BBD Headlight project

[BigBlueDart]

Hey, all. I posted some time ago that I purchased some JDM headlights to retrofit and put on my 2. With my recent wreck involving replacing a headlight I figured now would be as good a time as any to really start working this project. I don't have a whole lot of pictures yet (sorry), but I will post pictures over the next couple of weeks or so as I work to finish this. I'll just start things off by explaining what I plan to do and how much I've gotten done so far.

First of all I did take a few queues from Font's headlight project. Namely, I've gotten projectors for the high-beams and covers for the turn signal (same kind as Font, in fact). In my case I kept the stock low-beam projectors and will be using the stock HID setup. I picked up a pair of Mitsubishi ballasts that mount to the bottom of the headlight housing. I am getting some new optically clear lenses, though. The high-beam projectors I got are 3" Valeo halogen projectors, which I think can be found in some Volvos and a few other cars. I'm trimming the stock shrouds on the high-beam side and getting some inner shrouds to attach to the projectors. I have a pair of H7 LED headlight units (supposedly stronger than a stock halogen bulb), and I also have some clear lenses ordered for these projectors.

Another big part of this project is going to be the LED rings. I have rings for all three pods in the headlight unit (high-beam, low-beam, turn signal) so I should have some serious bug-eyes going on. I also am putting some blue LED's in through holes in the inner shroud of the high-beam projector. My intention is to get these all wired up as DRL's, though I don't have that completely figured out yet. I may just get them working and connected, ready to plug in once I figure out how to wire them from the ignition, or something.

Lastly, I plan on painting all the shrouds, probably with an alternating color scheme. I'm thinking of smoking the chrome in some sections and using the Duplicolor Metalcast Blue on the others. Not 100% decided on how to do it yet, but I think I have a good idea.

Like I said, I just wanted to get the thread started. A lot of this will be better explained with pictures, which are coming soon. I promise.

 

[BigBlueDart]

Okay, I took some pictures of all my stuff tonight. Still have a ways to go, but here is what I have:

The left headlight. I opened it up, but have otherwise left it alone:

The Valeo high-beam projectors that will be replacing the high-beam reflector lights. The one on the left is disassembled. I had to drill out the bulb opening so that the LED bulbs would fit:

The LED headlight bulbs. Got them off of eBay for about $80. They claim to be brighter than standard halogen:

The middle section of the left headlights (sorry for the dust). I've cut a lot out of the inside of the high-beam shroud (on left) so that it would fit the inner shroud I plan to use with the high-beam projector:

The wiring harness from my current (US) headlight doesn't quite fit the back of this. The cable for the turn signal is a bit too long. The cable for the headlight is a bit too short, and it will need to be split so one goes to the high-beam and the other goes to the HID ballast for the low-beam. The cable for the corner light was just right, though. Sorry for blurry photos:

The Mitsubishi HID ballast I picked up off of eBay fit perfectly on the bottom of the headlight housing:

The HID ballast connects to the ignitor wire through the base of the headlight housing. The ignitors came with the headlights:

The stock low-beam projectors will be used with only the lens being upgraded:

The inner shrouds for the high-beam projectors had holes drilled around it to mount some blue LED's. I went with the GTI-R shrouds for this. There are six points on it, but I'll be cutting off a little on one side which will be concealed by the outer shroud, anyway, so only five blue LED's on each side. Still debating between attaching these directly to the projectors or to the outer shrouds:

The three LED rings I got as well as the smoked lens for the turn signal. I might not be able to use the ring around the turn signal, though, because it isn't a full circle. Don't know if I would be able to successfully modify the ring and cut out a corner:

A crude assembly. Like I said before, a long way to go yet:

 

[Font Motorsports]

Oh, i remember this well. I'll never do it again. haha

 

[BigBlueDart]

I did a bit more work on this project today. First off, I started on the brackets I'll be using to mount the high-beam projectors. I plan on using the stock mounting point for the bracket so it will be adjustable. I've got a bit of work left to do on these:

Another project that I spent some more time on was making an LED ring for the five blue LED's that will be in the high-beam inner shroud. My soldering isn't the best, and I just glopped on a bunch of hot glue to keep wires and stuff in place, but in the end they do light up:

And one more thing I did today was cut the LED rings that will go around the turn signal shroud. They came as full circles, so I had to cut them and then figure out where to solder one of the wires on the other side to make it work:

I'm going to be out of town next week, so I probably won't make much progress until next weekend. Hopefully I get at least the right side headlight finished in time to put it on the car when it gets out of the shop.

