Author Topic: My FX-R Projector Retrofit Thread (Read 33167 times)

bmwman91 · « **on:** December 22, 2011, 03:25:36 AM »

OK, now that I have all of the necessary parts, I am going to post the details of this project as I go. The aim here is to adapt FX-R projectors to Hella Euro "Smiley" headlight housings and run proper Phillips 85122+ D2S bulbs. As usual, I will probably "over-do" this in terms of sheer anal retentiveness. That means it may take a while. Nevertheless, I hope that people enjoy following along & can learn a few things from this!

Talk is cheap. Let's look at pictures.

To start, I made a number of measurements on the new & old parts. Then I tossed them into CAD & did some super basic interference checks to get an idea of how much cutting would be needed.

Red is where the parts interfere.

And just for fun, here's a silly ray-traced rendering.

I also took a ton of pictures of the headlight assemblies as I disassembled them, and of how I popped the glass covers off. It was really easy (and smelly...had to ventilate the apartment like crazy before my fiancee got home & discovered that I had been putting car parts in the oven again lol). It is late, so I will try to get around to posting some of the photos tomorrow.

I plan to stick the plastic low beam housings onto my lathe & chop the back off cleanly. That should give me a nice reference surface that I can machine a mounting plate for and keep the projector lens on a perfectly parallel axis with the housing. I need to be careful since there are other protrusions on the housing for the aiming posts (not sure if I really need to put them on the model...looks like I have enough room).

More to come...!

DesktopDave · « **Reply #1 on:** December 22, 2011, 09:15:36 AM »

That's definitely ambitious...I'll be checking back on your progress. I firmly believe that the proper reflector is required for HIDs. I hate that bluish or purple glare from "JDM" H4 re-based bulbs. I love the clean white output from well-engineered parts.

bmwman91 · « **Reply #2 on:** December 22, 2011, 12:37:55 PM »

Quote from: DesktopDave;109129

That's definitely ambitious...I'll be checking back on your progress. I firmly believe that the proper reflector is required for HIDs. I hate that bluish or purple glare from "JDM" H4 re-based bulbs. I love the clean white output from well-engineered parts.

For sure.

Using HIDs in stock housings:
There is no way to get a proper picture of them to do a comparison to Halogens or ricer bulbs, but quality re-based H1 HID bulbs in the Euro ellipsoid light housings actually look pretty OEM. Since they all have different color spectrums, I can't think of a good way to do an objective photo-comparison since they would each need different white balance settings, and that mixes in my subjective opinion. Basically, avoid cheap-o HID bulbs that claim to be "4500K" because they are probably 5000K or 6000K and will get really blue as they wear out over one year of use. I had been using cheap "4500K" DDM bulbs and they were junk...bluish, and got even bluer/dimmer over 12 months.

I switched to some Morimoto 4300K bulbs from http://www.theretrofitsource.com and these are MUCH better. The bulbs look almost OEM when you look at the car at night (maybe just a slight twinge of blue), and the light that they put out on the road is basically a match to OEM.

I have been told that the US ellipsoid housings are actually much more conducive to HID bulbs than the Euro ones and that the US beam pattern puts more of the light where it needs to go on US roads (go figure, lol).

The real issue I see with using any used ellipsoid lights at this point is that the reflector dishes are all shot to hell. Decades of heat & oxidation dull the original mirror finish, and I would bet that at least 30% of the light that hits them gets absorbed instead of reflected. This is based upon what I have seen from opening a few pairs of used ones.

Honestly, a pair of Hella or Cibie H4 housings in the sealed-beam frame are probably a lot better than used ellipsoid lights at this point. THe OEM projector housings LOOK neat, but their lighting performance at this point is probably totally sub-par.

