This just makes me want to retrofit an oem led projector. I prefer led over HID for the reasons you listed, thats why i have LED on everything in my car except headlights. I was actually strongly considering the new morimoto MLED projector, but i read the performance is not quite up to par vs the HID options yet.

The rad fan doesnt run as much depending on where you live and is also made by denso(i dont know who made the cooling fan on the bulb). Also, computer fans arent exposed to as many extreme conditions. Its just something id prefer not to require, id prefer solid state cooling. If these last a long time for you, thats great. But i feel uneasy relying on the fan. i drive in a lot of pitch black areas for extended periods of time(3 + hours), so i need the widest and longest output i can get and the most reliable.

Colour temperature is highly customizable on both hid and led, so its all about preference when you select your bulb. I chose 5000k, just a touch blue over 4300k pure white. But i can get pure white similar to yours if i chose to.

I agree with all your other positive points about led. I wish there were good led projectors that were affordable(i want the custom look and the ability to mount halos/drls. I strongly considered holding off on doing HID again because i also dont like the highbeam and warm up limitations, and needing the ballast.

If there were a good LED bulb that mimicked HID very well, this would be the best option for me(as far as performance, price, advantages, ease of installation, etc.) considering what is available on the market today. I prefer to have a projector in the headlight though especially with halo. To purists, its wrong, but i dont care about that. I love the more aggressive and customized look of my car. To me it looks more purposeful and less anonymous, which is what i aim to do.

And you already know i dont want to sell my car

 

Hi Connor,

I know a great LED Projector component for your future retrofit and it should be cheap too.
the key is to find it from a total car that is totaled because of the rear accident not front obviously

It's the Infiniti Q50 LED headlight projector, you have to take out the surrounding and just take the projector and put a nice shroud.
or you can also get it from the other Infiniti like the QX80 (the latest generation) that have the new LED headlight.

I also don't see this one use Fan at all, perhaps maybe hidden inside the overall housing but at least none I could see (or hear).

I was already doing research on this Infiniti Q50 LED projector headlight long time ago before I found the IPF LED bulb,
and if not because I prefer the non projector looks,
I would have gone with the Infiniti Q50 LED projector retrofit.

 

That is a very detailed (as usual) answer by Alpina.

May have to consider this when my bulbs go out. I really like the look of a projector in the headlight (not a HUGE fan of Halos), but am not a fan of taking a headlight apart/breaking the seal which if not sealed properly will cause condensation in certain situations.

Ended up buying the EBC greens with some centric "performance" blank rotors, basically wanted the powdercoated hat to look cleaner. Hopefully get here by the weekend so I can get these installed ASAP. With all this random rain lately I've been driving more cautiously since visually seeing the condition of my current pads.

 

If you find either of those projectors in the junkyard let me know right away haha. Thats pretty much the only way to get oem projectors cheap. In the meantime, i will use the morimoto d2s mini 4.0 when my conversion is finally done.

I hope to see both of you guys at the fresno meet in march this year. Im sure well have a lot of interesting things to chat about and i would love to see how howards leds perform in person. Its always hard to tell exactly from pictures because exposure settings could make a difference to how bright it appears. Also, we should find some pitch black country roads and actually sit in the front to see how good the light pattern is. That is the ultimate test in my opinion. You can talk about specs, graphs, lumens, and all that but how well you can actually see in the dark is what it comes down to

 

I'll have to keep an eye out for that date for the Fresno meet.

Amazon was interesting this morning...I'm a prime member and ordered my QTY (2) rotors...but after ordering the shipping estimate said "2-business days" "Expected arrival "Jan 31st-Feb 23". That is NOT 2-business days. So I went and checked to see what would happen if I try to order QTY (1)...it says delivered by Thursday 1/12/17.

So I contacted them to verify this was the case....canceled my QTY 2 order...and then placed (2) orders of QTY (1)....which show shipping today and will arrive Thursday. They then comped me a $5 gift card for my troubles.

 

There is nothing to really worry about when it comes to opening and closing the headlights. I've taken mine apart twice and Honda has created a headlight that is both easy to open and reseals with very minimal mess. If and when you decide to open your headlights for a retrofit, do NOT lose any of the exterior screws that keep a tight fit. Even misplacing one of these screws with create an improper seal and you will get condensation. A lot of projectors for retrofit have adapted a screw on ring which allows to easier, faster and less frustrating retrofits.

I would highly recommend a projector retrofit to anyone who really wants projectors. It looks way better, much better light output and the prices for projectors have dropped dramatically. I personally order a set of NiLite Projectors from Amazon for $25 shipped and I am extremely happy with the upgrade. One could argue that I'm using subpar quality projectors, but for what I paid, I'm super content with the results.

Also, for anyone that plans on opening their headlights, I would suggest finding the largest box available and creating an oven with a heat gun. Cut a hole just big enough for the heat gun to slip through in a corner, and insert another box (broken down so that it's flat) at an angle that covers the hole but allows heat through so as to not have the heat hitting the headlight directly. These Fit lights are huge and if you try to fit them in a small oven, you will surely have a corner touching an oven wall and you'll melt the plastic.

