New Headlights - HID Retrofit

[Matt Stehle]

Just thought I'd share some pix of the HID retrofit I just finished on my '04 Adrenaline. Unfortunatly it was a very lengthy process which I was trying to get done quickly, so I didn't take pictures along the way to make a project for it.



Components:



-Acura TL Bixenon projectors w/ stock lenses, color modded to get a thicker blue/purple cutoff line

-Matsushita Gen 3 ballasts/ignitors

-Custom made wiring harness runs power directly off battery (Stock headlight switch triggers relay to turn lights on)

-Shrouds are part chrysler crossfire shrouds trimmed with additional round dish pieces from some landscaping lights from home depot

-Spare OEM headlight housings, hacked apart to fit projectors

-Misc stainless bolts, nuts, and washers, and rubber washers for mounting

-silicone adhesive and jb weld to make them watertight - no fogging so far!



OK here is the eye candy



edit- sorry the second and third pictures are so small...will edit after work and add sone night photos when I get them.



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[David Griffith 2]

Cool!

 

[FlipTrac_511]

Nice pics. Love that color!

 

[Kevin Lang]

So, how hard would it be to put HID lights on the trac, but putting them as separate lights, not putting them into the stock enclosures.



Cause I don't know about your tracs, but my headlights, even with the "uber" sylvania ultra bulbs, do NOT penetrate into the darkness very far. I feel that my brights are what I should have all the time, it feels like I only get 2 trac lengths illuminated infront of me



BTW, is it just me, or do you get different lighting between engaging the brights by pushing the stick to the dash as opposed to pulling it back towards you? I'm positive that brights in the "flashing" position illuminate a greater vertical area than brights in the "on" position.



But I don't mean to hijack your thread.



On topic, that does look pretty cool.

 

[EddieS'04]

KL, when you pull the stick back to the flash position. Brights and lows are on at the same time.

 

[Matt Stehle]

Thanks all



KL, I'm not sure where you could put a whole new headlight housing to fit good HID projectors, without putting them into the stock housings.



Whatever you do, please don't consider the cheap HID kits that are a direct plug-n-play to the stock housings. Yes, it will be brighter, but it does not produce a cut-off line, so a bunch of that light is going directly into other drivers' eyes, which is why they are illegal, and cops are finally starting to crack down on them. HIDs need to go through a projector lens, which has a cutoff shield inside, which produces a shard cut-off line below other drivers' eyes. The purple/blue "flicker" you see is when you're looking right into the cutoff.



As far as the differences in high beam, I'm not sure about the trac. I know my taurus did it though. With the retrofit, when the high beam is turned on, theres a solenoid that drops the cutoff shield inside the projector, so the light isn't blocked at all. Nothing changes with the power to the bulbs, so the high beam looks the same whether it's on normally or you're holding the stick toward the dash.

 

[Matt Tuper]

its like the image i've had in my head! it looks as good as i hoped it would. as far as dificulty goes on a 1-10 scale where would you put it as well as the time it took for the job to be completed. Again it looks great