After many months of researching and parts collection I am ready to start the job. I will keep updated this thread with pics and with steps I take so if anyone plans to do it in future, will have this as a good reference.

Parts used:
* E46 Bosch Bi-Xenon OR E-class Hella B-Xenon Projectors (haven't made my mind yet).
* E46 2nd Gen Hella AL ballasts and ignitors w/ Phillips 4300K bulbs
* BMW angel eyes and BMW Bezels
* Extra set of (97-99 headlights)

I'll start working on the housings today. I tend to go with E46 projectors, so Hellas in that case will be for sale.

Questions and comments welcomed!

 

I will take a set of projectors from you

 

Sure Kev! Last time I remember I saw a set go on HIDplanet for $155 shipped for E55. So if that is allright with you, I'll be happy to sell them to you.

UPDATE:

I took measurements of the shutter mechanism and marked the area that I will have to cut out at the back to let projector slide easy inside the housing.



Now let's cut it out.


Done.

 

Let's test fit it. Looks great at front.

 

But not so great at the back. Projector does not go that deep into the housing as I initially assumed. so no need for that large opening. Will do it better with next housing. But it is not a biggie though, because I still have enough area to drill the holes to secure projecotor and the back will be covered with JB weld or epoxy anyway.



Have to go to work now, maybe will work with it tonight again, or tomorrow on the project.

 

looks good, i actually started looking into hid stuff for my max. why did you decide to go w/ the e46? i thought about those bixenons at first, but i read that the wiring is much more complicated so i may just pick out another bixenon setup.

 

sorry one more question, with a bixenon setup, can you flash ppl without the lowbeams on? i like how with the halogens you can flash ppl without having your headlights on.

 

Total cost...

 

Ha this is cool, doesn't look too hard so far. I want angel eyes on my Max. Also why do you have 4 projectors? One for low beams and one for high beams? I know the 6th Gen has a cover for the high beams that comes up.

P.S. You got the same bed sheets as me.

 

good luck with the retro

 

Got back from work. Have time to work on project a little more.

It was a very tough choice, either E55 or E46. Decided for E46 because I read they have wider beam and color mod is easier to do on them (washer mod), as opposed to bending the shiled on E55. Plus there are good writeups to do B-Xenon wiring on HIDplanet.com
You can wire it up to flash, but this is not good for the ballast, so I will loose that, will probably move this function to fog lights ones I install them.
I like not to think about it , but it runs to almost $500 for all parts plus few extras I ended up not needing.
One set I won't use, I just was not sure which to go with. I mentioned it in 1st post.
Thanks a lot!!

 

where'd you get those projectors...im interested in doing the same mod but on a G35

 

HIDplanet.com is an excellent source (Buy/Sell forum section). Also on eBay there is good supply.

 

k thanks, also lets say i wanna do the same on a maxima. i want that in my headlights of course and also in my fogz, wut would be best.
Does Bi Xenon means high n low beam? or will i need 4 in the head lights and 2 in the fogz thanks

 

Shady plz pm me and I'll answer your questions to the best of my knowledge. I'd like to deviate from topic of this thread as little as possible.

UPDATE

Yeasrday night all I did was to mark approximate spots where I would drill holes for the screws to mount projector inside the headlight. The big challenge is to keep projector 100% level and straight.

Here are spots marked and ready to drill (I used a duplicolor touch up paint that I had laying around to mark hole spots).



Tonignt, Sunday, I spent so far three hours alining the projector, which was very time consuming and annoying. I had to widen holes way open in order to get beam 100% level. In the end holes turned aout to be pretty wide, but wide washers will help in fixing that.
Some in process pics. I'll be working on another headlight tomorrow and afterwards I'll finish up alining both projectors and will put them on a car to be 100% sure alignment is good. (bolts are 8mm and 3 or 4 inches long).

 

impressive man, keep up the how-to, im hoping to do it sometime too. also, do you have high and low beams?

 

WHOA!!!...I assume you bought a spare set of headlights?

 

impressive!!! are u gonna black out the headlight housings when ur done, or just keep it original?

 

Yes, these are bi-xenon projectors, which have a movable shield that tilts forward and down ones high beams are activated. I still have to do a harness to make that work.
Yes, the holes on top are from strobes that the guy I bought headlights from used to have.
Yes I will, that is still to come, patience my friends .

 

looks great... will the projectors burn the headlight housing/glass?

 

Ladzio where did you get the bezels from and for how much I've been looking for some for my projectors that are not that expensive.

 

Man, I want to see the angel eyes

 

No, HID operates at 35W, as opposed to 9004 low beam 45 or 55W, do not remember exactly.
Well, bezels kinda went up in price recently. Very popular E46 bi-xenon bezels go for $80+. I got mone for $40 shipped, which are from 5 series bimmer. The only drawback of them is that they are not that wide and will not cover the back of the projector too well. But hopefully blacked out housing will help with that.
Man, I just remembered that I am out of white LEDs. So angel eyes testing has to wait.

