.8thcivic.com/forums/inter...r-shrouds.html

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

masked it off then then put a light coat on,



with a few more light coats on



mock ups of the shroud





here it is painted and dried


and heres with the shroud mounted




thats more or less it, now i just need to put the headlight lens on, and seal the rear.

this is my second set that ive made. its a rear mount method. unless your are using oem ballast with slim bulb adaptors > i dont recommend do this. this is very minimal to no room. a shame since it looks so clean

Originally Posted by Strate L O S S

the lighting outside was weird and couldnt take a decent shot with my crap camera.

its cloudy but bright as hell, weird

[Phalanx]

great info so far.

looks like youre having fun w/ it.

[Mitchyy]

man vic for you. this retro is gunna be insane!

[Strate L O S S]

yea thanks guys, it really is rewarding seeing the photos and knowing that I did this.

[laughoutlloyd8]

ciggs are bad


I miss them...

[Strate L O S S]

haha, good riddance on your end man. F ciggerettes.

[mattsbobo]

Looks like the project is off to a great start. Like you, I want a projector setup, but don't have the cash, and don't have the skills to take that on, on my own. Hopefully it will be something I get to a little further down the line...or Nomar will sell me his

[Leonard1818]

Looks great. I wanna continue to see pics!!! I'm not skilled and I'm too big of a ***** to tackle this myself so I paid to have it done.

I agree with every part except the part about flat black being the cheap way out! I love the flat black on mine BUT, I am starting to love chrome more and more. I think if I got it done on a different car I'd probably go with chrome!

[B MAN]

Originally Posted by laughoutlloyd8

ciggs are bad


I miss them...

Originally Posted by mattsbobo

Looks like the project is off to a great start. Like you, I want a projector setup, but don't have the cash, and don't have the skills to take that on, on my own. Hopefully it will be something I get to a little further down the line...or Nomar will sell me his

i wanna clear my headlights but i also am too afraid to try

[Leonard1818]

Originally Posted by B MAN

i wanna clear my headlights but i also am too afraid to try

just do it! I blacked out my RSX headlights when I had that car. It was EASY and fun.

[Strate L O S S]

Originally Posted by mattsbobo

Looks like the project is off to a great start. Like you, I want a projector setup, but don't have the cash, and don't have the skills to take that on, on my own. Hopefully it will be something I get to a little further down the line...or Nomar will sell me his

thank you man, if you can get someone to loan you some lights, and already have the tools. you can cost effectively do them on your own.

Originally Posted by Leonard1818

Looks great. I wanna continue to see pics!!! I'm not skilled and I'm too big of a ***** to tackle this myself so I paid to have it done.

I agree with every part except the part about flat black being the cheap way out! I love the flat black on mine BUT, I am starting to love chrome more and more. I think if I got it done on a different car I'd probably go with chrome!

those are all the pics i have for now, hopefully i can get somemore by the weekend, i will be tackling the drivers side and will try and take more intrigate pictures. i wasnt really striving for many pictures.


im not bashing on your headlights and i think they look great with the black. let me correct my termonology, i just think thats is the easier (labor wise) and cheaper (moneywise) way to go. keeping it chrome seems to be more labor intensive. i will see first hand once i start to tackle my shrouds. i havent even gotten anywhere near them yet

[purplemonkeydishwasher]

hey man, i remember you posting on my thread a while back that you were starting your retro's soon too. Guess you got a jump start on me...lol my parts wont be coming in till the end of march so hopefully yours complete by then so you can impart some of your knowledge!

Looks great so far, awesome job and I def. can't wait to see the final project.

Btw, for your power source, did you just get a scrap battery? I'm not looking forward to buying a whole new battery to test. Thats $$$.

[Strate L O S S]

thanks man, yea your thread got me motivated to start this sucker. i have more pics and will upload them shortly and update this thread.

as for the battary yea it was just a scrap battary, that i topped off with distilled water, and charged it up. and charge it after every use. it doesnt have much power but it does like me up and keep the lights lit for more then enough time.

[Strate L O S S]

updated first post, have more pics of the projector install coming in a few minutes

[Strate L O S S]

updated again with more retro pics

[Topplayer]

good job vic

[Strate L O S S]

thanks man, if the weathers nice tuesday im going to try and get the driversside light finished up and all, then just going to have to wait to purchase a passenger side headlight. probably a couple of weeks

[Mitchyy]

nice vic its commin in great and man i havent seen my stock headlights on the car in so long even tho they all look the same!

keep up the good work and for u

[chaohliu]

while the project looks good and sounds fun, i have a feeling e55 bi-xenon projectors is going to give you a headache. tsx or s2k projectors would've been sufficient in providing excellent output in terms of brightness and width (probably even better). while the idea of a 3 inch projector sounds cool, im 90% positive most retro-fitters don't go with that size due to issues with clearance, appearance and a shroud big enough to cover all that work up.

now if you need pristine sedan headlights, i have a set for sale. 08 with less than 2000 miles on them. will not part out each side. PM me if you are interested.

edit: my mistake you have a coupe.

[Strate L O S S]

thanks guys, thanks chao as well.

your right about it being a pain in the ass. but the way that i have it setup now is perfect, no clearance issues, and the shroud will cover it perfect.

maybe i sunday i will put this headlight on my car and aim it, but as far as purchasing shrouds and clear lens's it will be a couple of weeks. ill keep this updated as i progress at it