retrofit projector into aftermarket housing

[bish0p]

hey i'm about to start a custom retrofiting of the s2000 projectors into the ebay headlights that has the projector foglights but regular low/high beams. Has anyone tried this before? i'm wondering how hard it is to take off the lens. would baking these headlights do the job to take off the lens? i want to know what i'm getting myself into before i start this project.

[97C28O]

There are aftermarket headlights with projectors already in them, but if you want the s2k projectors then go ahead.

[bish0p]

yeah i know but i dont like the way they look. the cut off line looks really bad. also the ones i'm talking about are these ones
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/94-00-MERCEDES-W202-PROJECTOR-HEADLIGHT-CHROME-C230-C36_W0QQitemZ270088498705QQihZ017QQcategoryZ33710Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
but they only have projectors for the fogs.

[yusuke280]

definately retro fit, i'd be curious to see how well it flows.

yeah, i agree. ALL aftermarket projector housings at the moment suck because their all chinese or taiwanese made.. i dont understand why brands like FK or HELLA won't make any projectors for us :(
guess the 202's are too old.

[NEA-4311]

Originally posted by yusuke280
definately retro fit, i'd be curious to see how well it flows.

yeah, i agree. ALL aftermarket projector housings at the moment suck because their all chinese or taiwanese made.. i dont understand why brands like FK or HELLA won't make any projectors for us :(
guess the 202's are too old.

Yeah but they can go screw themselves... or visit this site and change their mind :)

[bish0p]

yeh the cut off of the ebay projectors are bad. i've seen some with like a curved cut off line and it's not even sharp. and we all know s2k projectors produce a sweet cutoff line. hopefully it won't be too much of a problem to take off those lens.

[bish0p]

with the s2k projectors i will be losing my high beam. I don't use high beam or fogs often but which one should i keep? I can turn the foglight position of aftermarket headlights to high beam or i can leave it as foglights. What do you guys think?

[bish0p]

sneak peek at what i have so far. still a lot more to do. let me know what you think.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/lights.jpg

the blue is the reflection of my tv. the headlights aren't blue. I had to scrap the original plan of s2k projectors for these bmw projectors because i wanted to keep my high beams. these are bixenon. also they were free for me :D

[OCKlasse]

lookin good bish...now make me a set!

[bish0p]

here's some more pictures. again, they're not completely done. i have to aim the lights and mount it properly then seal them back up.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/retro3.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/retro2.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/retro4.jpg

let me know what you think guys. I'm still waiting on my HID kit to come so i can't test and aim it yet. but the cutoff line is pretty good. not as great as the s2k but still better than stock. so i'm happy for now haha.

[Benzon]

Love it, wanna trade for my stockers ;).

[97C28O]

Make some halos for the projectors! That would be very unique!

[bish0p]

lol. i would never put halos in my car. sorry. i have the halos also but i don't want to put it in a mercedes. The way i see it is..halos first originated from BMW and should stay in the BMWs. i love my mercedes and proud of it =D. i love bmws also but i wouldn't put the halo into my mercedes. also its been done before by rollinbig i think.

[97C28O]

Ok, just a suggestion... Yea, rollinrealbig had them on his car which now is RemoLexi's

[bish0p]

thanks for the suggestion. I would love to make it stand out more. but i was thinking of something more along the lines of a ccfl tubing to make my housing glow a little bit.

[Proven Guilty]

eh, honestly its TOO much imo. hats off to the effort involved though. i agree that they need to simply make projectors for low beams instead of fogs only.

[NEA-4311]

I really dont think its too much, its round on both sides inside anyway so why not pjs? Also it looks very OEM. I dont know whats going on in the back though, but I really like it from the pics. Good work bro!:cool:

[bish0p]

thanks for all the comments. i appreciate it. =] i will have pictures up of the cutoff when i'm done. I've modded the projectors for the blue cutoff line. i just love it. i'm going to be running 8000k hella HIDs for my low/high beams. and it's not that much work. It's a little project so i do things slowly and just have fun with it. its pretty easy to do.

[crazy00c230k]

looks great, love the fact that its bixenon too, good work

[yusuke280]

omg that looks perfect.
ive been waiting so long for someone to do this.

