anything over 35 watt is overdriving, and will comprimise the reliability Substantially, for very little actual light benefit. In short, running higher than 35 watt on any current production bulbs is Ill advised. Unless you 'just have to be a LITTLE brighter then everyone else '

 

Though the 55 is def brighter you'll go through bulbs quicker, cheap ballasts(ddmtuning, ebay, etc) are putting out more like 42-45 watts.

 

I recommend oem 02 xenons. Thats what I had for yrs. and it is abuot the same price and MUCH better and they're OEM parts so you know theyre good. Ahhhhhh I mean you could retrofit them into you're AE headlights but y bother. Just do the 02 swap its WORTH it. WELL WORTH it.

 

There's pros/cons obviously. i'm happy with my decision so far, but I still need to make them look like they suit the car. In pictures, they look great just slapped on a 5th gen. In REAL LIFE, they don't suit the bumper/grill, etc.
They just don't fit properly on the 5th gen.

I won't that too hard, but saying they're the 'way to go' is misleading.

Now, if you don't care all that much about the details, they are perfect.

Or if you're planning on installing the 5.5 bumper, then do it, don't hesitate.

And on that note, I think the mounting is different for the 2002/2003, I've looked at how they sit on the 5.5, and it's farther back (I can only assume the upper rad brace has a different bolt pattern/location on the 5.5)

I've shown you guys how to get them to sit a lot better though, and when I'm done they will suit the car, or come off.
And if they come off, I'll consider retro much harder.

 

MR. Tyutyunnik's LED's

Great guy amazing prices, you need to deal with him if you want SMD LED's.

Here's some shots:

LEFT- Stock Incandecent 194 ------------------- RIGHT- 1 Watt High Powered LED



LEFT-Multiple SMD bulb ---------------------- RIGHT- 1 Watt High Powered LED



Multiple SMD bulb. These things are bright!!! I light up a good portion of the driveway and neighbours house with just them on!

 

Does anyone have experience with the anzo halo projector headlights?

 

A quick fyi, a lot of projectors used in retros are oem parts as well.

 

Nicee Tuner, I know you can't get vleds in canada but fyi anyone interested vleds carries 2 watt 194s, brighter than the sun, they're 20 a pair but they have regular 15% off codes. One time they had a 50% off sale that lasted about 15 minutes. I'll post up on the forum next time they do a 50% sale, it was nuts.

 

Alex only charges $10 for the 15 SMDs I have above...

 

So I finally split the headlights, and started toying with paint ideas. I didn't want to do the standard 'total black out' that most do. I decided to try a different angle...

We will see how it turns out, if it doesn't look as good as the black out, then I will just black it out

Disassembly:



Checking stock appearance:



Painted just the 'v' area of the main pot:







I liked that, but I decided it wasn't enough to make a real impact, enter fancy tape work:











Taped, wetsanded, Ready for Primer:



First coat of primer:





More to come, I just put on the first coat of Black, I'll post final coat and mock-up install tonight likely.

 

Nice work as always. Are you planning on clearing out the amber? I removed it and replaced the stock bulb with a chrome bulb that blinks amber (Silver Stealth Titanium Chrome Vision). It really cleans up the front end IMO.

Here's a not so good pic...





I don't have any other pics with this and the black grill...

 

Can you send me the actual link to the Bulb? I just get sent to the main site from that link.
I like the look of that from the picture, I know most guys use the Home Depot lens around here, and I've never been a huge fan. I was going to try it though...

 

Wait, did you literally just remove the Amber lens and that's it?? Looks like it.

I demand close ups

 

Tuner, you have so much going on at once, I swear I'm missing half of it. Can't wait to see your final pics. (No cell phone photos, Matt.)

While I'm not a huge fan of cleared turn sign-signal lenses, I really do like this photo. The framing, depth, quality and subject matter all come together nicely. Crop this into a widescreen, and it's serious sig-photo stuff. Very cool photo.

