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Skezza's Flash Red OEM+ Daily Workhorse SDI (Projector Retrofit)


Skezza
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With a bit of luck, I'll finish the retrofit today. Unlikely to fit them till the weekend but getting them finished today would be awesome. I'm currently baking :P

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baking hahaha fair enough! you taking it to any shows this year?

When I say baking, on Club Lupo, it always means I'm baking a part that I've sprayed :P My top tip for anyone spraying any part is to make sure they bake it afterwards otherwise the paint never fully cures and something as simple as knocking it will cause the paint to peel away, as I found out once.

Regarding shows, I haven't lined any up yet, but I may come along to a couple of meets, would love to meet a few of you in person. Only met Matt and Dom in person.

Yeah you should show it minus the rear bumper! daily driving at its best.

Matt, I've had an idea for the rear bumper. I've bought some maguires ultimate compound. This **** is designed for restoring panels on 1960's Jaguars that have been horribly neglected. The maguires forum suggested you buy the weakest and then work your way to the strongest. At over 10 pounds a product, I think it'll skip that and go to the strongest. After all, the bumper right now is a mess, can't get any worse (oxidised to the point of absolutely no shine, for those interested). I'm going to take it to the car wash 100 yards away from my house, and then give it a go. Worst case, it doesn't do anything, best case, it works.

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OK, so here are my projector fitted OEM headlights. All my own work and took slightly longer than I expected but the results are looking good so far. They need fitting before I can give my true seal of approval but hell, let's go for it. I will also chuck together a How To for this in the upcoming days :) I know these will pull mixed reviews, but here we go ;)

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This is before sealing them. Reflector bowl (now black) cleaned and fresh. Newer larger shrouds also make for a nice tough, with a little hidden gem you can't see here ;)

CY88RAV.jpg?1

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  • 3 weeks later...

The headlights are fitted and are looking awesome!

I perhaps need to get a proper SLR to get the light exposure properly. A **** phone camera doesn't do justice.

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I'm very interested in this retro fit, my friend got an UP! the other week and just seeing the difference in light output, levelling (dip/main) and clarity was astounding! How much were the projectors (if you dont mind me asking)? Were they dealer or scrappy bought?

Edited by Keelan
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I might have missed it but are you going to be fitting some form of washers for them?

Or for the MOT are you just going to swap back? I'd expect it to be a right pain to fit washers but id expect you to be apt enough!

Looks good skezza!

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I might have missed it but are you going to be fitting some form of washers for them?

Or for the MOT are you just going to swap back? I'd expect it to be a right pain to fit washers but id expect you to be apt enough!

Looks good skezza!

Only need that and auto levellers if they came from the factory with HID's. Most garages won't notice and if they do it's just an advisory HID fitted to vehicle.

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I'm very interested in this retro fit, my friend got an UP! the other week and just seeing the difference in light output, levelling (dip/main) and clarity was astounding! How much were the projectors (if you dont mind me asking)? Were they dealer or scrappy bought?

I have to say, the clarity is insane. The light distribution is even, crisp and has no dead spots which is something you always get on reflectors. They still need a bit of tweaking on the calibration. One is slightly lower than the other giving two separate cutoff lines but nothing half an hour with a garage door can't solve.

I bought generic H1 Mini's from an outlet store on eBay. They were £33 delivered. They're exactly the same as Morimoto Mini H1's except Morimoto QC check all of theirs and any bad ones go into their 'Value' pot which is about half price (120 dollars for QC checked all good, 60 dollars for value) if I remember.

The problem is Morimoto stuff is really hard to get over here without paying through the nose (it was about £150 for a set of Mini H1's including a decent set of bulbs) so in my honest opinion, you're better off taking a punt direct from the supplier in China. I did, and after checking very closely with a magnifier, I found no scratches or marks on them whatsoever. Result :) I also bought the bulbs from a different supplier in China as you can get the 'ceramic' base bulbs which last longer than metal base. Don't EVER install plastic base as they have a known reputation for melting. UK doesn't have many suppliers of ceramic base, so I bought a pair of ceramic and metal and figured I'd use the metal ones first while I got all the calibration and what not spot on. I haven't tried to change a pair of bulbs while fitted to the car yet, I reckon it's not going to be that easy though so something to consider.

