Projector Mounting Question!!

[mxer4eva]

I am looking for mostly a how to on mounting them in the our old housing and some pics. Also it wouldnt hurt if you could ad some links to where you can purchase the intergal parts required. I understand that JDM and Aiden might not want to post where they got theres,because those lights are kinda badass and want exclusiveness of them. But where simlar equipment can be found wouldnt be too bad.

For everyone else I recommend you join up at HID forums
There is a large amount of relevant information on lighting and why certain types of lights do what they do.

Aiden, whenever you get a chance you can email me at miggiesmalls15@aol.com or just im me on aim miggiesmalls15.

Its nice that lately we have been having quality discussions in most of the forums. It usually gets pretty slow around here this time of the year.

<small>[ November 26, 2003, 12:44 AM: Message edited by: mxer4eva ]</small>

[Sam Baker]

ya i'd love to see any pix u guyz have of your projector expermients too!.. and also i TOTALLY agree with mxer4eva!! like having a "lighting FAQ" section or somethin.. it would not only keep loads of people from asking questions like "what are the best bulbs, hid kits, or mounting projectors or fog lights." not to mention neon lights LOL! it would keep the personal bashings away and inform all us uneducated lighting fools about whats possible and how to do it! :p anywayz thas a good suggestion dude- would be cool to see!
~ sam

[millionflame]

Originally posted by mxer4eva:
I am looking for mostly a how to on mounting them in the our old housing and some pics. Also it wouldnt hurt if you could ad some links to where you can purchase the intergal parts required. I understand that JDM and Aiden might not want to post where they got theres,because those lights are kinda badass and want exclusiveness of them. But where simlar equipment can be found wouldnt be too bad.

For everyone else I recommend you join up at HID forums
There is a large amount of relevant information on lighting and why certain types of lights do what they do.

Aiden, whenever you get a chance you can email me at miggiesmalls15@aol.com or just im me on aim miggiesmalls15.

Its nice that lately we have been having quality discussions in most of the forums. It usually gets pretty slow around here this time of the year.

I'll gladly tell you where I got my projectors. There's LOTS of places to get them from, so shop around for a while to find the right one.

Price isn't always the best too. Make sure the person has a good reputation and will show you pictures of the items.

I have to get my other hard drive, so tomorrow I'll do that and download the pictures for you fellows.

HIDforums.com is a great place. I post there every day. As well, there is another awesome forum called the Automotive Lighting Forum. Both forums are kind of linked to each other, as both owners are good friends. I'd check both as they each have information that's important.

[millionflame]

Originally posted by Sam Baker:
ya i'd love to see any pix u guyz have of your projector expermients too!.. and also i TOTALLY agree with mxer4eva!! like having a "lighting FAQ" section or somethin.. it would not only keep loads of people from asking questions like "what are the best bulbs, hid kits, or mounting projectors or fog lights." not to mention neon lights LOL! it would keep the personal bashings away and inform all us uneducated lighting fools about whats possible and how to do it! :p anywayz thas a good suggestion dude- would be cool to see!
~ sam

As far as a FAQ goes, I think it's a good idea.

However, lately when someone posts true information pertaining to lights in general, people seem to get offended by this fact and flame wars start.

[Talon_66]

Jdm or Aiden

I am also interested in getting some pictures and information on how u guys made your projectors. I have found the stock headlights somewhat weak. If u want to email any information or pictures email, me at MazdaXperiment3@hotmail.com

Thanks guys

[Sam Baker]

o ya.. you all talk about sanding the clear covers.. do you mean to get rid of the glare factor? or to remove the refracting lines? because when i saw Taras's projector pix a while back, he had the stock cover on it. or is that just an early pic? anywayz.. ya i wanna see more pix!!!! hit me up guyz @ samzcoolcarz@yahoo.com so i can get more variety of the possiblities when installing projectors. thanx all!
~ sam

PS all people who are offended can piss off! :p LOL

[curtklze]

[quote]Originally posted by Sam Baker:

PS all people who are offended can piss off! :p

[Sam Baker]

lol my bad curt! u and aiden have had arguements.. but it entertains and helps the rest of us! so thank you very much and besidez anybody who helps is coo! i dont know anything so i just ask for help. LOL
~ sam

[millionflame]

Originally posted by Sam Baker:
o ya.. you all talk about sanding the clear covers.. do you mean to get rid of the glare factor? or to remove the refracting lines? because when i saw Taras's projector pix a while back, he had the stock cover on it. or is that just an early pic? anywayz.. ya i wanna see more pix!!!! hit me up guyz @ samzcoolcarz@yahoo.com so i can get more variety of the possiblities when installing projectors. thanx all!
~ sam

PS all people who are offended can piss off! :p LOL

Taras sanded his stock lenses down. He did a good job on them, but his were also very much new to begin with, as far as I know.

However, even with brand new lenses sanded down to perfectly clear, they still wont be as good as real clear lexan lenses. The reason is because there are these horizontal refracting lines running "inside" the plastic, due to the bending, and they still mess up the beam pattern.

The point of sanding though, is to remove the glare factor and not mess the beam pattern of the projector up.

[Taras]

Aiden, stop answering for me

But thanks, saves me type all this stuff in.

To get OEM HID equipment look for following sellers on eBay

for US customers: Henrylampa

for Canadian cutomers:
Deepakmanuel

These have been reliable and sell genuine OEM HID equipment.

