after over a month of working on this project I am almost finish.

Here is a thread I started over on hidplanet http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=42823

major props to hidplanet and the first thing i suggest for anyone to do a retro is to read, read, read and if you think you know read some more. I spent over a month learning and researching before I even thought about what I wanted to do.

once I finally figured everything out I wanted the best projectors we could fit into out car which are the projectors coming out of the Honda S2000. They are the brightest and widest projectors behind the ls430 (but the ls430 are wayyyy to big to fit into our headlights)
However, the s2ks are only low beam so you either have to give up high beam or buy some headlights that have separate high/low. Therefore I bought some R34s over from ebay for under 200. Or you could use a bi-xenon projector which has both the low and high built in. The bext is the one from the Acura TL but are kind of big and requie a LOT of cutting. the fx35 with tsx lens are the second best and fit into the stock or cefiro headlights.

So with my r34 housing and s2ks, I also bought the halogen projectors that come from the infinity j30 to use the high beam from it.

I used JNC's method (over at hidplanet) of attaching the projectors to the assembly







The process of putting them in there took a month and two dremels. The s2ks and j30s barely fit in there. You really have to trim the projectors down to fit in.

Here are outpictures.





notice how there is no light emitting above the cutoff. Hence why you NEED to use projectors when you use HIDs

 

This is the low



and here is the high beam

 

dont look to bad i like it though nice job

 

$180 for r34 from ebay
$150-350 for s2ks. 150 for both if you get lucky at a local junk yard or 350 on ebay or hidplanet
$130 for OEM phillips bulbs
$150 for ballast and harness
$25 for infinity j30 headlights but you only need the high beam

to give you a sense of light output: our stock maxima headlights use 9004 bulbs which put out 700 lumens low and 1200 lumens high(i believe)
an OEM phillips d2s bulbs puts out 3200 lumens (thats almost 5x the brightness and a lot wider) and 1700 lumens for the 9005 halogen bulbs the j30 high beam projector use

However, I am using RARE OEM phillips DL-50 bulb which put out 5300 lumens !!! and HIR bulbs for high which put out 2300 lumens + a catz zeta system which impoves the voltage going to the high beams from about 13v to 15.4V. therefore the high beam puts out about 3200 lumens!!!
In total its 5800lumens low(bc i forgot to mention I am slightly overpowering the dl50 bulbs with 55w ballast =) ) and 3200 lumens high per side. if everything was tunred on it would be 18,000 lumens. and the fogs which i NEVER use

I drove on the 5 freeway here in cali and my lights would have spread three lanes to each side if there were 7 lanes. and goes a good 75-100ft ahead of me.

ps I recommend using halogen bulbs for high bc when you flast someone it they automatically turn on. If you would use HIDs this is a no no.
also, you have to use a diode when you have separate high/low beams to keep the low on when the highs are on

 

those are huge!!!

 

the high beams are pretty big at 3" and s2ks are 2.5". The length of the j30s are pretty long too, I think over 5"s I believe. I haven't put a shroud to cover them up either. I also have to play with the lens a bit bc the cutoff is not that sharp

 

That's pretty ridonkulous--my kind of setup.

 

yea man nice job its good to know people r stillin most of their own work out there

 

holy !!! that output is crazy! nice work but cops dont give you any trouble?

 

saw this on HIDplanet the other day - looks nice!

How do you think the bulbs will hold up to being overdriven?

 

Sweet job man. I was on the same boat.. did plenty of research on hidplanet.com and even made my own harness. I love that place, I went with the TL bixenon and zkw lense swap and I custom made a high beam projector out of the zkw housing. So it looks like I have 2 projectors. it took lots of time to do I agree. I notice that the spacing of your projectors beams look to close together on the wall. what's the distance between the two steps on the wall? should be somewhere between 3' to 10'

 

Its all Oem stuff so I shouldn't give any problems at all.

 

i agree, you shouldnt have probs at all.But who knows, some cop might just be bored. Nice setup btw.

 

I've always wondered if there was a standard, or a best distance for the 'steps'. Just curious, but where did the 3' to 10' measurement come from??

