installed the spacers tonight.

the extra room allowed more adjustment, so I was able to nail a pretty good alignment.

Pics to come

Installed my light but they wont close all the way, the connector hits the body when down. Guess ill have to do some cutting, I tried adjusting it. Has anyone else had this issue?

there is about 1mm clearance front and back... everyones chassis will be slightly different if the headlight buckets or bumper were ever removed/misaligned in the past. The instructions say that you may have to shim it out with washers depending on the clearance for your car (you need to "dial it in" with washers or even a thin flat spacer on the side spacers). Just realize the clearances are VERY tight, so you should raise and lower the headlights by hand as you adjust them so as not to damage any components). The spacer kit we provided should get you 95% of the way though

so i installed the new spacers today...as the headlights went down, right side headlight harness plug?( black and red ) i guess hit the frame and i heard this cringing sound...like tiny glass crunching.. =( took everything off again, the harness plug broke, prongs were bent to shit, so i just straightened it out...put the black rubber thing back on the harness plug together... i'm not sure the whole extent of the damage.. i'm beyond heated right now.. how much would it cost me to get that harness plug replaced? and if the bulb is fucked up... how much would that cost too? seriously... i'm about ready to give up on these lights.... people told me "you spent $800+ on lights?!"... yeah..that's what i'm feeling right now.. pretty fucking stupid.

We created very specific instructions for a reason, so you would follow them to the letter. Step two in the instructions clearly states to manually lower the headlights to verify clearance. Heath even mentioned it in the post above, which I quoted below. I'm sorry to hear you're having such a hard time installing these lights, but they were created with EXTREMELY tight tolerances. You've all been more then patient waiting for these headlights and we appreciate that. We want all of our customers to be happy so we'll work with you on solving this and any other problem you encounter. Heath should be contacting you shortly.

Those who haven't done a retrofit before do not realize how much work is involved. So I can see someone questioning the price we charged for the headlights; but the fact is we made the lights because you guys specifically requested them. If we used a different, easier to fit projector such as the Mini we could charge significantly less since it's nearly bolt in. But the lighting quality of the mini isn't nearly as good as the projector we use.
I also re-linked the instructions below :icon_tup:

-Dan

Here is another link to the INSTRUCTIONS

nice headlights interested in the future for sure

FD guys drop more than that for their headlights without a thought... "they are the best lights available, and are worth every penny" is what is constantly repeated. The people that question the cost probably think 75 dollar h4 HID's would do the same thing... "you got jacked dawggg, check out my civic" :lol: They just don't know what they are talking about, which is what we battle every day with this stuff.

Onto the issues you ran into... I'm not trying to be condescending, but did you read the instructions? They specifically state to manually raise and lower the headlights to verify clearance, and adjust accordingly. I just highlighted those sections in red... we provided a detailed installation guide to prevent install errors such as this one. Please also note that there is a specific direction for the rotation of the rear connector, and if this step was not followed it could cause the connector to hit/bind on the way up. It sounds like your chassis needs shims between the side spacers... you can use anything solid to add additional spacing. Flat aluminum works well but washers, flat plastic, or any number of things can be used to add additional spacing to lights that need the spacing adjusted.

If the bulb connectors or bulb hit that hard it may be damaged beyond repair. You can see if the bulb fires... if not either the bulb, ballast, or both may need to be replaced. Please send me a PM with pictures and we can troubleshoot from there.

Ummm...What's up with the silver coating on the back of the housings?

I unpackaged two sets of them and on both, my hands looked like I had been playing with anti-seize...

x2

It's true, passenger side connector will contact the frame, so you must either:

-Space the housings out with washers (1 or 2 will do, double-check!)
-Grind off the area of interference

I did a final alignment and what a difference!

I was thoroughly impressed with the lighting performance driving from valencia to riverside last night :) I think I had enough light for everyone around me to to drive with their headlights turned off!

its standard enamel based chrome... we looked into activated automotive chrome but it was 400 a gallon :lol: . The paint will fully cure once heat is applied, but yeah some silver can rub off from them. I was contemplating a clear coat over top but I was told that would cause them to remain tacky even longer :icon_tdow

You can fiddle with the height some still for even more throw, but yeah you don't need anyones lights on but yours :icon_tup: Backroads are even more fun ;) and then there are the high beams :D

Hey, let me know what's up... still haven't heard back. Does the bulb/ballast fire? We're here to help. -Heath

x3

http://virtuallyyoursjb.com/press/wp...r-mouth-is.jpg
:nod: :lol: :icon_tup:

so i used a grinder and took off a huge chunk to make my headlights fit, and after manually opening and lowering each side by hand to verify clearance, i tried putting them down and back up. now my drivers side makes wierd crackling noises and strobes on an off for a short duration then turns off... did i kill the bulb, ballast or harness in the process? right now im feeling kinda stupid cuz i think i have weakened my chassis with the amount i took off and yet im still running into problems. can you guys tell me what to replace and can someone post pics of where and how much they took off cuz i thought i took of way more than enough but something got crushed or something cuz im having problems with this right now.

