Flip up Projection lights project
 

Decided I'm tired of the 7x6 square headlight 1980's look.
So gonna do something different.
Found a set of non-HID Projection red halo lights - may add HID later.
Red is VERY hard to find.

Just ordered them, will be here in about 4 days.

Reason for the post is I found a ton of stuff on non-flip kits like East Bear / Sleek / Sniper (discontinued) - but not one hint of anything on market that maintains the flip lights - which I will never get rid of.

I am also going to set the lights up as sleepy eyes only when on so the flip will be minimal -like the pic of the Fiero below. But will still be able to close by setting up the retraction fuse on a switch.

Do any of you have a lead on a "how to" thread on something like this? - not crossing my fingers, but never know. . .

Not afraid to do my own fab as seen in my below pic's, but a little direction would be great.
This will be my build thread for anyone else who may be interested in this kind of conversion.

Any of your build ideas are more than welcome. I can't be the only one who has ever thought of doing this.

Projection kit will consist of 4 - 1 5/8" reg sized lamps.

Tftiz.

Sorry about the small pic's - will work on that. . .

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...331_medium.jpg

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...335_medium.jpg

red is hard to find because it is illegal

+1 :lol:

THreshER 7 have you seen NSX headlights?
https://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g...Picture046.jpg
http://supra.gr.jp/s2/owners_item/10033.jpg
http://www.mirai.ne.jp/~marcy/html/of/18.jpg
http://www.garagemak.com/180sxt1t2CIMG1935.jpg

I always thought they would probably look good on a kitted car such as mine or yours.

hmmm I am very interested in how its going to look into an fc

Hey Hyper!

Saw your updates in the Fiberglass forums site - and your car looks great in white!

Yeah, I am aware of the NSX lights, but I think they are about a grand for them.
I think the look is fantastic, but don't have that kinda money.
My Projector kit for all 4 was only $98.00. - non - HID.
But have seen pretty impressive non-HID lights w/ 70 watt halogens.

Re: the Red halo lights being illegal - I don't even need to have my car smog tested much less worry about lights on my vehicle in the state I live in.
But I do appreciate the heads up.
re: the 70 watt being illegal - My state won't care, and who is going to pay attention to a 70 watt halogen when a 10000k HID is next to me.

Still looking for any sites that have a "how to: - for this kind of project. . .
Would also be very welcome to discuss any ideas, insights, suggestions you may have to make this a reality. - -it could be very cool.


Will keep this post updated.

Tfitz.

Dammit hypertek...you've added yet another thing to my "to do" list. My car will NEVER be finished.

here's the ones i made a while back, not the best looking thing in the world but i don't care cause they light up beautifully and are not blinding:egrin:

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...x/IMG_0895.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...x/IMG_0911.jpg

http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/h...x/IMG_0917.jpg

This is the cheap, very non-bling light set I got.

$58.00 bucks to get a set of 4 Projection lights as a stater base - that ain't bad.
The kit also has a switch that allows 7 changeable halo colors.
I just happen to want the red.
So, I can change it on the fly to perfectly legal blue if needed. :egrin:

Not much to look at now, but they won't look like this by the time I'm done.
Should give me more than enough of a base to build a good foundation though.

No lens covers will be needed for obvious reasons - (flip) So fabbing covers w/ acrylic glass won't be something I will have to deal with.
Going for the same open look as the Lambo pic below. . .

More to come . .

Tfitz.

Ok - I had the pic's all downloaded and saved . . .
Even checked the post in preview . .
So - trying it again . .

Hey Boost,

Very innovative!
The plumbers tape? - is that strong enough to keep parts in place?
It's easy to use, but was not sure about it's "stay put" ability.

Appreciate the pic's - I'll see what I can learn from them for my project.

