turbocad's custom dual/quad headlight mod

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Question. John are the side market going to be clear?? I have being thinking about getting the side mirrors lights and it would be nice if the side marker match the mirror's lights..
Thank you!

Jonathan.
 
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I can do the clears likes been done by others, but don't look so perfect to me...

I have 2 other options, one is to do a silver overlay that I think looks pretty good, second is I can do an alumium mesh over them that also looks pretty trick....

I was planning on trying to cast my own clear corners too, that would be ideal, but haven't had a chance to try that yet... hopefully I can try that before I finish these...
 
do you think the silver overlay will melt when you put the HL in the oven? just a thought.

see this guys had some vinyl eyelids ...he put it in the oven with the eyelids.
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i'll be there is a perfect temperature where it will soften the adhesive but not melt the vinyl, but i highly doubt that you can find and maintain that with a kitchen oven. maybe you can open yours up with a heat gun instead?
 
ok, as far as the vinyl melting that's not an issue for me, as my vinyl overlay is inside, directly on the side marker lens, if you got them hot enough to cause any problems with the vinyl then you got more problems than just the vinyl, your whole headlight would be melted beyond use before you had any affect on the vinyl overlay, so that's not an issue. I know i still have to get pictures of the side markers with the vinyl overlays, just keep forgetting, next time soon's here I'll take a picture of his, we did his that way. when I smoke them I just smoke the original reflector lens. i will get some shots of the lens options soon...




ok, update, past 2 weeks in my spare time I have been playing with focusing & calibration of these inner hids, trying to get a final so I can just start to actually complete these things. last Saturday I took my front bumper off & installed a pair to my own fx to get a real world projection view, i have a room that is perfect for this kind of calibration & seeing the actual projected light. this is the projection of the factory projectors in my room:

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to make a long story short, I'm having a ton of trouble getting these to focus & project as well & as perfect as the original projectors across the whole area. the problems are 2, one is that the bulb winds up just being too close to the projector & the cut off shield, second problem is the bulb winds up slightly to the side of the projector. end results are, I can cut off the light so it doesn't project over the horizon line no problem, but I can't get an even full projection of usable light like the original projectors. what this means is that yes, you will be able to put hid's in them, & yes, they will not blind anyone & they will look as good as & match the original projector, but they will not be doubling your actual usable light output. with both on they will look & work fine, no ill afects, but no actual big benifit in light output

I know that the addition of hid's was all my own idea, kinda started out as a little extra for these that I winded up just shooting myself in the foot with this at this point, & I am very disapointed with the fact that I can't get these to work as perfectly as I would have liked, & as perfectly as I made up my mind that I wanted. it's not so much that I can't, but I can't while staying within the constraints of the original headlight housing. in order for me to get these to work as perfect as I would really want them too I would have to move the hid bulb back a bit out of the original housing, meaning a modified housing & a lot more work, beyond the scope of this original project.

I guess I'm a friggin nut sometimes & I guess I really am a perfectionist to a certain extent, or so I've been told at least. you have no idea how frustraiting this is for me, but i also realize that I don't want to drag this on & on & keep everyone waiting forever with these either, so at this point I think there going to have to just be 100% cosmeticallly, but not really double the light output across the whole range of useful projection. with both hid lit they will work & look every bit as good as original headlights, & may have a little more output, but the inner projector by itself, while not taking anything away, will not be adding a whole lot of usefull light either.

again, as said before, no one is obligated to anything at this point yet, for those that weren't planning on running hid's in the inner projector anyway then nothing has really changed I guess, & for those that were hoping to run hid inners you still can of course, but it won't really be double the usable light output, it will still work & look fine though. I'm sorry that I anticipated being able to make these as perfect as I had hoped but in the end not being able to. if your sole reason for this headlight was to get double the light output then these will be a disappointment, but if your more concerned with the look of these then that is still on, no problem. I will work on finishing up docs lights & getting them out to him & then finish up the others. if anyone doesn't want them in light of this latest development then no problem at all either, just pm me. I think for the most part these are still pretty sweet & sexy, but I am also a bit disapointed that I can't make them as awesome I would have ultimately liked...
 
I think you've done a great job John! You shouldn't be worried that you dragged us all along.....I'm sure most of us enjoyed following up through the whole process. The light output on our FX aren't that bad to start out with.... so not having the double light output isn't too big a deal.

