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OK I started work on removing the civic projectors! It got dark out so I was not able to finish... I know alot of you were looking for pics on what I cut on the car as well as the light so here they are! I will be doing the final install of the OEM glass headlamps with electric motors on saturday so if you have a pic request before they go in - let me know! I will be taking alot more pics in better daylight as well...
















I was not able to fit the glass lights completely as the hood pin bolts were hanging down too far and they were hitting the motors on the back of the lamps.

thank you very much this will help alot when i go to do mine....just curious...did you cut your bumper at all?

no I never got around to cutting my front bumper. All that I would have had to do was shave around the front edge that was resting on the front of the light... if you notice some of my older pics my fender and bumper never quite lined up perfect. I was reading through evilyeti's walkthrough and he cut a little more than I did and got it to line up so I would use those pics as reference as well if you plan on doing this.

my advice to anyone wanting to try this - it's not difficult but it takes some basic skill with a dremel. Make sure you give yourself 2 days to complete the project if you are totally new to doing something like this. It took me about 10 hours to fit one side (because I was a noob- lol) then I just cut all the same things on the other side (like a mirror image).

worse case, you can always put your stock headlights back in...

Nice air-horns!

lol heck yeah dude they are twin air, made in Italy...

"more than you can afford, pal - FERRARI"

ya...well my dad did body work for like 15 years...so hes going to help me do it...we have all the proper tools..(so were not gonna touch a dremal)..on my car we did all the bodywork and primer in our garage then went to the booth to spray it.....just one other thing..can you take some detail'd pics of the projectors...where you cut ect...im just waiting for this damn snow to go away so i can put um in!!

yeah I'll be taking a ton more pictures of them... I really don't know what other tool I would use to cut the plastic on the lights - the dremel is perfect...

you said you did ship those switches out right?..i havnt gotten anything in the mail yet...did they say how long it would be?

JeremyP wrote:you said you did ship those switches out right?..i havnt gotten anything in the mail yet...did they say how long it would be?

meh it's only been 2 weeks... give it another week I sent them super snail mail lol

sure enough...one day after i open my big mouth i get those switches in!....one question tho....i have 4 wires on my foglamp setup...positive...one to lights...and one to the ground...and this one has4 wires...pink...green with black stripe (assuming thats a ground)...orange and gray....do you know what each one is for?

JeremyP wrote:sure enough...one day after i open my big mouth i get those switches in!....one question tho....i have 4 wires on my foglamp setup...positive...one to lights...and one to the ground...and this one has4 wires...pink...green with black stripe (assuming thats a ground)...orange and gray....do you know what each one is for?

nope I have no idea - as with all of my projects regarding foreign switches... I am no electrical expert - I just experiment until it does what I want LOL although I would assume one is power to the lights/relay, power coming in, ground, and a dimmer switch light so it will light up or something

I just wanted to make sure you got the correct connector - it's much easier to wire that way...

If I could just jump in here with a n00b question on topic....
Rather than try to make the car fit the light....make the light fit the car??
Has anyone ever messed with keeping the MX3 front lens and cutting through the actual parabolic reflectors to see if you can closely match them? I know the civic ones are roughly 1.5" bigger than the stock ones, but with the curvature of the reflector it would get smaller the further back you cut.
If you could get it close to the same size as the stock lens you could probably epoxy them together (the honda reflector/sockets/harness, and the MX3 lens). The reflector might not match the shape of the lens but with some grinding and a neat epoxy job I don''t think it would be noticeable. You would possibly gain clearance all around?? You wouldn't have the rib-free look of the civic ones but you'd still have the reflectors showing through a bit in the daytime and even more so at night. Just a thought.

nsklzemx3 wrote:If I could just jump in here with a n00b question on topic....

There are several people that have tried that... the mx-3 lense makes everything inside look clouded...since they are not as clear as you would expect. There are alot of variations on the civic projector swap along with several different custom made projector schemes that I have seen.

also if you try and fit the civic projectors in the mx-3 without cutting them you would have to remove/cut into the front bumper absorber piece (inside the front bumper)... and I'd rather have that there if I get in a wreck


While I'm posting, good news I got the glass headlamps in but my front bumper cover is so warped from being pushed out for 4 years I'm going to use my spare front bumper cover I had and put that on the car tomorrow... OH and the h4 output of these lights is SWEET! I can't wait to hook up the leveling portion tomorrow as well

here's more pics of the glass headlamp install:

What type of paint did you use to paint both your OEM tails and the Altezza's? And what did you do to prep them? I like the look of both, your altezza's are the best I've seen as they normally aren't my cup of tea. The color match on the stock ones looks great. How many coats/ any tips? I'm thinking of doing this sometime when I'm bored.

I agree I think my "ghost" chrome red altezzas are pretty sweet! I basically used the same method to paint all the taillights...

Basically go buy this paint from walmart in the toy department by the model sets or a hobby store - I also recommend using a trigger type piece that goes over the top of the can for a more consistent spray...


next just clean the taillights really well to remove any dirt, etc. Next tape off what you don't want to paint (black trim, reverse light, etc.) I have painted mine several ways for instance: altezzas I painted the entire lense, on a stock set I painted the entire lense including reverse light red, on another stock set I painted everything except the reverse light and usually I my other stock sets I paint just the amber by taping off everything else to protect from overspray!

I'm not a professional so I didn't use any clearcoat over the top of the paint so it fades after 6 months - 1 year depending on the weather