who knows where to get those projector looking headlights for our car, or do we just build them are self

 

E36 lights that you can get on ebay are a good platform to work with. But you're really going to want to put HID-spec projectors in the lowbeam spot, instead of whatever's already there, otherwise you either won't get best use of your light, or you'll blind people, or both.

In the meantime I'm taking a stock maxima headlight and installing Infiniti J30 projectors into it though, until i have time/money to work on my E36 setup. These are just a mock-up so i can take measurements. after i do, i'm actually getting some ebay euro headlights and cutting THEM up, for the actual installation. you can see some of my work in here http://s164.photobucket.com/albums/u...-%20phase%201/

 

^Looks good. Couple questions... Are the headlight lenses going to fit back on? And are you going to have to trim any part of the radiator support for clearance behind the lights?

 

yes and yes. any double-bulb setup will require some trimming on the radiator support. if you stick a single bixenon projector in the middle where the old halogen bulb went, you will be able to just bolt it in and go, i think. of course, that doesn't mean the actual retro itself is any easier haha.

 

Ah, wasnt sure. Im not familiar with the 3rd gens.

 

 

here is my ongoing project with my headlight retrofit:
http://forums.maxima.org/3rd-generat...dlights-3.html

 

didnt someone use to make brackets that let the e36 lights bolt right onto 3rd gens? any of those still floating around?

 

i don't think anyone makes them anymore.. if you trim the rad support as needed, then go ahead and test fit the e36 lights, and while holding them in place just carefully look around and take a few measurements so you can whip something up yourself.

 

Oh so those E36 come off of a bmw and i gotta do some custom fabrication

 

yea, off this car.



i think what people do is to use the euro glass covers from the ebay headlights and put them onto the E36 headlights, cuz there is more slope on the glass of the maxima lights than the e36 lights. so that way it'll sit flush and look like it came that way stock, but at the same time you will still have the dual-bulb capabilities and the option to swap the lowbeams out for some real HID projectors off of a later year BMW or other newish car. people like projectors from the LS430, TL, A6, and E60 to name a fw.

 

what yea bmw is that or is it just off of certain select 3 series, and your sayin people buy the euro max headlights and put that class cover of these e36's

 

other way around. you buy the e36 light and take its plastic cover off, then take a ebay Maxima Euro light, and put the glass onto the e36 housing. so e36 back, maxima-euro front. any year e36 sedan (and possibly coupe? not sure tho) will work fine. the E36 Depo lights have lowbeam projectors already but they are not made for HIDs. only halogen H7 bulbs.

 

ok that i understand but or max uses the same bulb for high and low beams so how do u get them separated

 

Or just get these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/EURO-PROJECTOR-H...3A1%7C294%3A50

and add the Maxima Euro lenses to them. When I get an extra $300 that's what I will do. I already have the Euros waiting !

 

yes. the e36 has 2 bulbs and the maxima has just 1.

i got some headlights from goon9 but what he did is he took the stock corner, painted it black after removing the lens, and bondo'd it to the e36 light, and then put a single-piece clear wade cover over it. so just look at the headlight half.



those are the DEPO E36 i was talking about that already have the halogen projector in them.

 

except that pnp kits are known for sucking at life the bulb/light/projector quality is low. you want to get real OEM projectors/bulbs off a car that someone totalled.

 

or how about look at my previous post #7 and just click on the link i provided and read as to what i have been doing for my retrofit as well as others have collaborated on this as well. by the way im still not done with mine.

 

see i like this idea cause it makes more sense lol bring the corner lamp to the front that what is basically being done right

 

what do you mean corner lamp to the front? you mean the other little projector in the corner lamp? that's just a yellow ricer foglight of some sort.

 

I'm new to this so please don't flame me too much . There is a '93 Infiniti J30 at the wreckers with a perfect set of projectors in it. Is it possible to retrofit those HL's into my '98 Nissan Maxima?

