DIY: Projector Retrofit

[hotwyr]

Skyrine getting new eyes?

Suuuure is! It's gonna be hard tho. No where near as easy as the lancer. Cutting and gluing and wiring and not driving car for a while and heatguns coz oven too small and bumper removing will all be necessary. Not looking forward to it :|

I actually did all of those for my retrofit lol (except for the no driving part as I sourced another pair of headlights to retrofit to give myself some time to do it all properly) . I did a bit of a stealth harness with the relays and control boxes mounted to the chassis behind the bumper and the wires just poking out under the headlights. Should have taken photos in hindsight :/

 

[Razza]

Ive been keen to get some HID's for a while and this seems like the way to do it. I want to get halos with it though, does anyone know how they will fit? And what kind of shroud should I get if I want the halos? or will the mini gatling gun be fine?

 

[Jazza]

Mini Gatling gun will be fine. You just need to buy some glue to glue them on. Or there are other ways to do it without glue as shown on the TRS website.

 

[lancer1993]

Nice lights.

Would it be advisable to get some used ones from a wrecker to modify, just in case you screw something up. Then it's a quicker job changing them over, you could then sell the ones you don't need?

 

[Jazza]

Not with the ce lancer headlights at least, because there is nothing you need to cut or anything, so you can't really screw anything up.

I just did another retrofit in skyline headlights. Lots of cutting and grinding and wiring. The lancer was so much easier.

 

[hotwyr]

Not with the ce lancer headlights at least, because there is nothing you need to cut or anything, so you can't really screw anything up.

I just did another retrofit in skyline headlights. Lots of cutting and grinding and wiring. The lancer was so much easier.

That looks mad, top effort Jazza.

As for using a spare pair, I did because the ones with my car were in pretty poor condition, so I did the retrofit with a good condition pair and that allowed me to take my time with it. Ran the loom throughout and kept the standard headlights in and hooked up as I baked the headlights and installed the projectors.

Each to their own

 

[123esproc]

I'm going to assume you can as other cars you can remove bezels in the headlights separating indicators from bezels and painting them black also would give it an awesome look I think

 

[Samuel]

Sorry if I just missed this bit of info but is this a totally legal mod?
Also, is there any other design options for headlights that bolt on and can either have these projectors retrofitted to them or come with them? I'm not a big fan of the look of the stock headlights and mine are getting on a bit, probably wouldn't hurt to replace them sometime soon anyway. Thanks.

 

[Res]

no it is illegal, but if ur lights are aligned its highly unlikely u will get done

and yes, search mirage projector on ebay.com (no .au)

 

[Samuel]

http://bit.ly/18FxSET
So this for example. few questions. 1) Is it legal? 2) Is it of the same quality as this HID or is it just a style replacement of a standard bulb? And if so 3) can I still retrofit it so I get the look and the quality?

 

[donki]

http://bit.ly/18FxSET
So this for example. few questions. 1) Is it legal? 2) Is it of the same quality as this HID or is it just a style replacement of a standard bulb? And if so 3) can I still retrofit it so I get the look and the quality?

1) strictly speaking, even the projector retrofit is illegal due to it being HIDs in a non-HID-from-factory car amongst a bunch of other reasons.
2) that ebay link are of a lesser quality - The Retrofit Source equipment is worth their weight in gold in terms of quality, and definitely dont have the feel of cheap plastic that will break in a light breeze. In addition, the lighting cuttoff is incorrect for australian roads.
3) noone that i know of has opened up a pre-retrofitted case and modded it.

 

[Jazza]

those are rubbish. if you do this retrofit it's because you want to light up the road better. those ones light it up worse than oem headlights.
comparison:
this is those US projectors:

this is the retrofit headlights:

look at how much further down the road they go. all the way to the end. the US projectors light up a lanes width and go a couple of meters in distance. There is no light even crossing to the other side of the road at all, crap! The retrofit has a huuuge amount of width and distance.

 

[Samuel]

Okay cool, thanks for the tips guys, I'll just do the retrofit and keep the stock hl's. Retrofit alone looks pretty fierce anyway so no complaints from me

 

[jonzeyfsu10]

Also yay, thats 4 Victorian's with a DIY Retrofit (which is about 1/3 of all us active members lol)

nearly bout tobe five

 

[hotwyr]

Hey guys and gals,

After doing this retrofit I would do a test to check out the actual results of the retrofit.

Cars in the test is my mums new FG XR6, the factory halogen lighting with the original globes. If you've ever been driving at night with one of these bad boys coming the other way you'll notice it way overpowers the CE lancers standard lights.

VS

My lancer with the TRS retrofit kit.

Both cars a similar distance from identical garage doors.

And here are the results

The location of the cars.

FG

Lancer

Both on low beam.

Both on high beam.

You can all make up your own opinions from this but for me it seems like the retrofit has brought my lights up the the standard on the FG, even a smidge brighter in fact.

So, yes it's a lot of money, but the results is you can bring your $5k CE Lancer up to the standard of a $30k vehicle, for under $500.

Thoughts? Hopefully you can use these photos for the DIY?

 

[jonzeyfsu10]

and i can vouch for res kit as i see them at the same par as trs and they are cheaper yet again and i love them as i can now see everything and makes me feel as tough im driving in constant daylight

 

[Jazza]

lol you cant compare the light from reflectors and projectors by the brightness like that.
these projectors have a much wider angle, a sharper cut off, a longer range and look way better if you have the blue in the cutoff which it looks like you have a bit of.
Take pictures comparing the low beam against a wall maybe 25 meters away. If you have them aimed correctly, that's when you'll see the difference.

I doubt your XR6 would look like this against a wall

 

[ARC]

lol you cant compare the light from reflectors and projectors by the brightness like that.

If it's a new FGII then it'll have factory projectors in it, not stock reflectors. But the pictures seem to appear to be regular reflectors...
That maybe how he's tryng to compare it, the FGII I had the other week had a nice cut off with its projectors, but it only had halogens in it, still it lit up the road quite nice

 

[hotwyr]

No its FG with reflector housings.

lol you cant compare the light from reflectors and projectors by the brightness like that.
these projectors have a much wider angle, a sharper cut off, a longer range and look way better if you have the blue in the cutoff which it looks like you have a bit of.
Take pictures comparing the low beam against a wall maybe 25 meters away. If you have them aimed correctly, that's when you'll see the difference.

I doubt your XR6 would look like this against a wall

Honestly I know it wasn't the best test but it does clearly illustrate what the finished retrofit is like for those considering it but after a bit more then just the comments of people that have it and a few glory shots.

For standard reflector housing the FG headlights ARE bright and that's the whole reason I went for the retrofit. After driving a car with this type of light output you realize just how under par the lancers standard headlights are. I know the retrofit is bright, when you can sit behind brand new Audi's/BMW's/Jeeps etc and outshine them you know its good, but unfortunately my mums FG and a small driveway with 2 doors is all I had at my disposal.

I think the fact that even when I'm giving the reflector housing the best advantage and our retrofit still comes out on top is a pretty good example of what it does. Anyway hopefully it helps someone who is considering the idea.

 

[AKTanoz]

May be a stupid question but do you reckon you can mod the optional trs halo lights into the stock as well?