So I've been working on these headlights for about 2 months now...and by working on....I mean waiting on. First it was waiting on brand new halo's to arrive....they hadn't made a specific size yet, so we were pushed back a month....then it was paint...since this paint scheme was so intricate, it took a while to plan and lay out the design...then finally find time to pain it. So now that it's all painted, I can finish this up here soon......but the paint job was just too crazy to NOT share....so here you go!
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Local client brought in his 2008 GMC Denali for some HID lighting. He bought some JDM Tuning HIDs, which I've had decent success with in the past. The harnesses they included were a bit different then I'm used to. Instead of an H13 Bi-Xenon Harness, they sent a regular harness (which wasn't really regular by my standards) and an H13 Integration Harness.....interesting, adds more wiring, but works if you're trying to not stock so many different harnesses...this would allow you to keep stocking regular harnesses, and then different Bi-Xenon integration harnesses per bulb type....make sense from a manufacturers standpoint, but not an installers.
Anyways, dual HID kits fired up just fine and were 5 times as bright as OEM.....perfect! Had a client bring his wife's SUV in for an Angel Eye Halo additional to the stock headlights.....after some discussion we went WAYYYY Left Field! Here is what we did:
Bi-Xenon Projector Retrofitted OEM Headlights All Black Internals Apollo V2 Projector Shrouds Plasma White Halo's Behind Apollo Shroud Smoked Corners Smoked Taillights Smoked 3rd Brake Lights Black Billet Grills (Upper and Lower) Customer purchased the car about a month ago, and this the addition of the above, he's also added Rims/Tires and Full Tint.....this beast is complete now! Finally got to work on Joe's truck! He already had HIDs in his headlights and fog lights....but they were the scattered plug-n-play type.....he knew better :) What I did: Mini H1 Morimoto Bi-Xenon Projector Retrofit Morimoto XB35H1 6000k HID Bulbs Morimoto 35 watt HID Ballasts Morimoto Mopar Uber-Mega Moto-Control Relay Harness Apollo V2 Shrouds Internals Painted Black Pearl to match truck paint scheme ........... Ridiculously Bright 19,000 LUMEN Output Heretic LED Pod Bar This thing is crazy bright...can't wait to see it at night! Here is a quick video I did to show off the beauty of the XB35H1 bulbs, as well as the color in the cutoff! Client up in Montana sent me his headlights off his Platinum Edition Toyota Tundra.
I was immediately excited when I saw what he sent: 3" FX-R Bi-Xenon Projectors 35 watt Osram Xenarc HID Bulbs 35 watt Denso Slim Ballasts Wanted these to be Spot-On so I borrow a local truck to make them perfect! His truck has an automatic adjustment feature for when you're towing or have heavy loads...so you can adjust the lights down or up depending on what's needed to make the light output perfect. We went with a 3-layered paint scheme: OEM Dark Metallic Grey, with Black accents and a little chrome. Nothing too crazy with these....just among the best possible lights you can get for an HID Retrofit. I'll post some pics when I get some back of them on the truck! Had a customer from out-of-state bring in his 2011 International Pro Star Eagle Semi to get upgraded lighting.
I immediately was excited about this one; mainly because out of all of the retro's I've done, a semi driver is someone who actually needs better lighting. Menu: FX-R Bi-Xenon Projectors 55 watt D2S 6000k HID Bulbs 55 watt D2S HID Ballasts Apollo V2 Shroud (Painted White) Headlight Internals (Painted Black) XB LED halos (white)(behind shroud) Super Bright LED High beam headlight kit Amber LED Strips in a 'half moon' for turn signals Amber LED upgrade kit (turn signals and side markers) Custom Triple Heavy Duty Relay harness 'Beefed up existing Fog Light HIDs' 13000 Lumen LED Pod Light bar 2 switches inside for the light bar and halos This project was a 'different' one. Mainly because it was a semi. It won't fit in my shop, and the weather has been crazy (lows of 0 degrees). So I planned on doing the entire retrofit at a buddies shop...until I realized the Semi was 13'6" and the shop doors were 12'0". So I ended up doing this entire retrofit OUTSIDE....first day was 17 degrees second day was 30 degrees..... The light output on this guy is simply ridiculous. The projectors threw a nice consistent beam and the high beams were very impressive. The high beam LEDs were more of an 'accent light' at this point. They would be brighter had I not painted the high beam area black...but that was the paint scheme. I would suggest these as DRLs for sure! The LED Pod Light Bar was simply breath-taking. For a 20" bar, I don't think at the moment you can find more light output than what this little guy did. Here's a break down on lumens for this project: Low Beam - 4000 High Beam - 600+2000 Fog Lights - 1000 LED Pod Light Bar - 13000 Total Lumen - 20,600 !!!! I'll leave it at that! A past client brought his Ford Focus back in for some lighting upgrades.
