, heres what ive been working on, it all started when i kept seeing my headlight beam on walls and stuff and hating how blurry the cut-off line was, so i took action!heres waht it looked like before:
and a close-up of how blurry it is!
and no color, just yellowish-white..
now after some intense mods to the projector unit, i acieved this!
the beam pattern seen here is only achievable through making a custom shield, mine, from a pepsi can, the stock beam does not look like this just by clearing the lense, also the shield is curved, not flat, which carries the sharp-ness along the entire beam (see DIY later in thread)
heres a close-up, see the intense blue-purple band? yumm!
intense pink-purple color emitted at edge of beam, keep in mind im still running 4300k bulbs, you can see the yellowish color on the ground..
pics are from cell phone so theyre actually a little sharper than this, when i update you will see,
heres pics of the headlight completed and mounted, it was starting to get light out so its a lil harder to see..
and the brights..
so to sum this one up i did it because im a fan of sharp colorful hid's
the stock ones preform just fine i just wanted to be custom, and i had the knowlege, so i put it to use
i will be updating later this week with the other side done and REAL HD PHOTOS, so stay posted.
If you too are interested in doing this, i wrote up a little DIY on how i did it. It may be a little confusing so i will be happy to answer any questions..
PEACE!
<DIY>
first step, sorry i dont have pics for this first part so i sorta made one. Once the headlight projector is out of the headlight, remove the lense from the projector. Now go down to the store and buy clear spray-paint, (i bought krylon brand).
Now mask off the flat part or bottom of the lense(FIGURE 1.), you dont wanna get paint on this part, now get real close (like one inch) to the lense with the spray can, and spray hard in one spot for ten seconds. The paint goes on so thick its like water, all the excess runs down the lense leaving a thin perfect coat of clear paint on the lense, put a small cup over the lense so it can dry without lint or dust falling on it, dry takes about an hour. The purpose of painting the lense is you are filling in the small dimples in the lense, these "dimples are only visible if you get real close to your lense and look through it in the light(SEE FIGURE 2.) , the purpose of the dimples is to slightly "blurr" the image of the cut-off shield so that the beam is'nt perfectly sharp, this allows for a smooth transition between dark and light as the car bounces, however the frostyness of the lense makes for an ugly and blurry cut-off.
now that the lense is dry, re-mount it into the lense holder of the projector, but rotate it to where the line going through the lense is vertical, rather than horizontal (FIGURE 3.), the line in the lense blurrs the cut-off aswell, so by rotating it you are getting it out of the path of the beam. The actual purpose of the line that goes through the lense is to throw up excess light so you can see a little bit above the cut-off, however, this makes your lights appear brighter than most, i've been flashed by oncoming drivers.
NOW for the next part, THE SHIELD! and if you dont know what a shield is, its the meatal plate in the projector that moves. Now if you dont care that the beam flares up on the left and right you can skip this step(FIGURE 4.), i however, wantted a straight beam with a bigger and more slanted step. Here you can be creative and make any style steps you want, i chose a slanted one because i loike the look and its big so i can illuminate more stuff on the right like signs, pedestrians ect., without blinding oncomming drivers.
if you look in FIGURE 4., you can see my illustration of the factory shield, look familiar? if you look into the headlight of your car with a flashlight you can actually see it. Anyways you can see how its designed to where it flares down on the sides, but after focusing through the lense at a distance this "image" is flipped up-side-down to reveal your headlight beam (FIGURE 5.)
Now you can see how it flares up, not good if you want a straight beam...
so now to the custom stuff! drink coke? no? well howabout Pepsi? hah well to make the shields i used a pepsi can.
One. because it is already round shaped,
and Two. because its thin and easy to cut.
heres some pictures of the cut shields..
okay now you may be wondering how to cut the shields, look at FIGURE 6.
cut out a rectangle about 3/4 in. tall by about 3in.
you must make sure you cut straight across the can to avoid a lop-sided curve.
now that you have your rectangles, cut them to be the exact same size and tape them together(one on top of another) the reason for this is so that you can cut both shields at the same time, this way both sields will be identical.
using a ruler or straight edge, trace a line across the top of the rectangle(red line on FIGURE 7.) make sure the line is no more than half a centimeter from the top, or your step will be HUGE!
now you have your line drawn on the rectangle, start cutting along the line with a new pair of scissors(for best cut) and stop half-way through the line.
now from the top, cut your desired slant and stop just as you intersect the first cut
NOW YOU HAVE A CUSTOM SHIELD!
MOUNTING THE PEPSI SHIELD TO EXISTING SHIELD..
okay now it gets a little tricky, theres an external silver plate on the shield that has an (RV) written on it, cut this off completely.
This will leave a small "key-shaped" hole in the shield, take a screw with a matching bolt and get your custom shield, poke a small hole in the custom shield so that the screw can go through both shields(see below photo)
now you can see how i mounted the new shield to the old one, also make sure the new one sits just barely over the old one, make it sit too high and your beam will have a smiling effect (see below pic)
heres another pic from an above view
the reason i mounted the shield this way is so that i can adjust the leveling of the beam, if its too tilted to the left or right, i can re-adjust the shield.
you will also need to make sure the new (curved) shield does not hit when your brights are on, i just pulled the shield forward while the projector was assembled so i could see what to trim off. To make the shield not come as forward as before you will have to bend some of the tabs(RED CIRCLE) on it so that they rest on the lense-holder(BLUE CIRCLE) when in the open-position
heres a pic of the open position, see how the shield is trimmed to fit, and the bent tab is resting on the stem of the lense-holder..
Now the final step is to test your projector for sharpness and balance, what i did was parked my car on my street, opened the hood, plugged in the headlight shell to the car and plugged in just the wire that goes to the bulb, this way i can move around while testing, you will most deffinately have to bend the shield while the projector is on so you can achieve the sharpest beam possible, but since youre shield is already round, the tweaking will be minor.
after you get the beam sharp, you now have to make sure its level, so that means mounting the projector back in the leveling motor assembly and mounting it all back into the headlight, dont put the actual headlight lense or any of the chrome pieces on, just the part that holds the projector, now mount the headlight on the car and turn on the lights, make sure that the line is level, i used my garage floor as it is level...
i know this is alot of crap but you really cant cut corners on this headlight stuff, its better to do it right!
now that its all level, clean up everything (wipe lense only with microfiber towel or you will scratch) and re-assemble, i like to wipe out all lint particles right before pushing the lense on, who wants to see dust all in your headlight? GHETTO!
to ensure a sealed fit of the lense i bought clear window sealant from the store, comes in a squeeze tube. i put the sealant in the groove around the edge of the headlamp, shot it for a min with the heatgun, then pushed it on.
DONT FORGET TO PUT BLACK LENSE CLIPS BACK ON!
now put everything back to how it was and have fun watching your razor-sharp beam bounce around, all while dazzling people around you with exotic colors
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Originally Posted by airborneriflema
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