Tfitz.

plumbers tape?..... didnt use that..... i think what your talking about is the small pieces of metal bracketing

Boost,

Right, the bendable metal brackets you have is made out of plumbers tape - by its slang name. I guess mainly because it comes in rolls -

the red lights have nothing to do with inspections, it has to do with police, fire, and emergency vehicles using red lights and blue lights. White and amber are the only legal lights for the front of a vehicle.
Years and years ago back in high school we thought it would be cool to put a little red light behind the grill of my friends mustang for cruising nights, I think we lasted a whole 1/2 hour before we got pulled over, and this just made the grill area glow a little bit its not like it was a bright red light

boost67- thats just nasty looking man, lol

Yeah any red or blue lights on your car is illegal, that is why they stopped making the colored windsheild washer sprayer lights.

Btw, you should have gone with HELLA 90mm H9's. There a lot less expensive than Xenon, and wont blind other drivers like Chinese kockoffs.

Lo-beam: http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=128
Hi-beam: http://www.rallylights.com/detail.aspx?ID=127

GL with your project.

anyone know the size of those nsx lights

I guess I haven't made my point yet.

My car - in it's current state, driving by Police w/ no issues . . .for at least a year. If it's not a stupid flagrant breach of the law, they don't pay attention.

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...333_medium.jpg


http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...334_medium.jpg

Boosted: - I have on my car exactly what you described- the tiny red light in the front of my grill. ok - two tiny red lights.

At one time I had 5% limo tint on my car, never pulled over once.

The smog inspection comment was in relation to an example of how lax vehicle concerns are in this state- nothing more.

I am very aware of vehicle laws. I lived in California - in Newport Beach for most of my life. I built and drove a "legal" slammed Myers Manx pro-street buggy w/ a 2275 cc motor that pulled 2nd gear wheelies. You better believe I knew my laws.
I was President of my own car club.
What you saw in the original Fast and Furious movie - was based on what we did when we met at the shopping center parking lot on the corner of Beach and Imperial to head out to the factory districts.

A couple old pic's of my CA street car .. a pic of a pic from my album, so not the best quality . . FYI - License plate = Fatal Disease - cause if I was to die, this car would have been the reason.

The point is: educating me on what is and is not legal, although don't get me wrong, is appreciated, it is not needed.
I have fully experienced both sides of the law.

Progress:

Pulled my headlight and mocked up a bracket w/ my one projector fog light I have to get an idea of how it will look.
Limited in space as we have 6 inches of snow outside right now.

Lights were sent today - got my tracking number . .

More to come . .

Tfitz.

i was only pointing out that the reason the red halos are rare is because they are illegal.

I also have a few illegal items on my car, I just try to keep the blatant items to a minimum

rock on with your project, hope it comes out better then a couple of projectors sitting in there with visible metal brackets, some shrouds would be nice.

Update,

Returned the headlight set I was going to use.
They sent me the wrong parts.

Found something I like better.

Got a set of Red Demon lights. Should be here next week.

Something like this . . .

http://i54.tinypic.com/10h2e52.jpg

http://i422.photobucket.com/albums/p...NCITYUZZTT.jpg

If not familiar with Demon lights, they color change to red w/ parking lights or additional switch, and back to clear HID - (will be 10,000k) - projection lights when turning on the regular light switch.


When I get the kit, and have the exact measurements, I will also add a set of driving lights to go on the inside of the housing.


Rather surprised at how much clearance I see inside the headlight assembly.

More to come. ..

Tfitz.

Trying an idea
 

So, I was bored, and decided to try out an idea I had for this project that may work pretty well. Should also be visually clean and simple to install.

Materials: Headlight / Styrofoam / card stock / tape: to fab up a headlight housing that can still use the stock mounting locations.

Not perfect yet, and doesn't need to be, just in mock up stage . .

Tonight, I'll try to get time to fleece it so can see the actual shape.
Then, glass over the fleece, shape to perfection - then glass it over again w/ mold release - to make the actual part.

Thoughts, insights, ideas always welcome.

More later . . .

Tfitz.

Had a little time to fleece the housing.