DesktopDave · « **Reply #3 on:** December 22, 2011, 07:06:21 PM »

+1 on that. I helped a buddy install a NOS pair of Hella H4's on a his old bimmer, they were very nice indeed. I heard somewhere that the NA Hella ellipsoids have held up far better than the e-code smilies, though. Have you noted that at all?

bmwman91 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 22, 2011, 11:51:20 PM »

Sadly, I have not had a chance to inspect any US ellipsoid lights closely. How much do they usually sell for? I assume that they are a lot cheaper than the Euro ones since the US ones have a lot less demand.

bmwman91 · « **Reply #5 on:** December 23, 2011, 02:20:40 AM »

Everyone's favorite...picture time!

I have done a little more modeling to get the positioning of the projector nailed down. Right now, the plan is to leave 1mm between the lens & cover.

Another angle. I colored the "glass" so I could tell what the heck I was looking at. CAD can make things easier to visualize...and it can also do the opposite if you get carried away with adding surface finishes (me me me).

From the back. You'll probably notice the adapter plate.

Partially exploded.

With the housing & cover gone, you can see the relative position of the new lens & the existing "shroud". I am a little concerned that the shroud will block a lot of light as it is positioned here. This will just take some real-world experimentation. Worst -case, I will have to cut the shroud up, or make a new one. I plan to paint it black to give the "smoked" light appearance, so modifications might not be all that noticeable. We'll see...

Here's a quick shot showing what I plan to do to the housing. I want to chop off 32.675mm (29.5mm + 1/8" for the adapter plate). I omitted the adjuster brackets that are part of the housing since I do not plan to cut them. One of them will be in the depth of the cut, so it is going to take some careful cutting to not destroy it.

Finally, here it all is from the back. I plan to mount the FX-R projector using the existing assembly screw locations, rather than the little ears that stick out. It helps to keep things compact. The unused ears will get cut off, and I want to seal it all up with a big rubber boot thing (still looking for something to use). The diameter of the adapter is 5". If anyone can recommend a rubber cap for a 5" circle, and that is 2.5"-4" long, let me know. Basically, I need a bigger version of these.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=4649

Doing it this way allows me to avoid putting RTV or aluminum tape all over the projectors. I wanted to use some 5" ID tubing at first, but the hole in the headlight bracket won't accommodate that without chopping it up, which I won't do.

I disassembled everything the other day. The plan is to clean the hell out of it all since it is greasy & nasty.

Here's the stock projector.

You can see where the Euro cut-off comes from. You may also notice that it saw a lot of heat & UV!

The world, as seen by an H1 bulb.

The reflector dish was in bad shape. Decades of heat & oxidation have taken their toll. You can't see it in this photo, but there are a couple of spots where the heat was intense enough to cause the metallic coating to crack & peel. It is supposed to look like a clean mirror in there. Based on what I see here, I think I will stop recommending used ellipsoid lights as an "upgrade." I bet you lose a LOT of light output with the old tarnished reflectors. Some new Hella or Cibie H4 housings (used with sealed beam brackets) probably give far better output at this point since their reflectors are, well, NEW! If you want ellipsoid lights & good lighting, pay for new ones.

Removing the glass covers was really easy. I put the housings into the oven and let them bake at 250�F for ~15 minutes. Open a window & run the vent fan; these things got smoky & stinky!

Start with the low beams in the little slot where the cover's locating leg rests.

The low beams are really easy. The housing deflects a little, so you can easily get a screwdriver in there. Pry with it, but DO NOT TWIST. Work it into the adhesive in 5-6 places before you really pry too hard. Break it loose in a bunch of small spots & then pop it out.

The high beams are done the same way, but they are a little more of a pain. Since the housing is metal, you have to be careful since it doesn't really deflect. Find one of the little notches in the outer lip & start there. Work your way around, jamming the screwdriver in to break it loose in a number of spots.

Wear gloves or use an oven mitt. You want to have comfortable grip on these when you work on them. To get the old glue out, re-heat the parts with it on them & scrape it off with the screwdriver.

