Eons after I started, I am finally finished. Well technically I still have to JB weld the headlights to protect against water but I am still aligning the projectors so that will have to wait.

The wiring was a pain in the A$$ so I would have to at this time not recommend using E46 projectors if you have no electrical knowledge. The Hellas are much easier to wire from what I've read.

HOWEVER, my E46 output is FANTASTIC.

Went for a drive last night and DAMN it has an awesome beam pattern! The cutoff is beautiful while driving, especially when behind other cars though I have yet to see it on a white wall to have any real idea what it really looks like color wise and sharpness. High beams are INSANE. BLOWS my halogens and and even my 7000k Z-max/Hanabi kit I used to have on there away. NO comparision.

I am moving to CA in about 5 days so I won't be able to do the fine tuning until I get out there but I thought I'd give you the teasers. Enjoy- I know I am!

Total project cost: $425= WELL worth the cost.

 

Great job, can't wait to see the pics of the light output.

 

welcome to the projector club

 

Welcome to the club Rowan...your headlights are pimping. The wiring should have been the easiest part. How about some super close pics of the projectors headlights so we can really see your craftsmanship? If you're like me, you'll be itching to high beam someone with those babies. I'm looking forward to seeing your cutoff and beam pattern pics once you get your projectors aimed.

 

damn that looks good..props for the great work

 

where in cali? the e46'sw are AWESOME!!!

 

Looks pretty sweet man.

 

Meanbean, here are close ups. Hopefully I'll have time tonight to take some night shots...





edit: trying to decide if I want to blacken my headlights out but keep my bezel chrome. What are your opinions?

1) keep it as is?
2) blacken only the headlight
3) blacken both the headlight and the bezel

 

keep it as is, never really took a liking to the blacked out "cyclops looking" headlights..

 

Looks good...Keep the lights as they are...looks more stock.

 

Thanks for the pics. It looks like you used aluminum ducting for the shroud, correct? The projectors also seem to be mounted a little bit back from the front of the headlight. Has this caused you any unwanted glare? As for the paint scheme, it depends on what kind of overall look you are shooting for. I think the all black headlight is much more aggressive/sporty while the current all chrome look is more refined/luxurious. You could also consider doing the AE Mod combining the "best of both worlds."

 

Meanbean. Your eyes are sharp! Aluminum ducting is correct. Too bad it didn't work lol. I need to go back and add some more, there is still a lot of light escaping from the sides.

There may be a little glare from it being back a bit but not much that I can see at night so I am happy with the positioning.

If I can manage to reduce the escaping light with better shrouding, I will leave it chrome. If not, I may suck it up and blacken out the headlight for the sake of better lighting. Haven't decided yet since I do prefer the look I have now...

more pics as the sun goes down

 

look great the way they are, but i think black would look great

 

HOT!

KEEP the stock color! It looks sooooo good.

97 corner lights would make it look even better!

 

very very nice........I may try this in my buddies max.. Where at in cali are you looking to go?

 

do not paint them, they look great!

 

Thanks all for the compliments. I really don't want to paint them but I DO want to get rid of some of the escaping light. Any suggestions on ways to shroud the light but not obstruct the bulky solenoid mechanism for the high beams?

Wolfpack, we are moving to Mountainview, CA. I got into the Stanford residency program in Palo Alto and San Jose so we are splitting the difference between the two. Can't wait to get out to the SF Bay area! WOOT!

 

looks sickkkkk cant wait any body done a rotofit in cefiro? what projectors are recommended i was looking to do cefiro with rotofit along with my 6000k hid kit think it would look niouce

 

That looks sweet as hell

 

looks awesome rowan! can't wait to see night pics...ttys!

 

...

 

Rowan, you can use several things to block out the escaping light. The easiest way would be for you to add 1-2 layers of aluminum tape over the aluminum ducting that you already have in place. This tape will match your headlight color and will be thick enough to withstand the heat produced by the HID bulb and still block out the escaping light. My testing confirmed this by using aluminum tape & ducting as the shroud and with the HID bulb powered on for ~2hrs. The tape would get hot but could not come off. In fact, I had to cut it out in order to remove the shroud after my testing was done. If you want a cleaner look to your retro, then you could try to add aluminum sheet medal on the outside of the aluminum ducting. You can keep it in place using small rivets/screws or JB Weld. While I was doing my retro, I experimented with many other materials before I settle on my custom fiberglass & ABS Mix shroud/bezel. Good luck to you.

 

hmm. was the fiberglass/ ABS hard to work with? I may just try that when I get x-country! Keep up the good ideas. Meanbean, you seem to know your way around materials!

Oh yeah, just so people know why the wiring is tougher with the E46. They designed it so it takes one power source to open the solenoid for the highbeams but a totally different one to KEEP it open. Seems overly complicated and Hella only uses one power source which makes more sense to me. Took me a little while to figure that out. (I am an electrical noob...)