If we decided on the dual HID, how much extra will that add on? And if we didn't add the second HID, so will that projector be a DTRL? one last question, maybe you guys already answered it.. hope you didn't because I've read through this thread many times and I didn't see the answer... with the LED rings, if we got double HIDs, can you still see the LED rings? or will that only work when you have one HID and then center projector will show the LED?

Thanks again for being so meticulous and all the hard work you put into these lights.

-D
 
Thank you John. Your work has been awesome already:tup: . I believe all of us greatly appreciate your time and hard work. :.smile:

Once you are ready to finishing the lights, let us know the pricing and options.
 
honestly, i'm only interested in these for the aesthetic value as i've never been a fan of the rectangular DTRL cover. at the very VERY least, john, the inner HIDs are going to be putting out way more light than my DTRL.... don't beat yourself up.
 
ok, update. so the projectors are done, the shrouds are mostly done, one of the last things I have to get sorted is the finish, the painting. painting them all black is straight foward enough, but to keep the chrome rings while blacking out the rest is a bit of a pita. I've done a few with taping off the chrome & the problem with that is that the chrome finish is very very very delicate, where it wraps around the top & bottoms of the rings the chrome actually feathers down to nothing, & just about any tape just lifts the chrome off when it is removed. I've done a few & the end result didn't look horrible I guess, but way less than perfect & here I want to try & get a nice finished beautiful look so I need to come up with a better way of doing this than tape

I bought a liquid paint mask, it's a latex compound, you brush it on where you don't want paint to go, when it drys it forms a skin over the area you painted it over, in this case the chrome rings. you then paint the bezel & let it dry, then you peel the latex off... walla, perfect paint mask... in theory anyway :smile:

it works, kinda... one drawback to this approach is that it can only work with water based paints, water based paints ae not the best to paint such an abstract shape like the headlight bezel, not because of durability though, water based paints are less "clingy" & tend to run more than a nice heavier enamel, which works nice on a piece like the headlight bezels. I sprayed one out but not happy with the water based coverage & the suitability for something like this, also the "tape line" seperation between the black & the chrome looks less than great with this latex method, admitingly I haven't spent much time trying to perfect the latex technique but the water based paint issues make me want to look for something else, so what else can I do?


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ok, so now I came up with the idea of making a mold of the bezel trim ring & making tight fitting slip on covers that are smooth enough inside to not mark the chrome & tight enough to not bleed paint under the edges... idea there is slip the covers on, spray the bezel, slip the cover off, pretty much the way the factory does the sport bezels to begin with... it has to work & probably is the best way to do it, so I made a pair, I still need to make the pair for the outer chrome rings, then I'll paint a pair of bezels & see the results, it should be good enough for me at that point I think...


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the slime on the bezel is mold release wax & of course the center of the cover would be closed off for paint, left it open to help with the release... it worked really well on the inners & I'll do the outers probably tommorow..
 
Looking good!! Outstanding job!! As other said, don't beat your self too much over the light output with the hids kit for the inner shroud. I know it will putout more light than the dtrl. That's enough for me plus the fx will look really mean with your headlights.. Can't wait to see and rock the final product on my FX..

Keep it it bro!!
 
hey doc,now you see why I never got the pictures to you of the black & chrome on sunday, when I had the results with the latex & wasn't happy with it I just started to work on making molds :laugh:

actually that latex bezel is probably good enough for pictures to see how it looks behind the blue tint, I'll get some shots tommorow.




I am able to tint the headlight lenses pretty much any color I want to, were doing doc's with a blue tint, still working on how light or dark & what color to go with for the inner bezel with the blue lens... from the playing around with tinting, I think tinted looks best with a chrome inner bezel so far, but black & chrome rings might be sweet too.

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the tinted lens is done from the inside so no worry of chipping or scratching, it's permanently in the headlight. I can do smoked tint or yellow tint or pretty much any tint, I picture an orange fx with a yellow tinted lens, think that would look crazy... I want to try a very light violet tint on mine, if you ever get tierd of the tint the headlight lenses can always be swapped later...


more blue tintedpictures here:

https://www.infinitiscene.com/search/1/?q=album.php?albumid=49&pictureid=721
 
Let me tell you it's freaking hard to get this type of two tone work on our headlights....

I offered this in the past and stopped offering it because it took me twice as much time to get it right..

wow..

BTW.. I told you John... I'll pay you double to get me a set before Dr.2K get's his.... HA HA:rofl::wink::wub::laugh:

Seriously.. :cool:.. ha ha.
 
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