The "I can't believe Crovo did ANOTHER headlight thread" thread...

Ha ha! Yup! I did ANOTHER set. This was all "off the shelf" parts, too, so it's easy for anyone to accomplish. And I'm in it for less than 300 bucks. So what did I do? HID bi-xenon projectors in a smoked clear lense.

Here's the short(ish) version because it's late for me and I gotta go to bed!

So I finally broke down and got a set of the Smoked Clear lights from Jason at Street Trends because I had about 3 hours in polishing a factory lense and I was only up to 40 GRIT! I also got those "straight from China with hysterical translations" bi-xenon projector retrofit kit for 9004 bulbs offin eBay.



When I opened the box I was a bit disappointed because these lenses are A LOT darker in person than they look in pics. Bummer. Shoulda got clears!

Ok. On to the install. I didn't even have the box open for TEN MINUTES before I'd taken a heat gun to them to soften the sealant. TAKE YOUR TIME AND GO SLOW and they will come apart with about 10 minutes of careful work for each lense.

I alternated the heat gun on high and then used two screwdrivers to work my way around them until I could pull them apart.

Here's a shot of the back side of the projector. These are designed as a DIRECT replacement for the 9004 bulbs! How frikken cool is THAT? It doesn't get ANY easier than this!


Here it is in the bucket.


The bore on the projector matches the hole perfectly. It's even marked "top" so you can't screw it up. And there is a spacer with cut-outs to exactly match the factory nubs and valleys to secure it sturdily. (yeah, I said that)



It's in the hole!


Thse things have angel eyes too, so you need to pass the wires for them through the bucket. There was already a small hole drilled in them (and taped over) so I just opened it up with a 5/16" bit and passed them through. I had to pull the pins out of the connnector so the wires'd go through and then reinstall them, no biggie.


And that's it! Test fit!

Dat looksa niy-eeeece!

I won't bore you with the details of installing them onto the car though, as that's pretty straightforward.


Wiring was easy. A positive and ground on each side, and you plug into the stock headlight socket and the ballast. I also hooked up the angel eyes to the parking lights. Here's a shot of the wiring. It fits nice behind the lights!


One BIG surprise for me though was that even though those bi-xenons claimed to be HIDS, and even came with the HID bulbs (6000K, if you're interested in which color temp I chose), was that they DID NOT INCLUDE BALLASTS! WTF?!? So be aware of that. Luckily, I was already running HID's in the stock buckets already, so I just reused the ballasts for those. They appear to be universal, so you can just get a set off eBay if you don't have any.

So how do they look?



I like them! They definately give the car a modern look in front!

How's the pattern, you say? Like-a diss!
Low's:

High's:

(I did lower them AYE LOT since that pic though, just an FYI)

So how do they perform? Really well. Leaps and bounds better than stock. The pattern is great and there is a TON more useable light and those Godawful pigtails of light are finally gone! But... I screwed up. The smoked lenses block a lot of the output. Like a REAL lot. My old HID's in the stock buckets (6000K's with the SAME ballasts, remember) threw out a lot more light. But it was all over the place and not usable. This is a lot "better" light, but there is less of it. But it is totally my fault because I took a gamble with the smoked lenses. If you want to get the highest output possible, do yourself a favor and get the clears. Even if you're like me and can't stand the look.

I dunno... I still think the smoked ones look totally bad ass, but need to decide if it's worth the aesthetics to get clears for increased output.

No, my car doesn't have cornering lights. Yes, I plan to add them in the near future!

I'll get some daytime pics tomorrow.

Anyways, that's my story for now, and I'm stickin' to it!

Now.... GO BUILD YOURS!!!!!!!

Nice setup! So how many different headlight configurations have you built now?

DBeaSSt wrote:

how many different headlight configurations have you built now?

Can you start a new thread to tell us that with pictures too....

Those look awesome! I want some!

Any more info on the projectors you bought from Ebay? I would like a set without the angel eyes. Which wattage ballast did you use?

Good lawrd....you did it again! Another slick Crovo trick You need to write a little manual for all your mods.

damn it , slow down.....I'm still in the middle of cutting up my Rubbermaid bins !

Now I gotta budget some money and time for the headlights!

