Okay so long story short been working on my quad retrofit for a long time because ive busy with school havent had much time for it.
anyways You will hopefully see that the outside lip of the "Gatling Gun" shroud is touching the headlight lens. Ive tried several different ways to get it to not touch. such as trimming some of the shroud so it sits deeper in ...actually trying to move the whole bracket back.(pictured later with the ball joint thing) The fx projector is mounted with screws that are on a bracket on the reflector but i jbwelded the screws so thats out of the question
So my last idea is to change the gatling gun shroud which i have now to the GTI-R shroud at theretrofitsource.com
What do you guys think. i think the gti-r will look good complimenting the other shroud i used for my tsx projectors

Heres pics



i even tried shaving down the little nub behind the ball joint thats part of the housing to move the fx projector back

theres bigger pictures in my flicker if you want to see
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10382864@N06/

 

whoa, your fx35 projector is sitting WAY tooo forward!

how did you mount them to the reflector bowls? i think you should start there,

heres a pic of how far out they should sit and still have clearance behind the headlights





pics of how you mounted them would help!

 

also, with another shroud, the projector body will be showing from the sides because its mounted sooo far out!

moving the projector back should be your #1 option right now!

 

interesting.. retro looks badass

 

you can see in the last pic the best of me trying to shave down that stub part..i can shave it down more but onthe opposite ball joint its a different height and that one is flat with the plastic of the housing. couldnt really get a good pic of it. but if i shave them down more ..the outside stub will be probably flat and the inside one will be inset and i wasnt sure if i wanted to do that.
Chico. hope these pics help there maybe a 1/4" out further that yours. Thats a lot sorta in my case since the gatling shrouds stick out flush with the projector lens. where as the GTI-r wouldnt. and i could probably get a pvc fitting or make somethign that would cover that small 1/4" that the GTI-r shroud doenst cover.

and 52 views and 2 replies. If you dont have any ideas. let me know what shroud i should stick with the gatling or gti-r

 

yeah bro, your projector needs to sit back just a tad farther back, it would completely fix your problem

with any other shroud (at least ones available at the retrofit source) you would run into another problem, the shroud will hit the top and bottom part of the headlight trim, when i used the e46 replicas on the retro i did, i had to grind down the chrome ring part of the light trim, i was able to do that because the halos hid the grinded part 100%, otherwise i would have had to push the projector back even further, and run in to clearance problems on the driver side rear.

did you trim your fx35's to the max?





the one on the right is fully trimmed, and was just enough to push back to the appropriate position!




this is the problem you will run into with any other shroud, you see how the shroud is off center? its because the oem Trim plastic is pushing the bottom inwards, and that wasnt even fully closed. i remedied this by trimming the chrome ring on the factory plastic.

hope this helps!

 

Ive already had to trim the headlight trim. And the gti-r actually are a smaller diameter. there 107mm and the gatling are 120mm and what ever is not covered ill paint black and ill try and see if i can find some kind of plastic to cover it. This is kinda why i was leaning towards the gti shrouds because you will see the corner of the fx at the bottom that protects the sheild loop part and the sides are not covered by a 1/4" and that you will only see if you look at an angle. But i wasnt sure if the gti shrouds would look good thought.
i have enought clearance in the back of headlight when they are the car to take the bulb out thats kind of what i was going by when i was fitting them. and yes the fx are trimmed to max
Thats the problem im having with having the shroud hit the outside lens is that its pushing the fx projector beam down...
the other option is the not crank down the screws on the headlight bout 1/8" from tight and just fill the crack with some butyl tape which i have anyway to seal the holes in the back of the headlight

 

trimming the top is ok because you cant see it, but i had to trim the bottom as well!

not closing the headlight completely to give you more room will cause you several problems,

1. the lense will not sit flush with the rest of the car, IE. the bumper, fenders, hood.

2. that gap that you will fill in, will be a big opening for water and condensation to get in and cause you headaches

3. you will still have barely any room left in there and adjusting the lights after theyre closed will be hard if not impossible!


are the stock adjustments still useable on you retro? they should be, as this is how ive done all my retros!

youre right, to remove the bulb and ballast from the retro i pictured above, removing the light was necessary, but its a small sacrifice for the room you gain, or in your case, NEED. besides, bumper removal takes like 5 minutes, lol, ive done it a million and 1 times! lol

those gtr shrouds "might" work, buts its money out the window if they dont, so thats your choice

1 last choice would be to get the 08+ lenses, the ones with the nipples, lol i think that would give you the room you need as well!

 

I was just looking back at thier website and i saw these and i think these may work better coverage wise and they have a similiar look the the ones i have now
Yea that sucks you had to trim the bottom..did you trim the headlight trim or the shroud.
And yea i was thinking about the fit and finish of the bumper if i didnt screw the lens tight. Been kinda just throwing ideas out there for a while now
these are 125mm diameter still 2mm smaller but they are deeper then the gti...
Decisions decisions.

Also..The 08 is no guarantee fitment as in the shroud fitting and i would still have to buy the whole headlamp to find out. If the apollo or gti fit i would sell the gatling if the gti or apollo dont find ill just return or sell them
No one has anything to say besides chico? cmon ppl. Hopefully more ppl get off work soon

 

lol, SL is dead nowadays, full of noobs with no help, i think part of it is the mods cracking down on everyone

anyways

those are the shrouds i was gonna get for my next retro, using the fx35 projectors for that same reason, so i think these will work for you

yes, i trimmed the acctual headlight trim, not the shroud, but i got enough clearance to be able to use the factory adjustments

 

yea i what i did was mounted the fix to the bracket so it was straight and had decent hieght and when i use the factory adjustment i put right around the middle andthe beam is level to where it needs to be...my tsx is another story i did the spring method and mounted them to my housing. because i mounted them to the reflector and made bracket for it and when i was baking my headlights it cracked...so yea

bump

 

lol, spring method sucks

i fiberglass a lexan sheet to the back of the reflector, and use bolts and long screws to get it as perfect as i can, but once you close them up and mount them they are never 100%, thats why i leave the factory adjustments intact

ive done this 4 times succesfully, seriously, push the projector back, those shrouds are sickness, i dont know how hard it would be, but this is what i would be trying!

 

which shrouds...the apollo. i tried the bracket thing but i think there was too much stress on it from the highbeam because the stock reflector peice was so thin. but i didnt wanna try fiberglass i just jbwelded it but the cheap papermache reflector cracked..so i did the spring method

 

^yeah, i jb welded my first retro, and it failed too, fiberglass is 10x better, it isnt going anywhere, lol

i still use jb weld to lock the bolts to the screws to prevent them from backing out and allowing the projector to move (basically like threadlocker, lol)


sickness was refering to the gatlin shrouds, they look sweet!

 

i wanna do this now, whats the cost approx from start to finish?

 

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/tc-tech-diy-1818/hid-retrofit-custom-31077/
check that out ..
but back on topic i think i may go with the apollo... save me a lot of headaches and i can finally be done with them

 

if you provide the lights, shrouds, and projectors, i can put them together for a nominal fee, pm me if your interested, dont want to thread jack!

 

going to bed bump
apollo, gti-r, or stick with the gatling shoud

 

no one wants to help me make a decision after 195 views

 

they all look good man.. just stay with the one that fits better