 

Distance between flares on the wall will vary with distance from the wall, and it will ideally be the same distance that your projectors are apart (they will both be pointing straight ahead), so around 5'.

Jesse's setup is a bit cross-eyed so the flares will actually converge depending on how far away the surface they're shown on is.

 

Do you have pics of how the car looks with the new projectors? How about the finished housing? Either way those look awesome. Good work!

S

 

just a general guideline I got from hidplanet.com at 25' you should have a distance of 3 to 10' and that's providing your projectors are mounted straight.

 

Looks great, seems you went the same route as I did.. Did you follow JnC's mounting procedure?

 

I've actually re-aligned the projectors since then so they both go straight for about 100ft or so.
The bulbs are not actually from any car but they are TRUE 50w bulbs in the sense that they are not some cheap chinese bulbs but rather Philips bulbs. They are supposed to be used on home projectors but it happens to be an almost direct size and base as D2s bulbs. As for the high beams a few cars do come with HIR bulbs HOWEVER, I'm am boosting them by supplying them with 15.4v with the catz zeta system.
People have measured the heat coming from the dl-50 bulbs and there is only like 10deg. f. difference over regular 35w bulbs. I've driven them for over 30hrs so far and everything is good(I had them on for as long as three hours straight and all is good). If you use cheap 50w chinese bulbs than those can really do damage to the bulb.

Again, I'm not finish with it but I will try to take pictures with them on my car.

As far as cops go, along as they are aligned properly they shouldn't be a problem because as you can see no light is emitted above the cutoff so you don't blind people unless you go over a speed bump or hill. I've haven't been flashed and I've passed a lot of cops and highway patrol with them here around LA and in Sacramento and no issues whatsover.

 

they look very nice, light output wise

how do they look on the car?

 

Thats nice. I love thes2K but cant foot the price.

 

Come on bro with all those led tails you make you cant afford it?

 

Its not that i cant afford them i just refuse to pay for them. My E55's are serving me just fine.

 

lol I hear ya man just messin with you.

 

how about a write-up?

 

lolz@writeup.

 

check out hidplanet.com or searching here on the Org. There are plenty of write ups to be found.

 

havent found a write up for r34's yet though, im not really confident in my retrofit abilities anuff to jump straight in it without a write up yet, maybe after a few months of hidplanet studying like u say u did i prolly could...just being lazy i guess haha

 

Dude, it is not that hard. Improvise. Just make sure you secure the projectors well and seal the whole thing.

Only difference between R34s and regular housings is the shape. You will have to hack it up regardless, spend some time and put some thought into it instead of expecting to be spoon-fed how to copy other people's work.

 

and how many times has projector retrofits been posted???

 

Nice light output, waiting on the pics of it looking at the car.

 

You dont have to hack the r34's for some projectors. Trust me i have done a few retros and havent had to touch the housing.

 

not bad... nice work..

 

Its a nice setup, but I guarantee that any person you are behind or approaching you from the opposite lane hates you from the deepest and darkest parts of their soul...

 

Looks nice and all but how are you going to fit the housing shroud back in with the projectors sitting so close to the top and bottom?

 

Why? This is not just putting HID's in a stock housing, there is no glare with projectors. Do you hate every S2000 that drives by? Same headlights.

 

I hate every car that has overly bright headlights that make it impossible for me to even look into my rear view mirror at night, nevermind trying to see where I'm going when they are coming towards me in the opposite lane. Nothing is safer than being blinded by an incoming car while going around a bend. My brights look like blacklights compared to these lights....

 

I have never been blinded by projector headlights, except maybe for 1/2 second while a BMW was coming over a hill. That is the whole point of projectors, they aim and focus the light at the road, the cutoff is there for a reason. These are not HID bulbs put into a halogen housing, I believe that is what you are thinking of. Either that, or you hate every new car on the road right now, as I'd say more than 50% of them now come with projector headlights.

 

If you can't beat em, join em.

 

HID projos aren't nearly as bad as HID in halogen housings, but when they hit speed bumps etc they are blinding. I have flicked a friend with my high beams from a good 200ft away, he pulled over to let me pass saying he just went blind.