HID retrofit (purists, take a hike)

[4x2]

Since more light is always a good thing (unless it's caused by a fire) I've mounted a H4 bi-xenon kit into my original (euro ofcourse) headlights 2 years ago.

Worked rather well, the amount of glare produced was quite reasonable and I was happy with the improved light output.

Skip forward another year and I've read something about bi-xenon projector lights that are easy to retrofit and supposedly produce a nice cutoff etc.

You obviously need clear glass headlights for that and a friend of mine had already modified some rabbit MK1 clear headlights for his 02 so I got myself a set of those.

Well then, you can't buy something without using it can you ?

And there's no way some shiny new headlights can be worse than 35 year old stock ones, right ?

So I modified the rabbit headlights and shoved them into my 02.

The best way to describe the cut off those @#$@ things produce is to imagine painting your hose by blowing up a 4 gallon paint can with a few sticks of TNT.

There's light everywhere, but it's in no way evenly distributed or really useful for that matter.

Fast forward just shy of a year.

After switching the 4300K lamps to 3000K ones and driving around for another 2 months or so I finally got fed up with the poor light and decided to do something about it.

So I ordered some PNP bi-xenon projectors from ebay and got 2 original headlight buckets with rusted out reflectors.

Search for G3 bi-xenon projector, I got mine from jasonlfrankie18 or so in four days.

Rather nice cut off.

When I got the projectors I inserted them into the reflectors I had painted black and inserted them into the headlight buckets.

They sticked out quite a bit so I had to move the pivot point and adjustment screws back by some 1.5" (hard to see in the picture)

Removed the original glass (they can probably be used with the original fluted glass, but you'll lose intensity and the sharp cut off) and decided to take apart the rabbit headlights.

That turned out to be a complete nightmare, I had to slowly cut the glue they used to glue them together (heating didn't work) and pry them apart.

Obviously I managed to break a piece out of one of them but managed to glue it back together (it's on the edge of the glass so you can't really see it)

I then modified both headlight buckets, I had to shorten them to just after the rolled edge that's used as the seat for the original glass.

Since there was no way I could glue the clear glass to the buckets I just pushed them on the headlight bucket, took the original BMW ring that fits around the glass and welded that to the bucket.

Then install the headlights and wiring, some trimming was required around the adjusters, but other than that it was rather straightforward.

End result (no night shots yet, I'll try to take some this evening):

I don't really like the angel eyes but since the projector blocks the original parking light I didn't really have a choice.

Low beam

High beam

[c.d.iesel]

...me thinks your not paying enough

attention to the body, and too much

time reinventing the light bulb.

it looked the best way back when.......

[williamggruff]

4X2,

Like you, I'm not a big fan of the halo look. That said, I'm far less concerned with what others see when they look at my car than I am with what I can see when I'm driving my car. My brand new H4's, properly targeted, are still pretty much crap. I plan to install fog lights this winter, also H4's, but don't expect to get any great improvement from them. Perhaps I should just drive during the day.

[4x2]

To c.d.iesel:

The disclaimer in the topic title was added to prevent replies such as yours.

Seems like it didn't work.

Besides I never said I like the way this looks compared to the original headlights, I just wanted better lights without obnoxious amounts of glare.

And if you don't like this, I don't need to hear it because I know there are plenty of people that won't like this, I posted it for the ones that do.

I honestly don't care about way back or whatever someone deems to be period correct or all that stuff.

Not that I don't appreciate it, I certainly do, but my car isn't period correct, I just modify it the way I want to.

And the body used to be really low on my list of things to do, it'll be fixed when I get another car and a decent garage because it's pointless to restore a car outside when it's raining all the time.

And just because it doesn't look nice doesn't mean it drives like crap.

So please, keep your posts with compulsory pictures that are vaguely connected to the subject out of this topic (you don't want to know for how long I've wanted to say that)

[cthtii]

My 1974 tii which I have owned fo 29 years: 99% stock. My personal preference. However, the US is still a free country so do what you want. Now for something OT to make everyone happy!

[Meintii]

You could have just got some of these..

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Apexcone-Raptor-HID-Kit

$65 shipped..

[xlittlejohnx]

If I read correctly, the lens on a standard H4 Hella light would not work with these projectors b/c its not a clear lens? I don't like the look of the halo, but I would like better lighting...

[4x2]

It'll work, but it won't be ideal, you'll lose the sharp cutoff, especially the step and it does rob some intensity.

Not sure how much it will differ on the road, perhaps I'll try it someday.

The halo's don't have to be hooked up btw, I chose to because it was the easiest way to get working parking lights.

You could have just got some of these..

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Apexcone-Raptor-HID-Kit

$65 shipped..

I did have those in both the original headlights and the rabbit headlights (the H4 hi/lo ones) but they cause quite a lot of glare compared to these projectors, that's why I came up with this solution.

[TobyB]

It looks kind of menacing now...

which is probably good in traffic.

Years ago, when I lived in the boonies, we needed good headlights,

and halogen was the schiznit.

Now, I live where it never gets dark, and don't pay much attention to them.

t

[Frenchee]

Couldnt stop laughing at Diesels comment. So harsh.

Im debating whether I like them or not. Looks interesting on an 02.

I think they would look good on a reallly really clean 2002.

Something like this. Looks a bit modern and the headlights would look badass.

Props on all the work to get em to work! Not easy stuff.

[xlittlejohnx]

http://www.truck-lite.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=64057&langId=-1

7" LEDs would give you a unique, modern look! I wonder how well they work...

[4x2]

Im debating whether I like them or not. Looks interesting on an 02.

Props on all the work to get em to work! Not easy stuff.

I don't really like the look on my car, I can live with it if they work right though and I certainly don't hate it (it's just different, perhaps they'll grow on me or something like that)

It's actually not a difficult conversion, just a matter of being creative and deciding what you want to achieve.

They work extremely well, literally a night and day difference and no glare at all.

I did however forget to use the timer function on my cam and with those long exposure times the result is really blurry.

I'll try to take some decent pictures later this week.

[Scott Sislane]

I have some low-cost H4's w/ flat, clear lenses, and the Hella H3 fogs. Lights-up the road very nicely.