Doesn't look like much right now, and not perfect, but good enough to make a mold from when shaped.
Since this is a full wrap around, I may need to make this in 2 parts if I can't get the actual part when glassed over the light to release. Will need to think on that.

Too cold to do any glassing. Need to go out and shovel snow now.

May be a few days . . .

But might have projectors by then.

Tfitz.

Update:

Put on a coat of resin.

Next step / skim coat -this is where I need to make it look good! / but too cold right now. . .

Demon lights kit was shipped yesterday.

more later . .

Pic's for progress

yo thrasher check this out http://zilvia.net/f/chat/371291-awes...ml#post3913022

just remember you will want bi setup so you can keep high beams

it has been said we dont have the clearance for those lights.
I wonder what sakebomb will be selling people because I think they have claimed no cutting of your car.

That zilvia forum sounds like a bunch of haters.

Hey Hyper,
Thanks for the link, could be useful if all fails. But i think I got it.
If anything, I can drop the whole dual light look and just retrofit the demon lights into the stock headlight.
It's Bi-xenon, and 10,000k, so I'm covered.

Rob, yeah, it could be close, but if the measurements provided are correct, I should be able to pull the clearance by about an inch.
Guess I'll find out soon.

So, I try to do a little bit each day. . .
I now have a first coat of body filler done. It's only the first layer, so has the expected low spots.
Second coat will take most of them out.
Should be able to do that tomorrow.

If I had thought about it a half second longer, I would have cut off the bulb connector tangs.
Will cut them off tomorrow.

Pic's, lot's of low spots to work out, but you can definitely now see the defined housing shape much better.

Not many comments being left, but have quite a few hits on the post for how short it's been on here. So guess some people are interested in seeing if I am successful, or go down in flames . . :burn:
Will try to not disappoint.

More tomorrow,

Tfitz.

im still not quite sure what your building there, will these be fiberglass housings for your lights? I guess you will be fabricating another piece for the front to hold the lights? How will the lights themselves mount to the housings?

Good chance no one is saying anything is because most headlight projects fade away and we are left with lights mounted on metal brackets with no shrouds.
Sniper used to make a decent shroud for not alot of money, i think its been discontinued probably because no one wants to spend any money

Hey Rob,

The idea is that I will use the original chrome headlight mounting bracket screwed or glassed into the housing shells I am making. That way, I retain the original mounting position and can utilize the stock mount holes.

So, right, when I have the perfect shape, I will use it to overlay the fiberglass w/ a release agent. So when it dries, I may need to make a couple relief cuts, but when I remove the fiberglass, it should make a perfect shell housing for the lights.

When I get the light kit, I purchased G5 series, the newest w/ the smallest diameter, I should be able to fit two lights w/in the one housing if all works right.

I am then going to fabricate two rings into the shell to mount and secure the projector lights.
With this set up, I can control the depth as needed to make sure I have the right clearance for the length of the projectors.

Fiberglass forums has some pretty good projects that have turned out great using this same method.

If you have any suggestions to improve the design idea, feel free to do so.
I have seen you on quite a few HID type threads on this forum.

I did the second coat, but time ran out before making much shaping progress.

Will have more time tomorrow - w/ pic's of progress.

Tfitz.

Are you going to be using a front clear lens? Those projectors can't be exposed to the elements because they are not sealed.

Update:
Got a 2nd w/ an add'l skim coat on the housing today. But it was windy and rained most of the day, and I hate getting filler dust all over the garage. So once sanded it should just need some spot glazing to get the final mold shape.

Turbo,
If the lights were exposed all the time, it would be more of a concern to me.
But being the lights will be protected in the down position 85% of the time, the rings that the projectors will be housed in should keep them safe.
I will also be using canned foam to seal the back of the housing for any leaks.

I don't really foresee this has a problem.

If you have any suggestions, or a better insight as to what the repercussions of non-sealed projectors would be, I would appreciate the info.
I'm no expert, so anything you can tell me would be welcome.

