Here are some Bi-Xenon Projectors I did for a client in Texas.
2009 Pontiac Solstice
Wicked Stock Paint color (red-ish metallic)
Brand New FX-R Hybrid Bi-Xenon Projectors (Version 3.0)
Internals Modified and Painted to give off a red demon eye when not lit
Morimoto 6000k 35 watt HID Bulbs
Morimoto 35 watt Ballasts
Morimoto Dual CCFL Halo Accent Lights
Custom H13 Bi-Xenon Heavy Duty Harness with Morimoto Relays
This was a custom project, where there was a lot of back-n-forth communication with
the client to get this just right. We originally painted these ALL Wicked Red to see what it looked like (see Corvette headlights). They turned out great, but after looking at them with
the client, we decided to break it up a bit and paint the stock reflector black….and that did it….perfect! Another thing on this one was that he wanted dual accent lights in there
somehow…whether that was going to be just CCFLs, LEDs or combination of the two.
We finally decided on Dual White CCFL lighting accents, one placed behind the shroud to give it the ‘Iron Man’ look and another one mounted just behind the Shrouds outer lip, so that it gives off a nice back lit circle.
The lenses on these things were bad when I received them. Not horrible, but as with
ALL Solstice lights nowadays, you think they are fine because chrome hides a lot, but as soon as you paint the chrome ANY color, the flaws POP….and this one had internal and external blemishes and dings. My painter worked them over for a few hours and cleared them up the best he could. Muuuch better than they were before; so client will be happy with that. All in all, this was a great project….
Troy came in with his 97 BMW 540i and some aftermarket DJ Auto headlights.
These have a better projector and CCFL Halo lighting than the stock headlights...even in this case where the car didn't come with HIDs....but he already had a set of cheap aftermarket headlights installed.
All I was simply doing was re-wiring everything and putting the new lights in.
Re-wiring things (solder, tape, zip ties) was easy and difinitely helped the clutted behind the lights.
The tricky part was that the new headlights have CCFL lights, which can sense and turn on with very low voltage; the old lights had halogen halo lights (which is why they were so dim). But Halogen will not turn on with such low voltage, so you couldn't tell that the computer in the BMW is constantly checking to see if the lights are still working. Once the CCFLs were installed, they flickered....randomly....like strobe lights. I rewired them differently 4-5 times until we settled on having them wired into the fog lights for now.
I say for now, as the passenger side headlight came with a bad CCFL halo...so we will be warranty swapping that for a new one. Then the company might have an answer for the CCFL issues. Oh well...I can already tell the output is much better with these lights.....kind of wierd going from an American Cutoff to a European cutoff.....muuuuuch different.
Been chuggin' away at other projects, but this one is coming along. Just a few more things to do then I can seal these up and ship them out.
This custom made board will be wired into a Plug n Play custom bulb socket that will....well....plug into the stock bulb holder and 'play' nicely with the electrical system.
Got the Wicked Solsti headlights retro'd and ready for owners final decision on whether to leave it all wicked or add some black accent paint in there.
So far they look good....they'll look even better once I'm done adding the CCFL lighting....but for now they will remain all wicked.
My painter bro-namath got to all the parts I sent him.
Here is some progress pics of them.
I'll be assembling these for client approval soon.
Till then...
Ed swung by the shop early this spring, as he was in town visiting family. We discussed some options for his Solstice and come up with a pretty good plan. Once he got back to Texas, he sent me the lights and I've just begun to work on them.
So far, all I've done is prep everything for paint. These badboys will be getting a complete washout of Wicked paint. Wicked is GM's Ruby Red Metallic color. Ed liked the way the Corvette's headlights look, so we are going to see how they turn out on a solstice. If he changes his mind, it'll be easier to paint certain parts black, than viceversa.
Biggest thing was taking apart the new Version 3 FX-R hybrid projectors....these are a bit different than the Version 1 or 2's that I'm use to....but they are ready and good to go. Also, on these newer projectors, they are wider in the lens holder area, so significant mods were made to the Gatlin shroud in order for it to fit.......lots of dust flyin' around after this one.
Paint on Monday, Retro on Tuesday, mod the lights and should have these ready to go soon.
Had a local car guy step up and allow me to borrow his wife's car for the night.....good thing, as my original adjustments would have been way off (way to go Pontiac for making something level that should have been level).
Anyways, as you can clearly see, the only thing that is different about these lights compared to stock is the method of output. The bulb is the exact same bulb, nothing higher powered.....and i'm thinkng it's about 150% more coverage where needed....out front and down low. The stock fogs provide a better IMMEDIATE up front coverage, but they disappear after 20-30 feet....not these upgraded bad boys....they'll keep going muuuch further.
Now that I have these leveled how I needed them, i can get on to designing the LED layout for the turn signals.
Cheers
This time around we are doing custom foglight projectors with LED signal lights...as well as LED side marker lights.
As usual, these will all be 100% completely plug-n-play, so the owner can simply unbolt stock and bolt these right back in, with no wiring modification needed.
First thing was first...had to get the foglights apart.....so after some dremel action they are apart. Next was to see if I could fit that Blazer projector in there....and it's almost like it was made for this application....after an hour of detailed dremel work that is. The projector fits in JUST barely.
Next will be to mount them and align them...which will be difficult as my bumper is different and the customer has a stock bumper....so I have to make do with what I have.
Had a local Evo X owner that needed his lights blacked out.
Instead of everything, we left the orange reflectors un-painted.
Got them separated and ready for paint in 30 minutes...then they sat with the flat black over night....reassembled in the morning and back on the car by afternoon.
Made a badass car look even more badass...edness.
Got them all sealed up, cleaned up, packaged up and ready to go.
Snapped these pics to finish off the build pics.
Next up? On-Car pics whenever the client gets them to me.
Cheers