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Projectors

Posted: March 31st, 2005, 9:00 am
by Legato626
OK i al looking for some of the nicest projectors that people have becuase i am planing to redo my hole front end (pics comeing) and i was wondering about projectors. And if its able if some one could make me a set i could buy them off of him?

Posted: March 31st, 2005, 12:46 pm
by hgallegos915
easiest way to make...hot knife..towel... and a tube of clear sylicone.. Of and a dremel :)

Posted: March 31st, 2005, 11:43 pm
by DavidOS
well if your redoing your WHOLE front end, go get some audi, or bmw lights and stuff em in there:)

Re: Projectors

Posted: April 1st, 2005, 2:17 am
by jschrauwen
Legato626 wrote:OK i al looking for some of the nicest projectors that people have becuase i am planing to redo my hole front end (pics comeing) and i was wondering about projectors. And if its able if some one could make me a set i could buy them off of him?
What do you think you would pay for a good set of homemade projectors?

lights

Posted: April 1st, 2005, 8:49 am
by Legato626
Well on ebay the halo civic lights are like 120 bucks so i am looking at like 200 maybe 220 i will pay someone to make.

Re: lights

Posted: April 1st, 2005, 10:56 am
by jschrauwen
Legato626 wrote:Well on ebay the halo civic lights are like 120 bucks so i am looking at like 200 maybe 220 i will pay someone to make.
Perhaps civic may be the route for you. As DavidOS recommended, the lighting units/projectors in those type of vehicles (Acura TL, Honda S2000, Audi TT, BMW 7series, etc) are the systems that are going to give you the best performance (lighting) possible, no question. Granted, the civic lighting units are better than our stock, but if your looking to retain the integrity of the MX and integrate new lighting sources inside the modified shell of an MX, then were looking at $$. Lighting units with quality ancilliaries alone will be anywhere from $500-800, factor in the time and labour required to modify and mount light units in the shell and your going to be over the $1,000. mark. Expensive I know. Look at it this way, price a new replacement light unit for our car and one from an Audi TT ,Acura TL or Honda S2000. You'll probably find that the $1,000. isn't so expensive after all. Of course, when you get right down to it, it's a question of what you want vs what you need vs what you can afford or are willing to spend.

Posted: April 1st, 2005, 11:35 am
by Cpl_Bryant
I just finished my own Civic Headlight conversion and let me tell you, $220 is no where near the amount I would charge to do them for someone else. It was a royal headache and I'm still not 100% pleased with my own work on MY car. Think of how it would be on a total strangers car. You would spend a fortune on a sloppy job. I recommend you get some courage and try it yourself. Then when its done, you have no one to blame but yourself and you can also take pride in your own custom work.

Posted: April 1st, 2005, 10:35 pm
by jschrauwen
Cpl_Bryant wrote:I just finished my own Civic Headlight conversion and let me tell you, $220 is no where near the amount I would charge to do them for someone else. It was a royal headache and I'm still not 100% pleased with my own work on MY car. Think of how it would be on a total strangers car. You would spend a fortune on a sloppy job. I recommend you get some courage and try it yourself. Then when its done, you have no one to blame but yourself and you can also take pride in your own custom work.
Thanks Cpl, I think you're the first Civic conversion that wasn't embarrassed to relate their experiences, difficulties and frank admittal of such an endeavour. I suppose that if one had a backround in sheet metal work, body work and had the services of welding and cutting torches and serious metal working tools than perhaps it might not be such a daunting experience as it would for me. Although for someone that's a bit pensive about screwing up their own lights, getting a spare light shell from a scrap yard to practice on might be the way to go. If everything works out well the first time, great, it's a keeper. If not, then of course you've lost only a very small investment but hopefully gained the knowledge and learned from your mistakes to make it right the next time (on your own shells). I believe that's the route I may take - getting a spare unit from a scrapyard, as long as the shell and mounting tabs are in tact.
Don't forget that there aren't a lot of specialty tools required as in a civic conversion. Everything can be done at home, in your garage, kitchen table, hobby room, wherever. Total down time on your car, if any, depending if you acquired a spare unit, should be a lot less than a civic conversion, IMO. Just my take on the projector thing.

Posted: April 2nd, 2005, 7:25 pm
by Cpl_Bryant
Well said. As far as tools go, I think I misused every tool in my garage on this project. Today it rained like crazy here in NY and now my lights have some condensation inside the lenses. I am pretty pissed of about it, but its probably due to the fact that I have yet to hook up the turn signal and side marker bulbs and thus there are 2 major holes in the back of the housing. I taped over what I could, but with the lights installed on the car, its impossible to reach them to even temporarily put the sockets in place. So now once this Noah's Ark-like flooding ends maybe I can dry them out and finish the job.

Posted: April 5th, 2005, 7:56 pm
by 2fazed
It's not the cutting of the lights that's the problem, it's the cutting of the inside fenders and getting the lights in place. You should try the mod yourself, cause even if you get someone to cut them, you still have to cut your car. There's no way around it.

Posted: April 6th, 2005, 12:53 am
by Cpl_Bryant
That too. And doing it yourself will make your car unique in that some rich 16 year old can't just run out and buy them and pay someone to put them in for him/her. That's why I don't want them to be made in mass so that we cusomizers can separate ourselves from the countless punk kids that can dump more money into their car than we can. Oh wow a maxxed out Civic/Integra. Gee I've never seen one of those. When those people see our cars they're like: What the f#@% was that?