[Sam Baker]

wow awesome!!! thas a cool ebay store rite there!! but.. expensive! O_O oh man do those cost a lot! but its all in quality i spose.. so back on the sanding down or the lense cover thing... dont we need the lines for legal purposes? such as sending the light beams to the right or left sides in certain countries to see signs? or will it look funky like that? cuz i've seen a few cars with projectors WITH covers with lines, and a lot of them with CLEAR covers.. so would it look too bad without making lexan covers? thanx thanx
~ sam

btw happy thanksgiving!!!

[millionflame]

Originally posted by Sam Baker:
wow awesome!!! thas a cool ebay store rite there!! but.. expensive! O_O oh man do those cost a lot! but its all in quality i spose.. so back on the sanding down or the lense cover thing... dont we need the lines for legal purposes? such as sending the light beams to the right or left sides in certain countries to see signs? or will it look funky like that? cuz i've seen a few cars with projectors WITH covers with lines, and a lot of them with CLEAR covers.. so would it look too bad without making lexan covers? thanx thanx
~ sam

btw happy thanksgiving!!!

Well, legally it can get pretty weird.

By law, you're not even supposed to have plastic lense in front of the projector lense, but OEM set-ups are like this and there's really no problem.

The lines and ridges on the stock lense are neede for a halogen application since they help to aim the light coming off the mirror.

A projector already does this properly with it's OWN glass lense, so putting another aiming lense in front of that just makes it look like crap and then there's no point in having a projector in the first place.

I've seen a Del Sol with bi-xenons and it had the stock flutted lenses in front (like ours), and fore some reason unknown to others it actually produced a fairly straight beam pattern with a decent cut-off.

However, Taras can verify this, but the MX-3 lenses aren't going to give you this result. They mess it all up and screw the whole beam pattern to hell.

I'd suggest, if you have the time and money, to just make your own lenses.

I've been experiementing with my own, and I have a few prototypes, but it's tricky. It takes time to master lexan, however I'm using perspex now.

Those sellers on eBay that Taras mentioned are well known to the lighting community, and are known to be reliable and trustworthy as well. I got mine from someone else, and Taras got his from a guy in Germany, so as you can see, there are many oportunities to obtain genuine OEM HID projectors.

I'd suggest doing some research of your own to determine who you want to buy from. I spent a whole year until I finally bought mine.

I've gone from stock headlights, then to the "blue bulb" crap, then to 1999-2000 Miata headlight conversion, then to my stock headlights with 2003 Hella Bi-Xenon projectors.

So, as you can see, you learn as you go.

[Taras]

Good lights cost money.

It would be highly suggested to have clear lens with your projectors. I bet HID projector behind our stock fluted lenses will yield better results than an HID kit in our stock headlights. But I would not suggest that either. If you gonna spend the money, do it the right way. Otherwise it is like running a KL-ZE with K08 intake maifold, stock intake, stock exhaust and on stock ECU. No offense to anyone.

Th problem with our lenses is that they are so curved and slanted and that skewes the beam. Mind you if you get the focal point right and positioning, you may be able to fine tune your results. But still pretty glary.

[Sam Baker]

i understand.. and i went to a car show today, and checked out so many new and concept models. i noticed when they had projectors, u are right, the lense is clear. and i'd really like a non-fluted lense cover, but is there a way besides making my own in lexan? i mean, it sounds VERY difficult to get right, and the other option Aiden mentioned is to sand them down.. but arent the lines still "inside" the plastic? could i possibly get new ones made by a plastic company or something? well anywayz i STILL dont have my spare housings, so i gotta wait. but thanx again dudez! and LOL thas funny bout the KLZE's.. yea u gotta do it right or not at all, i'd agree. :p lataz
~ sam

[Taras]

Well, to get the mold for a clear lens done would cost about 10K and then about a dollar to make each lens. So unless you are planning on making more than 10000 lenses no plastic company will do it. Or if you want to drive around with lenses worth 10K. They are injection molded polycarbonate and that is the only way to do them so they are bent in all four directions. I suppose that making your own out of lexan would be very hard, because lexan would not bend N-S AND E-W. Just in one direction. I am not sure if acrylic would do that, but that would be inferior imo. Perplex, not sure either. Aiden can tell you more about it.

I think that there are three ways to make your projector unobstructed:

1. Have it exposed. Just like true Hella aftermakret projector systems are for Golf IV, A3, Scania, Focus. See Here
And that is how Barry I think designing his. Of course you need to make a front face for the projectors. If that be me, I would just buy cheap Focus aftermarket projector headlights that copy Hella's design. Rip the front cover off ant mould it into our headlight. Additionally, you would not be able to use just any projector for that, because you still need all around weather protection. So, Hella 90mm ones are the best for that.

2. Sand your existing cover from the inside. Very labour intensive, but possible. You also can just sand a little square or a circle where the beam gonna go through. But you need to get projectors first, mount them inside and then see where you need to sand.

3. THis option been done before. Just on a different vehicle. You take a clear (not smoked) GTS headlight cover. Cut the same piece off your headlight and mold GTS one in there. They are prety thin and scratch easy, so I would use headlight film from Xpel. But good luck finding GTS clear headlight covers.

THese are all of the ideas so far.