My HID projector build up
 

Well here is the initial start of me building two projector HID headlights with driving lights below the projector. My intial impression of these VW headlight buckets is they are well built units and definately worth the money and cip1.coms customer service is top notch as one of the glass lens showed up broke less than aan hour ago and I already have a new lens on the way she sent the order before I had even taken the pic to show her the broken part. The lens and bucket fits inside the H-4 rings albeit a little loose. Now I have a question as it looks like these VW trim rings look like 356 trim rings does anybody know if they would fit since this could be an upside for someone with a 356 that has bad adjusting rings on their headlights. And on to a couple pics to start.
The vw part on the left the parts in a H-4 on the right
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291763232.jpg
The light with the broken lens
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291763277.jpg

This is going to be perfect the way a light goes in my 1/8 inch plate that I mount the projector to is going to be held in securely. Just waiting on the driving lights but the projectors will be here tomorrow and I can start working on the plates.

Very interesting. I will be waiting for the next update!

Watching

Upon thinking about it I will be ordering some extra lens real soon. If these are like the old H-1 lens they have a high cyrstal content so it makes them very brittle I remember just barely tapping a H-1 lens and it shattered.

I was thinking about this. How about making a form of the Euro H4 lens and vacuum form a plexiglas lens over it ? Just thinking this would look better than the glass lens, same as I used.

Cheers
Engelbert

It has possiblities but I dont think plexi would last very long before it would be hazed over and then those projectors wouldn't be worth squat I think the lens has to be glass and I am thinking that I will need to seal the glass to the frame to keep dust out from what I get reading dust is a bad thing with these lights.

I just realized the driving lights I had on backorder was just a single light it wasn't really clear in the description but that was not the fault of the vendor they had just cut and pasted the description from Hella so I have a full set on order now and this kit is in stock so I should see it in 4-5 days.

Some more pics the 1/8 inch aluminum ready to be cut
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291824126.jpg

The VW bucket
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291824230.jpg
The plates cut out and trimmed
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291824327.jpg
Front and back
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291824422.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291824516.jpg
That profile isnt that bad I would have liked to had clear lens like the H-4 just to have more room to mount the projectors.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291824711.jpg
Alright I am taking suggestions on the color inside leave it natural aluminum or paint it and what color black, silver? ;)

Your round aluminum backing plate? Polish it to a mirror finish? If it doesn't look right just scuff and paint, I guess. Or just flip it over.

Yes the inside of the buckets and mounting plate the inside of the buckets are a kind of light blue color.

Can you paint them the same color as your car?

I could I am not quite sure how that would look. I am not sure about the black either.

The inside of the buckets I would go a bright silver, I think. Are you painting the trim rings body colour? Black might even look good for the inside of the buckets. Sorry, not much help, am I? :)

Paint it the same color as the surrounds.

-1 black. I saw a post in the other thread where the insides were black. No likey...

Yes I have trim rings the same color as the car I was thinking crome eastwood has a rattlecan paint in smoke chrome that looks pretty good

How about this color I could put it on with an airbrush and then clear coat
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291830209.jpg

I can get smoke chome at the auto parts store what does anybody think?

I am interested to see how this goes as I was thinking about going this route on mine and replacing the cheap-o H4 rounds with custom HID mounts. So far I am following along at home nicely.

So far I am not far off the 400 for the pair
315 for the projectors I went with a good kit
30 for the H-4 adjustment rings thanks Jeremy
56 for the VW headlight buckets
24 for the sheet aluminum
and 109 for the hella driving lights not really needed but I wanted them
total 535 roughly about what a set of H-4's cost with much better lighting if all goes well.

gsmith,
Is it realistic to build the lights, install, photograph and then photoshop different options?
I'm following this thread with great interest like others but I'd lean toward chrome or silver buckets yet that smoked chrome sounds pretty cool too. Maybe seeing p-shopped pics would help you decide. Just saying....

Thats possible when I get them mocked up I will take a pic with them on the car before I break them down to paint. Hey you have a 356 right I am assuming from your sig would these trim rings from the VW buckets fit a 356 because they are beautiful pieces and I would like to find someone that would need them.

I have toys!!!!!!
 

The heart of this build:D
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291841207.jpg

Projector with the shroud attached
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291842099.jpg

I'm really psyched to see these lights come together, it's a great project!

As for the 356, I HAD a replica. Sold it this summer :( it was a great car.

Trying to determine where to put the projector with respect to the driving light I found the center of my plate now I need to pull one of my headlights to get clearance measurements behind the bucket. I am kind of hoping that there will be room enough to mount the ballast on the plate also so I install the projector as a unit in the bucket.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291899110.jpg

One note in order for these headlight buckets to fit you need to remove the tabs for mounting the old sugar scoops. Clearance inside the fender is 5 inches.

Some pics of the buckets mounted on the car
without lens
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291908885.jpg
with lens
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291908951.jpg

So these VW buckets just mount right into where the old ones use to be without any mods? Also, I have H4 trim rings with the one screw hole in the bottom like the sugar scoops, will these work? I ask this because it looks like your trim rings have three holes for mounting and not just one.
Thanks

subscribing

Trim rings or adjusting rings yes I put the VW adjusting rings on my fender buckets and they almost fit and would fit with minor mods. The VW buckets fit into the H-4 adjusting rings just fine without mods. If you look at the photo of the headlight assembly it has the VW buckets installed on the H-4 adjusting ring and my opinion doesn't look too bad I think I am going to like this mod when it is done I don't think I will be able to do too much more till I get the driving lights as everything will be close on clearance. I have 5 inches depth clearance and as I figure it with the bulb installed my depth will be 4.5 inches worst come to worse I will drill a hole in the back of the fender buckets to provide more clearance.

Hell, it looks great and you can't tell its not stock.

It will not look stock when I am done it will look quite different and hopefully the light output with be substantially higher the total when done with all lights on will be somewhere around 4 million candle power but I will cut power demand by half.

Use a hi/low, bi-xenon, projector and you wan't have need for a driving light.

I understand that, I was referring to the buckets with trim rings.

Its more of a look thing than a needed thing I think the ones with just the projector in them look funny just my opinion I want it to be a little more busy in the bucket kinda like the H-1's are with 2 bulbs and reflectors the driving lights will come on when the brights are on. Oh and it is bi-xenon

Subscribed! Good luck.

In that case, for "looks", I would not mount the two vertically, one above the other. Some level of diagonal, each side opposite, would look best IMMHO.

I agree I would like to do something like the later 911's but there is no room in the bucket for that these are the driving lights the same ones lateapex used and his turned out pretty good.


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1291933419.jpg