Never really did a thread about this and since I'm finishing it up now (finally) I figured I'd share.

This is retrofit number 3 for my car. I've always been trying to achieve a quad retrofit which is incredibly difficult do to the small size of our headlights.

Number one was a fail, I don't even think it went on the car for more then a week. These were 2Ga housings with E55 projectors and FX-R projectors.


Number 2 was what most people would have seen the car with. 4 FX-R projectors, 50W ballasts and 5K bulbs. I never did wire up the second set of projectors/ballast if I remember right. It did look wicked with the red paint shields for the passive demon eye though.


Enter my 3rd and final retrofit. In the beginning I gave up trying to do a quad and decided to cram the best projector in there, Acura TLs.
Pile of parts:


TL slope projectors (no mods at all)
Clear Lens
E46R Extended Shrouds
Morimoto 5000k bulbs
Cree P4 amber and white LEDs for DRL and Turns
Sharp Regulators
Boosted Bosch Ballasts
Noyaka Yellow Bulbs for DRL

Baked and broke the lights down.


The TLs are huge in comparison to the headlights.


Marked some reference lines and hole sawed the reflector out.



Cut even more of the reflector to get the projector to fit.

Around this time I made up my first LED turn signal board.
Cree P4 amber and white LEDs, I intended to do a switchback turn signal.





I then made up a jig, mounted a reflector to it and aimed it/marked it on the wall.



I then switched to the TL projector and secured it into the reflector with Windshield adhesive.



I also had to trim the sh!t out of the housing.


With the shrouds and DRL bulb in, it looked pretty good.

Built a little circuit to flash/strobe my bi-xenon solenoids for fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HsjVMubvjg

Around this time I got another set of lights from Jimmy Spurrel. Look mileage on them so good condition lenses.


I didn't like the way my projectors were mounted so I redid them with bolts/nuts and L brackets, this way I could adjust rotation and have a pitch screw too.




Trimmed up the shrouds.



Ran into a problem when putting the lens on.


moAR cutting.


Almost all ready.

Around this point in time I played with a high power Cree LED as a DRL.


But outside it wasn't impressive.


I also remade my turn signal boards by custom etching them. They are now Phillips Superflux LEDs run by a Sharp voltage regulator and controlled by a custom built MSP430 microcontroller based sequencer/PWM.

I also painted my cut off shields for the red demon eye look again. Installed LEDs to have a lit up red demon eye and installed new clear lenses with a custom etched eagle design (matches the emblem for my car).



The lights kind of sat for a bit then.

I've got a LOT of trimming to get these to fit the TLs and then to get it all to fit into my headlight.


I've always liked having fog lights on my car especially were I live since we get so much fog. Since I've got a front mount intercooler that uses the factory fog mount holes to bolt up I had to think of something else.
Some time in the last year I picked up a set of BMW X5 LED fogs.


I held them up to the car many many times and tried to imagine how to mount them where I wanted them.
I knew I wanted them in the outside vents on the bumper but due to their size this could prove odd.

TRS released a bunch of new model XB LED fog lights and had a group buy earlier this year. I picked up a set of the wife's JK since they had a bolt in option and also a set for my Fiesta (which didn't even have a fog light option).
However, after numerous warranty repairs, I've now deemed the Fiesta unmoddable! It's just a grocery getter until I trade it in and it doesn't need any extras that I won't recoupe. Plus I never drive the thing at night because I'm never home. As a result the XB LED Fog lights are now going on the Talon.


I determined that the ends of the fiberglass bumper/crash beam would put the fog lights exactly were I want them. A bit of aluminum flat stock, some drilling, cutting and grinding later I had them mounted.



One issue, they point to the sides and not straight ahead! But wait! This is why I LOVE thin flat stock aluminum! A pair of vise grips, a lil flick of da wrist and BAM!!!! They're point straight.


Since I'm only using 2 mounting points on either side the opposite unused ones had to go. Bit of dremel action and you can't even tell they were there.



I did more work on the headlights and sort of had them all fitting together and painted. I had to do a test fit to make sure the solenoid cleared on the car. You can see where the fog lights fit.


What happened to the X5 LED fogs you ask, well....I hate visiting HIDPlanet sometimes.


I'm thinking DRL/secondary fog.

I'm home for my final block of school for my apprenticeship now so this project and some others will be getting some attention and getting closed off finally!

Cut the X5 LED housings apart with my trusty Dremel.


Reflector bowl ready to be cut up even more, you can see how much material is removed for the TL projector.


A made a spacer so the hole saw drill bit will stay centered and the hole saw doesn't wonder, I got it to fit better after this picture.


Grabbed my super sweet Milwaukee M18 Fuel Drill and my equally sweet Milwaukee hole saw and cut up the housing. I had to do some trimming with my Dremel of course to get it all to fit 100%.





Should look pretty sweet in the end. Going to paint the reflector bowls Mica black (not sure if rattle or pro) and get either Iris or E55 shouds for X5s.
I'm thinking about painted the center part of the Fog black or maybe red to match the demon eye on the projector.


Used some JB Weld SteelStick to attach them to the reflectors temporarily, that way I can see how much trimming I have to do.

Mounted the reflector bowls back in and messed with the mounting screws a bit, heat sinks on the LED fogs clear perfect so I won't need to do any trimming.


We'll see when I get the lights on and leveled but it looks like the cover will fit too!


I had a single Apollo shroud around so I hacked it up to see if I could get a shroud to fit. It will so I'm going to order some.


Here's the beam shot of the X5 LED fogs, I'll aim them down a bit more when I secure them into the housing finally.