 

Ordered Dynaudio Esotar A Pillar Aluminum CNC Pod from an eBay seller in Germany but I deal directly by email,
He have several styling, but I order this one (with the adjustable angle mounting option) and not in black color but natural aluminum color:





Next step is to save money to buy the Dynaudio Esotar2 110 tweeter itself of course before I can use this tweeter pod


I also installed back my old Dynomax Bullet resonator and replace the Vibrant resonator today. I like the Dynomax deeper sound much better, plus I had raise my car about 10 to 12mm so it should help the ground clearance problem because Dynomax bullet is 1/2 in larger in diameter compare to the Vibrant resonator.
I found my new favorite muffler shop who do TIG welding and Stainless Steel 304 piping for me today at very good price and friendly too
Also changed the flange to full Stainless Steel 2 1/4in diameter flange in preparation for the Noblesse test pipe with HJS cat project about to start soon.

 

Good info here. I can vouch for the NiLite projectors, I've been running them for 2+ years now with no issues.

 

Alpina, what muffler shop do you go to?

My dad is looking to get some mufflers welded for his Camaro, and is looking for a good shop.

Thanks!

 

Hi Mr. Hollow,

Here is the shop website:
Muffler Exhaust Systems Orange County Muffler serving Costa Mesa 92627 | Mufflers Catalytic Converters Exhaust Systems Sales Service Orange County Muffler serving Costa Mesa
Mike is the owner and Steve is his assistant, they both work on my car,
Mike TIG welded my exhaust himself !,
they are small operation so not many mechanic anyway, but that mean you need to make appointment because they can't take too many customer per day.
for more details please read my review about them that I just wrote today on Yelp

If you don't need stainless steel or TIG welding,
and only need Aluminized steel piping with MIG welding,
than I also recommend:
Mikes Muffler Shop
Very good price and very good service.
Yeah, it's funny that both muffler shop owners have the same name (Mike) although different person

oh by the way,
I had more pictures of the TIG welding done today here:
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ml#post1362172

 

Any of you had to replace a foglight lens?

Where did you get the replacement? Any tips?

 

If I recall you have to replace the entire chingadera....no replacement lens =/

People have replaced with a DEPO OEM replacement. To protect it, consider putting a vinyl wrap over the lens.

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ht-lenses.html

 

For sure, I'll protect the new lens!!

 

Beatrush Tow hook arrives,

 

I decided to sell the Beatrush front tow hook and only install the rear one for the rear bumper,
my wife don't like it she said it do not fit my old age
and I had to persuade her to let me keep as least one at the rear bumper

and it just sold today

 

I just bought a brand new Sony RSX-GS9 Head Unit
This is going to be a long journey before my car audio upgrade project is complete, but at least I started it
Hopefully arrive at my home by end of next week... Can't wait to hold it in my hand...

This Head unit is a single din unit, very simple looking, no navigation, very small tiny screen, no CD at all, just radio,
most of the function will be controlled from App on my iPhone,
but I am pretty sure,
this is the best sounding (brand new) head unit in production today.

I will use the remaining DIN space below it to install Triple Defi Gauge

Here is the link for the spec:
Bluetooth® Car Stereo with MP3 | RSX-GS9 | Sony US



and here is what it looks like:

 

Turn out it is harder to install at the rear bumper due to my Reinforcement Bar that had been modified to fit the JDM RS bumper,
so I decided to install in at the front bumper instead

I also utilize the original plastic tow hook cover again (drill it precisely to fit the stud hole) to make it looks more flush

 

Happened on friday, but i said goodbye to my fit for the next 2 months!

 

Well due to a delay by amazon I didn't receive my 2nd rotor until yesterday. I did my brake replacement yesterday. Centric performance blanks with e-coating and EBC greenstuff pads. Took a little over an hour to do.

Overall I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Next time I want to paint the calipers. Just wanted to get the brakes done for this time around so I was driving safer. Thoroughly cleans the clips and reused them. The screws that held the rotors on were super easy. No rust and an impact driver helped. Had to take a dead blow to the old rotors to break them free from the rust around the center area. Hopefully the painted rotors will stay rust free.

Also gotta follow these break in instructions.














In addition to this since I had the wheels off I wanted to see if either the 6-piston big brake upgrade or the 4-piston stock caliper upgrade from Wilwood would clear my 15" gram lights. I 3d printed some templates based on the dimensions they provide to ensure there was sufficient caliper clearance. I oversized the template by 0.05" in all directions to ensure sufficient clearance.







Tons of clearance on top for the 4-piston stock replacement caliper. There is sufficient room on the bottom for the caliper as well. Just hard to get a photo of or see from the outside of the wheel.

As for the 6-piston big brake, its a no go. The bottom portion would clear, but the top would hit...a LOT. If these were 16s then I believe they would fit but with the 15s there just isnt enough diameter to clear the big rotor upgrade. As you can see, the top of the template is touching the inned diameter of the wheel but the wheel studs are not centered by at least 1/2".



Glad I printed these templates. Maybe they'd be helpful to others wanting to know if their wheels would clear. I plan on reaching out to Wilwood and seeing if they could use the files...think it would be a good option for them to offer a 3d printed clearance template for customers to purchase through shapeways or something.

 

Did you leave that damn squealer on the pad? That's what I call them because that is what it does when it finally touches your rotor. Better to just break that thing off as it is not needed if one actually maintains their vehicle.

What size rotors come with their 6 piston kit? I fit 294mm rotors and J's/Seidoya 6 piston caliper under 15s, depending on the offset of the wheel, need a spacer to clear the spokes, but caliper clears the barrel.