Tfitz.

It's won't matter if the lights are down or not. The inside of the projectors contains the solenoid and a circuit board for the led's that make the inside of the projector red. Moisture will get into these things and mess it all up and the clear lens will get destroyed by rocks and dirt will get up into it and so on.

i too is a little confused on how this will look?

i also did the projector retrofit myself on my car, which was very cheap and easy to do. here is a pic of my finished project

http://i330.photobucket.com/albums/l...Picture055.jpg

my suggestion is to create a bracket that hold two projectors side by side and build a custom housing similar to the stock covers around the original headlight...

TSX projectors are one of the smallest projectors out there and are easily fitted in a lot of retrofits out there.

Update:

Was able to get enough time to finish up the housing mold.
Next step is to find some mold release.
Then overlay 3 layers of mat glass on the housing mold, pull it off and have a shell to use to mount the projectors into.
At that point, I won't be able to continue until I receive the light kit.

If, as suggested, I need to use the headlight lens to "seal" the projectors, I don't see that as much of a problem. Will do more research on that.

Shika, your suggestion is pretty much what I am doing. This is the custom housing that will fit the two lights, but should still be able to use the stock mounting hardware to install it, with a little tweaking of course.

Pic's for now . .

have you tested it to see if it fits inside the headlight frame? I think that is what everyone was concerned about

I see a new mold in the future as the one you are making now won't fit two g5 projectors correctly. You a really over thinking this just do a normal retro like shika, and use a real projector. My one projector in my headlight will probably over power two g5's running at the same time and have a better width also.

If you really want to do the double lights in one pop up housing i would suggest buying hella sealed projectors. All you would have to do is make a bracket the would hold the two lights and bolt it to the pop up frame. There would be no need to make a whole new housing.

gotta go, but did a quick cut out.

Please notice that the bevel on the headlight continues to narrow the width again.
That was planned. So it should fit the chrome headlight mounting frame and hardware.
I understand the additional fiberglass will add width, but the fun thing about fiberglass is you can do whatever you want with it.
The plan is to glass the bezel onto the housing - If I need to add a lens it doesn't really matter.
G5's are supposed to fit, when I get them, I guess I will find out.
But thanks for the info.

Pic's

shinka- any trimming behind the lights?

whats that around the projector? sealant? is it sealed or is there space around it?

when I get around to it, which wont be for a while because I am a bit swamped, I planned on making a FG shroud to sit behind the housings to hold the projector in place. I have seen people use foil tape, foam, and other items sprayed black. I figure once I get around to it I can then sell off the pieces needed for others to make their own retrofit kits.I wont get rich off it, but I figure it will help others.

i dont see why you dont spend 26.00 on these headlight cases (HERE) and just retro fit the projector assembly into these instead of going through the wasted time to make your own headlamp shell..... they already come with a removeable h4 bulb which is dual beam... you can throw that craptastic bulb away and throw away their fake projector piece they got in there away... it be so much easier for you and save so much time...

buy those, stick them in the oven on 250 for 5-10 mins/or use a heat gun, take off glass front cover and do the retrofitting... then once done heat it back up or apply new sealant...

7x6 is the standard size which is also the h6054 sealed headlight beam size... they fit perfectly...

Simple, because what you consider a waste of my time, I consider great fun, and enjoy the process just about as much as the final product.

Nobody in the world owns an RX7 that looks like mine. And if I am successful, nobody in the world will have headlights that will be the same as mine.
Fiberglassing is very empowering. You very quickly realize you have been given the ability to create just about anything you want.
For a person who has never made something out of FG from their own imagination and seen it take form into a physical shape, it's hard to understand.
To me, this is not a big deal at all.

I have never seen an RX7 2nd gen w/ 4 projectors, so I decided to give it a shot. I have seen a 4 light Hella conversion once, but never projectors.
1 light is cool, and is to be commended, but that's not what I want.

