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Well one thing to remember is that about $300-400 of that is the cost of the projectors. I've been researching quite a bit about mold making and I think I can pull this off. There is a lot of time involved in using the factory headlights and converting them into projector holding headlights. That is why I am trying to make a "replacement" for the headlight housing in itself. If I can successfully make a prototype of a projector holding lense and housing which is a stand alone piece and can bolt on in the place of the headlight, then make a mold of it and recreate it then everyone that wants to can enjoy projectors without having to cut or bake and cannibalize there factory headlights. All they would have to do is simply unbolt their existing headlights and bolt these in, done deal.
I will just have to put in A LOT of time up front in creating the prototype and making the mold. Once that is completed... smooth sailing from what I see. I don't recall ever saying that this whole process would be easy because I think that is far from the truth and I also don't think it will be cheap. Although I'm not thinking about cost at this point either. I just want to see if I can do it. If I can then I'll starting thinking about what they are worth and what I can offer them for, but my goal is to be substantially less then what people have been doing them for in the past.
-Mike
98 Contour SVT
Toreador Red #49 of 6535 Built on 3/25/97
WR Headers, Borla Cat-Back, Torsen T2 LSD, K&N Short Ram, S-AFC and Focus Shift Tower
85 Camaro
1969 358ci, 97 TA interior, 91 Z28 GrdEfx and Aero Wing 255rwhp
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Make sure you mount the Hella's as close as possible to the front of the housing or the pattern will reflect off of the little tubes you have made. Maybe even go so far as making the tubes a bit more conical with rounded edges on the outside. That was always a problem when I had a setup like this on my `96.
· Jon Miconi
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· 98 V70R
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I thought of doing this.....
My final idea was to make something based off of the OEM bezel that would either be designed to totally ditch the OEM lense, or to be able to mount underneath it for an OEM look. Either case, it would mount to the OEM housing which would make it easier to build and easier to make fit correctly.
Just an idea....
2005 Ford F150 SuperCab FX4
1964 Chevrolet Impala SS
1998 CSVT: 354HP/328TQ @ 10 psi, now gone
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Originally posted by Swazo: My final idea was to make something based off of the OEM bezel that would either be designed to totally ditch the OEM lense, or to be able to mount underneath it for an OEM look.
This was my original idea. However the more I thought about it this would pose a problem. The piece would have to fit exactly as the OEM lense did. Plus it's no longer a lightweight plastic lense as you have projectors mounted to it, which would make it more likely to want to fall away from the OEM housing after you affixed it to the housing again. Doing it that way would also require you to re-seal the replacement lense to the OEM housing. This means that 1. the projectors would have to fit in the OEM housing completely or 2. you would have to cut the backs of the OEM housing to support length of the projector housings, which requires some modification to the OEM housings. Which is what wanted to get away from. Unless of course you mouned the projectors to the OEM housing, which I don't want to do.
Bottomline is that making a stand alone replacement for the headlights would be easier then trying to modify the OEM headlights, in my opinion that is.
-Mike
98 Contour SVT
Toreador Red #49 of 6535 Built on 3/25/97
WR Headers, Borla Cat-Back, Torsen T2 LSD, K&N Short Ram, S-AFC and Focus Shift Tower
85 Camaro
1969 358ci, 97 TA interior, 91 Z28 GrdEfx and Aero Wing 255rwhp
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Using the Hella projectors, you'd be able to ditch the lense, which would look much better IMO. If you made it with the same mounting points as the OEM bezel, yes... the housing would have to be modified to mount the projectors. That idea is what I would have liked to do with my headlights, but instead.... I came up with a 2 part combo to get the same idea across. Only this way was too delicate to leave exposed without the OEM housing. Using the OEM bezel, you could get an almost OEM looking setup with a better turn signal and ready to have the 90mm Hella's installed into the OEM housing. You could offer the service of installing them, or you could even just sell the bezel. Once a mold was made, you could offer them in FG, CF or ever kevlar
2005 Ford F150 SuperCab FX4
1964 Chevrolet Impala SS
1998 CSVT: 354HP/328TQ @ 10 psi, now gone
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I think the one piece mold is better. Some of us are plug & play CEG'ers and as much as we would love to experiment with the lights we realize that time, money and skill is limited so we don't f around... Do away with the big hazy plastic lens!!! We must be free someday!
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Originally posted by Swazo: Using the Hella projectors, you'd be able to ditch the lense, which would look much better IMO.
If you made it with the same mounting points as the OEM bezel, yes... the housing would have to be modified to mount the projectors. That idea is what I would have liked to do with my headlights, but instead.... I came up with a 2 part combo to get the same idea across. Only this way was too delicate to leave exposed without the OEM housing.
Using the OEM bezel, you could get an almost OEM looking setup with a better turn signal and ready to have the 90mm Hella's installed into the OEM housing. You could offer the service of installing them, or you could even just sell the bezel.
Once a mold was made, you could offer them in FG, CF or ever kevlar
I like what you have shown there. However I think making a mold of the bezel would prove to be more difficult and the quality wouldn't be that easy to come by and repeatability would be an issue.
The end idea was to just sell the lense empty without projectors. Also I found a company that sells fiberglass woven and dyed to simulate a 3K carbonfiber. I believe if I start to make these I will have that as an option to people, but because they have to do more to the material it obviously costs more, but it's still half the cost of real carbonfiber.
-Mike
98 Contour SVT
Toreador Red #49 of 6535 Built on 3/25/97
WR Headers, Borla Cat-Back, Torsen T2 LSD, K&N Short Ram, S-AFC and Focus Shift Tower
85 Camaro
1969 358ci, 97 TA interior, 91 Z28 GrdEfx and Aero Wing 255rwhp
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yea, runnin 90mm enables u to use no lens which is perfec cause you wont have to worry about sealing issues..
#0009
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I really don't like the small projector with a big plastic housing... I do like Swazo's setup, but not the turn signals... What I think would look best if you're designing your own headlights is something like the Morettes, but using projectors. What I mean by that is, there is a projector, but also a larger round lens to take up more space (a'la BMW style): Like use the BMW sytle low beam as your low beam, and find some other [slightly smaller] optic to use as your high beam... I can tell you that Morette has Valeo and Hella optics in the Morettes they test fit on my car... Morette High beam optic: Click for 1600x1200 full sizeMorette low beam optic: Click for 1600x1200 full size
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im still trying to see what bulb type the low beams are, they look H7 while the Highs are H3 for sure..or appear so
#0009
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