Custom Quad Projector Headlight Project
Last updated 12/23/10

I did a bi-xenon retrofit on my USDM headlights about 4 years ago.

At the time I was one of only a handful of people to do one on a G20, but over the years a lot of people have been doing them and they are getting to be a dime a dozen.  So I wanted to do something more original.  I decided to go for a quad projector retrofit, and for that I needed to use the JDM headlights that use separate reflectors for the high and low beam.  Another bonus to using the JDM headlights is they have glass lenses, the USDM headlights have plastic lenses that tend to get sand blasted and turn yellow over time.

So I started gathering parts for the build.  I got a set of Black Xenon JDM headlights in perfect condition from a friend  The black JDM headlights are built from the factory for HID's so that's an added bonus. They are typically about 3 times the price of the standard JDM so I wouldn't of normally used them, but the deal was so good I just couldn't say no.

I like the look of a bigger full 3" projector as apposed to a smaller 2.5" projector that I could of fit a lot easier, but I like a challenge anyway.  So I searched out on Ebay and got a set of bi-xenon Hella E55 projectors for the outer (low beam) reflectors, and a set of single xenon Hella E55 projectors for the inner (high beam) reflectors.

Because I was using such a big projector, the first thing I had to do was remove the reflectors and start from scratch with an empty housing.  So I took the headlights apart, and scrapped all of its guts and started checking out how I was going to fit the bi-xenon in the low beam section. Here it is with the OEM shroud over it checking for placement.

It fit good, and was pretty much in the right location for the shroud, which was more than I could say for the single xenon in the high beam section.

so the only way to center it on the shroud was to offset it in the housing.

But I wasn't  fond of modifying the back of the headlight since it probably would have hit the radiator support.  I wanted something more custom anyway so I decided to cut the divider bar and I'll rework the shrouds later.

it took a lot of modification, but after some cutting and reforming of the plastic on the OEM housing I was able to make them fit pretty much in the stock bulb location.

Now that I have the projectors in there final location it time for them to really start to take shape.  I didn't want them to look like they were projectors just thrown into another headlight like a lot of other retrofits I've seen, I wanted something seriously custom.  so that meant I had to make my shrouds almost completely from scratch.
Here's some more pictures of what was cut and molded on the back side of the OEM housing to make the BIG 3" projectors fit

I could have easily fit a couple of 2.5" projectors without modifying the housing, maybe even with the OEM reflector, but I like the look of a full 3" projector and I didn't mind the challenge

So I started messing with Photoshop, and I decided to make them look something like this

Now I just have to recreate the look with some fiberglass

I cut up the OEM JDM shrouds until all that was left with was the outer shell.  That gave me the outer frame work for my new fiberglass shrouds.  After I had that all set, I covered the projectors and insides of the headlight housing with blue painters tape to protect it from the up coming fiberglass resin. 
 

Then I reattached what was left of the shrouds and spray glued some stretchy speaker grill cloth over outer shell, and made some rings to pull it down and in around the projectors.

after the first round of resin was cured, I added some fiberglass matting and a few more coats of resin to stiffen them up and came up with this ugly mess

its ugly, but its only the beginning

Now its time to make that ugliness into something a little nicer looking.  Unfortunately that requires a lot of filler and sanding, so after some of that it looked like this

I'll spare you guys all the long hours of sanding and filling, sanding and filling, sanding and filling etc............
After all the hard work they ended up looking something like this

Now that I got the shrouds done, I need to fit the chrome bezels that surround them.  Finding a suitable bezel was quite difficult.  I didn't leave myself much room for them.  After testing a few different bezels that were to large, I found I needed something with a diameter close to that of the projectors.  That wasn't something I was able to find, so I had to get creative.  I found these at Retrofit Source

They are obviously way bigger than I can use, but the part that goes around the lenses is pretty narrow and they slowly fatten up as they go down.  So I was able to use the fist 1/2 inch (probably even less) and with a lot of work with the bench grinder I was able to contour them to the shrouds.

You may have guessed by now that they are going to be carbon fiber.  That's why I painted them black, for the base coat.  So after a lot of manipulating of the fabric, I was finally able to wrap the shrouds with real carbon fiber fabric with a little help from some spray glue.  Here they are after the first coat of resin

After the first coat of resin dried I trimmed off the excess fabric and I was pretty happy with the base coat (though they are far from finished)

And here's a sample of what they will look like with the bezels

They still need a few more coats of resin before they are finished but they are finally starting to take shape

After 5-6 coats of resin the CF is really starting to pop.

