Projector headlight retrofit

[eclipsh]

I've decided I'm just not satisfied with the light output of the stock headlights. I want to retrofit some projectors into them. Here are some poor shots of what the headlights I'm working with output. Both use a 50 watt halogen bulb.

This is a VW projector from a New Beetle. My wife and I owned a New Beetle and the headlights were great. I never felt like I was out driving them like I do with my stock Mitsu headlights.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/002.jpg

Here is a shot of the light output.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/007.jpg

Here is the stock Galant headlight without the plastic lens.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/005.jpg

Here it is with the plastic lens.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/006.jpg

You can see that the light isn't dispersed nearly as well as the light from the VW projector. Way more of a hot spot effect.

Here is the VW projector through that lens. Kind of a crappy picture due to balancing the combo on my knee and my wife's car casting a big shadow in the middle. I'll see if I can get another one later. You can still see it has more even light dispersal and a decent cut-off.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/008.jpg

I'm going to try this setup with the stock lens in place and see how it goes. If need be I may grind down some of the ridges inside the stock mitsu lens to see if I can improve the lighting effects.

[Joshua42007]

Thats awsome man, good luck with everything. Hope it works out good, keep us posted.

[02redgalant]

man theres gotta be a way to get rid of the fluted lense even if its just cutting a hole a replacing it with clear lense :/

[eclipsh]

Better pictures:

VW light output.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/010.jpg

Here is the stock headlight with the plastic lens.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/011.jpg

Here is the VW projector through the stock Galant lens and the stock headlight side by side. You can see it has more even light dispersal and a decent cut-off. Not a whole lot brighter though.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/013.jpg

Here they are with just the VW projector and no plastic Galant lens.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/014.jpg

[Reelax]

if you really want to do a retrofit, might as well do an HID retrofit... about the same amount of work, but the results will be 10x better w/ HID. keep in mind, HID projectors will perform much better than halogen projectors since halogen projectors were never meant to control the amount of light put out by HID... so you'd probably want to use some HID projectors instead.

[eclipsh]

I considered it but the cost was too much for me. The projectors I have cost me $50 and bulbs are cheap. For what I'd spend on HID I could buy a set of forged rods for my future engine build. In the end if I'm not happy with this I'll do it again with HID once funds are available.

[johnygezony]

Throw some HID's in them !

[eclipsh]

Are you donating a set to the cause? ;)

[Galant306m]

There is a vie on youtube that shows how to make new lenses and you being a engineer I know you can pull it off ill post a link to the guys videos for you when I get home from work

[03-Galant-ES]

I did a retrofit on fogs for Halogen projectors on the 8G and I have halogen projectors in heads with HIDs the lines arent as good as with HID projectors, so if you get a chance do it with them instead. All I can say is good luck with the project.

[qnz]

that is true. my projector retrofit cost around $500.

HIDs in halogen projectors also would not look as sharp.

If you swap out the fluted lenses for some clear lenses, you light output would be a little more intense as well.

[DOHCstunr]

Dood very sweet.

I always thought the projector beam pattern would look much much worse through the 7g lens. But man, that actually looks pretty decent. The width of the beam is dramatically improved, and its quite clear that you aren't going to blind anyone. Yes the cutoff isn't perfect, but its still nice and flat to where it will eliminate HID glare for oncoming drivers.

I'm willing to bet it will look 1000x better with HID projectors through my glass world-spec headlamps, from the clarity alone.

seriously eclipsh, you keep doing things I wanted to try but didn't want to pioneer for our cars because I didn't want to invest in it and fail.
You're innovation has brought a lot to the table in the short time you've been with us.
Keep it up man!

[02redgalant]

There is a vie on youtube that shows how to make new lenses and you being a engineer I know you can pull it off ill post a link to the guys videos for you when I get home from work



link or bann

[DOHCstunr]

i'd like to see pics of your housings. like how you mounted the projectors and such.

[evil-G-nius]

Anyone have pics of that Burgundy 7G with the BMW projector retrofit? That G was sick

*edit* Found it!