I might have missed it but are you going to be fitting some form of washers for them?

Or for the MOT are you just going to swap back? I'd expect it to be a right pain to fit washers but id expect you to be apt enough!

Looks good skezza!

Matt, I haven't thought about washers just yet. I've seen a few guys on HIDplanet mount single spray washers near the base of the headlight then re-route a hose via a t-piece from the washer bottle so when you clean your windscreen it cleans your headlights too. This wouldn't be too hard although the biggest problem I imagine is water pressure. There must be a drop that would need compensating for. Maybe I can have a trial test and see if it works. That said, keeping your car clean is usually good enough.

For what it's worth, the likelihood of you being 'had' for washers on an MOT is unlikely anyway, as not all cars with factory fitted projectors + HID's have headlight washers anyway. The Evo VIII and Nissan Silvia are a good example of that and as such the rules (as specified by VOSA) actually read:

VOSA:

"A car with HID lights MAY also have headlight washers and self levelling which must be checked and in working order if fitted.”
So as far as VOSA are concerned, if the car doesn't have headlight washers and self levelling, then your car shouldn't fail an MOT. If it does, and it isn't functional, they will fail you although it does state to give the benefit of the doubt if the tester isn't 100% sure (testing the self levelling isn't easy). HID's in reflector housings however are a fail, not because there's anything in particular wrong with putting HID's in reflectors but because most people don't spend the required time getting the beam pattern correct. Technically, you can pass with HID's if you aim them and calibrate them properly. :surprised:
If it comes to MOT time and it's an issue, I've changed my headlights so many times I could do it in about 15 minutes now, no exaggeration :D So yeah, we'll see how I get on.

Only need that and auto levellers if they came from the factory with HID's. Most garages won't notice and if they do it's just an advisory HID fitted to vehicle.

Spot on Dblock. I did all the research before diving in the deep end and spending money on projectors and spare headlights etc :clap:

All in all, I reckon this mod cost me around £100. The headlights I used while I worked on the projector retrofit were old sun damaged lights (As demonstrated earlier) from a scrapyard. Perfectly legal (only excessive reflector damage can make a set of lights illegal), but just look absolute gash because of the yellow tinge. They were about £20 collected. They aren't really worth selling as nobody wants them, but that was the point. They can now sit in the garage in case I ever need them as spares.

Lights £20

The projectors were £33 delivered.

Black spray paint £1 a tin, 3 used.

2-part control epoxy resin, £5

JB Weld £3

Female Pigtail 9006 connectors £1.60 for two.

LED Ring + Shroud, £40

Roughly.

The result:

Initial fitting.

3iTMLAO.jpg

Left hand side projector headlight, right hand side ordinary HID.

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Initial testing of the sidelights.

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Topside view of the projectors today in daylight.

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Night shot, not great quality.

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Sidelights in the dark.

CAbUxjs.jpg

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VOSA:"A car with HID lights MAY also have headlight washers and self levelling which must be checked and in working order if fitted.”
Like having a spare wheel, or not in this case.
Sidelights in the dark.CAbUxjs.jpg
So you managed to fit the lèd side light into the projector housing?
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Like having a spare wheel, or not in this case. So you managed to fit the lèd side light into the projector housing?

Not exactly. The projector housing itself is contained but you install a shroud which makes then look nicer. The silver part.

I bought a larger shroud with centric rings which adapts it to the projector housing. The LED ring is mounted towards the rear of the shroud. The light radiates through the 4 quarters and gives the cool effect.

Black reflectors also means no light bleed so the whole cluster is very focussed.

To be fair, I went quite far but the stock shroud with the projectors is perfectly fine for most scenarios. I just wanted to do something different.

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These are not bi-xenon are they? Quick google of Morimoto Mini H1 came up with a lot saying bi xenon and I didnt know it h1s were xenon.

Does it matter about it being "for lhd" if you can re-calibrate them

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