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My Custom Pop Up HID Projector Build
I was finally tired of my stock headlights poor light output even with silver-star ultra bulbs in place and decided to dive into creating my own HID projector headlamps.
Did a lot of research on various retro fitting options and decided to go with a Bi-xenon FX-R Stage III Kit. A long with some clear after-market housings from ebay. This will be my first project posting and first HID retro so let me know what yall think. To start off with I took the new clear housing and removed the the rubber vent tubes, the bulb hold down clip, and the 4 metal lens clips on the outer edges of the housing. Now time to do some baking. I preheated the oven to 220 and then let them bake with the oven on for 15 minutes. http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2514163_n.jpg I wore thick rubber coated gloves to take the lamps out of the oven and then proceeded to quickly press on the bottom tab of the lens to separate it from the housing. http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2762454_n.jpg I didn't even need a screw driver to pry it apart it separated easily be just pushing on that tab. Just be careful not to get any glue strings on the lens or on the inside of the chromed housing. Now we have 2 nicely separated headlamps housings. http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4362096_n.jpg Now time to make the projector get along with the housing. http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._3980528_n.jpg We taped up both housings chrome surface to protect it while making room for the projector. http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._6183364_n.jpg You will also want to tape up the projectors openings to prevent dust and dirt from getting inside as much as possible. I still had to take mine apart and clean them before final install. http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._3587624_n.jpg Then we marked out the rough area that needed to be cut away to make room for the projector to stick through. http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._3301941_n.jpg The notch is to make room for this back part of the projector. http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5057279_n.jpg Here is the initial rough cut. http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5061872_n.jpg After test fitting the projector we realized that we would need to ground down several key spots on it to make it fit inside the housing. First would be this screw boss we marked and then ground down. http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._1755965_n.jpg [IMG]http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/196921_10150111736225588_701300587_6856806_4380687 _n.jpg[/IMG[/SIZE][/SIZE] |
Then we marked and used a dremel to cut the extra edge of the top.
We also ground down that top surface to about half its original thickness. http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7599959_n.jpg http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2461821_n.jpg Next thing to grind would be this marked area to clearance for the taper in the housing, and also the screw head. http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2707259_n.jpg http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._1052667_n.jpg This next stage was easily the most tedious and time consuming part of the project. We wanted to only remove what was necessary to make the projector fit. We would ground the rough shape of the projector into the housing the coat the back of the housing with any type of liquid compound you have lying around. I used some old rubbing compound i had. We applied a thin coat on the back of the projector housing we placed it in the housing to see where the compound transfered and then ground those areas till we got a nice fit within the housing. This is after lots and lots of test fitting and grinding to slowly get the projector to sink deep enough into the housing so it would not touch the headlamp lens. http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._1548614_n.jpg http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5173960_n.jpg After all that it was time to tape up the holes and apply jb weld to the back of the housing where we scuffed the surface and cleaned it with a paint prep spray. http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._3487258_n.jpg http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4840280_n.jpg A little before and after progress shot. Finally the projector fits into housing! Time for a beer :D:beer: Now we marked the four holes on the projector to drill in the housing for mounting it. We went to home depot to grab some allen head bolts, nylon lock nuts, and 1 inch nylon spacers for the bolts run through. We used the spacer to create a flat surface to bolt the projector into place. A bit tricky to get the spacers ground down at the right angles. Then we scuffed and cleaned the parts before jb welding them carefully in place making sure to maintain the proper alignment. http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._4556866_n.jpg http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7437392_n.jpg Ok onto the painting stage. We wanted to do a black chrome look to the housing and shroud so we picked up a kit from autozone by dupli-color that is suppose to do that to chrome surfaces. Well it works sorta. It works as long as you want a light tint to the chrome. It very translucent so it does maintain the look of chrome very nicely. We wanted it to be a bit darker and applied a few more coats to the already 2 coats. That made the housing turn a deep almost black purple red candy color. |
We then went and picked up a can of VHT Night shade to darken the color so it wont appear as a purple hue in bright light.