After some wet sanding and a few coats of clear lacquer, they are finally ready for some final test fitting

and NOW for a test fit with glass lens.

And here's one with the lights on using some bulbs I had laying around (The real bulbs will be 8000K)

They might look finished, but there's still a lot more to come. 

I wanted to do something with LEDs, but I didn't want something that looked to ricey, I wanted something that stayed with the OEM style theme.  So right off the bat I eliminated angel eyes from the list LOL.  I wanted to do something similar to a devil eyes, but red (or any other color for that matter) would start to lean toward the rice look.  So I finally decided to go with what I consider a city light style using LEDs similar in color to the headlights (8000K).  I plan to use them at dusk with only the parking lights on.  So I played around with the LEDs inside the projectors until I found a suitable location to mount them to get the desired effect.  I finally found the best location was right over the top of the projector shooting down into the shield.  So I made up a few custom circuit boards with 2 LEDs for each projector and mounted them to one of the lens support bars on the top of the projector.

and here's some lit up pictures with the lights out and both headlights finished

I'm still waiting on some parts before I move on to the next phase of the project, so I'll update you guys on some of the little stuff in the mean time.  I decided to swap out the stock fresneled lenses for some clear one for a little more color, and because they looked better in the headlight.  So here's a comparison picture of the 2 lenses.  Its hard to tell, but the top right is fresneled, and the bottom left is clear.  I put them over the words to help show the difference.

I wanted the headlights to be easily removable in the event I need to do work on them or wanted them out of the way.  Now that the LEDs are finished and wired and I have the solenoid wires in I can make a harness and plug for them. I started by fishing the wires through one of the hole in the middle of the headlight leftover after all the adjusters were removed.  Then I took some 4 wire plugs I had left over from some old taillights and soldered and shrink wrapped them all together.  Now when I do the final install, I can just unplug them and remove them anytime I want

And now that everything was in its place, I had to seal up all the relief cuts I had to make to fit the big projectors into the housings.  So I simply used some black silicone to cover up the small stuff, so it would blend in better, and some ABS plastic to cover up any thing that was to big for silicone

Now the only thing I have left to do for the headlights is clean them, mount the chrome bezels permanently and close them up.  But that doesn't mean this project is over, you can't run JDM headlights with out JDM corner lights can you.......................

here's is what the JDM corner lights look like from the factory

They look OK, but I wanted something a little more unique to match my setup.  So I put them in the oven a removed the lenses.  I don't mind yellow signals, but I do mind the orange dot in the middle the rest of the time, so first thing I did was remove the orange cap that covers the bulb.   Before they go back together I'll put a yellow bulb in lightly painted with some high temp silver paint to mask the yellow during the day.  Next thing I did was prep the housing for some LED parking lights.  The top section is the parking lights, its small and shallow, so there's not much room in there for LEDs.  So I had to cut out the back side to make more room using a dremal.  
<that's actually not the current light I'm building, but I didn't take pictures of this step before I moved on so I had to take pictures of another light I had :(  Mine is actually complete cut out without the bulb holder.
Then I had to remake the bottom to fill in the void where the light bent around to direct light to the side.

At first I painted them black for a stealth look, but later changed my mind and painted them charcoal so they wouldn't be as dark. Then I made a template and cut out a circuit board to fit the hole and painted that charcoal too.

The shrouds are now secured and the chrome bezels are permanently attached.  The only thing left to do is re-install the glass lenses, but I'm leaving that till last incase I need to adjust anything.  Here's some pictures of it all together with the carbon fiber all polished up

And the LEDs finally arrived from Hong Kong.  So I got started right away soldering them to the circuit board for the corner parking lights.  It took about an hour to solder all the LEDs together with the jumpers and resistors.  Everything is soldered and cover in heat shrink tubing

and here's some pictures with it lit

and here's a few with the headlights attached and the city lights lit

I realized that pretty much all of my resistors were the wrong size.  I guess that's what I get for guessing instead of calculating.  The Projectors city light resistors were too high, so I put smaller ones in place instead and they should be a little bit brighter now.  And the corner lights resistors were too small, so the LEDs probably wouldn't have lasted that long.  Now the right ones are in place and they should last for a long time.  So now that that is settled, I mounted the LED boards into the corner lights and re-installed the lenses.

Now all that's left to do is close up the Headlights and install them.  I'm just collecting some of the necessary hardware I need so I can do a factory clean install.

Stay Tuned for more progress, Updated FREQUENTLY