My DIY Retro!! No 56K

00Accord4cyl

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Ok well some might have noticed that i was talking about getting a new retro and well yesterday we got started on it so thought i would post some of the pictures from last night...

Retro consists of:
OEM housing(hated to tear it up)
FX35 bixenon projectors (took out clear lense) 140 shipped
300zx lense swap 80 shipped
A4 shrouds 65 shipped
Spray Paint(have black but may go back to graphite) 97 cents
Total cost: $286

Well first comes first I had to obviously take apart the headlights..I didn't take any pictures of this since it is really simple to do..

But after this i started with switching the lenses over from stock clear FX to the 300zx lenses. I was told they would not be a direct fit but however they were..had no problems at all..


Here here the stock FX projector right when i got it
DSC_1636.jpg


The left lense is the 300 and the right is the FX..you can tell the difference because the FX has that lip at the bottom..
DSC_1664.jpg


To get the lense holder off you take a small flathead and pry it into the small wedges around the bowl...
DSC_1667.jpg


You slowly move it up and try not to bend the lense holder because this will make it harder to put back on
DSC_1665.jpg

Once it is off this is what it should look like with no lense. We added a small spacer to that lip around the edge and set the 300zx lenses on top of that..This mod is what gave the projectors all the color
DSC_1666.jpg

Here is the stock FX with clear lense(top projector) compared to my present retro (E46 on the bottom)
DSC_1639.jpg

Then this is a picture of the projectors modded, bad picture because we didnt' have a good wall to shine it on..this is just from 4 feet away pointed down..hence the large mountain
DSC_1671.jpg



After this we kinda started slacking because we had some other lenses and projectors sitting around so we did some testing..we put the TSX lense on the FX projector with some spacing and the outcome was nothing like with the 300..So i am simple going to add this now FX/300zx >FX/TSX>S2000>TSX :D


Anyways after all the projectors were swapped we started with the fun part. Cutting up my perfect OEM headlights...This is very messy so do it in the garage and make sure to wear glasses and a mask..I didn't take any pictures because it was too dusty in the garage

Here is the low/high beam reflector after being cut for the projectors
DSC_1673.jpg

Projectors fit perfectly, to get them to stay just add some JB weld or you could screw it in i would assume..
DSC_1672.jpg


Once you get the reflectors cut it is now time to cut the back of the headlight housing..this isn't dusty but the plastic will get hot so watch out..

Here are the projectors sitting in with the back cut and everything in..
DSC_1675.jpg

Was messing around and we had a blackhousing sitting around so thought i would see what it woudl look like...this is pretty much the final except will have shroud and orange amber strips
DSC_1677.jpg

Just have to wait for shrouds to get here, and i will finish this DIY up

Stay tuned
 
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nexTOme

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i will be doing retro soon, just waiting parts to arrive. but what would be the best tool to cut a bigger hole on oem reflector to fit/hold projector? dremel with some blades?
 

00Accord4cyl

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^^Yeah we used dremel with some heavy duty wheel blades...worked good...went threw 3 blades because we had to cut off some of the projector and the metal ate it up
 

iStealBunnieSz

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Great DIY and retrofit dude this should help alot of the people here I want one too but i dont have the balls to do it :( lol.
 

ryan s

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be like it is
ive seen those lenses somewhere before ;)

you actually had to cut the housing...ouch. how do you plan to seal it in back? im going to shave a little more off my projectors to get them sitting back farther, then i can most likely reuse the stock boot :D its real close as it is now...
 

angelplus

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Looking pretty good.. What shrouds are you using? FX's are ****in sick when they're modded like that. Also, keep the blackhousing, it'll look real good.
 

00Accord4cyl

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prices have been added..

yeah i had to cut the housing...and they still stick out a decent amount in the back..don't think i will have a problem though..going to take some better pics of the projectors with 300 lenses when it gets dark here

Not sure how i will seal them back up, been trying to come up with some good ideas..gonna have to ask jwhite since he used to have these

Shrouds are A4....it will look almost exactly like this retro but i am going to put the shrouds the other way..

DSC00582.jpg
 
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TheUAccord23

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At the risk of sounding like an idiot, what's the point of swapping the lenses? If you could go into some detail about this, that would be great, because I've never figured out what people were talking about with this. I thought you modified the cutoff to make the cutoff light a deeper blue? Whatever, I'm dumb, please explain . . .
Oh yea, great DIY, it looks great. But didn't you already have retros? What happened to them?
 
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