 

UPDATE

I did still some cutting with first headlight to let projector slide in deeper. Then I proceeded and cut out hole at the back of second housing. Put projector in and marked spots for holes. Again, used only three screws to allow more moving around when aligning. I got it right from the first take. Practice makes perfect!!!



Here you can see the mark I made before cutting and holes drilling to know where projector should aim. I used small inners reflective bowl direstion as reference.



I put one housing already into the outer mount. Preparing for test fitting and final alignment on the car. It will be most likely on Wednesday, tomorrow I'm busy. Also, I see that I will have to trim the bezels a bit, they are too tall.

That's it for now.

 

looks real good bro. i'm with u so far, but are you going to fill the rest of the chopped out area with epoxy??? and how are you going to get it even? good luck

 

Maybe we can motion for a sticky somewhere on the org since alot of people are interested in this mod..... Word to the wise, purchase a used headlight to practice on first. Like Ladzio said it takes a little bit to align the projector, aka. trial and error especially since different projectors have to be worked with different ways.

 

Update, kinda..

Yesterday I took my stock headlights off and put modded housing with projectors in, to start aligning projectors. Task appeared even more challenging than I thought. Because of very limited space behind headlights it was hard to make adjustment and in the end I ended up just taking headlight out and putting back in everytime I wanted to adjust. I did not even finish with first one as my HID bulb died, making cool strobe effects It was pretty late then and I will continue tonight.

 

Long Overdue UPDATE

Well the past days were quite busy and I had really limited time to work on the project. Aligning lights appeared quite a tedious task and required a lot of patience.

I used nuts with washers (since I had oversized holes) to control height and horizontal alignment.



And the I would secure it with another set of washers and nuts at the back. You can also see that I cut someof the plastic on the mount to get better access to screws.



I would mount the headlight onto the car then and would see if alignment is good. It took me quite several tries to take everything apart to change positiob of iiner nuts in order to get acceptable alignment, the final touches can be regulated by stock alignment mechanism.

I also went to the store and got shorter screws (2"), the 3" are too long.

 

After I aligned first headlight, I aligned second by just taking measurements of distance between the lense and the housing in the first headlight. I also marked the position of the nuts with paint, since I'll be taking everything apart later to clean everything up and put goil arounf projector to avoid light leaks, as well as paint the housing.



Now, having both projectors aligned, time for street shots.

 

Halogen VS HID



Where is halogen beam...?

 

Now my big challenge will be to seal the holes at the back. I still need to make research about this. If enyone can share experience, please tell!

Yours truly,

Vlad

 

to seal the back, i first taped it up by overlapping a bunch of electrical tape. then spread a thin layer of sillicone over the electrical tape, sealing up all edges.

also, if you haven't seal up the front yet, consider putting a strong spring around the each bolt in front of the washer. then use wingnuts in the back. that way, the tension in the spring will keep the projector up. and tightening and loosening of the wingnut can be used for adjustment. Ace hardware sells a lot of different springs. i think i used #209 but i'm not positive on the number.

 

looks great man, really nice. how much did it all end up running you?

 

Good work, looks nice... quick question, do they stay on tight or if you go into bumps they kinda go up and down a little? I figure with all the screws you put on it should pretty tight...

 

i know im in the wrong forum (i have a 3rd Gen) but i am doing something similar to this with my 93 and some e36 headlight pieces. i want to put the projecto and the other light in my factory housing. my question is how did you remove the glass from the headlight. i put it in the oven, perhaps not long/hot enough, and i kept breaking glass and plastic when i tried to pry it apart. Thanks For the input!

Chris

 

Great job!!! I admire anybody who can figure all of that out! I'd love lights like those but I'd never be able to figure out how to make them...if I tried I'd just mess them up somehow. They look so hot!

 

Electrical tape works well, and it's easy. I have no leakage problems months after I installed mine. Keep up the good work!

 

use a heat gun better and work it slow. when you get one corner up put a screwdriver there to keep it appart until you get the rest

 

Thanks guys for support and replies. Picked up some great ideas. Especially about springs, that is simple and I guess cannot be more easy. So I will use electrical tape and will spray sylicone at the back to make sure no moisture or dust gets in. I also think my left projector is only 99% level, but I may be wrong. Before I proceed with sealing the projector, I need to find a place with some wall (was kicked out from one company parking lot last week already). Also, received white 8000mcd LEDs yesterday for angel eye. Did not want to go more with MCDs beacause then it would go blueish.

OK, await updates early next week. Too busy this weekend.

 

My girlfriend came back from looong visit of parents in Europe, so I had to forget about working on the project for a while . I spent some time filing down the bezel at the bottom to make it fit onto projector as well as played around with LEDs. Was a little not careful to put some scratches on the bezel, but quite unnoticable from the distance. Will do more filing tomorrow and if time permits will paint the housings.

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