HID Retrofit complete, time for more pics!

Recently got some new plates, and since i also just finished my HID retrofit, i decided to go and take some pics of how it looks at the moment
Recent mods:
HID Retrofit w/Valeo D1S projectors (from an Audi S4), 4300k D1S bulbs and Osram ballasts
Removed front window tint (JDM style! No tint on front windows allowed)... Actually i am going to remove all the tint soon, so i can put my green tint on, but decided to leave it like this for a bit
A couple of little interior accessories. Took the Fusa off cos its more of a USDM thing these days.
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1694.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1695.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1696.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1697.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1705.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1707.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1709.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1717.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1720.jpg[/IMG]
 
Oh and a shot of the retrofit output:
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/ba5f2f29.jpg[/IMG]

wow man that turned out really nice. As always your car looks wonderful.

Ride with me if you want to live!!!  Red led's ASAP!  Hahaha, j/k.  These pics are nicer than what you showed me..holding out huh?  Haha...

very nice looking.  Do you have close ups of the headlights?  Is there any gap between the retrofit and the stock shields??

looks great man i would like to see your housings as well

looks good. seems like a fairly simple headlight to retro. good job.

DOPE!!!!! NICE WORK DOM!
 
Your car is lookin good!! :biggthumpup:

very nice ride. good job on the retros.

Looks great.  Very nice cutoff.  So im guessing you got the right glue this time :biggthumpup:

retrofit looks good dom.

pimp!  very nice!

Ok, since i got a few questions on how I did the retrofit, I will show some pics of the progress... This was not such an easy retrofit as i expected, since the stock housings are so small, and aftermarket clear lights didnt fit in the housings.
 
Btw, el-pres the pics i showed you were from my camera phone, while the silicone was still curing - hadnt even finished fitting them to the car!
Stock housing with reflector removed
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/a769c0d2.jpg[/img]

Enlarging the hole at the back
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/a1570db0.jpg[/img]

Aluminium bracket which will use stock mounting brackets, and hold the projector tight
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/04f2203b.jpg[/img]

Painting housing and bracket with matt black
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/c4dc5799.jpg[/img]

Bracket installed and projector mounted
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/4d1128e7.jpg[/img]

Rear clearance
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/9834ceae.jpg[/img]

Ebay clear 5.75" clear lens, marked for cutting (the projector is mounted about 1/2" below the centre of the light, because thats where the stock halogen bulb sat)
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/10db3f53.jpg[/img]

Cut and ground down (this took ages to get right)
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/99660e7d.jpg[/img]

Test fit
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/5729cb3f.jpg[/img]

First attempt at a shroud, using plumbing supplies
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/98c5be1e.jpg[/img]

Glued in place (first mistake)
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/79831c35.jpg[/img]
 
Construction of extension of rear of housing, angled up to make room for the D1S connector
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/e4347361.jpg[/img]
 
Rear view
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/62991e85.jpg[/img]
 
Shroud mounted and lens put on. Ebay light was a bit smaller than my stock lights (actual visible part was the same, but the sides needed to be built up with silicone)
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/28ac2b9c.jpg[/img]
 
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/165c6408.jpg[/img]
 
Mounted in the car... Looking back, i really think this looked nasty
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/104a294c.jpg[/img]
 
Then about 30 minutes after taking those pics, the glue i used to hold the custom shrouds together vaporized, crystallising on the headlight lens, and of course the shroud fell to pieces
The plastic part also deformed in the heat so i decided to get something a bit better (never was happy with the look of it anyway)
 
So i bought some thick ribbed shrouds off another retrofitter, and i think they look great. Has more of a 'deep pipe' look (lens is recessed into the shroud), and the reflections of the ribs gives it a clean look in the lights. Luckily the glue only left an oily deposit on the lens, so that was able to be salvaged
 
(cell phone pics)

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/5650b161.jpg[/img]
 
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/2384810a.jpg[/img]
 
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/2e62daf4.jpg[/img]

Final outcome:
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/77e0c3f1.jpg[/img]
 
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/068e9e25.jpg[/img]
 
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Retrofit/Progress/faf6c7d0.jpg[/img]

WOW! Makes me appriciate them even more after seeing the hard work you put! Congrats! Clean ass retrofit! :biggthumpup:
 
 
 
*Yo DOm, Is that a Xbox DVD remote?
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/Docks/CIMG1705.jpg[/IMG]

If your car were a woman I would want it to be my dominatrix.

j/k looking good dom! :biggthumpup:

nice attention to detail on the retro. too bad the first shroud didnt work out, i think it looked better.

that loogs great   i like the addition of the shroud makes it look "new"

Your cutoff is the wrong way.





LOL! nice retro Dom!

Thanks again for all the compliments... Caoboy, the cutoff is just fine for where i am :D actually i just adjusted it a bit higher, because i sit so low it was hitting the bottom of the bumper of cars in front of me, WAY below their eyeline

[quote=PANCAKES!;134388]
*Yo DOm, Is that a Xbox DVD remote?
[/quote]
 
Sure is! That was my last DIY mod... My main media source for the car is a modded Xbox with a 160Gb HDD, running XBMC with a custom script to resume to the last song on startup (just like a regular stereo)[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/CIMG0557.jpg[/IMG]

I currently have around 30Gb of MP3s on there, with another 50Gb waiting to go on! (just as soon as i finish tagging them)

Oh and of course i have a bunch of vip videos, Top Gear, car movies, not to mention Forza and about 5 other car games!

