Projector Headlights

[Laecaon]

I agree. I honestly think the moderns are quite hideous.

[datsundash]

I have bmw projectors and they work great, the cutoff is perfect with my 6000k hid's The cutoff line looks exactly like the "modern" ones posted up. What is so bad about the hella brand bmw's? hella makes good shit.

[thisismatt]

I have bmw projectors and they work great, the cutoff is perfect with my 6000k hid's The cutoff line looks exactly like the "modern" ones posted up. What is so bad about the hella brand bmw's? hella makes good shit.

I think, for many at least, is the still hackish installation of bmw projectors. Although ratsun, some people just want something more exacting.

[datsundash]

Yes they are kind of a pain to fit. I spent alot of time on mine cutting the buckets and sanding them down even and smooth. I spent alot of time trimming the projector housings and sanding them to make it look like they were made to fit in there. Mine do not look hackish, although alot of the ones I have seen installed on here do. Mine work very very well. I got in my wifes accord last night and turned on her headlights and damn near shit myself, I literally couldnt see how to drive. I have gotten so used to my bmw's I cant do without them now. Plus I love blinding the fuck out of people.

[thisismatt]

Yes they are kind of a pain to fit. I spent alot of time on mine cutting the buckets and sanding them down even and smooth. I spent alot of time trimming the projector housings and sanding them to make it look like they were made to fit in there. Mine do not look hackish, although alot of the ones I have seen installed on here do. Mine work very very well. I got in my wifes accord last night and turned on her headlights and damn near shit myself, I literally couldnt see how to drive. I have gotten so used to my bmw's I cant do without them now. Plus I love blinding the fuck out of people.

That's exactly what I mean. Not that they necessarily have to look hacked together, but you did have to painstakingly piece them together. Personally, if the quality is up to par, I'd rather just buy a drop in setup.

[datsundash]

Mine fit behind the seat at the junkyard, so the only $$$ I have in them is in the hid kit. :rofl:

[Laecaon]

I find it funny you think the BMW projectors are good. They are very old technology, with a bad shape to them, and a bad lens. But they happen to be a 5.75 round headlight... I had halogens in them, about the same as my normal sealed beams, I now have HIDs in them, and yes the light is better, but new cars put it to shame. You can even have Halogen setups that will outshine these lights. I think too much light is lost.

[thisismatt]

I love blinding the fuck out of people.

Mine fit behind the seat at the junkyard, so the only $$$ I have in them is in the hid kit. :rofl:

I was gonna let the first comment slide, but after the second I think it's prudent to say, man, you're sounding like a pretty big douche. It's crap like this that gets responsible people pulled over and ticketed for non-DOT lighting, and gets cover charges applied at self-pick salvage yards. :poop:

[Laecaon]

I dont know about datsundash's lights, but my headlights dont blind anyone, never pulled over, never flashed on the road, I did make sure to line up the cutoff with my other car. And yes he sounds douchey.

[datsundash]

Actually I havent ever been flashed, or pulled over, I said I love blinding the fuck out of people meaning that my headlights are alot brighter than the factory lights which I removed. And meaning they are alot better than what you guys claim them to be. I completely disassembled my bmw's and cleaned them very well, then completely resealed them to keep the dirt out. I used a 6000k kensun hid kit and the improvement was 150% I have the headlights aimed at the proper level to DOT specifications, I cant remember what the taper was but it was like 1 ft drop in 25 feet or something. Thus the cutoff line is well below the oncoming traffics point of view, all they see is ambient light reflected off the road and other objects. And just so you know I do pay for shit at the junkyard. I normally get ripped off, thus I get my moneys worth behind the seat. Actually the day I got the projectors I bought a non power mirror for a Chevy van, a non power mirror for an old Mitsubishi galant, and two rusty calipers to use for cores on my disc conversion for the low low low price of 100$ And I pulled all the shit myself. I always know im gonna get ripped off by this ignorant old fuck so to compensate I have to throw a few things behind the seat. The guy is a super dick head and anytime I come in. He gets mad because I use parts from all different makes and models on dattos. This is the same guy who quoted me 600$ for a 1993 jeep grand cherokee tranny with 200k miles and no warranty I pull it myself. We dont have any pull apart nice junkyards here, its all redneck toothless hillbillies who dont have a clue what they have, and whatever they do have is worth gold no matter what. There isnt any cash registers, or payment windows, just shacks with meth labs and scores of junkyard animals and inbred kids with no shoes.