 

[Chris_Top_Her]

Is that resistor mounted to the plastic housing? Hard to tell from the photograph.

 

[BigBlueDart]

Is that resistor mounted to the plastic housing? Hard to tell from the photograph.

Yeah, I just got a big piece of PCB perf board and cut it to size. I passed the leads of the LED's and resistors through holes in the board, then I added short segments of wire and stuck the ends through the same holes and soldered on the back side to connect them.

 

[BigBlueDart]

Quick update. I've been working on this a bit since getting back from my business trip. I'm actually getting very close to finishing. Haven't stopped to take pictures to document much, but I'll likely have a final product posted (at least one light, anyway) by the end of the week. Here's a quick rundown of what I've done:

Clear lenses from TRS have been mounted in the projectors. This turned out to be a pain. For the high-beam projectors the new lenses were smaller than the originals, so I had to make a ring out of some thin aluminum sheet to hold it in place. The stock low-beam projectors were actually smaller than the new clear lenses, so I had to take a dremel to the inside of it and whittle it out until I could snap the lens in place. Even then it wasn't seeming to solidly in place, so it is now permanently epoxied. In both cases I think the optics are a bit off. The clear lenses have made the color come out clearer, but I think spacing is a bit off. I may change my setup to a different set of projectors at some point in the future.

I mounted the inner shroud to the stock high-beam shroud. It turned out a bit goobery, but not too bad. Just used some JB Weld to get it in place. I'm hoping that I can do a better job with the other side by being a little more careful with how I trim the shroud so the gaps are tighter and I don't get any epoxy leaking through to the front. Still, it shouldn't be too noticeable after I paint it, which will be over the next couple of days.

I finished the mounting bracket for the high-beam projector, too. It ended up sitting a little higher than I wanted, but not too bad. Basically it's an L-shaped piece of metal that mounts to the stock adjuster screws and pivot anchor. The projector is then mounted with some all-thread to stand it off a bit.

Modifying the wire harness wasn't too hard. The stock harness mounts easily on the back. The turn signal cable was a bit long, so I shortened it. The stock headlight cable was H4, of course, so I had to split it into the high- and low-beam cables using some 9005 pigtails that would match up with the ballast plug and the LED headlight cable.

Things I have left to do are paint the shrouds, mount all the LED stuff, clean up the housing lens, re-seal the housing, and add on the rubber cup seals to the back. Hopefully that will make it ready to just drop into the car and plug in, except for the LED stuff which will need to be wired as DRL's. Fingers crossed and knock on wood.

 

[inspekt]

Sounds awesome. Can't wait to see it!

 

[BigBlueDart]

Okay, I stayed up late working on this so I could get it to the body shop tomorrow. The right headlight is baked. All that's left is to deal with the rubber cups on the back and I'm good to go. Still have to do pretty much everything for the left headlight, and I also need to figure out how to wire my LED's as DRL's, but I should be able to get at least one of these on my car tomorrow, which hopefully I will be getting back tomorrow, or at least some time very soon.

In the meantime, here's a teaser:

 

[BigBlueDart]

A few more pics of the finished product:

 

[scoobs]

I'm thinking of doing a retrofit HID, does you lenses get fogged up or dirty after you opened and did the retrofitting?

Looks good by the way

 

[BigBlueDart]

I haven't put it on the car yet. The car is still at the body shop and they have the light with them, now. I made sure to clean up the interior before resealing them. Assuming I got a good seal off of the existing butyl I think I should be able to avoid any condensation. If it does end up becoming a problem I might try some moisture absorbing packets.

 

[cosh68]

This is awesome, wish i had the know how and paitence to do this......

Shaun.......

 

[BigBlueDart]

When I do the other headlight I'll be taking my time more and can probably do a better job documenting it. I can put a write-up here when I'm done for anyone that wants to try a similar project.

 

[scoobs]

Cool!
I want to do a simple Retrofit HID conversion, I'm not going all out like you bro

 

[BigBlueDart]

Working on the second headlight. Figured I'd add some pictures I missed before. I epoxied the inner shroud into the high-beam shroud after some trimming. A lot cleaner this go around as I taped it to keep the goobers from coming through. I used JB Weld.

 

[Font Motorsports]

Lot's of work huh?

 

[BigBlueDart]

Well, I love a good project.

My wife? Not so much.

 

[Font Motorsports]

I hear yah.

Well, I love a good project.

My wife? Not so much.

 

[BigBlueDart]

BEHOLD!

Sorry for the crappy cell phone camera. One of these days I just might invest in a decent picture taker.