So I lucked out. The owner of M3F decided to hold a raffle for all the moderators for a $200 gift certificate to therpmstore (one of their sponsors), and I won. Pretty much the only things they offer that A) I'm interested in, and B) don't require me to spend a large amount of money on are HIDs and angel eyes. That works fine for me because both are things I've been wanting for awhile anyway.

So I ordered both of those. After doing that I started looking at any improvements I could make to the performance of the halogen projectors, and how I wanted to wire stuff up. I ran into a thread on M3F where a member did four modifications to his halogen projectors and got near-OEM HID performance out of them. First he had the frosted lenses sprayed with a clear coat. This basically made them clear (since it filled in the rough spots) and made the beam cutoff really sharp. Second he spaced out the lens from the projector body to give color along the cutoff (this is the same thing adding washers to HID projectors does, but that doesn't work on halogen projectors). Third he cut off the projection off the shield which caused glare above the cutoff. Fourth he sprayed the shield flat black which reduced the glare to nothing. So I plan on doing all of that.

For the wiring I decided to not just use one of the many rocker switches I have sitting in my tool box and instead to make the whole process more complicated. Complicated is more fun anyway. I found a thread from another member who used a DSC switch and a flip flop relay to wire up his rear view camera (instead of having it on with reverse). So I started searching around and found a DSC switch (with plug!) from a totaled 3, and the other member ordered me a flip flop relay from his parents in Japan. The relay has two power outputs. It always defaults to 1 when turned off, and will switch to 2 when it receives a power pulse. Basically I can decide how to have the halos come on..... auto on with the car, manual on with the switch.... either way just depending on which output I connect them to. The DSC switch is a momentary switch and any time the car is on will flip the relay to the other output. As the crown I sanded off the "DSC OFF" lettering, made some little cut out letter masks and spray painted the switch again. Now the switch reads "DDE" for Daylight Demon Eyes and lights up whenever power is sent to the halos. Even better the guy I got the relay from sent me a free set of halogen lenses so I can clear coat them and just swap out the stockers.

We're having an install day on the 25th so I'll have everything done then and there will of course be pictures. I already finished the wiring for the switch relay and that's all installed. Yay!

 

I saw that thread on M3F. The projection came out looking better than a TL's, in my opinion. I've been considering the mod, but i don't have a tool to cut off the shield. I also don't have the $$$. School Loans. Good luck with everything. Can't wait to see the end results.

 

That sounds pretty cool, Remi. My only concern would be how well the clear coat holds up under those conditions. You could be asking for further trouble down the road should it decide to peel, yellow or brown-out.

 

While the beam is greatly improved I don't think it ends up looking better than the TSX projectors just because the beam itself is more even with a better light spread in the actual HID projectors. Still for the cheapness of this it's pretty cool.

astrob0y just used a dremel to cut off that projection and those can be had pretty cheap. I don't have one, but the guy who's going to be helping me install does so I'm just buying a pack of cutting discs for him and using his. In any case even if you just clear and space the lens and paint the shield you're still getting a big improvement in the cutoff, a nice amount of color, and a reduction in glare above the cutoff. There will still be some upward glare but not as bad as before.

astrob0y had a member from HIDplanet use a two part high grade clear with an airbrush. Another couple of members over on M3F just used rattle can. I'm using a high temp. (~500 degree) clear coat spray and plan on baking the lenses after painting a couple of coats. I figure if that doesn't discolor them then any heat while installed won't. As for UV there is a coating on the plastic cover that should reduce a chance of that. In any case I have a spare set of lenses so if something happens I can either replace them with the originals, have the other set professionally sprayed. Or I can get a replacement set of actual clear lenses...... astrob0y just found a place that started carrying them for $70/pair.

Also to illustrate here's a couple of astrob0y's pictures.

Before clear lens


After clear lens


After black paint


After removing the projection on the shield and with the clear lens spaced


On the car

 

holy crap if you can provide a write-up with pics ill be glad to sticky it

 

Tracker take a look through atrob0y's thread on M3F. He has a bunch of pictures there though not necessarily a "walkthrough". Let me know what else you want pictures of and I'll try to get them while we're doing my lights. HERE's his thread.

Oh......... I can sticky stuff too. :P

 

o yea lol guess i shouldnt drink and post @_@

 

So here's a few pics of my progress so far. The rest of the install/modification should be next Saturday.

Here's the flip flop relay I got from upashi. I added on a molex connector.
flipflop.jpg?t=1247692537

This is the wiring harness I built for the relay and switch. The white plug goes to the relay, the green goes to the DSC switch, and the other wires go to: power, halos, ground. After this picture I extended that cut off red wire and ran it through the wrap also.
harness.jpg?t=1247692580

This is where I mounted the flip flop relay. It's pretty much right behind the switches under the lower dash panel.
FFmounted.jpg?t=1247692655

Here's the harness plugged into the switch
plugs.jpg?t=1247692718

The switch from far away. Sadly I used a gloss clear which made it not match the rest of the stuff
Switchdayfar.jpg?t=1247692749

The switch close up during the day
Switchdayclose.jpg?t=1247693293

Close up at night (while on)
Switchnighclose.jpg?t=1247693345

Far away at night.... you can compare how bright it is to the steering wheel controls
Switchnightfar.jpg?t=1247693379

After doing all that I wasn't satisfied with how it came out so I resanded it and started over. The second time around I managed to do a much better job cutting out the lettering.

Sanded and with the letters cut out and stuck to the switch.
Switchpre-paint.jpg?t=1247693485

Painted flat black. I had to do a small touch up between the two D's
Switchpost-paint1.jpg?t=1247693519

This picture is without a clear coat. I don't have any matte clear coat and I don't really feel like buying a can just to do this small of a piece so I'm thinking of just leaving it as is without the top coat. More pics when I have the switch installed and hooked up.

[i]EDIT: It's in and plugged back in. Apparently I was a little off to the left with the letters so not all of the vertical part of the first D is lit..... I"m not bothered much by it. I think it's a big improvement over the first attempt.

Switch2faroff.jpg?t=1247695620

Switch2closeoff.jpg?t=1247695702

Switch2closelit.jpg?t=1247695717

 

That much effort just for the switch? LOL

 

I like clean installs that look like they're supposed to be there.