98 nissan maxima
r34 ebay headlights retro'd FX35's w/e30's
FX35 shroud (dremeled down)
194 orange accent light (not completed)

********* apexcone 55 watt ballasts w/phillips 85122+ bulbs***********

 

194 bulb retro'd into the top(not completed yet)

 

nice job on the retro, gives a newer look to the car, and has excellent output(for the size). You cut off the front shield to get that color right? My FX's have been a pain, and riddled with issues, mainly involving that damned shield.

 

Nice job. I'm loving my FX35 projectors. I got fed up trying to get my shrouds to fit, I'll work on those again next summer. Looks like you cut the projectors down the same place I did.

 

that looks great Ive ben wanting to do somethin like that for a while. does anyone know if any bmw headlight internals(halo projector) would fit in the max housing??

 

very nicely done.
SO how long did it take you to finish that?

 

how long?.... let's just say too long.

about a month on and off. It was a little hard to make everything fit.

 

I just got around to getting my new headlights in for my s2000 and now have a pair of s2000 projectors from my old set so I'll finally be able to do this retro to my max

Your retro looks VERY nice btw. Those projectors are huge lol

 

Wow, those look great. I think you've convinced me to make my next set with some FX35's My E46's aren't so great anymore compared to this stuff.

 

Your retro looks awesome! Did you wire up the projector highs or are you doing like mtrai and using the low beam only? maxgtr2000 finished up my cefiro retro...to bad I don't have a car to put them on any more.

S

 

looks great!

 

Those look awesome...thats exactly what I want to do once my s/c build is complete

 

Oh my. What beautiful retro's.

 

I wired up the bixenon function to the high beam of the 9005 bulb. It's very bright. Let's put it this way. On those dark back roads in the country... i don't get scared going 60 anymore.


*************** the ballast are 55 watt apexcone's w/ 85122+ phillips bulbs (that's why the beam shots are so intense)********************

 

beautiful work!

 

give us some later updates on how the fx bowl fares with the added heat of the 55watt HID's as I am thinking of going that route later on with mine.

 

man that looks nice props on that retro!!!!

 

Very nice work man...

 

Drew i didnt know you were going with the 50 watters. I still dont think i can step up to the 50 since the 35 does me well. But great work my friend. I should have my new retro posted soon.

 

I can answer the bowl question since i've had the 55 watt apexcone ballasts for about 6 months now. I drive about 45 minutes at night 3-4 times a week. The bowls of the FX are still in good conditioin after being subjected to boosting the bulbs wattage to 55 watts. .... I don't say great b/c the bowl does have an ever so slight hint of dullness to it when i looked at it..... I was looking for damage though, and i didn't find anything that would harm any output though. I havne't noticed any decrease in performance either. The DL50's are supposed to be the only bulb that is ok to use. Now i know that for a fact. I just wanted to see it for myself. Now i will be using DL50's in anything above 50 watts forever more.


The FX bowls are not sealed against the body of the projector. They have many openings for heat to escape. This may be a reason that the bowls stood up to heat so long... My last retro for the past 6 months left the rear of the projector open and unsealed at all.




And... here's a comparison in an open air test in a house. The actual temperatures will rise much higher in a completely sealed headlight. http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/view...=dl50&start=50

 

By far that ranks in the top 5 of best looking retros on here. Very nice job man!

 

wow. . great job man..

 

Im copying your setup drew. Hope you dont mind.

 

It's for me

 

It's all good... let me know if you run into any problems...

 

I sure will. I see i am going to have to either cut the projector or the housing . So i know what one I am going to do. Did you cut the projector down at all?


SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh dont tell.

 

I Massacred my FX's... I trimmed all of the oem mounting arms and then trimmed the glare shield off of the top of the projector. I had to trim the left and right sides of the projector also. So you are basically trimming the entire projector if you plan to use FX's. It cleared pretty well after that.

I ran into some problems w/the brackets from JNC's mounting method. I had to trim the brackets down so that the projector would sit low enough in the r34 housings to get a good angle on the road. So keep that L bracket short and little.

I had to JB weld my fx shrouds to the FX lens retainer cover. I used the slow jb weld but they have a 4 minute jb weld out now. Hopefully the spec's are the same as the original stuff.

You'll have to trim the inside of the housing down flat. I made the mistake of trimming outside of the circle that retains the end cap. That circle is important for the strucural integrity of these housings, as well as neccessary to fasten the new pipe fitting to the housing.

That's about all of the headaches that i ran into.....

 

Damn you have the hottest retro on here

 

wow you got rid of the glare shield too? Did you loose intensity?

 

Sick!

 

awesome good job!

 

I like the Wizards better...

 

yes flava I like the wizards setup better. But that fx35 projector looks to be a little more cost effective.

 

Yeah the S2k's are $$$, but the FX35's are just so big. If it were being used in a single setup where it was the only light source and using its BiXenon capabilities to me it would just look better, but it in the R34's with the other headlight next to it just looks odd to me. It does have nice output though.
Im not trying to bash, I was mainly responding to QNO_A32's comment about the best looking retro.

 

very najs! how much did this setup cost you?

 

Wait, what does the 194 bulb do?

 

This is probably similar thing to the cefiro city light thing.

So instead of having the Projector/headlights on, the 194 bulbs lights up, and gives the head lamp a small accent.

But looking at the placement of where he drilled the hole for it, it looks like it's supposed to light up only the back ground of the projectors, from behind the bezel. So you'll only see light coming from around the bezel. Kind of similar to the looks of the BMW halo ring, but I don't know how this will look.

 

not bad, not bad...

 

looks good.. nice job.

 

Nice job. Very clean.