 

You have any pics of these mounted on the car? I'm curious to see how good it looks.

 

The projectors from the J30 headlights? Yes.
The J30 headlight housings? No.

 

i dunno about a 98. i avoid the 95-99 maximas like the plague..... but if you hop into the 4th gen section i'm sure someone over there has tried it before.

 

i've never installed them. these are my future headlights. I have a custom hood that goes with them, and i'm waiting to install all that until i get HID projectors/bulbs/ballasts and to finish the bodywork on the hood and paint it. Except my car's paint color is a ***** to match so that's gonna complicate things

but i got them (hood and headlights) from Goon9, and here's what it looked like on his car



so basically, i'm doing the J30 retro in the meantime, then when i get more time and parts and stuff, eventually switching to the black E36 ones with the hood.

 

yea i no the corner lamp is just a lil light but im sayin since the e36 lights have separate projector thingy's do u bring the that bulb into the front instead of having it in the corner understand wat im sayin

 

no, i have no idea what you're saying..... the stock corner has 2 bulbs in it. one orange, one white. the e36 has 2 separate lights in it also.. a 9005 highbeam (in a plain dish) and a H7 bulb (inside the projector)... whereas the stock maxima lights have a single bulb with 2 filaments inside it (9004, but some peope rewire it and use a 9007 like I did)

what goon did is he cut a hole where the white bulb in the corner went, and mounted a mini-projector (yellow ricer foglight) in there. and he put a little LED block on the side where the orange bulb used to be.

see the 2 bulbs in the stock corner? see the shape of the insides of that, and where he mounted that ricer-fog? i think you might be getting confused by seeing it all as one piece...



so... what got moved to the front?


this is what MOST ppl do with E36.. they just put them in and leave the stock corners, and they don't put the wade cover over it like goon did. this might help you understand the setup better.

 

oh i got you now so people rewire so you can use both the e36 lens with the 9007............. but basicaly my question is now if i dont want to i dont haveto use both of them on the e36 could be just for looks lol

 

no you can't use the 9007 with the e36. you HAVE to use both bulb positions on the E36 because they are specifically designed as high and low, not designed as both like the stock maxima lights are

the wiring is super super easy. you will have a hot and a ground on each of the 2 bulbs on the e36 pigtails. combine the grounds and splice that to the black wire on the car's wiring, connect the 9005 bulb (high) to the red/green wire and connect the h7's (low) colored wire to the red/blue wire. it's easier than getting your quote from Geico (which, btw, is so easy a caveman could do it) i'd take more pics for you but my photobucket is almost full

anyhow once you do that, turn your headlights on and the projector lowbeams should be on. flip to highs and the projector should turn off and the open dish highbeam should be on.

against a wall they look like this:

H7 projector lowbeam


9005 highbeam

 

Would there be a way to have the E36 low beams remain on while the high beams are on? Basically, the same operation as the 02-03 5th gen headlights

 

ya

put a wire w/ a diode (pointing from highbeam, to lowbeam) connecting the red/blue and red/green wires on each bulb harness. that way power CAN pass from high to low but NOT from low to high.

 

got it now thats all I needed to hear

 

actually it's 9005 not 9006. 9006 is the lowbeam on the J30 headlights, and 9005 is the highbeam for both E36 and J30. i assumed that the higher number meant it was high instead of low but it's the other way around.

 

oh ok

 

i like mine



anything is possibly it all depends on ur skills and imangination

 

hey there you are. in the top pic they look alot whiter than in the bottom pic... are you using HIDs in them now? also do you have any output pics?

 

nah i just replaced the bulbs with osram zenarc 4200k vs the phillips 5000k. So how did your lights turn out for you. I think the last time i was on this subject you were going to stay halogen with j30 setup

 

looking gud man

 

i haven't installed them yet. i went as far as i could w/o spending any money, and then stopped. next thing to do is to get euro housings and cut those up, and put the lights in.