We went with a Bi-Xenon Projector (Low and High Beams) since the existing headlight was a single bulb 9007 setup. We covered the projector with a modified Apollo shroud and kept everything chrome on the inside. On the back end, he received Morimoto 6000k D2S bulbs, powered by New Morimoto 35watt 'Blue' Ballasts, and a Morimoto-Control wiring harness so everything is firing perfectly. These will allow him to be MUCH safer at night (being able to see further and wider than stock) all while looking as OEM as possible. Had a client come from 3 hours away to get some HIDs installed in his 2012 Ford F350.
We went with the RetroSolutions Digital Brand 6000k H13 Bi-Xenon kit. After Removing the MASSIVE chrome grill, install was a snap. Lights fired right up and client was on his way back up the mountain. Had a local client that wanted MUCH brighter lights, while staying within the realm of legality.....as well as an all black look to the lights.
Projector Retrofitting will take care of both those issues! Owner picked up a set of DEPO lights, so the lenses were in perfect condition. I went with my Bi-Xenon HID Projectors, covered in a ridiculously trimmed down version of the Ocular Shroud; all in the low beam spot. Since the projectors are Bi-Xenon, we no longer needed the high beam spot for anything, so, as usual, I converted that area over to a Super Bright LED, for use as an auxiliary light as well as DRL if needed. I placed this light on a switch that was mounted inside the vehicle on a blank switch panel. This circuit turns off with the vehicle, so the owner doesn't have to worry about running his battery dead. The entire headlight received and nice coat of semi-gloss black paint, and the lower portion was smoked to allow light through. Project was fun and a owner loves his new lights. Troy brought his bike back in (if you can remember, a few months ago I completely rewired his front end cover and added some low beam/drl HIDs. This time, he was ready for the main low beam and high beam HIDs. Install went smooth, even though I had to unbolt the tank to snake some wires from the battery....but he's good to go now and can actually see at night Had to make my own custom Bi-Xenon Harness for this on What's being installed:
JVC Navigation, Bluetooth, DVD Player with Sat Radio and Backup Camera Digital Designs CM1000 Mono Block Amplifier Digital Designs 10" 500 Series Woofers in a sealed down firing truck box Custom Hydro-Dipped Interior Accent Panels Projector Retrofitted Headlights All Gloss Black Gatling Gun Version 2 Shrouds, Dipped to match interior Panels Bi-Xenon Projectors for High/Low HID Lights Red Demon Eye Accent Lighting Super White LED Halos behind shroud for Iron Man V2 look All Accent lights on custom switches HID Fog Lights Started this project a week ago, but due to the simple fact that it wouldn't fit in the shop, I only had a few hours a night to work on this before I lost daylight. First thing was first, I needed to pop the headlights open so I could get them to the owner for paint, as well as all the parts to Hydro Dip to get them dipped. This project was made even more difficult because....well.....it's a Dodge. Mopar electrical systems straight up suck....anyone that mods them will say the same. All these electronics added, especially the lighting upgrades, had to be bullet-proof, or Dodge would let you know and have them not work properly. This truck was recently purchased about 3 weeks ago, and it looked nothing like it did when I got it....now that I'm done, it's even THAT much more noticeable. You'll be sure to break ya' neck when this thing drives by. Other Mods the owner has done in 3 short weeks: MBRP Muffler Tinted Windows Smoked Tails Painted all chrome bumpers either body match or black De-Badged Exterior Custom Made 22" Rims with 38" Toyo Tires So out of all three vehicles (well now 4) that Ryan owns, the bug is his most finished car, he's always rocked a Trax sticker and has supported our shop from the get-go. Only thing is, that's the only one I've never worked on. Ordered him an HID kit 2 years ago, and after he had problems installing some on his bus, he put off installing them on this bug. Well, i was tired of not having worked on it, so I had him drop it off.
