I've been searching the web and thinking about modifying the 97-99 headlights to a single/dual projector light system.

susquehanna.com has Hella 90mm low beam projectors for $54 each that use a H9 bulb. what I like about this projector is that it produces around 2300 lumen with the H9 Halogen! this about the same amount of lumens some retrofit HID's produce.

first check out these pics: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~nloke1/FA...ehidretro.html

I'm thinking the 97-99 Headlights can be fitted in a similar way. another option would be to cut off the back portion of the headlights, mount the projector to a piece of plexiglass or plastic and epoxy it to the headlight.

anybody tried this or have any suggestions. total cost of materials should be around $150. I'm willing to try this instead of waiting around for projectors that might never be made.

one more thing, this projector can be used with an HID bulb so people with the HID kits could also look into this.

 

i tried to fit both a beams but its a pain, the way our headlights are built and the fact that theres metal behind the headlight you just dont have enought back clearance to make it all fit. If you have the tools and the patience(sp) you might be able to do it, but i dont think its worth it. if you want to just do a single low beam i think thats more doable. drop me an email you need some more suggenstions, i spent alot of time on this idea.

 

If you can do it, theres a huge market here for it. Id be in!

 

Ill be guinea pig for a discount!

 

I was also thinking about doing it.

http://maxima.cardomain.com/member_p...=188584&page=3

So it IS possible...

 

Also, that website doesn't work. What's the correct address? Also, does anyone else know a cheap place to get these parts? I'm really tired of waiting for any kind of projectors also and I wouldn't mind spending a long time making my own.

thanks

 

thats a 3rd gen, we are talking about a 4th gen, and i never said its imposible but it will take alot of r&d and money to get a set made and mass produced.

 

just trying to give some motivation...thats all.

 

that's why I'm gonna chop off the back portion of the housing.

here's the projector: http://www.susquehanna.com/susq/hella/90mm.htm

here's a nice writeup for a galant: http://home.attbi.com/~c.tangonan/ga..._Tutorial.html

I think this is doable, somebody just has to take the chance a cut up a headlight housing. the Hella 90mm projectors are one of the best projectors on the market, I think it would be worth it to try.

 

look at every thing behind the black portion and check if it can still fit, and the hella's arent that small eighter. if i remember the low beam wad like 7" long and about 4" wide. i actually bought the hellas and gave up on it as it seemed way too hard to install, the fit would be just too tight. but if you want to go for it, please do, i would love so see a dual beam conversion done.

 

I'm not brave enough to do a dual beam conversion. I'm just going to try the single low beam. as far as highbeams, that will have to be another project

 

its not so much a matter of acutally doing it as it is having the space on the motor bay. I too have thought of doing this just like geo1317, and we both came up w/ the same delima... do we cut teh frame and metal stuff or not. I decided against it, but if you can get a hold of a project from a new bmw, its a duel low/high all in one unit. However, they are pricey and they are on ebay

 

I think the projector from the 98 240's fits very well.

 

has it been done?

 

that actually looks pretty good - have u seeen 1hotmax's photoshopped headlights? - that looks even better, i think they're hella projectors

 

they're not photoshopped...

they're real.

 

Hey guys,

just a question....are the Hella 90mm projectors better than the BMW/Audi projectors?

just wondering which one to buy...

thanks.

Chris

 

well if your going the HID route, i would try to get the bmw/audi projectors as most of them are designed for an OEM HID based bulb. should look very nice. only downside to that is getting the alignment right as far as beam pattern goes, measure twice cut once. the hellas are mainly for regular halogen, but can work w/ HID providing you get the H7 based or H-whatever is based HID bulb.

all in all its up to u... if it were me i would go the Hella projector b/c they come w/ a nice housing, aligment screws and can work w/ HID nicely....

keep me posted as i might be attemping something like this one day

 

I see. thanks for clearing this up for me and others who are wondering. I'm probably going to just buy hella 90mm since they're housed, more readily available, cheaper, and can mount up a little bit easier.

 

I bought those HELLA projector lenses/housings a while back. I cut off the back of a spare headlight I had and tried fitting them in. They are too large by about .5 inches. Now, if you were to actually cut the high beam lense, you could probably get it to fit. But I gave up and I am just gonna wait it out....

 

they are real projectors my friend.
they were my original oem 99 lense that i messed up with a shiet load of holes i drilled to fit strobes. i updated my bro's 94 supra to 98 headlights so i had it sitting around. i put 2 together and well you get the picture. add a lot of epoxxy and bam ur done.
everything worked great until you wash the car cause moisture gets into it easy.

j30 and 240sx headlights will work great. add HID's and u got the best set up a car can get/ aftemarket wise.

 

The low beam unit is about 5 1/2" deep including the connector. The high beam unit looks to be about an inch shorter but I could not find exact dimensions. If I can find a cheap headlight to experiment with I might be willing to try this but I am not willing to hack up my headlights. There are complete headlamps on e-bay for around $90 but that is a little more than I want to spend before I am sure I can make it work. If I bought two headlights, two high and two lowbeam units that ends up at ~$380 plus misc parts . And there not even HIDs.

Do you mean the diameter or the depth? What if you used a smaller high beam unit? If you could find a smaller and cheaper high beam unit it might help make them fit and bring the cost down a bit. As far as I am concerned the high beam is mostly for signaling and legal purposes (inspection). I very rarely use high beams and with the light output of these projectors they probably would not be needed. You could even wire the low beams to stay on with high beams for more light output to compensate for a cheap highbeam unit.

My first thought was if I bought a second set of headlights I could do low beams only and have my stock headlights for inspection time, but then I remembered the wiring would be different so swapping them out would be something of a project. If I could find a small/cheap high beam unit that would fit in the headlight for inspection purposes and felt confident enough to hack up my existing headlights it would really bring the cost down and make this project much more attractive.

 

The overall diameter of the lights are too large. I ruined two headlights trying to get this to work. I bought two 95 cheap headlights from a junkyard and bought both HELLA headlights. With trying to make them fit and trying to keep the front/side characteristics of the current headlight the same, the combination of both HELLA lights are just too large. Now, if you were to use the low beam and maybe find a much smaller high beam element, it will fit without and problem. Or, if you were to probably hack the high beam element down quite a bit, that might work as well. As for the wiring, that would be easy. You can easily change from these HELLA lights back to the stock harness in about 5-10 minutes, granted that you have some soldering/connector skills....