That's all I have for now. The coming weekend will probably be pretty busy with holiday stuff, so this is going on the back-burner for a little while. Merry Christmas & happy holidays to you E30 guys!

colin86325 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 23, 2011, 06:28:42 PM »

Excellent write-up, I will be following your progress!

Thanks for sharing.

enildeR · « **Reply #7 on:** December 25, 2011, 01:47:16 PM »

Is there a thread that you accumulated the part numbers? If not, can you post them here. I'd be interested in duplicating the efforts, as I have some cash. I've been getting really tired of how poor the original lights are.

bmwman91 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 26, 2011, 01:35:54 AM »

I got the new headlight / projector parts from http://www.theretrofitsource.com. I am still in the process of designing the adapter, and I'll work on being able to supply people with them once I have a prototype with perfect fit / sealing.

enildeR · « **Reply #9 on:** January 06, 2012, 10:07:57 AM »

So do you already have ballasts? Or did you buy them from the site you provided?

Are you going to run 35w or 55w bulbs? I'm not familiar with projectors, so I'm not sure which should be used. I'm assuming 55w is for highs?

bmwman91 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 14, 2012, 11:52:16 PM »

Alrighty, I made some progress on this today. The housings have been trimmed down and I'll be figuring out exactly how I want to build an adapter plate.

First, I trimmed out a bunch of the crap inside with my trusty 1" end mill. The cut-off wheel I used next had a rather large arbor and I needed to get this crap out of the way first.

I did most of the trimming with a cut-off wheel in the mill. The housing was mounted face-down on the rotary table and manually spun.

I made a few passes to get things close to the final dimensions. The cut-off wheel is pretty nifty and didn't cause any chipping.

The last 0.015" was knocked off with a 6-flute 1" end mill at 1200RPM.

So, here they are. With this done, I can now nail down the adapter design.

bmwman91 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 14, 2012, 11:52:55 PM »

Quote from: enildeR;109430

So do you already have ballasts? Or did you buy them from the site you provided?

Are you going to run 35w or 55w bulbs? I'm not familiar with projectors, so I'm not sure which should be used. I'm assuming 55w is for highs?

Yeah, I have some old DDM slim ballasts that I am using with my current H1 Xenon bulbs. I will be running 35W bulbs/ballasts. 55W is completely unnecessary and does nothing other than piss off other drivers.

enildeR · « **Reply #12 on:** January 15, 2012, 01:45:53 PM »

Did you bake the sealed beams just to clean the reflectors, or are you planning to do something with them?

bmwman91 · « **Reply #13 on:** January 15, 2012, 01:59:44 PM »

I removed the glass in order to get accurate measurements of some parts of the housings, and so I could clamp them to the rotary table. The glass is pitted to hell anyway, so I w ill be putting some acrylic replacement covers on too.

Got any suggestions on adhesives to reinstall the covers with?

bmwman91 · « **Reply #14 on:** January 19, 2012, 11:34:47 PM »

Alrighty, I have given this some more thought and I now know how I plan to tackle this.

There will not be a cut-out for the city light bulb. I have been using the same ones for close to 7 years now; the replacement interval is super long. I would much rather have a hermetic seal that I am confident in than easy access to a part that almost never needs replacing.

The plate will be secured to the housing via two screw blocks and Permatex Ultra Black RTV. The screw blocks are in there because I just don't trust adhesives that see water/salt water, heat cycling & have something as important as headlights depending on them. Also, using a softer sealant like RTV means that, should you need to replace the city light bulb, these plates will just need some unscrewing and a little pulling, and then $2 worth of RTV to reassemble.

The big blue boot thing will be a project all of its own. I cannot find any off the shelf parts that can fit over a 5" perimeter, so I will make the necessary molding plugs/cavities on a wood lathe, seal them with some Shellac & then cast the parts from some sort of urethane-rubber or silicone compound that can take heat & exposure to car fluids.

Do it right, or don't bother, I say!