 

^ Arm-Chair engineer and Photo Analyst! You are a pretty talented man John.

I have a sneaking suspicion that doesn't look great in person, but dam if it doesn't look good in that picture!

I will be sure to post pictures, I'm good at that. I should invest in a better camera though. This one is Hi-Res, decent quality, but it just doesn't capture some of this stuff ~especially the night time lighting shots~ very well at all.

 

You know what would really set off this look in a more finished way? The fitter rubber weather strips that sit in the grove of the headlight lens. It's called a Headlight Kit, and goes for something like $20 at your Nissan parts department. The purpose is to manage airflow under the hood at high speeds, which can cause a resonance that makes your hood shake.

But it looks really good, too. Every 5th gen should have these things.



Wait a minute... I've got pictures!

 

Yes sir!

I'm heading out of town tonight so I won't be able to post pics until Sunday afternoon.

It does look good in person...

nice pic Roch!

 

Sorry, didn't read up far enough.

It should be on that link about 3/4 of the way down. I don't like the malibu lense either and my dremel skills aren't the best so I went the easy route.

http://autolumination.com/7443_7440.htm

 

I'm going to check into those rubber strips. Hopefully the local Stealership doesn't want my fingers for them (we get slaughtered in Canada on parts, well lots of other stuff too but that's WAY OT)

The 4th gen had them stock, they mounted on the hood though IIRC. And most Aftermarket headlights for the 5th/5.5 come with them too.

I'm very surprised Nissan didn't include these from the factory, guess they were pinching pennies.

Thanks for posting that though Rochester, I will be getting them regardless of which headlights I end up with, just need to decide on that before I attatch them...

 

Yeah that's what I figured, you just pulled the amber lens off.

Illuminated pictures would be nice as well, whenever you get around to them.

Photo's are loading right now. I have no idea what it's going to look like on the car, I will probably have to put them in place so I can get a rough idea.

Also looks like I may have wasted my time taping the outer edge, I think the lens is going to cover it... hard to tell with everything just sitting in place though. Either way, if I keep the colour scheme, I'll have to do it on the other side as well.

 

All the pics I could find of clear turn signals without lenses. Tried to get the "worst" angles so you can see the small gap.

 

Finished Coat:



Ok pulling the tape off:











Sitting roughly in place, no lens:

 

Lens just sitting on, not pushed into place at all:











Left > painted light, Right > Stock:

 

I'm going to set them in place on the car if I get a shot later. Need to see what they look like on white, and how the Black in the headlights works with the grill.

If I decide to paint more, I have a couple more places in mind before I'm stuck doing a full black out.

 

You going to polish those lenses while they're separated?

 

Is that a serious question

 

I wish these forums didn't base page length on post count, and actually based it on LENGTH, my picture-whored threads are always such a chore to get to the bottom of. And always so damn long!

/Rant


With that said, here's more pictures

I popped out the reflector to see what it looks like. The bulb sits at an angle to the reflector, so it looks kind of strange, but you have to actually look at it to see that. It has potential to work, I'll see what it looks like on the car as well.







If you look closely, you can see that the bulb isn't straight in the reflector:

 

lol I can remove the pictures, but you seemed to be asking for pictures of cleared turn signals so I posted some up.

 

Nah man that's perfect!! Thanks so much, I may run it like that actually, looks nice I bet the gap is barely noticable once everything is fully assembled. It's hard to tell without installing the lens fully so those pics are very helpful.

I wasn't ranting about that, just all picture threads are so dam long and take patience to read/view. It'd be better to just have more pages.

I'm going to take some pics on the car right now.

 

Isn't that used as the turn signal though? And technically (legally) turn signals are supposed to be yellow right? what are you plan with this thing.

 

Yes I would need to make it yellow. As UGAd13 did, a chrome tinted amber bulb would be ideal for this. An amber bulb would look silly IMO, especially because the bulb enters the reflector at an angle.