[bish0p]

thanks for all the comments. i'm taking my time to make this perfect. Also i'm backed up on a little cash right now. I need to get a new D2S HID kit to aim these projectors before i mount them properly. Trying to get rid of my H4 HID kit from before to buy the new kit. I'm sorry for the delay. but when i get some money in i'll finish it up and show pictures of the cut off. Also i'll be at meets and going to detail the car for a quick photoshoot. if it all goes well i can help others with retrofiting their own projectors if needed. just ask me and i'll help out with what i can

[bish0p]

just aimed the projectors last night and sealed them up. i will be getting my new 8000k hid set in about an hour or so, then i will install everything back on my car and take pictures for you guys. here's a few test photos from last night.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0058.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0059.jpg
this is the foglight's cutoff, it's 2500k yellow. sorta like jdm yellow because i can't see shit at night when it's foggy with my hids

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0066.jpg
here's a picture with both my low beams and fogs on

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0069.jpg
the cutoff of the low beam (modified for blue hue)

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0074.jpg
cutoff going alongside the wall

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0075.jpg
car parked about 50ft away, shows the blue hue on the truck.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0078.jpg
closeup of the blue cutoff line


let me know what you think, i'll have daytime pictures of the lights so you can see what they look like on the car when i'm done.

[OCKlasse]

So...did I mention you're making these for me...because you are. :o Looks incredible! I am so jealous...although I do have a sexy pair of HIDs in my car right now ;), but these headlights would look so smooth on this front end, though.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v373/trefiveincognito/Front%20Bumper%20Brabus/DSC06380.jpg

[NEA-4311]

The result is fantastic! Weldone dude, post some more day pics to better c it on your car. And OCklasse man, when are you gonna paint your bumper?! Its been like that a long time... :p Post pics too.

[OCKlasse]

Originally posted by NEA-4311
The result is fantastic! Weldone dude, post some more day pics to better c it on your car. And OCklasse man, when are you gonna paint your bumper?! Its been like that a long time... :p Post pics too.

once I get my hydraulics in, I am going to paint the bumper (I don't drive around like that, dude!)

[Benzon]

So you gonna make like 5 of these for the member s that want them right :). Pleeeeeeaaaase. Very cool man, I will deff attempt this sometime.

[bish0p]

new pictures as of tonight with the crystal clear corners in. i will have my car detailed soon by ocklasse and then i'll have a photoshoot with a real camera. these were all from my camera phone. also i have the new 8000k d2s hid kit in now. for the fogs i'm running 2500k yellow lights.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0093.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0092.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0084.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0080.jpg

[vcruiser]

looks fuckign nice


but whoa

waht kinda bulbs do u have in the corners? ?

[OCKlasse]

these pictures are driving me crazy...name your price, and it's done!

[bish0p]

haha they're not for sale. cost me a lot of money and time to make these. i love them, they're my babies =] but i'd be glad to help you make your own if you want.

here are some day time pictures for you guys

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0097.jpg

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0098.jpg

i've decided to put eyebrows back on my car. i need a good place to put it on so it's flush. the last place didn't do such a good job. any recommendations? i have the eyebrows, just need a place to install it

[bish0p]

i love my lights but honestly it was a LOT of work. the high beams didn't work, because i forgot that the low beam shuts off when you flip it into high beam, because of this the shutter moves but my hids go out. so i had to come up with a relay that connected the two and now it works. i got my projectors for free so it was a little bit cheaper to retrofit it in there. but if they weren't, this project would've been around 1000+ to finish. the headlights off ebay were 250, HID kit was 300, projectors would've been like 300, relay was like only 20 for two, then i need the sealant, shrouds cost like 50-90. and then there were all these other little things like the wiring and nuts and bolts. my 2500k foglight bulbs cost 40 dollars, clear corners were 30 i think and the led bulb was 20. and that completed my front lights.

daytime pictures were updated on page 2.

[OCKlasse]

well...I call dibs when time comes to sell your car!!!

[bish0p]

haha. i love my lights. it's so much more beautiful in person. the blue cutoff is just amazing. i'm still looking for a good shop to put on my eyebrows. because from what i know the eyebrows aren't a perfect fit and you would have to use a heat gun to mold it to fit perfectly. the last place i had it done at didn't please me. any recommendations? or if anyone think they can do it let me know.