Shot of the media centre interface
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/dbloemhard/Cedric/CIMG0598.jpg[/IMG]

[quote=BLACKonBLACK98;134402]nice attention to detail on the retro. too bad the first shroud didnt work out, i think it looked better.[/quote]
 
Serious? I thought it looked cheap! Well it was easy to swap the shroud anyway, so i can always upgrade later. I hear Retrofit Source is about to bring out a bunch of aftermarket shrouds designed for retrofitters, so i might look into that.

i don't think it was perfect as far as fit, but it flowed a lot better inside the housing imo. i'm out of the retro game (already lol, with 0 under my belt) cause i just couldn't make myself cut up my headlights, but that would be cool for you if rs did something nice.

Yeah, i bought some second hand lights so i could do this on the side, and so that it didnt matter if it all turned to shit. Actually i still carry the old lights in my boot - *just incase* something happens to one of my projectors...

Actually talking to Elpres i have another idea i might go with for my next retro - bit more expensive, but will at least look professionally finished!

yeah man, if i was working with those lights, or a number of other styles, i wouldn't hesitate but from what i have seen some styles just never come out THAT good. i think mine would be one of those.
 
[SIZE=1]i'm geussing a boot is the same as a trunk. lol[/SIZE]

Nice retrofit, did you have a hard time finding projectors over there? The shroud could look better but the beam shots look great.

LoL, boot = trunk. Bonnet = hood.

Thanks for the comments on the shroud guys. I appreciate the honesty cos its giving me ideas for upgrades. Sometimes its hard to step back and see them through objective eyes!

Oh and chrispy, yes it was hard to find the projectors - which is why i didnt get the best projectors!!

But you know what they say "when it rains, it pours" my friend at Lexus came up with RX330 lights after i found these Valeos! So thats my next project!

[quote=BLACKonBLACK98;134402]nice attention to detail on the retro. too bad the first shroud didnt work out, i think it looked better.[/quote]
 
+1
 
The first shroud that you custom built made your headlights look like they came from the factory that way which is what I try to shoot for whenever I do a retro. Too bad they didn't work out with the glue thing. I've done the same thing but we learn from our mistakes. I like outcome of the project at the end too with the shrouds reflecting like that it kinda highlights the retro (in a good way!) during the day. Excellent job!!
 
BTW your car has come along pretty far since the last time I remember checking out what I guess was your earlier work on the car. Looking Good man!!!

[quote=Dominik;134655]Oh and chrispy, yes it was hard to find the projectors - which is why i didnt get the best projectors!!

But you know what they say "when it rains, it pours" my friend at Lexus came up with RX330 lights after i found these Valeos! So thats my next project![/quote]


Those harrier projectors are meh. I had them. 

You can fit F50 Gatling gun projectors in your headlight area right?

Why not source some ucf31 projectors? Best EVER. the shroud around the projector is almost the same size as the f50 projectors IIRC. 

Super wide beam spread...If I had the ability to cut my reflector bowls up and put those in I would. 

I'm stopping with a stock HID retro into my GS (have the HID reflector bowls) and maybe later getting the gatling gun projectors, as I found a Japanese PDF where the guy designed brackets for the projectors, that will bolt up to the stock mounts of the GS reflector bowl.

I saw the same document! My friend has a GS and asked me to look into it for him... There is a guy in the US (Lexus4Jess on ClubLexus) that makes the brackets like in that PDF, so the whole thing *could* be a pretty easy retrofit. 

As for the RX330s, i got them for free, and i recently found some info that shows that with a clear lens (already have 300ZX lenses in them) and a custom shield they can easily match TSX and other sought after projectors. Not quite LS430 quality, but should tide me over...

To be honest though, the only other projector that i would consider for this car (after the RX's) would be the Q45. Its pretty common with the Y32 guys over there, but it would still draw some big attention here i think (considering the Q45 was never released here). 

Sure the 430s might have better light, but at the end of the day, its also about the bling factor :)


Delvin, i always tinker with the car... Its usually little stuff though, so no point posting about every mod :) I was pretty proud of my retrofit though so i wanted to show it off... Thanks for the comments though, its all good info!

LOL people go apeshit over LS430 retro's, the only thing 'cooler' would be the ls460 setups...shoot, high beams dom, you have those, why not go balls to the wall and put the F50's in the highbeams with the LS430's in the low beams LOL

If you decide to get the gatling guns, and my potential buyers don't come through, ill let you know since they are JDM spec (RHD)

car looks good

Good job on the retro, I wish I had the skills to do retrofits.

Ah, it doesnt take skill, it just takes patience! I have been working on it for a while now. 
 
I have a few plans from here. Widebody, those Gattling guns are tempting but i'm sure someone would have jumped on them by the time i will have money for that (my money is going towards airfaires at the moment)