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/607309

[eclipsh]

Sorry, haven't been back to this thread for a while. Thanks for the compliment DOHCstunr. I actually just installed the one headlight into my car this weekend. After some adjustment I had great lighting on the driver's side with no hot-spots and a great big hot spot on the passenger side where the stock light is. It isn't really brighter but I used a cheap bulb to test it. I've got a good set of bright bulbs I'll throw in now that I know it works. When I get a chance in a month or so I'll pull the housing back apart and make things a bit neater. Then I'll take some pictures of how it is all mounted up.

EDIT: Just looked at that link. It looks like BMW uses the same housing as VW. No surprise really. It is also very similar to the way I mounted mine. I cut some sheet metal out and tucked it in around the lens though so I didn't get light shooting out in the wrong directions. I also used high-temperature silicone to hold things in place.

[kolio]

its good you got projectors in there now but you really should see how the worldspecs look.i'll get a pick of the cutoffs and lines. i don't need projectors

good job none the less

[Galant306m]

link or bann

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imIiglkq7HA

[eclipsh]

I actually watched all four of those videos before I built my headlight. The info on lining up the projector in the housing is very handy.

Kolio, I'd like to see those pictures. I'm toying with fabricating a non fluted lens for the USDM lights out of plexiglass this summer. I've never done such a thing but the same principal as the guy in the video uses for vacuum molding should apply if I build a mold of the stock lens.

[Galant306m]

I actually watched all four of those videos before I built my headlight. The info on lining up the projector in the housing is very handy.

Kolio, I'd like to see those pictures. I'm toying with fabricating a non fluted lens for the USDM lights out of plexiglass this summer. I've never done such a thing but the same principal as the guy in the video uses for vacuum molding should apply if I build a mold of the stock lens.

Yea just have a usdm lens and vacuum a new one over it, should be easy.

[eclipsh]

Actually, to make the lens the same size I'll need to make a plaster mold of the lens. I'll build clay up around the edges, pour in plaster and let it set. That should give me a perfect mold of the stock lens. After that I'll pull the clay/stock lens out, drill a small hole on the edge of the mold, heat up the plexiglass, lay it over the mold and suck it down in using a shop vac. My parents have a lot of experience in making molds etc. I got the info on how to do it from them :)

[DOHCstunr]

badass.

[mko]

do it man, Id love to see that

Also, maybe you wouldnt want to do that. All aftermarket headlights do not have reflectors in the lenses, they are all plain plexiglass and thats why the light output sucks. heres a picture of stock projector headlights where the lenses do have reflectors. I even had one of these trying to make it work for the galant

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/4/356/1081/38388040014_large.jpg

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/4/227/101/38065050025_large.jpg

[Galant306m]

Actually, to make the lens the same size I'll need to make a plaster mold of the lens. I'll build clay up around the edges, pour in plaster and let it set. That should give me a perfect mold of the stock lens. After that I'll pull the clay/stock lens out, drill a small hole on the edge of the mold, heat up the plexiglass, lay it over the mold and suck it down in using a shop vac. My parents have a lot of experience in making molds etc. I got the info on how to do it from them :)

yea that's a great idea i was just thinking since lexan is so flexable you could just form around the outside and with the added shrink rate of plastic i would actually come out close enough to where you could put them in.

[eclipsh]

I went ahead and built the second headlight and snapped some pictures.

Here is a shot of the stock headlight and the projector light output side-by-side in the car and fully assembled. The one on the left is the projector, the one on the right is stock. You can see how much more even the lighting is and how much wider it is spread out.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/017-1.jpg

Here's the light output of the new headlight. It is just as bright as the first it just looks different in the photo.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/076.jpg

Here's what it looks like all assembled.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll270/eclipsh/078.jpg

[phizzalot]

the light output looks great but its ashame the fluttering in the lens dosen't allow you to see all the hard work you put into it :(

[Spartan251]

That's awsome man. Good work. Can't wait to see them with a non fluted lens.

[raks_22]

get blackhousing your headlights and gonna look better,