Almost done, just a few things I want to touch up stylistically This photo may appear confusing at first, but this is the method for properly aligning projectors. Now, the somewhat "dashed" line is the height from the ground to the center of the projector itself. This is where the light would be if you were right against the wall. In order to align these, you have to have the car approximately 25ft from a wall on relatively even ground. Beneath the first dashed piece of painters tape you will see a second. This is approximately 2.5" beneath the one above it demonstrating the DOT legal cutoff point. What does this mean? In short, at 25 ft, the cutoff of the projectors needs to fall between 2.1 and 2.5" inches to be legal (not blind people). It goes without saying that lights are aligned based off the left light, not the right. The 2 pieces of vertical tape represent the center of the kick, or where you see the lower portion of the cutoff slant upward to the higher portion. The two pieces of tape are at a specific distance, in this case they represent the distance from projector to projector on the car itself. You'll notice I have set my right lamp slightly to the right. I am doing this as a safety feature. The output of the lights is so substantial that I wanted to throw a small amount further to right to help me spot an animal, person, whatever potentially running out into the street at night. Now I think I told some of you I did the color mod (also known as the washer mod). What this effectively does it tilt the lens of the projector upward a slight slight amount (approximately 2 #8 washers). This creates an intense range of blues at the cutoff. This is purely aesthetic and has zero effect on the output of the light itself. For those of you that didnt make it out to the Pool Hall g2g, you didnt see the lamps on the car. Here's a closeup snap earlier tonight while I was aligning everything. I'm positive this comparison is what most of you have been waiting for. This is a straight comparison of the OEM STi HIDs versus my TSX retrofit The difference is night and day, both of these photos were taken with the same camera and simply cropped / resized. It goes without saying how poor the light output is on a WRX compared to these two. Here are some misc. photos. This part of the parking deck isnt even close to being level, hence how the beam points downward prematurely. Interested in your very own retrofit? Contact 10th St JDM!
I don't remember who it was, but there was someone at the dent&scratch G2G that had this done already... I think it was a silver wrx...
How much do EDMs run? Also the cost varies substantially on the type of projector you want. Its like I said, give me a month or so of playing around with these and Ill have a nice solid backing to hook you guys up
around a grand, depending on where you get them. Those aren't for the HIDs though. I'm not really on the market right now (there is at least $2000 worth of other things I'd like to do first). Just curious.
So, should I throw one of these in? honestly, I am not a huge fan, but its certainly cool and quite different. Also, I'm quite positive if I had these, and everyone could see them up close, I'd have a few of them interested in an install.
I like the BMW angel-eyes look on BMW's but I'm not sure how good it would look on a teardrop Impreza. How do they look in the assembly in daylight?
I wouldn't mind doing that also... It'll also give a chance to seal the pass. side up a little better
Thanks for posting those up! It's a bit odd looking imo, maybe w/o the silver trim ring around the projector it would look better. More than likely, I would rather get the EDMs and send them to you for a HID upgrade.
I guess you're right...considering I would be changing the projectors out anyways, I guess the cut off wouldnt matter at that point, huh? Or would you still have to modify the cut off? The reason I said EDMs is because I have a family friend who lives in England.:wiggle:
Correct, after the retrofit you wouldnt be able to tell jdm vs. edm. You would the same light output and cutoff as a tsx.
i wonder if the halo eyes are one size or can they be adjusted to fit into a stock bugeye lamp w/o the projectors? whould that look stupid? the vision i have in my head looks cool but that should tell you something...
Nah man, I'd be more than happy to work with you to try it. Send me a PM if you're interested. They come in a few different sizes, 3 to be exact--we'll call them small, medium and large for simplicity's sake.
More pics to come in a few minutes but I finally got around to pull Andy's old lights apart and removing the projectors. In other news, no need for an MRI, ankle is doing better (but then again, the intensity of my pain meds has more than quadrupled). What ya see here is a TSX projector with a clear lens. What's a clear lens you might ask? Well, its exactly as it sounds. Lens' for these things are made of glass (I would imagine that plastic isnt too far off though). If you own an 06, you'll notice that your lens's are not clear. The majority of OEMs are equipping their US production vehicles with textured lens. Why? Americans apparently do not like crisp and clean things, they must be all sorts of fucked up with patterns and such. As an 06 owner, a pleasant upgrade for you would be to get a set of clear tsx lens'. Naturally, this is something 10th St will be offering quite soon. If you're interested in improved clarity, sharper cutout, increase colors and an improved output just let me know
We'll see how it turns out. If I dont like it, this setup will not be hard to resell Some photos from today's work. It pays to be quite patient with this, and at this point, there is some trial and error involved. However, things are progressing nicely
my mint e46 shrouds were jsut delivered, cant decide if I want to go for the chrome look or go darker...
Yes sir, I had posted some in my journal. Let me update this thread Tested them out yesterday, I'm aiming to be done by the auto-x Saturday. Let me simply say that even with the fresnel lens, the output is substantially greater than the OEM HIDs Cant wait to throw the clears in.