Started as a simple HID install; which in turn ended up being the most difficult simple HID install I've had to do yet. Since I had it, I also added red accent lighting just like his bus and I noticed he had a single 4" MTX speaker rolling around, barely attached to the speaker wire that was holding it in it's small area it was rolling around in. That's not how I roll....so he isn't either. The HID install was one of my hardest for a few reasons: Slammed car means no exterior wiring underneath, custom made car means carpet glued to the ground, older car means no open spaces hidden by panels......what you see is what you get. So I had to get creative in wiring up a new battery lead from the battery (under rear seat) to the front of the bug for the HIDs main power supply. Once I got that figured out, my next challenge was to stuff all these electronics behind the factory headlight bucket (which is all metal). Easiest thing to do for future maintenance is to custom wire EVERYTHING so no components are inside the bucket.......they are inside the hood area. This presented another problem: wire access through two metal walls. Solution? Obviously jack up slammed bug and remove front wheels......duh. Got everything wired up there so when you pull headlight bucket out, all you see is wires and no splices or ballasts or anything else. Then I custom installed a switch off of ACC power for the red lighting I custom installed in his headlight buckets. Next was on to the speakers.....I didn't have any better speakers in stock I could give him, so I used his MTX speakers.....wanted to do this on a crazy time limit, so I busted these out in about 3 hours (alot of waiting for stuff to dry). Made a quick mock up of usable space, stretched some fabric, glassed it, body worked it, painted it.....these 4" beasts sounded pretty damn good off of the Sony headunits power. Ryan was stoked, and so was I. I think I earned the sticker placement on this one. Got these lights from a client in California.
Advanced Retrofit using FX-R Bi-Xenon Projectors with 6000k D2S Bulbs and 35 watt ballasts. Covered everything up with an extended E46 shroud and kept it chrome to appear stock/OEM. Turned out great and will be shipped back tomorrow of final installation on the car. Got another Pontiac Solstice Projector Retrofit in this week.
With the colors being black and silver.....with Demon Eyes, I couldn't help but think of good ol' Arnold back in the day and his robotic counter-part. That, coupled with the fact of how well these demon eyes turned out (see photochopped pic below) I'm starting to think of calling them Terminator Eyes instead of Demon Eyes.....not sure yet, but with Options labeled Iron Man Halo and Terminator Eyes, who WOULDN'T want that in their custom made headlights? What nerd could resist? (Thinks to self: How can I implement Thor's Hammer into headlights?) Back to the project...... This one involved an FX-R Projector - Version 3 with Morimoto 6000k D2S bulbs and Morimoto 35watt Long Cord Ballasts. The Projectors were hidden behind a Gatling Gun Version 1 Shroud that also hid a Super Bright LED XB Halo. Behind all of this are the Terminator Eyes, with a soft back glow onto the newly painted reflector, it gives it an Eye Vain look....pretty cool when it's pitch black. Speaking of pitch black (no, not Vin Diesel) The rest of the headlight internals were painted gloss black. The Gatlin Shroud was painted GM Silver to match the car's color. Got these Acura RSX headlight in.
Client wanted very bright, accurate, LEGAL lighting to rival local high end cars' output. This will do just that....and more. Bi-Xenon Modified Projectors 6000K 35 watt HID Bulbs 35 watt HID Ballasts Gatling Gun Shroud with Super Bright LED Halo behind it to give it that Iron Man look Demon Eye Red Accent Lighting in the projector Replaced the halogen high beam bulb with a Super bright LED accent light for fog or DRL functions Painted everything black and sealed them back up. Lots of paint on this one Lots of Auxiliary lighting as well. These will definitely stand out in a crowd....unique for sure Finally got around to moddin' the Aveo (...slash....Fiance finally needed something done to fix her car [new tires] so I took the downtime as a Go-Ahead to work on the car).
