i finally put my e55 retro together. they don't look quite the way i want them to so i'll be taking them apart later to fix them up but for now everything works fine and it should pass the cursory glance from 6' away. just some notes on stuff i learned the hard way for those people considering the retro plunge.
picking a good projector and ballast is key to having a pain free retro. the neon's headlight housing is actually quite small and fitting a big projector in the there and having it look good is tough. not just the diameter of the projector but also the length. on my retro my projector bezel touched the front headlight cover and the rear of my ignitor connector almost touches airbox inlet tube (this is a big problem for me as i want to push my projector back a 1/2 inch). a lot of this is because i used the stock adjustor mechanism.
try to get a closed projector instead of an open one (like the e55s). i spent a lot of extra time to close up the open section of the projector to prevent light bleed. it would have been worth going a tl projector just for that i think.
i found my depo headlight gasket didn't fit very well and had to fool a lot with it to get it to fit correctly. opening the units up was quite easy.
ballast with remote ignitors are great! they allow you to extend the wiring with regular wires and this really frees up options for mounting ballasts in good locations. i found a really nice spot just under the headlights themselves where there will be minimal water splash.
i'd run 16 ga wire for the lights. heck, stock is like 18ga! everyone says to run 14 ga or even bigger but this just ended up being a headache as i had a lot of big wire with less flexibility. i'd run 14ga just for the main power to the relay and main ground.
the hardest thing is getting the retro to look good or close to OEM (note, none of the retro's i've seen on here are what i'd consider the oem look. including mine). i think it's tough in the neon's housing because of the limited space and the large size of most projectors. just getting them to work is fairly easy.
the thing is if you do it once you'll have tons of ideas on how to do it better the next time. as i said, with mine i'll probably be pulling them apart to rework the bezels. i made mine plug and play so i can swap back the stock units so i don't lose out on driving the car. i was pretty nervous when i first bought all the stuff to try out retroing but i figured it wasn't such a big risk as most of the stuff you can sell back on ebay if you can't get it to work out.
hats off to haknslash for all his help and the guide he wrote! this made things a whole lot easier to do.
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05 black srt-4
95 purply neon
87 rusty 200sx
Last edited by haknslash : 04-12-2006 at 03:01 PM.
Yeah, for me the shroud tends to be the biggest time consumer... I have mine complete as well (as of early this morning). I'm going to end up removing the lens again, so I can remove the shroud and fab up a new set of shrouds. I had a big problem with aiming the lights, then puting the shroud in and noticing that the shroud grips the projector so much that when it's set in place the shroud messes up the projector aim. I'd recommend that you completely aim the projectors before even starting on the shrouds. When you make a shroud you need to make it a snug fit, but make sure it doesn't alter the projector's location/aim.
I'll have pics of my current retro by later tonight. A big thanks goes out to Haknslash for the retro how-to and all the helpful information/tips that was provided!!!
Does anyone have advice on how to make use of the OEM adjusters with the retrofit? I wanted to go that route, but I couldn't figure out how to do it with the hardware from lowes/home depot.... Those screws owned me big time during the aiming process. My hands/back are killing me...lol.
I'd recommend that you completely aim the projectors before even starting on the shrouds. When you make a shroud you need to make it a snug fit, but make sure it doesn't alter the projector's location/aim.
I hope anyone wanting to do a retro themselves is taking notes.
All of my aiming is done prior and aft the shroud/enclosure. You have to.
And yes finally someones else notices how small it is in there. Would make you think you have tons of room but really you only have a few inches of leway (sp?) both ways until you either come in contact with the lens or come in contact with the material behind the entire headlight. Lets not forget about the small height we have to work with...IF you plan on using the stock bezel :P
Last edited by haknslash : 04-11-2006 at 03:08 PM.
yup, shroud took about 85% of my time too (which is a lot considering i did my retros over winter!). in my case my shroud just touches the front lens (it rubbed off the paint on the shroud where it touches). i even had to push my shroud back from my projector which really hurts the looks. I'm pretty confident i can push the projector back a bit to fix this but i'll have to open up the headlights again. if i could place the shroud where i wanted to i think projectors look pretty clean. if you are using a shroud like haks then you won't have the same problem as me. mine are a bit different.
it is possible to use the stock adjusters. hak and myself are both doing it with the e55s. i had to grind a bit of one adjuster to make clearance for the solnoid. the e55 already have holes that you can open up and bolt straight to the stock adjusters (!) using some nuts for jacking screws. i don't know how well these line up with other projectors tho.
hak, i'll mail you some pics tonight. they're not the greatest quality but it should give people an idea of what a home made retro will involve.
yup, shroud took about 85% of my time too (which is a lot considering i did my retros over winter!). in my case my shroud just touches the front lens (it rubbed off the paint on the shroud where it touches). i even had to push my shroud back from my projector which really hurts the looks. I'm pretty confident i can push the projector back a bit to fix this but i'll have to open up the headlights again. if i could place the shroud where i wanted to i think projectors look pretty clean. if you are using a shroud like haks then you won't have the same problem as me. mine are a bit different.
it is possible to use the stock adjusters. hak and myself are both doing it with the e55s. i had to grind a bit of one adjuster to make clearance for the solnoid. the e55 already have holes that you can open up and bolt straight to the stock adjusters (!) using some nuts for jacking screws. i don't know how well these line up with other projectors tho.
hak, i'll mail you some pics tonight. they're not the greatest quality but it should give people an idea of what a home made retro will involve.
Yeah, this is what I thought about doing, but since I'm using TL's the holes don't line up... I thought about fabbing a bracket or something to make a hole that lines up with the projector and mounting the other end to the stock plastic brackets... If I find the time I may just do this.
(I also have to remove the lens again since my shroud is also touching the lens and rubbing the paint off. Not to mention the aiming issues with the shrouds.)
Looks good and very similar to mine hehe :thumbup:
will you do me a favor and take a pic of your fog lights on by themselves and also on with the headlights? I like the ION lens on those and I'm wanting to see how their performance is and also what they look like paired with the HID.
Thanks.
Last edited by haknslash : 04-12-2006 at 07:22 AM.
Yeah, those are the PIAA MPx fog lights. I had those for a while now... There performance isn't noticed unless the weather is poor outside. I actually had them on while taking the pics. It's so much more difficult getting the camera to take a good pic without a tripod. I'll take a few more tonight.
here's another pic I took last night but it didn't turn out as expected... but it shows the PIAA fogs. (the yellow changes intensity depending on what angle you look at them. They will change from a deep orange to a bright yellow.
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retro notes
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