[Tristin]

Actually I havent ever been flashed, or pulled over, I said I love blinding the fuck out of people meaning that my headlights are alot brighter than the factory lights which I removed. And meaning they are alot better than what you guys claim them to be. I completely disassembled my bmw's and cleaned them very well, then completely resealed them to keep the dirt out. I used a 6000k kensun hid kit and the improvement was 150% I have the headlights aimed at the proper level to DOT specifications, I cant remember what the taper was but it was like 1 ft drop in 25 feet or something. Thus the cutoff line is well below the oncoming traffics point of view, all they see is ambient light reflected off the road and other objects. And just so you know I do pay for shit at the junkyard. I normally get ripped off, thus I get my moneys worth behind the seat. Actually the day I got the projectors I bought a non power mirror for a Chevy van, a non power mirror for an old Mitsubishi galant, and two rusty calipers to use for cores on my disc conversion for the low low low price of 100$ And I pulled all the shit myself. I always know im gonna get ripped off by this ignorant old fuck so to compensate I have to throw a few things behind the seat. The guy is a super dick head and anytime I come in. He gets mad because I use parts from all different makes and models on dattos. This is the same guy who quoted me 600$ for a 1993 jeep grand cherokee tranny with 200k miles and no warranty I pull it myself. We dont have any pull apart nice junkyards here, its all redneck toothless hillbillies who dont have a clue what they have, and whatever they do have is worth gold no matter what. There isnt any cash registers, or payment windows, just shacks with meth labs and scores of junkyard animals and inbred kids with no shoes.

 

[mrbigtanker]

Well is the testing done and are they now being mass produced in some sweat shop in china.lol

[Tristin]

Well is the testing done and are they now being mass produced in some sweat shop in china.lol

 

You're the most impatient person I've seen here. You realize this shit takes time, right? I'm sure they will let everyone know when the units are ready to ship.

 

Drink a beer and relax man...

[79D50]

I think, for many at least, is the still hackish installation of bmw projectors. Although ratsun, some people just want something more exacting.

 

I agree. I purchased a mint set from a member here and eventually got them to work but the end result did not match the thousand + hours of restoration.They did not look like they belonged there and the adjustment sucked because you had to cut the bucket down so much (see previous post a few pages back).

 

I am a huge fan of Hella lighting and ended up going with the e-Codes for low's and highs on the truck. I run simple silverstar H1 and H4 bulbs. They are not designed for Xenon bulbs with ballasts. You will scatter the light and burn / cloud the hosing just like you would with ellipsoids. Ellipsoids don't even compare to the new projector technology. Nice thing about the e-Codes is they fit right in the bucket just like any standard 5 3/4.

[mrbigtanker]

You're the most impatient person I've seen here. You realize this shit takes time, right? I'm sure they will let everyone know when the units are ready to ship.

 

Drink a beer and relax man...

Well are they fuckin done yet,i cant wait any longer. :rofl:

[xlr8r]

Here's my teaser. I'll post more later. I tested out the Bi-Xenon set & was a little delayed by needing to take some time getting my car running right (along with fixing other peoples cars). They are a night & day difference compared to OE headlights.

 

 

[Tristin]

Wow... thats a perfect cutoff. Im impressed... now just hopefully enough people pick them up so that I can get some classics. Otherwise Im going to pull the trigger on some Cats and call it good.

[freekwonder]

Wow... thats a perfect cutoff. Im impressed... now just hopefully enough people pick them up so that I can get some classics. Otherwise Im going to pull the trigger on some Cats and call it good.

 

^^^^^^^ Agreed

[wildmaninid]

Interesting/ed.......

[amwalker]

I owe the other write-up from the test kit. My low-beam HID/Halogen hi-beam set-up looks similar, I just have all 4 of the projectors/housing. Write-up and pics to come, it's been very hectic lately. If anyone has questions regarding the lights, I'll answer what I can and defer the rest to Ben @ Dapper Lighting.

 

Adam

[xlr8r]

Here's the 411 on my installation. I understand Adam didn't have to grind his down to size like I did, but with a few measurements we can figure out why.

 

 

I got to try out the Bi-xenon pair of headlights for Dapper Lighting. I went with a 5000k set at 35w, so there are certainly brighter as well as bluer options depending on your preference.

I received a well packaged box that included the prototype projectors, ballasts (with mounting bracket), bulbs, and harnesses that made it so I did not have to change any OE wiring, basically plug and play. When I went to test fit things I discovered that the projector’s outer diameter (5.8”) was too large for the headlight rings with an I.D. of the rings 5.75”. While in comparison an OE headlight has an O.D. of 5.65”. My solution was to grind down the projectors to reduce their diameter, I got it down to a snug fit, then drilled 3 holes at the mounting tabs into the housings as my means to prevent them from rotating. Before drilling these holes I made sure I had them oriented so that the Bi-Xenon flaps were horizontal at the bottom. Yes, the bottom, the light is mirrored when it projects out so the flaps used to cut off the light need to be on the bottom.