Also tuned the cut off on my TLs, ugly yellow stock cut off.



Sexy purple modded cut off. Used 2 paper lens spacers (the funny beam pattern in the first pic is because the X5 was on....oops).



Taken apart again, I'm going to paint them over the next couple days.


Using Subaru Obsidian Black Pearl. Used it on the wife's retro and really liked the results.


That's it for now.
I'm playing with the idea of painting the X5 fogs yellow but I doubt I will since it will ruin the output all together.
I think I will paint the center bar on them either red or black though.

Looks awesome - now just to see it on the car in action!

Will be shooting you a PM about doing 1Gb lights.

wow! a lot of headlights attention. I wish I had that much time. In my case i chose the easy route & replaced mine with fresh 2Gb OEM.

I've been eyeballing idea of HID fogs. I don't want to change OEM headlights because i just love OEM. However, these eBay fogs seems interesting & i will consider them if they work well.

Don't do it Alex.

Those ballast's are those cheap ebay brand pieces of sh!t. I own about 6 or 7 full HID kits and a couple of them are those ballast's. NONE OF THESE KITS ARE RELIABLE!

The right way to do it is what Anthony is doing. Although it requires a very tedious attention to detail.

Although I will say this....

WTF IS WHAT THAT BUMPER COVER?

A. Missing paint = not very enthusiast of you
B. Is it not a 2gb cover...? with 2ga lights?

Along with the rest of the car in action.
Shot a PM back to ya.



That's the nice thing about the TLs, they are OEM. I've seen some of the replica projectors and they just aren't impressive as the OEM stuff. It's not to involved to do a retrofit I just like making things complicated.

For fogs look at the Morimoto LED offerings from The Retrofit Source, that's what I'm using on my car.
The issue with HID, apart from what Mike said, is that due to the intensity/brightness of the HID capsule it's almost too much foreground light and you actually have trouble seeing.
Shoot me a PM if you are interested in anything from TRS, I'm a wholesaler.



LOL
I've actually got 2 new unabused bumper covers under my parents house and a set of side stakes too!
I did have a 2Gb Eclipse bumper at one point with 2Ga headlights. However while I currently have a 2Gb Talon bumper, Talons always had the 2Ga style headlights.

Nice work Anthony, looks beautiful!! Really loving how far LEDs have come in the last few years and that they can get this bright. Any issues with closing the back of the led? Better to let the heat sink breathe?

Hey Mike next time I see you remind me to run you over with my non enthusiast car

Lol sounds good Bryan.

@ Anthony - where are you with at with the car being drivable?

Thanks Bryan! There should be no issues sealing them up as they are in a sealed housing from the factory.



Getting there.
I've done a lot of work but haven't bothered to post updates.

I've got most the wiring done (of course I pulled it out again to add wiring for these fogs), have to finish wiring the fuel pump, some AN lines, vacuum lines and stuff (need bungs welded), need an intake, fuel/brake lines installed, redo my brakes, install my alternator and wire that and see what else she needs.

The car needs paint so I've got to talk with the wife about that lol but first need to get it running. I'll be driving it next year 100%.

Small little updated.
I painted the very front of the X5s black, I like it and it should tie into everything else.




I've got to order some stuff from TRS so I'm on hold till that gets here. I rather get everything 100% fitted up before painting.

Some people collect turbos....I collect LED/HID projectors.

Just before Christmas I picked up a set of Corolla LED projectors for steal. They came complete with the whole headlight bucket and drivers.


Bit of JB Weld Steelstik and they were mounted.


Quick test, much better beam pattern and cut off then the X5s. These are an actual main beam and not a fog light, there was a high chance the X5s would have been cosmetic only and that just didn't sit right with me.



The headlight housing had to be trimmed a tiny bit but other then that they fit fine and the rear cover should go on.


Should look pretty sweet when all done.



I picked up some mirrored acrylic to make block off plate out of, they will go around the projector and hide most of the guts.

Nice look Anthony!! Will be some damn good lights on that thing once you start driving it around

Nice garage you have there

It will be nice to finally see it in person instead of on the bench.



Thanks!
I need to run a service out from my main panel, insulate and sheet it up this year.
I also need a tool box.

My mirrored arcylic idea didn't work out as planned, it's a bugger to cut unless you've got all the right tools plus it's rather brittle.

So I made myself a cheap vacuum table out of some MDF and peg board, the frames were made from screen frames.


Bought some polystyrene sheet, put in the frames and into the oven for a couple minutes till it started to sag.


Turn the shop vac on and pressed the sheet over the headlight.


Molds held on to the headlight reflectors nice and tight.


I made a total of 4 pulls and got 2 decent moulds, I'll likely make some more pulls later as once I trimmed them they were not 100% perfect.



Final trim and laid over the projector. I'll use some Goop or JB Weld to secure it to the projector when the time comes.



I modded the Colloras to get more light and a bit of color back, lens is moved around 2 mm forward and has 3 lens spacers installed. 2nd picture is the stock Corolla on the top and modded on bottom. 3rd picture is a comparsion to the TLs (3Five bulb and ballast, color modded with 2 spacers IIRC).

Finally everything laid back into the headlight, Corolla LED covers and headlight bucket have been painted, still need to repaint the headlight shroud. By the end of the weekend I should have everything hard mounted back into the buckets.

Very creative it looks great!

Thank you sir.
I've been wanting to try vacuum forming for a while now. It will also allow me to make a custom fitted bottom for the headlight to cover the TL solenoid.

Well done! Love the vac table!