For now, it's on to more glorious projects... Packing and moving.

 

looks good!

 

When I was doing researching for my projector retro, I also read up on fabrication techniques. This included working with several materials like fiberglass and ABS plastic. From my perspective, it is not very difficult to work with those materials but I tend to pick up new things easily. I decided to go this route because it was the best way to stop 100% of the light coming from the side of the projector while still allowing the installation to look professional and custom. So while the aluminum duct + tape would be functional as a shroud, the presentation was not good enough for me. If you are going to be opening your lights again anyways then I say give it a try.

 

Are all the materials Home Depot sourced?

 

Yes, most of the materials can be found at your local Home Depot. Just in case you are wondering, the ABS mix was made using acetone mixed with ABS shavings. This created a sludge that I poured into a mustard/ketchup bottle for easy application.

 

How long does it take for the abs mixture to dry? Can you mold the sludge immediately? When it's dry can it be dremeled for fine tuning and better fit?

Sounds promising! I like how clean your set up looks!

JetBlackMax- I would highly recommend using 4100k Phillips HID bulbs or some similar kelvin and oem type bulb. Your HID kit bulb is probably not D2S so it won't fit most projectors.

I don't think anyone has tried to put E46 projectors into Cefiro headlights though maxima8624 has put single xenon TSX projectors in his Cefiros.

I believe TSX projectors are around the same size of TL projectors but I could be wrong. My Bosch E46 projectors are smaller but the ZKW E46 are larger and are a VERY tight fit into our stock headlights. George aka Geo1317 managed to do it but he said it was a Bitch to fit.

I would rank the mechanical retrofitting to be 6-7/10 for getting it to fit perfectly. The wiring of my Bosch E46 (3 wires) is harder than E55 or even the newer ZKW E46 projectors (2 wires).

If you can, try finding TL bi-xenons for your cefiros but makes sure the dimensions work first

check out this other thread I started a while back. There is some good info about types of projectors, dimensions, beam patterns, etc. there.



http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....ojector+thread

good luck!

 

Couple of questions how long did this take you to do? What was the difficulty on the rotofit on a scale of 1 to 10? Do you know if these will fit in a pair of cefiro head lights. Im looking to buy cefiro's in the next couple of weeks and rotofitting some E46's in them because I love the look of the E46's. Along with my hid kit 6000k that i already have thanks in advance

 

i dont know why but comparing them to other projectors on maxima's, they look a lot more stock. Definitely dont paint them, but definitely change those corners...they dont match at all. 97's would do the trick

 

The drying time is dependent on the size of the ABS shavings that you use. Larger peices will require longer drying time. The thicker sludge is easier to mold but will still require some drying time before you can start to mold it. Yes, it can be dremeled like any other plastic once dried. Thanks for your props.

 

Mecca, I think they look more stock because I used the M3/BMW chrome bezel which matches out headlight chrome. Ideally I want to put the totally clear corners on the side but they are out of stock everywhere...

 

wow...great timing on this thread & a great job!!!
I just bought a whole set today (2003 m3 projectors w/hid's)
Same type I believe as yours.

I will not be doing this until late summer though due to many many hours at work trying to fininsh up a project.

once again, GREAT JOB! (and don't paint them)

 

Welcome to the club. Looks great.

 

Thanks BlueC. Freaking took me long enough! lol. Sorry for the delay with night pics guys, been busy packing!

 

ur moving to bay area? maybe i'll see around

 

cool, a new yorker coming to the bay...i guess ill see you around, im in san jose and i go to school in cupertino.

you probably wont notice me tho, my maxima looks too stock. only way you can tell im modded is the fact that im lowered, i painted the NISSAN emblem on the grill black (so it blends in with the grill) and i have clear bumper lights, besides that my maxima looks like any other white maxima with sawblades.

 

Happy Rice and Maximazation, I will definitely look out for you folk. When I get half a chance, maybe I'll have a BBQ. We're living in Mountain View and our complex has a pretty nice common green area. Perfect for BBQ's!

I am always looking out for any modded maxes so you may get a highbeam flash and a thumbs up from me!

Hopefully I will pass inspection with all the junk now on my car

 

Are you happy with the alignment? It took me months to get it perfect, and every couple months I still have to double check them, cause they like to move a bit on really hard bumps (deep potholes I try to avoid).

Its the damn high beam solenoid on the E55s that make it hard to keep them level. Basically it makes them a tad too tall for our housings, but I found a way for them to sit perfect, took lots of thinking, but every now and then they like to tilt one way, rarely does it happen though.

 

Right now, grossly the alignment is fine. I need to fine tune it once I get to Cali which will most likely take forever. I can then finally JBweld the back.