[bish0p]

Originally posted by vcruiser
looks fuckign nice


but whoa

waht kinda bulbs do u have in the corners? ?

sorry i didnt see this post earlier. for the bulbs in my clear corners i have the extemely white 45 LED bulbs. i'm planning of changing them soon though. getting rid of those and my rear turn signals too.

[vcruiser]

by getting rid of, do u mean replacing, or not having any turn signals at all.. if so, what you are you thinking of putting?

[bish0p]

yeah i'll be replacing them with the mirror chrome bulbs that light up amber.

[97C28O]

bish0p, which one is the high beam? Did you use a Bi-xenon HID kit?

Did you have any problems with the HID kit? Like some members here have the cluster go out and things like that...

[Nelson Lago]

hay just woundering how did you take the lends off those headlights and can you give me an honest opinon i would like to take the projectors out of this one.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w293/CLK_011/project.jpg

and put them on the low beam side of these ones

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w293/CLK_011/project2.jpg

but dont know how and f the projector produces a good light on the ground if you kinda get what im sayin. man i wish i had yours man you should really think of copywriting them man ill buy them in a hart beat. there is no good looking aftermarket ones. O and one more question why s2k headlights

[bish0p]

the projectors in the first link you have isn't all that great. the light output is very poor. with projectors what you look for is a good cutoff line. and the s2k projectors produce the sharpest cutoff line out there.

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/2544/img04703rx.jpg

here's the s2k cutoff. it's just beautiful. I ended up not going with them though because i wanted to keep my high beam. I don't see why you would want to take that projector out to put into the second headlight. if i'm reading it correctly you're going to put it into the same spot that it was in before? The pictures that i posted of the yellow beam is the small projector that you're asking about. it's nothing compared to the bmw projector that i have as the low/high beam. and the headlight that you have in the first link is what i used to make my headlights. i just added a bmw projector to the outter light spot





oh yeah. and to take off the lens it's extremely easy. you just heat up the outter edge and it'll come off. or you can bake the headlights

[bish0p]

i'm sorry 97c280. i didnt see your post earlier. i missed it somehow. the cluster go out? what do you mean? like the lights out warning light goes on? i dont exactly know yet because i have my 3rd brake light taken out so it always shows that light for me. I have bi-xenon projectors. the inner projector is the fog and the outter is low/high beam. i've never had any problems with the HID kits i get from HIDynamic, neither does my friends

edit: i had an 8000k H4 HID kit in my car before and never got any check lights or any problems.

[vcruiser]

Originally posted by bish0p
the projectors in the first link you have isn't all that great. the light output is very poor. with projectors what you look for is a good cutoff line. and the s2k projectors produce the sharpest cutoff line out there.

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/2544/img04703rx.jpg

here's the s2k cutoff. it's just beautiful. I ended up not going with them though because i wanted to keep my high beam. I don't see why you would want to take that projector out to put into the second headlight. if i'm reading it correctly you're going to put it into the same spot that it was in before? The pictures that i posted of the yellow beam is the small projector that you're asking about. it's nothing compared to the bmw projector that i have as the low/high beam. and the headlight that you have in the first link is what i used to make my headlights. i just added a bmw projector to the outter light spot





oh yeah. and to take off the lens it's extremely easy. you just heat up the outter edge and it'll come off. or you can bake the headlights


ouu that s2k cutoff is sexy

[Nelson Lago]

i get it i get it

[bish0p]

yeah that's why people use s2k projectors. they're the best ones out there.

[Captain - X]

Looks real good. What bimmer model did you get those proj. from? E39?

You dont have any pics from the backside of the housing while you were working with them? (progress pics)

[bish0p]

i'm still working on the back. it looks bad right now. just need to clean it up and paint the back black to match the headlight housing.

i didn't use a 5 series projector. it was off a 7 series

[Captain - X]

Nice, was it the E38-series or a newer one?

Curious to see how you mounted the projector inside the housing.

[bish0p]

it's the 2007 7-series

on the projector i have 4 bolts come out cuz of the mod i did to get the blue cut off line. then i cut the aftermarket housing a little so the end of the projector could go through. and then put bondo on the bolts that went through the plastic on the aftermarket housing after i held it in place with nuts. then i put bondo on the back of the housing so there aren't any gaps

[DRM]

Hey bishop, did you also replace the projector that was already in there? How hard would it be to replace that projector? Do you have any pics of the inside of the light housing? thanks!