She needed new tires, as naturally, the stock rims should be sanded down, painted and the covers shall be matched as well. Then that turned into smoking every light she had on the car, as well as painting a few stock grills that had unnecessary third colors present. Oh....and I retro'd her headlights.....to give it that one-off look, as well as stop driving me crazy when I drive it at night. She was very hesitant at first, but after the last piece was put on and she was able to drive it again, she's starting to like it more and more. *Side note......had some 'dude-bros' in an all-black stock aveo just like this one break their necks looking at the much cooler aveo roll by the other day......made me smile.....freaked the fiance out a bit* Retro'd the headlights with Bi-Xenon HID Projectors, everything black inside with the Apollo shrouds paint matched to the stock Aveo color. Turned out perfect. Also had the windows tinted....20% all around....made the outside look perfect and lowered the inside temp a bunch! Branded the car with a few Trax stickers (Gloss black down low and Matte Black up top in the rear) Next up????? Coilover kit to drop her down 3".....that'll make it look perfect. Had a client in Conneticut send me his headlight out of his Acura RSX. Got it retrofitted back in the day by comeone else and his Halo burnt out on him.
Seriously...my worst night...I put alot of hard, tedious, custom work into headlights and the things that keep me up at night about them are the little miscellaneous lighting modules you install in there that are just extra. Those extra little units are the ones most likely to fail....and when they do, i have to have the lights shipped back and tear them completely down and re-install another unit.....all for a $50-$100 part that went bad.....5-10% of the actual product cost. oh well.....it is what it is. Anyways....he sent me his lights, and I had them popped open, old part removed, new part installed, old shroud secured better and sealed back up in the box ready for shipping within 2 hours.....new record for me. Turned out great and the customer was happy. Had a local client bring in his new aftermarket headlights he got from a friend.
To date, these were easily the BEST quality aftermarket headlights I've worked on. Plastics were in good shape and withheld constant heat without warping. Inner structure was solid, nothing was skimped on when constructing these. Projectors had a decent cutoff (even though the lens wasn't clear) and the accessory lighting they had installed was of the same quality of the higher-end aftermarket accessory lighting I use in all my headlights......so he was already ahead of the game with purchasing these lights. Client wanted to completely black out the inside of the lights, add demon eye accent lighting and make the halo's more aggressive with a demon eye slant. Well, I'm pushing my new XB Halo lights and he agreed after seeing the lights, that he wanted them on his car. Painted the turn signal basket, heavily modified the stock angel eye holder to accept the newer, brighter, bigger XB LED Halo light, added the demon eye accent lighting and taped off the halo cover for that aggressive demon eye look. Once everything was sealed up, i installed them on the Mustang, did a few minor custom wirings to make everything Plug-n-Play, yet 100% waterproof, and he was out the door with the finishing touches that made the stellar Mustang pop even more. Head turner for sure. So my list of things to do on my personal vehicle has been growing; as well as it's always pushed to the back. Well, waiting on some customers for feedback before proceeding on their projects opened up a day for my personal stuff.
1st on the list was to redo my turn signal lighting and tidy up how the bumper is aligned and fit the car.....also redo the seals on the custom foglights I made and mount them better. First thing first...clean up, seal and mount the fogs. Once that was done, I made custom switchback LEDs for the parking lights and turn signals. Also made a custom cover to hide all the circuit boards and whatnot...so you can only (Barely) see the LEDs themselves. Made openings in the F430 grills and reverse mounted them to the newly painted grills. After all this, I rewired the lights so they are more Plug'n'Play and easier to remove, then refitted the bumper so it looks natural. Now I have these lighting options: All Off Parking Lights only (white LEDs) Projector Foglights with Iron Man Halos Projector Headlights Only Projector Foglights and Headlights (Low Beam) with White Parking Lights Projector Foglights and Headlights (High Beams....quad) with Parking Lights New lighting additions are the switchback lights. So they are White when on as 'parking lights' but when I hit my turn signals, the one side goes away and now blinks Amber...then once done, switches back to white. All in one strip. The front....dare I say....is done. All the new goodies for the Uber light festival that's going to be happening in the front of the car showed up. We're doing:
New Crystal Euro Headlights with Bi-Xenon Projectors, 35 watt HID bulbs with Morimoto Ballasts New Crystal Euro Side Lights, smoked and throwing some LEDs in there to light up the night. Was sitting around and thought 'what the hell', and opened them up...so I'm 5 days ahead of schedule on the lights.....might as well throw some paint on them tomorrow and get them ready for the retro! Cheers |
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July 2018
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