93YotaGuy

Thanks for the info!

exist

Considering I never made my own thread I'll just clutter this one up


bake lenses


I used a paint scraper to cut the permaseal glue..


cut the ebay fake projector out..


figure out how much you need to cut so the projector base fits snugly..


get your horizontal adjustment right...


Little big.. Little messy.. Fit fine enough. Epoxy in place, and butyl seal the lenses in place.


Lit, above the cutoff, no glare.


Finished product, textured metallic silver painted shrouds for a "smoked" look, chrome looked way better..


see..

shaeff

I forgot to go into greater detail earlier-

The main reason you don't want HID highs (unless you have bixenon) is because when you flick the high beams on, they take a few moments to warm up. Constant turning off and on of the high beams strains the ballasts and the bulbs. The bulbs will prematurely develop sulphur spots on the inside from not being properly heated up for long enough. Prolonged use of HID highs (that are not bixenon, obviously because they use the same bulb) kills the bulbs quickly, and you never get full use of the lights.

For anyone with a single xenon projector, invest in some good halogen lights for your high beams, put some good bulbs in, and wire them using a good dual 87 (not 87 and 87a) 30A relay.

Even when I do the FXr retrofit on my Pickup, which hopefully will be soon, I'm planning to put on some good halogen lights to supplement the bixenon high beams.

exist

Your supplementary highs wont be necessary with fxr highbeams

shaeff

I know that, as I have FX35 bixenons retrofitted into my M3. But on the e36, there are four headlights. Two outers are the low beams, which is where I run the FX35 projectors wired to work in lo/hi. Then the two inner lights are the factory high beams which come on in addition to the low beams.

I've got mine wired so that on low beams, it's just the fx's, then when I flick my high beams I've got the fx low/ highs, PLUS the halogen highs which I've rewired with 12awg and run Osram Nightbreaker +90 bulbs in. The amount of light on high beam is sickening. (in a good way, of course)

For the first week I ran only the fx35 projectors in lo/hi on my M3 and it was plenty of light. After I wired up the OEM high beams with good wire and bulbs, I get so many compliments on my lights that I get tired of saying "thank you."

On that car I'm running the OEM Nissan/Infiniti Matsushita 35w ballasts, and Philips 85122+ D2S capsules.

EDIT: also, anyone doing a retrofit like this, or running any type of HID setup, keep your bulbs in the 4200-4300k range. It's the most usable output. More color= less output. 6000k has significantly less output usable output than 4300k. (which is one of the reasons OEMs use 4300k)

Philbert

iTrader: (2)

This is a great thread, thanks guys!

Those Bixenons look great as well.

I don't think I've seen it here or on other HID posts....how do you go about permenently mounting the housings/projectors, yet still have adjustability once installed? Seems like it's just a guess and check approach when you glue them in? If I missed it, I apologize!

Phil

exist

Either you use nuts and bolts to secure the projector to the headlight housing (reflector part) OR you can epoxy the projector to the housing. Then you use your stock adjustment screws to set the left and right, and up and down adjustment - but you need to get the rotational adjustment right off the hop.

7x6 lights are incredibly easy to retro.. Cut a hole big enough to fit the projector, epoxy (or nut/bolt) it in place, seal the lens back on and bam.. done.

93YotaGuy

Well I mounted the shroud to the headlight housing with plastic epoxy. I then used reflector tape around the projector and the shroud to hold it in place. From there I used fiberglass resin and cloth to fit around the light to prevent water damage and to keep it looking clean. As far as the aiming is concerned these trucks have a horizontal aind vertical screw for adjustment so if you don't get it perfect it doesn't matter. I set them in there and got them as straight as I could get it before taping.

I'm not finished yet but here is what it currently looks like.







I still have to sand it and paint it but you get the picture.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to work on it for a while. Hopefully i'll finish everything up next week. I'll be sure to post pictures of the progress.

Philbert

iTrader: (2)

Thanks!

aa1911

iTrader: (1)

I'm about to lose my mind and just do a second HID retrofit on my truck; I burned out OSRAM nightbreaker bulb number freakin' 3 in less than 6 months... last two are in the housings... wish me luck

getting really tired of burning out halogens after my harness upgrade. no way that should be burning bulbs, if anything, it should be doing the opposite! it seems to only be the low beam filament that burns out... crapola....

cool retrofits, I like the fiberglass job ^^. I kinda like the nuts/bolts technique to get it in range but still need a good seal to keep water/moisture out. epoxy only covers so much. I did a combo of both on my runner conversion and they were a bit low but just barely got them dialed in with the stock adjustment screws

shaeff

That's really strange. I've had great luck with mine! (3yrs and counting)

That being said, I have some FXr's, Matsushita ballasts, crap ebay housings already disassembled, etc... Just need time to finish it up and install!

drmix

Im pretty sure that the nightbreakers have a one year warranty. You should be able to get them replaced for free if you havent already

shintoroi

very nice and clean