This helped but now its more of a blacked out look rather than black chrome. Still turned out nicely in the end. http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5062542_n.jpg http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...31_35526_n.jpg A few test fitting shots with it painted. http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7118690_n.jpg http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._6956343_n.jpg http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._7201741_n.jpg So close to being done! Now is a good time to double check the alignment of the projector so it is not skewed. The easiest way is to make sure that the hid bulb socket on the projector is aligned to the same plane as the original housing. There was a lot of trial and error and double and triple checking things for proper fitment, alignment, and looks. On to prepping the parts for reassemble. Now is the time to clean off a area so you can disassemble the projector to clean out any dust. We used alcohol wipes for this task since a bit of dust did get in them. Next was cleaning all dust and smudges of the housings and lenses. I just reused the original adhesive that was holding on the lens. Now its time for the final bake. Set the oven the same way as before. Then just pull out and quickly press the lens on and put the 4 metal lens retaining clips on to keep it snug till it cools down. http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...7_165708_n.jpg http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._3858869_n.jpg Used the supplied housing grommets to seal of the projectors just had to trim the hole a touch larger and make a small slit for the high/low wires. http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...1_968690_n.jpg Now comes time for a bit of wiring. The kit comes wit ha nice plug and play harness. Mounted the ballast on the studs used for the oil coolers. Mounted the relay to an existing hole. http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._1082152_n.jpg http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2194442_n.jpg Grounding spot. http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._6516671_n.jpg Ran the passenger side wires through the bumper and out here. Using a nice long metal coat hanger did the trick. http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._5516829_n.jpg |
Now time to mount the lights and connect the power wire.
I ran my power wire to the main fuse block next to the battery. http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot..._2012104_n.jpg They work amazingly well its such a drastic improvement over the stock setup. Couldn't be happier with the results.:nod: I will get some night shots up when i pick my camera back up later this week so look forward to that plus some close up shots of the finished lights once I wash my car. Me and pollen are having a battle on keeping my car clean and pollen is winning. :( |
looks good!
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Very nice, where did you buy the projectors
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I purchased them from theretrofitsource.com
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impressive!
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Originally Posted by osburn383
(Post 10531531)
I purchased them from theretrofitsource.com
Scroll down about 1/2 of the page. |
Yeah i saw that when looking through their site months back.
They use the the stage 4 fxr kit while i went with the stage 3 kit. I liked the sake-bomb garage headlights but couldn't afford the price and the shroud they used to me made it bit to fish eye looking. There setup inspired me a bit to go and create my own. I wish i could afford a few more of there products. I will be doing my own modified taillights in the near future as well. |
Originally Posted by osburn383
(Post 10532118)
Yeah i saw that when looking through their site months back.
They use the the stage 4 fxr kit while i went with the stage 3 kit. I liked the sake-bomb garage headlights but couldn't afford the price and the shroud they used to me made it bit to fish eye looking. There setup inspired me a bit to go and create my own. I wish i could afford a few more of there products. I will be doing my own modified taillights in the near future as well. |
Oh really didn't know that.
Thanks for the comments so far. |
Thank you for the info, this is perfect for my new sleek light setup...
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I like it..... im going to try this as well!
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Excellent write up, I've done it on the fd already.
I'll be using this kit on my brothers 92 celica gt next. |
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How about a few pics of the cut off?
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agreed ^
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I will get some pics of the cutoff as soon as it stops raining perpetually here, but at least the pollen is floating back to hell where it belongs!
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Originally Posted by osburn383
(Post 10544050)
I will get some pics of the cutoff as soon as it stops raining perpetually here, but at least the pollen is floating back to hell where it belongs!
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WOW, nice! how long did it exactly take you to do all this?
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Very nice! I have been wanting to do this also and paint the housings black too, looks great!
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Originally Posted by David Hayes
(Post 10544751)
I hear 'ya. In Jax FL and it's raining cats and dogs.
Insane amount of rain. Every-time it rains the dam streets flood like they are rivers since the drainage here is so bad. I almost got stranded one night because the water was getting to deep for the car and had to quickly take some crazy back-streets to make it back home. My front lip turns into a water plow lol. Thanks for the comments. It took me a good 5 to 6 days with the help of my brother. The first one took the longest since we took our time and meticulously cut away the back of the housing till we got a perfect fit. The second one was much faster since we could quickly rough cut out most the material. Who would i need to message to be able to edit my first post? I noticed a picture is not showing up due to leftover text at the end. |
how much you charge to do an fc set
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Originally Posted by osburn383
(Post 10532118)
Yeah i saw that when looking through their site months back.
They use the the stage 4 fxr kit while i went with the stage 3 kit. I liked the sake-bomb garage headlights but couldn't afford the price and the shroud they used to me made it bit to fish eye looking. There setup inspired me a bit to go and create my own. I wish i could afford a few more of there products. I will be doing my own modified taillights in the near future as well. -Dan |
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