Update:
I bought the supplies to start the glassing.
Snowed the last two days, but supposed to be pretty good on Monday, so may get some work done then.

More later . .

Tfitzwil.

i know what it feels like to make something from nothing. i used to make (dont laugh) halo armor and helmets, i actually live 5 mins from ithica (from the 405th)

i didnt realize that you were going for a 2 projector per housing style. that was my mistake. thats why i offered those ideas, as i thought you were going for singles. Well, good luck with the build :icon_tup: and i'll be watching for the final result! ^_^

Ah, so you do understand then.
Halo rocks! Used to do the Halo 2 online gaming thing on the link up at a friends home.
12 of us on 3 tv's.
But I was so bad at it, I changed my gamer tag to "Cannon Fodder" -

But then again, I did rank 5th in the world on Midnight Club II - DuB addition - online.

Progress. - none - lousy day huge winds, and 100% chance of snow tonight.

Update
 

Got a little fiberglassing done today. Although we had big snow in the AM, by the early PM, most of it had melted.
So took advantage, and got busy.

Due to the cold, it's taking some time to dry, but it's getting there.
I did about 2 layers of shredded mat glass for now. I need it strong, but also semi pliable to be able to remove it from it's mold.

More hopefully tomorrow . .

Pic's for now:

Update:

Had to make a few more relief cuts than I wanted to pull the shell off of the mold.
That's what I get for looking at alternatives for a mold release substance.
I read quite a few threads that stated 5-6 coats of Turtle Wax would work as an effective agent between the two parts. I guess maybe it was the shape.
But it's no biggie. I just need to pinch the cut gap and re-glass it.
This is 2 layers right now - and going to add two more layers to strengthen it.

The bottle top projector lights are a very close match to the actual diameter of the Projectors I will be using. The larger one is 3 3/8" - so I think with a little creativity, I should be able to mount both lights.

The inside of the shell turned out pretty smooth. I will need to clean it up, but overall, very satisfied with the outcome.

More to come . .

Pic's:

there was a guy on this forum a ways back who was making dual projector brackets with hella housings and modified flip up arms for reduced throw so the flips wouldn't pop up fully.

i installed the kit for the customer a few years back but i don't feel like digging through the forum to try and find the pictures from way back.

not sure how many he sold or if he still makes the kits. i should have made a template of the fitment since i'm sure that guy is long gone from making them.

Yes i-need-a-t2 is long gone and his thread with his template for the bracket i long gone too grrrr was looking for it

Was it nicks car?

housings or just brackets so that it looked like johnny 5??

thresher- I have extensive fg knowledge, I make my living doing it, trying to get that to pull from a scratchy plug with turtle wax was a uphill battle to say the least

yea, he eventually sold them but i thought they looked fine.


they could have really used some sort of shell housing but even without, they looked better than anything i have seen in this thread so far, hopefully no offense. if he had made some shrouds it would have looked more similar to an NSX style flip up versus the stock FC flips.

they looked very similar to this style but they had no housings or side covers, which wouldn't have really been that difficult to fabricate.

http://supra.gr.jp/s2/owners_item/10033.jpg

i know it was a really basic bracket with 2/3 mounting points and a shortened throw arm to the motor, the swing arm on the motor had to be shortened also. the hella lamps simply screwed to a flat piece of cut out aluminum with adjusters set in it which sat in the stock headlight buckets.

the most difficult part i had with that whole kit was getting the headlights to move full swing properly, i had an issue with one jamming up on the headlight down position stop which caused the motor to constantly stall and stop working. the whole mechanism seemed to move around a bit so shortly after i would fix it, it would come back.

I think the opposite, brackets and lights are easy, a nice looking well fitting shroud is the hard part. anyone can bend some brackets and have lights in there, making it look like it came that was is the art

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/6139/1001394o.jpg

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/1926/1001398y.jpg

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/821/1001399o.jpg

Update:
No work done at this time.
Sick family and doing Japan relief help in my church.
Some things are more important . .