I recently had my front end resprayed and bought a set of Depos to go in. I didn't order angel eyes with them because I didn't know if I'd like them or not and didn't want to drop the money to find out I didn't. My car is also mostly a track car and my mod money goes into the go fast parts and I don't usually have much interest in the bling. However I do take my car to BMW club functions and other general car stuff so I like to keep it looking sharp and with all the other stuff in the car a little bling can't hurt. Well I had this idea a while ago when I had my last car and never went through with it, but while the M3 was at the shop and the Depos were sitting on my dining room table my curiosity got the best of me.



Some people mod their computers, don't ask me why, but they have computer case fans that have CCFL lighting to illuminate them. These CCFLs and power inverters are the same thing used in angel eye kits, but they are much cheaper when purchased with the fans. Different target market. These fans can be found in two sizes, 80mm and 120mm. The 80mm are about the size of the center circle in depos, the 120 should be the same size as the ones found in most angel eye kits but buying four of them might get closer to the price of the other kits available and not be as economical. There are several colors available such as red, green, blue, white, uv, etc.



Since I wasn't interested in spending any more than I had to I picked up the dual light (blue outer ring, red inner) 80mm variety down at Microcenter for $6 + tax each. The dual light versions are probably a good option because the power inverters have two sets of outputs and you can get away with using one power inverter per headlight this way. You could probably splice in both on a single output inverter but I wasn't sure about the load they would have so this seemed like the best route in the 10 minutes I spent looking at them. Alternatively you could run a power inverter per ring (two per headlight).



Here are the ones I picked up.




After you unscrew the CCFL holder from the fan casing you just pop the rings out and clip the leads.





Use little dots of clear silicone to hold them in place.




I just ran the wires up over the top of the reflectors.





Connect the inverters and place them inside the housing out of harms way. These inverters are rather large, but there's plenty of space in the inside center of the housing.





Wire up whatever power source you like. I went with a matte black rocker switch in one of the blanks in front of the shifter.



Here's how they look installed. The wires can't be seen unless you are eye level with the headlights.




At night




Daytime





All in all, they came out amazing especially considering the price. I won't be rolling around with them on all the time or blinging them at the track, but now I've got it for when I want it. Now to go make some spinnaz out of pie pans.