Wait, where in the instructions does it say anything about removing or grinding off ANYTHING from your chassis? I'm not sure why people started doing that, and it caught on as acceptable, but the kit is not designed to have you cut chunks out of your chassis. :scratch: :scratch:

So you raised and lowered them by hand to verify clearance, then ground off some of the frame rail, and then the connector hit and broke? Are you positive you rotated the connectors in the right orientation? there are 4 possible positions and only one orientation works. Please look at the section describing the rotation of the connector in the manual, as one of the orientations allows the clearance and the connector to NOT hit the chassis on the way up. Feel free to PM me
-Heath

hmm, i would definitely be interested in a set, after i finish rebuild the FC

I finally sat down and started working on getting my HID's in my car. I have spent a couple nights working on them. I am going slowly as to not make any mistakes. I have the headlamps in the car and they are working. I am not able to put them up and down yet b/c the driver's side hits the bumper a lil too much. On the passenger side I had to cut away at the front bumper weatherstripping a lil bit to make sure the headlamp assembly moved with no interference. I was suprised by how little bit of cutting I had to do to get the headlamps to fit in the housing.

I have a question about the fitment and adjustment though just to make sure I'm installing it correctly. I will take pictures tomorrow to help better describe what I'm asking about. The new cylinder spacers do not fit snuggly with the headlamps installed with the chrome retaining ring tightened down and the C shaped spacers installed. The way they are put in now they seem to be completely useless.

Try without the lock washers if they seem loose... if not you may need to bend the tabs on the chrome 'ring' a tad to get them to fit. Yes when installed correctly there should be very little trimming to the bucket or rubber

Make sure to have the connectors rotated in the correct orientation as listed in the manual. Once all is said and done you will end up with about a MM clearance in front and back (it's a damn tight fit, which is why I've stressed the importance of going slowly and raising and lowering the lights by hand to ensure they fit).

One last tip... if youre having a hard time setting the clearances, remember there are adjustment screws that hold the inner bucket to the housing. Turning those screws adjusts the height aim and side to side aim, but also changes the depth that the lights sit at. If you end up having a hard time with the clearance, try adjusting those. Once its all dialed in you will love life :nod:

Installed and LOVE them!!
 

BUT, these are a loooonnnngggg way from being a plug and play set up. And LOTS of grinding needed to create sufficient clearance for them to go up and down because they are MUCH deeper than stock.

Here are a few pictures. Know that I'm installing into an S5 Vert. Given Verts have a somewhat beefier design structurally, might explain whey a lot of extra grinding was needed compared to what the instructions suggested.

#1, the final product.

#2-5, more than stock forward protruding creates need to do some trimming of the plastic cover panels so they don't bind going up and down. These are of the left headlight before and after trimming. Right headlight for what ever reason didn't need as much trimming. But, I did have to bend forward the round bumper support bar a bit so the headlight would clear.

More pictures
 

#1 If you have one of those cool SCCA vented headlight covers liek I DID, you're going to have to eliminate it and go back to the stock cover as the rear of the housing fills the area the scoop would occupy. So, need to figure out an alternate way of getting cold air into my pictured Mariah box.

2 & 3 As they protrude forward requiring trimming of the plastic cover panels, so at the same time they also protrude to the rear requiring grinding away of a section of the cross member to allow sufficient clearance. What you see is before and after.

4 & 5 I found it much easier to remove the headlight buckets to properly install the headlight housings. Doesn't matter that you have to remove the adjustment screws to do so as you have to re-align once the install is done anyway. Minor needed notching to the bucket for the housing to fit properly shown.

I took a lot more pictures expanding on each of these areas if anyone is interested. Perhaps it will help as this is a very tedious install.

Bottom line, these headlights are an AMAZING improvement over the popular alternative of HID's into H4 housings these replaced. I would absolutely do this again because the improvement is so much. BUT there is a whole lotta grinding going on to get everything to fit properly.

In one of the threads it was mentioned Sakebomb went with these housings instead of a shorter alternative due to the improve performance. Perhaps they can offer the shorter housings as an compromise alternative so to allow an easier install? Me, I'd put up with all the grinding to get the better performance. But that's me.

A few more pictures
 

1. Finished product. For those curious, I put 3000k HID's in the stock fogs which makes them yellow. Also, I had installed PIAA driving light to suppliment the high beams of my HID in H4 housings. This Sakebomb product works so well, I'll probably be removing them as they simply are no longer necessary.

2. Notched bucket.

3 & 4. From experience I learned you want to mount the ballast in the most cooling location possible as heat shortens their life span considerably. I chose the inside well next to the headlight as that location gets LOTS of flowing air and is well separated from engine bay heat.

5. Better picture of how much grinding off of rear beam to get to clear. Note the beam is upside down U shaped, so grinding of front and back portion U needed. All those score marks you see are on the rear portion of the U beam.

One parting comment, repeat after me FIVE times!!!:

ABSOLUTELY DISCONNECT THE BATTERY BEFORE STARTING ANY INSTALLATION and keep disconnected until the installation is completed and sufficient clearances are confirmed!!!!

That said, I actually got a blister from twisting knob to manually raise and lower the headlight buckets checking for clearances. This is indeed a tedious install.

Also, once you align the headlights do NOT allow them to lower electrically. Disconnect the battery and lower manually so to re-check for clearance, Point being, when you tighten the lower screw to move the headlight beam down, you at the same time are pushing the headlight back further. So check clearance again to determine if even more rear grinding is needed. I found that I did.

Enjoy these things. I live in a dark canyon, so I certainly will. :)

Driving the canyons tonight, DAMN I love these things compared to my HID in H4 housings.