Before going in and retrofitting my 5.5's headlamps I want to start with a smaller retrofit project to get some experience before I wreck my lamps. Has anyone here retrofitted their foglights?

I was thinking about maybe putting the smaller morimoto projectors in there.

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/pro...b248c59432a902

Everything is 150 dollars and it is a great projector even suitable for headlamps. Open to all opinions. Things I'm looking at are getting the grooves off the stock fog lamp lens since they are glass and not plastic, and whether these projector would fit inside the small fog lamp housing.

 

Output pic of this projector



Exact dimensions:
- Depth: 136mm (front of lens to back of bulb holder)
- Height: 80mm
- Width: 70mm
- Threaded Mounting Post Diameter: 21mm
- Tip of lens to the center mounting points: 64mm
- From center mounting points to the rear of the bulb holder: 72mm
- Lens Diameter: 2.5"

 

im on a similar venture only im going to just use a small H3 projector. so ill be subscribing to this thread.

ive got a pair of 4th gen lamps you can have. if it works out and they look good and work great you can slide me a little money

B

 

I think for the first step I'm gonna open up my fogs and try to maybe sand off the grooves on the lens. My 55 watt HIDs in my fogs keep melting the glue around the lens and making them fall off already lol

 

ok.

just so i was clear i was donating the 4th gen lamps for your project so you didnt have to mess up anything on your car.

if you change your mind LMK

B

 

lol ty its just fogs atm so its cheap enough for the risk

 

cools.

be sure to post pics of your progress

B

 

Ordered projectors and fog light, this is gonna be great.

 

Only fog retrofit I can think of offhand is AndrewR2442. May want to search his retrofit for some ideas.

 

Here are some pics of my progress, still far from done.

The projectors were wayyy bigger than I expected but they should fit even though I had to hack apart most of the foglight except for the mounting bolts.











Really just a test fit so far. A lot more work to be done.

 

looking good so far. are you going to put the lenses back on?

B

 

Yes. Those projectors will only last for a couple months before rock chips destroy them. They are not designed to be exposed to the road.

 

that looks like a nice retrofit, good job so far

 

Definitely putting the lens back on, gotta sand down the glass first to get rid of the flutes or my cut off line will become fuzzy

Here is the output



Waiting for dark to go out and get some nice pics

 

Quoted for truth.
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To the OP: that retro is indeed looking good so far. (4300k?)

 

Yep, 4300k, broke the lens trying to sand down the flutes today, gonna try to get a glass shop to cut me some plexi or something tomorrow.

 

 

that just the fogs? if so very impressive

B

 

yea thats pretty powerful.

 

it may be the picture or the ground the car is sitting on but the pass side projector looks like it needs to be turned counter clockwise just a tad

B

 

Yea its actually the driver side projector only and it does need to be rotated a little but I just couldn't get it to turn anymore so bleh I left it alone.

On another note, since I broke the lens trying to sand the grooves off I went to a glass place and had them cut me a piece of glass. I'm a bit disappointed with how it ended up coming out but for my first retrofit I guess it was a good try, at least the output is good!





The shroud wouldnt fit and I know its not that good looking but its mounted low so all you really see is darkness when its off so I'll live for now.

 

not bad.

try to find something to cover the outside edges of the glass to make it blend better. i think that will improve it greatly.

also paint the inside of the housing a flat black (high heat paint of course). i bet that will clean it it nicely.

can the shroud be trimmed?

B

 

The inside of the housing is already black since I had to take out the entire reflector piece. I think I might try to paint the glass and that area black or vht niteshade it lightly the entire thing. Looking down during the day all your really see is darkness already though. I'm open to suggestions though.

 

Awesome Once you retro, you'll never go back to old halogens again. Isn't that right, Nexus? Best investment I have ever made...eeexxxcceeepppttt that I HATE driving other cars without projectors. I feel like I can't see anything at night, and I feel extremely unsafe. Haha, it's very weird.

 

Well this is more or less the finished product, I just have to get the glass cut and seal up the right side. Both projectors rotation are slightly off and the left one is pointing inwards, but I really couldnt get it any better. The projector took up the entire fog light housing and more so adjustments were very difficult. Had it been a headlamp retro I would demand perfection but these are just fogs so I'm not gonna spend any more time trying to get it 'perfect'

My total cost has been just a little over $210, $160.00 for projectors and bulbs, reused my ballasts, $40.00 cutting glass, and glue/epoxy

The width really spreads further to the left side since both projectors rotation are off towards that side being higher =/

 

When I get to retrofitting the headlights I will def demand perfection and use the 3 point mounting method so I can adjust everything just right.

 

that output is amazing!

 

Man, that uneven beam pattern would drive me nuts. Hope you can live with it! I know I couldn't. Awesome output though!

 

ehhhhh its kinda annoying, I might try to fix the right side so I can have the super wide beam on the right side too

 

Looking good, looking good. I made peace with not going retro fog but now I'm wondering about it...*sigh*

Quoted for truth

Don't you hate loving them? lol

 

Great job, especially for your first retrofit. If you were looking for an idea about the outer edges, have you tried looking for some sort of bendable moulding that I guess would be used on doors? I do think that if you check out a 5.5gen without fogs the plastic insert looks like a good candidate to cut up. Mine doesn't have fogs and that plastic cup does come way further out than the fogs do and its tight to the hole.

Just a question about the wiring. Was it just a cut and splice deal or is there more involved.

The output on those are awesome!

 

Well I had previously wired the ballasts up, I used two relays to power these so I could turn the fog lights on and off with my Viper 5701 alarm remote. The first relay used the 12+ Power wire for the fogs and switched it to -12, which triggers the second relay which also has the 12- wire from the alarm module connected. From there the power wire(14 gauge) goes to both ballasts and both ballasts are grounded to the battery. I'm running the ddmtuning 55 watt ballasts.


So now the fogs operate normally but they also come on when I press the aux 1 on the alarm and I press it again to turn it off - like a toggle switch.

 

I personally would have used Lexan instead of glass.....and then Lamin-x'd it!

 

True I wanted to use something other than glass but I didn't think about lamin-xing it cause the guy said all the other materials would turn really ugly when exposed to water and elements

 

You find that @ an aircraft supplier and maybe even cheaper online somewhere.....It's easier to work with and very durable...it ain't plexiglass! Oh yeah forgot to say how nice the light is over stock halogens.....you don't even need headlights with this setup!

 

+1 would it look weird if I did one side in glass and the other in lexan? I have to get the passenger side glass/whatever cut tomorrow so I can seal it up. Ideally I wish there were a shop that could do some vacuum forming locally. So I could get that perfecttt cover.

like in this vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg_C_...eature=related

 

That was nice and educational.....My upgrade was easy by changing to HID on my fogs and effective.....I'm not sure I would go with acrylic do there since there are so many rock and debris flying around the front of the car. But it did have a vey professoinal finish I must say!

 

Good job OP. I'd love to try something like this one day, after I finish my looooong list of other fun things I want to spend money on for my car... I'll have to stick with my HID converted fogs for now. Oh well...

 

Thanks.

 

pretty cool good luck man