please dont put angle eyes in !

cant wait to see 5.5 headlights on it. I promised myself not to mod my AE and so far i've been behaving but the 5.5 headlight and grill is too sexy.

 

i'm on the 'dont angel eye it' too...i just like them blacked out w/ the amber, like this

 

It's my inner ricer I like the way they look.

 

LOL because you mentioned its your rice...ill allow you to slide, my rice made me purp my wheels

 

I still say paint the housing matte black on the headlights.

 

are you talking about painting the reflective part on the inside of the housing? How badly will this hurt light output?

 

This, and +3 on the no angel eyes. Leave those for the BMWs.

 

90% of your light output will go to trash.
dont listen to him.
plus that much heat from the light reflecting at the paint will cause chipping later down the road.

 

No, that would be plain stupid. Sorry for the bad wording but I meant to say do the AE mod to the 5.5 gen headlights. Just like the picture that was posted here.

 

haahahahahah....I guess I should have said I could not see the pictures earlier, now I can see them. Yeah, that looks good. I think I will take that advice.

 

LOL they're talking about the surroundings, not the actual reflector. nobody is that dumb on this board! well, maybe on the 7th gen forums

 

Wow, those amber black out looks sick! Man, I wanna do those black-out myself. But pretty scare to melt the lenses...

 

I was scared to death to do mine but once you can get over the fact that you're putting your headlights in the oven it is super, super easy. This is coming from someone who is extremely mechanically un-inclined and has trouble with even small projects.

250 degrees for like 12 minutes is enough to get the sealant softened up pretty good, but I've heard of people even going as high as 350 without a problem. You just have to make sure you take all the bulbs out and don't have any of the remaining wires touching anything in the oven.

Preheat, put the headlight on a cookie sheet with a towel, bake, and open them with a screwdriver. Easy as pie.

 

no pun intended?

 

I picked up some more 3M mounting tape and was able to put the front lip back on this evening.

Here is the bumper with the holes drilled to accept the lip.


Here it is all put together along with fog lights put back in.


I forgot to mention that I rewired the fogs as well.

I also had a JWT pop charger set up laying around that would fit a fifth gen, so that made it's way into the engine bay.

 

AE Ftw

 

is the bumper freshly painted?

 

You should color match the grille

 

naw....color matched grilles are finacky (sp?) on 5th gens...its fine as is

 

That front plate kills the look. Sucks that you have to run one.

 

yes

not doing that

I am sticking with the stock look

not for me. I have always lived in this area, so we have always had to have front plates, it does not bother me.

 

When a car has been in a front end collision are you supposed to replace the air bag sensor that is located behind the front grille or can you reuse this sensor?

 

I believe every item is supposed to be replaced that triggers the airbags to go off where the hit was. Honestly if I were you I would replace it either way. You do not want to put everything back together, turn the key, and have the airbags explode again.

 

agreed

 

Maby you can use one of these if you would like to hide the plate when not on the road.
http://www.swiftmotorsports.com/prod...oducts_id=3922

 

This thread is full of win!

 

I don't mean to thread hi-jack...but what is the fitment like for your 5.5 headlight setup? I previously did the 5.5 headlight swap a while back, but something just looked odd with the 2k2/2k3 headlights paired with the 2k/2k1 bumper on my AE. It was as if the lights seemed to be cramped along the bottom edge of the light where it meets the bumper. The bumper just didn't allow enough space for the lights to sit comfortably. For example, I couldn't even put the end of a flathead screwdriver between the bumper and headlight; it was that tight of a fitment. I had issues with the headlights "popping out" of the turn signal ball & socket support due to the lack of space for the headlight, thus creating a gap where the fender meets the turn signal portion of the headlight and throwing the aiming of the HID beam upward. It was so frustrating, so i ditched the lights and did a complete HID retro w/ FX-R projectors and my stock AE housings.

Now, when I took a look at the 2k2/2k3 Maxima bumper and lights on a buddies 2002 Maxima, i noticed that the bumper allowed clearance between the bottom edge of the headlight and the bumper for the lights to sit comfortably in place. I could easily place a small object between the bumper and bottom portion of the headlight.

This led me to believe that using a 2k/2k1 bumper with 2k2/2k3 headlights was only possible as long as you were willing to sacrifice proper fitment due to a possible headlight/bumper clearance issue. Take note: my car was never wrecked and the front bumper has never been adjusted/replace/or whacked out of place to cause an odd fitment.

Check the comparison pictures. The first one is a stock 2k2/2k3 bumper with 2k2/2k3 headlights. Clearly, there is plenty of room between the bumper and bottom edge of the headlight.



You can really see the tight fitment on this picture with my 2k1 bumper and 2k2/2k3 headlights:



Now, with the stock AE lights, you can clearly see that they have plenty of room between the headlight and bumper.



I am not saying you will have problems, and even if you do, the lights still look awesome. There are plenty of members here who have previously completed the 2k2/2k3 headlight swap into their 2k/2k1 Maxima without any complaints. I just couldn't stand the odd fitment and I am just curious if anyone else experienced the same issue as I did.

 

^less room for bugs to get stuck in when you're running away from the cops

 

+1

 

Not sure. I have not tried to fit them yet, I plan to work on that some tonight. Did you get the 5.5 clips that go on the bumper support? Where the headlight clips in at the bottom? I know you are not supposed use the stock 5th gen clips when you do the swap.


*I made progress on the car over the weekend, but I am now waiting on an air bag sensor before I complete the project. I'll post some more pics of what I have been doing in the next few days.*

 

Looks fine to me. I wish my headlights fit like that, I have stupid gaps between the bumper and the lights and they look weird.

 

I am glad you know about the 5.5 clips! And yep, I had them, but after a while my lights would just pop out of the clips whenever I went over harsh faults in the road or potholes. I guess the lights had just enough upward force pressing on them from the bumper to make them pop out of the bottom clips and the turn signal ball and socket mount whenever I'd hit a rough spot on the road. It was easy to just push them back into the clips, but after a while, the clips just became too worn out from the constant popping out to support the light properly. After each pop out, subsequent pop outs were that much easier.

Obviously, you'll let us know how they fit for you, but I am curious to see if someone experiences a similar problem that I had. I could also be a picky SOB, but I hate when things don't fit on my car properly, thus causing gaps and ghetto fitment issues. But man, I was so unhappy because the lights were so sexy!

 

You guys won






Orion angel eyes are for sale if anyone wants them. I decided not to use them, they are brand new never mounted. PM me if you are interested, I'll start a F/S thread for them soon if no one gets intouch with me.

 

the lights are not mounted on the car at this point, I just have them sitting on the bumper to test my wiring.



Thanks to TunerMax for the good write up on doing the 5.5 headlight conversion. Thanks to DaveB for the wiring harnesses, and clips that I needed.



Lights are mounted and the bumper is on the car....now I am only waiting on an air bag sensor before I drive the car.

 

^ YES. Finished product. Looks AWESOME.

 

 

looks great. I think im gonna go with 5.5 headlights afterall. makes that fugly grill look less fugly !

 

i'm in love w/ a skripper

 

Thanks guys! I am happy with the way things are coming together too.

 

is that dirt in teh grille? or is it faded?