Seriously though thanks, this maybe my favorite take on a headlight mod for these cars yet .

Functional, cool, and more affordable than some of the others I have seen.

in this thread could you post a link to them bi-xenon projectors on ebay I'm too busy to look them up myself....

Those look great, Bill!

I like the marker lights inside the headlights for that car - goes with the grille and hood very nicely.

I'm still on the fence on how these look on a caprice, though... I kinda like the factory position on the lights. I may do something similar to this but I plan on using the stock lense.

Anyway, great job!

buickestate wrote:

in this thread could you post a link to them bi-xenon projectors on ebay I'm too busy to look them up myself....

Here ya go! Looks like that kit includes ballasts.

I may have to change my mind on this mod. It seems that the projectors get hot enough to melt the lenses! Shit! I didn't see that coming. I'll pull the lenses and see if I can heat them enough to "bump out" a section in front of the projector for a little more clearance. That is, if drilling a couple holes to let the heat escape doesn't work.

This whole thing just really bums me out because my wife bought me the lights for my birthday and I was wicked looking forward to knocking this out of the park...

Here's some daylight pics:




And here's a couple pics of the damage:


I know it's tough to see, but I did what I could. And it WAS on Macro.

Worst case is I could run my old HIDs in these buckets. Or I could really hack them up and recess the projector assembly a bit. I dunno. I'll figure something out.

Well done billy, you are a pretty resourceful guy, *sigh* hope i can get back to modding one of these years,.
Will they melt the lenses?
i didn't know you were into the ricer shaded headlight look,.

Nick

phantom 309 wrote:

Well done billy, you are a pretty resourceful guy, *sigh* hope i can get back to modding one of these years,.
Will they melt the lenses?
i didn't know you were into the ricer shaded headlight look,.

Nick

Ha! I didn't like the looks of the totally clear lenses with all that chrome bucketry showing. I thought the smoked lenses would tone it down a bit. Had I seen them in person first though, I woulda skipped them and gone with the clears. They're a good deal darker than I thought they were.

There is a possibility that the smoke lenses absorb enough energy to melt. This may not happen with the clears...

Any idea what the light pattern is with the stock bulbs?

Ok, so I decided to cut apart some factory lights for my experiments. I took a 2 1/4" hole saw to one to see what would happen.


Believe it or not, it made a 2 1/4" hole.

I also drilled another hole for the angel eye wires.


This could work!



A lil glue...


And a quickie bracket...


It looked so good, I duplicated it for the other side! It ended up recessing the light about an inch. I also lost my super-easy "it's in the right spot-o-meter" since I cut that hole. I got it close, angles are important here, both left/right and up/down. When installed, they didn't look as close as they did on the bench. We'll see when it gets dark...




If this experiment works, then I may do this again on the buckets that came with the lenses. (I wish I hadn't glued that one side, I didn't glue the other, just in case! See what happens when you're in a rush?!?!?!?)

Wish me luck!

Oh, and FYI... The smoked lenses didn't quite fit on the factory buckets. *sigh* Oh well. They were close though!

ok..Thread Jesus....back from the dead..

Can I just buy this set from you!...LOL....Im still waiting for the thread where you show all your different set-ups..lol

HEY! WE got a PULSE ovah heyah!!!!

No problem, man. I'm actually running those lights as shipped by Street Trends right now with a set of Apexicone 35W 4500K HIDs. And it friggin rawks! The pattern on those lights has a surprisingly sharp cutoff for a non-projector! I would totally recommend them, even with the tinted lenses.

And it's a pretty minimal investment, too. The lights themselves are like $150 shipped and the HIDs were 30 bucks plus shipping. Not bad for less than two beans!

well the plan is to rock the ebay smoke lenses, and de-wood at the same time...possibly taking on impalasstudio wheel wells as well...I will look into an HID kit. Isnt there some wire harness upgrade we are supposed to do to our cars??...I cant member, and the other forum died again..lol

jturkey69 wrote:

...................Isnt there some wire harness upgrade we are supposed to do to our cars??...I cant member, and the other forum died again..lol

http://innovativewiring.com/

Great guy and very good quality product. I've installed several of his battery cable kits. SStreetlights use his harness.