 

I mounted them onto the car. I only received one boot that goes onto the back of the projector to help protect from moisture, 2nd one will be on the way shortly. This had the advantage of helping me conclude one thing though. The side without the boot fit with no issues, the side with the boot is a little snug going through the hole in the frame. Meaning they fit the buckets just fine, but where the wires (and some of the projector) go through the chassis into the engine bay I had some snugness, but did not have to cut or remove any metal.

 

When wiring & testing them I had some adventures, but I won’t go into detail there. What I did find which will be remedied soon by moving a wire is that the car’s setting for low beam is currently high for the projectors (flap is open), while the car’s high beam setting is low for the projectors (flap is down). Once I get a chance to try my solution & confirm it works then Dapper will of course change their harness accordingly. When it's all worked out it will be plug & play.

 

I have provided photos. You’ll see that my OE headlights were a bit crooked. I converted my 810 from rectangular lights to rounds so those rounds were mounted just for the sake of this test. The Projectors need a little adjustment too, to be a little higher & the right side needs to be pointed outward more. They are noticeably brighter. It’s obvious to me how bright & sharp the light is from the projectors. This of course was expected but you really have to see the difference firsthand to really understand how different it is.

 

I feared the “modern” style would look really odd, but they actually look good in my opinion and blend in fairly well. They sit within the bezels nicely. Most people won’t notice a difference at first glance, but the more observant will notice & realize that the headlights are a not stock. For now I have oe headlights installed next to the projectors. They are not plugged in, because plugging them in makes the projectors high beam light extremely weak; just like how the OE low beams dim with the high beams are flipped on. The projectors are dimmed, which they are not meant to do and are not happy doing.

Definitely pleased with the conversion & look forward to many nights of cruising with these babies after I work out the last couple kinks.

 

The package

 

A headlight

 

Ring is a little too small

 

Ground down

 

Headlight snug in the bucket

 

 

Wiring

 

Back side fitment

 

In the bezels

 

Stock Low beams

 

Stock High Beams

 

Projector Low

 

Projector High

 

 

images hosted by Imageshack

[q-tip]

Me likey

[mrbigtanker]

WOW very good write up,and i thank you for that and for the testing of the lights.Now when can i buy them.

[Tristin]

Installation and performance look fantastic. Now patiently waiting for classics to arrive.

[amwalker]

After seeing the request for another person to test-fit a Dapper Lighting 5.75” prototype kit, I knew that I could help out Dapper, the 510 community, as well as myself. The kit I installed was a high/low kit consisting of HID low beams and halogen high beams. Because it was a prototype kit I had to notch the housing to fit the headlight retaining rings. This shouldn’t be an issue with the production models but I’m still not certain that the alignment tabs are going to be molded to the back of each projector housing.

 

The prototype high/low kit arrived as 4 projector housings, 4 H1 projector assemblies, 2 H1 HID light and ballasts, 2 H1 high beam bulbs, and the necessary wiring to get everything started. After notching the projector housings and test fitting them to the headlight buckets I attached the projector assemblies and mounted the housings/assemblies as I would with a H5006 sealed beam headlight. To keep everything clean I mounted the high beam halogen bulbs and the low beam HID bulbs to the projector assemblies before installation.

 

 

 

 

After installing the lighting assemblies, I grabbed the needed wiring and began to run the battery and ground feeds to each light assembly relay. The battery wire come assembled with a fuse in place, so one only needs to make a secure connection to the positive battery terminal or starter terminal. I ground the relays directly to the battery, nothing else is required. After securing the power and ground wires to each relay I ran the harnesses to the stock headlight connectors. Dapper Lighting includes an adapter plug to allow each relay to be triggered off of the stock headlight connectors, no cutting is required at all!

 

 

At this point you can fire up the headlights, don’t forget to let the ballasts and bulbs “burn in” for maximum life and efficiency. You’ll see that the lighting is distinct and sharp, even in the middle of a cloudless day. Once properly adjusted, you will be able to see a distinct cutoff at 25 ft, in the previously mentioned conditions. When finished admiring your handy work, go ahead and mount the HID ballasts and relays in a location that won’t see a lot of direct water splashes. The HID ballasts look fairly weather proofed with Metri-pack type connectors, but I’m not in the mood to test it.

 

 

To summarize, I’m extremely happy with the product produced by Dapper Lighting. I will probably upgrade to the Bi-Xenon assemblies once a production run is made because I want HID high beams as well, but the HID low beam/halogen high beam set-up works extremely well. Once the wiring is sorted this will be an easy install for most 510 owners, one that is highly recommend by this owner. The rest of the pictures are here; http://s195.photobuc...apper Lighting/

 

 

Good:

A ton of light!

Easy install, don’t have to cut into stock harness

Seemingly reliable HID ballast

Everything needed in one kit

Lots of room behind the lights, no hammering or cutting required

 

Bad:

Added clutter to the engine bay

Projector housing design is not for everyone

Costs more than 4 sealed beams