Sparks what are you running for a bulb?

 

I'm running the stock white bulbs. They're yellow enough when contrasted by my headlights that in the last 3ish years of running these lights, I have not been pulled over or questioned about them.

Were I to run a colored bulb, I'd probably go with some trick LEDs. I don't like the chrome amber ones much.

 

Ok. So after just placing on the car, I have pretty much decided 2 things for sure:

1. The 5.5 lights will be going on this car now, the AE lights will be coming off.

2. The amber lens is not going on, regardless of how I do it, it's going to get cleared out.


Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:



......

Seriously:

















And just so you can see it, the amber. Looks so 'off' after having the clear installed:

 

Now... What I can't decide about, 2 things:

1. The 'line' that is clearly apparent on the inside of the headlight when viewed from the side. I cannot decide if I like it. I think I actually do... I didn't expect to but it seems to contrast well. See pic below.



2. The side portion that I left OEM Silver... I can't decide whether to leave it or paint it. I had two ideas regarding paint, if I choose to paint it. I would attempt this first:



I would black out only the concave section (there's 4 contours to this piece, 3 are convex, the circled one is concave)




If that looked foolish, -it could go either way-, I would be forced to black out the whole 'piece':




What do you guys think? I know it would look good black, but I think leaving it like this really makes it unique, and also, from the side, looks like the OEM light almost so the 'black out' effect isn't so overpowering.

That was my plan with this paint scheme, to maintain a black out effect from the front view, and keep the silver/oem view from the side. I`m also loving that the 3D effect is still present. I am happy that my plan worked out as I had hoped.

My main dislike of blacked out headlights was always the side view, too much contrast and the 3D effect of the pod style lights is greatly dissipated or eliminated.

Just looking for some imput, there's no going back if I decide to paint it. If I can make my decision I might have a chance to get these wired and installed Sunday when I put the Coilovers on.



----

 

What do you mean by 'trick' LED's ?

As far as I'm aware, you can't run LED's in the signal without a digital flasher, and I don't feel like buying one just for that. Also, I don't know any LED 'bulb' that would look good in this situation, visible to the naked eye and installed at an angle....

 

There are LEDs adapted to run in them that are more expensive (built in flashers, maybe?), that as the main meaning of "trick". It would need to be one of the LED bulbs that has all the LEDs on the sides of it... that way the reflector outputs all the light.

I hate the gray/black contrast inside the headlight. Not sure what to say about the issue with it not looking 3D enough and such, but multiple colors that don't include body color on the inside of the headlight would drive me insane.

 

Ah I see. Something to consider maybe, but I think I`d be more likely to go with the chrome tinted amber.
The issue is the STOCK bulb doesn`t enter the reflector straight, so a LED bulb with the LED`s on the side, once installed, would have the LED`s facing forward, or at an angle, and they wouldn`t properly illuminate the reflector as you`re suggesting.

The black is the same as the grill

But I can dig what you`re saying. I wanted to try something different, as I often do, sometimes it turns out, sometimes not, but I don`t often do something like that without a good back up plan. This one obviously being: If I don`t like it, I just black it out completely and call it done.

I think it would look foolish on a black car.
I think it would look amazing on your car (silver colour)
And I`m unsure what I think about it on the Pearl white (my car).

 

Possible black out... quick 'smudge' in gimp.

I think I'm going to go do this right now. I've been staring at the pics for a while and I've decided I need to black out some more. I don't think blacking out the piece on the side is a good idea, otherwise I will be forced to black out all of it, I think it will look dumb to try and leave the 'pods' silver after I touch that.

Anyways here's the pic:



Off to tape it off again

I'm going to tape and start the other headlight too.

 

I say you leave them as is, and keep the amber signal lens in there if you're not going to get clear bumper lights.

 

I have a feeling he'll get the clear sidemarkers very soon as well