[bish0p]

hi drm. I didn't replace the projector for the fogs. it doesn't look too difficult to replace it. but it'd be difficult to find one that size that would fit in there. i did have pictures of the inside somewhere. but its been so long. i'll try to find them. I didn't replace that projector because it's good enough for foglights, just not bright enough to be headlights. i point my fogs downward so it doesnt really need to project that far.

[Section 8]

they look great must of took time and patience

[DRM]

Originally posted by bish0p
hi drm. I didn't replace the projector for the fogs. it doesn't look too difficult to replace it. but it'd be difficult to find one that size that would fit in there. i did have pictures of the inside somewhere. but its been so long. i'll try to find them. I didn't replace that projector because it's good enough for foglights, just not bright enough to be headlights. i point my fogs downward so it doesnt really need to project that far.

Hey man that's cool, I am having problems with my projector fog lights with H3 hids behind them, they are not really that bright when you are behind the wheel but they seem to throw out a huge amount of glare and the cut off line is in the trees at like 30 metres, here are some pics of how the h3 projector performs with a h3 HID globe behind it:

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/9000/75448932ca5.jpg

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/6537/55506742xs7.jpg

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5023/61610444av1.jpg

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/8248/92146316sl7.jpg

http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/7/67140125we0.jpg

the H3 hid is behind this headlight projector same as yours:

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/918/61802533ut3.jpg

I also couldn't manage to direct the lights down more than 1 / 2 cm, which is nothing, the beam needs to be atleast 1/2 - 1 foot down from where it is at the moment in those wall / cut off pics.

In essence the aftermarket projector lenses are crap, same with the screws that "allow" you to move the beam, how did you manage to angle them down so much? Or are your fogs the same as mine?

[bish0p]

wow your lights are really high. I aimed mine down a lot. what you can try to do is loosen the bolts holding the headlight in and try to tilt the whole thing down. I only use those projectors for foglights. They're really not bright enough for low beams. I use the same projector as you for the fogs but then.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0074.jpg

this is my low beam.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0059.jpg
that's my fog beam

when i turn on my high beams they are as bright as that last picture you have of your beams. and it's even higher than that.


also it looks like you're parked really close to the wall..you should try 20-25ft away from the wall. I like to park parallel to a wall too. Because the cut off on the sides should be almost straight. It shouldn't really slope up. I should be going down a bit but not too much. It should be horizontal.

[bish0p]

check page 2 for some of the pictures.

[DRM]

Originally posted by bish0p
wow your lights are really high. I aimed mine down a lot. what you can try to do is loosen the bolts holding the headlight in and try to tilt the whole thing down. I only use those projectors for foglights. They're really not bright enough for low beams. I use the same projector as you for the fogs but then.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0074.jpg

this is my low beam.

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u202/mrbish0p/Photo-0059.jpg
that's my fog beam

when i turn on my high beams they are as bright as that last picture you have of your beams. and it's even higher than that.


also it looks like you're parked really close to the wall..you should try 20-25ft away from the wall. I like to park parallel to a wall too. Because the cut off on the sides should be almost straight. It shouldn't really slope up. I should be going down a bit but not too much. It should be horizontal.

haha man I can't believe how low your fog light beam is, I think I have the headlight sitting nice and straight but I guess I can try and move it down and see how it looks, i'll post up again once I have messed with it a bit.

[bish0p]

try to mess with it with the lights turned on. There should be one screw near the grill and two screws by the corner light. loosen the bottom screw by the corner light and try to tilt it down. then tighten it again. It should direct your beam down. Yeah my fogs are low. that's how it's supposed to be. it's just a couple inches lower than the low beam. it slopes down gradually as it gets farther from the car. hope that helps.

[DRM]

cheers mate i'll have a look tomorrow!

[bish0p]

if you need any more help just let me know. glad to help

[95c280]

Bishop: What did you mod in your projectors to get that blue cutoff line?

Thanks.

[bish0p]

that's the washer mod. i don't recommend doing that. my cutoff isn't the sharpest. it looks really nice and cool but it doesn't give you the best cut off because the blue just blends in and it doesn't give me a great cutoff. You can still see a cutoff but the cutoff isn't sharp like an s2k or anything. But that's just because i modded a 7 series projector. if i modded the stanley s2k or tsx projectors then it'll still be sharp but whenever you mod with the washers it gets duller. the more blue the less sharp your cutoff is.