maximus96

my plan is to paint the black part of the headlight silver, it won't match the silver on the car, but it'll be different from other tc. also thinking of wiring a row of leds in the eyebrow area but not sure if i'm going to tie them to parking or turn signals yet. if i wire them to the turn signals then i'll have to do something about the stock signal light as it'll look funny both blinking. also going to wire a of CCFL halo ring on each side as angel/demon eyes, those will be wired to parking.

i also want to do something to light up the high beam area like the mercedes running lights or city lights. probably use LEDs for that.

Tools Needed:
Phillips Head screw driver
Dremel, or some other brand of rotary tool
Butane torch
Soldering Iron & solder
Wire stripper and crimper

Equipment Needed:
Oven

Parts Needed:
TSX projectors $200
HID ballasts $150
HID D2S bulbs $75
Bezel/Shrouds $5-100 (huge range, depending on what you want to use, its entirely optional since the TSX are fully enclosed)
CCFL halo rings $50 (optional)
spare headlights $282 (you may or may not need spares)
50 LEDs $20 (optional)
wires, relays, screws, bolts, nuts, misc - $50 (probably an inflated estimate)

The bare essentials needed are the projectors, ballasts, and bulbs. I got my set for around $330 shipped. You don't need to buy TSX projectors, you can buy german made Hella or Bosch projectors for around $150 sometimes, or you can buy S2000 projectors for $350 a pair. i feel the TSX is a great compromise in price/performance. And overall, the japanese projectors (all made by Stanley) outperform the german counterparts in beam spread and intensity. you should research the different kinds of projectors available and their prices on www.hidplanet.com/forums

Output Comparison

stock 9006 sylvania that came with the car


stock unmodified TSX projector with 4100k Osram D2S bulb




modified TSX projector - #8 sized washers were used to create more color at the cutoff line. the basic concept is to increase the distance between the front projector lens and the bowl of the projector to create more color, but at the expense of blurring the cutoff line.

Baking:

Here's one virgin headlight



There are four (4) screw on the back of the housing, remove them.


Getting ready to bake headlight. I used 250F for about 15-20 minutes



Headlight barely fits inside my oven



Slowly and carefully pry the front clear lens apart from the black housing. You'll hear crackling sounds, probably not for the faint of heart





finally, The front lens came off



Preping/Test Fitting:

Took the black piece off



Orange reflector pops right out, i'll probably paint over it to get rid of the orange



Eyebrows held on by a few clips, Remove the eyebrow







Test fitting the tsx projector





Test fitting some bezels, here's the E46 bi-xenon





Range cover





A4 bezels



Reflector removal



this 8mm bolt needs to be unscrewed all the way out.





these two clips need to come out as well, a needle nose plier comes in handy



reflector removed from housing

Masking






carefully mask off the chrome parts. i used blue painter's tape because its easier to peal off and won't harm the chrome





first coat of high heat primer





here they are after 3 coats and primer with wet sanding between each coat





first coat of high heat aluminum.






here are some mock ups of the what it'll look like when finished.

Cutting and Mounting




here are just a couple of pictures of the initial steps of mounting the projectors, i used a dremel to cut out the rectangular outline in the reflector. wear a mask and eye protection, you get a sh!tload of white dust when cutting the plastic chrome. you don't want to be breathing in that stuff. with this opening, it looks like i might be able to fit the projector in without the backside extening out much more than the stock setup. As all of you know, there's not much room behind right behind the headlights.




after a failed attempt at mounting onto the reflector bowl, i decided to cut out most of the back.


mounting bracket made from a piece of sheet metal


same bracket jb-welded to the reflector






test mounting the projector

LED eyebrow

leds off


leds on.


the eyebrows will be used for turn signal.


almost finished with the other one. need to clean up the wiring.


pretty bright. i think its bright enough for turn signals

LED sidemarker





i used 10 3000 mcd yellow leds on each side.

Remove headlight

start by removing bumper, there's a tech article if you don't know how to do that


take these 2 bolts off


one more on the side, then unclip a plastic piece on the bottle and the headlight comes off

Mounting



projector mounted and aimed, then removed again because i still have to fit the front piece back on


this is where i plan to mount the ballast on the passenger side


driver side, might be hard to get to when the headlights back on. i have to rethink this side


here's a pic of the side marker and eyebrow blinker on


Re-assembled headlights




Retrofit - DONE-







finally finished. I'll post picture of them on the car tomorrow. this project took up too much of my time but its definately worth it. As you can see, I ended up using the E46 shroud. I think overall the project came out pretty good. I'm happy, but the wife is not because I spent so much time on it. Now after a long time of slacking and a few nights of rush, its finally done, and right on time to enter the August tech article contest.








here's a cutoff picture from when i was aiming the projectors. the output is not that blue in person since i used 4100k phillips bulbs. I didn't adjust the camera and just took a quick picture. the cutoff, on the otherhand, was full of blue from modding the tsx projectors with 3 washers.


daytime pic, everything off


parking lights on


HID on






eye brow signals. i changed the color on the mirror signal too, might as well.






Doc Isotopes air diversion panel, painted silver to match the headlights.


a night shot from the driver seat

Capping the back

a 3" pipe cap from ACE hardware


marked the where the bulb is


here i drilled a 1-1/4" hole




...like a glove...


and here it is on the car...i'll wash the car this weekend...likes like it should seal pretty well since it fits in there pretty snug.

THAT'S ALL FOLKS! THANKS FOR LOOKING!

toastbox

Hey Max, where did you get your spare set from, and how much? I was thinking the same thing, just haven't gotten around to that part yet

maximus96

got them from trdsparks

toastbox

thanks!

DynomyteSW

sounds like you have yourself a plan... good luck cant wait to see photos!

604toaster

good job

reagulator

keep us updated

daewonder

words cannot explain my jealousy. good luck man!

taek

JEEZ!!

-taek

604toaster

WoW. See if you can wire in LEDs to light up ur eyebrows as turn signals too.

teksno

this is awsome.... im so gonna use this to do my retro fit... when i get around to it.

otnieltc

good luck. I'll be glad to help with online advice...looks great. I think that the best option is the e46 bezel. Thats the one I used.

Limey

This is awesome, if you continue at this level of detail, you should have it published as a book.

Good job.

By the way, could you maybe put together a shopping list of what you're using and estimated cost, I'm curious how expensive something like this would be. Thanks.

Fsu1dolfan

good stuff ....cant wait to see more!!!!

Lonely_Raven

Wonderful visual writeup thus far!

Good luck with your project, and keep up the photos!!

TurboMe

\

great idea! you will be making $$$ if u can :D

DTRUONG_112

keep it up man.

Kaeon

Did you wear oven mits when you pryed it off? Make sure to take a bunch of pics and list details so we can put this in the tech section... Ive started cleaning up the posts into one big post... PM me for any help you need with this...

BTW: Your doing a great job...

maximus96

my plan is to wire up a row of about 20-25 white leds and put them in the eyebrow. i think they're 16000 mcd leds, should be bright enough.

apparently the black paint on the black piece is painted over a chrome surface. is there any way to remove the paint but leave the chrome? i have paint thinner at home but afraid it'll be too strong and eat thru the chrome as well. i'd like to see how it looks in chrome if possible before painting it aluminum silver like i had originally planned. any ideas are appreciated.

maximus96

updated original post with shopping list. oven mits helped when i removed the cookie sheet from the oven, but were too clumsy to pry the front lens with. just suck it up and use your hands.