Has anyone ever seen a projector retrofitted into a C10 Headlamp?

[concretekiller]

One of the first things I've thought about doing to my 65 SWB Fleetside is upgrading the headlights. Something I wanted to do to my old car before it was totaled was a retrofit. Basically you take a projector (s2000, FX-R, TSX, SC430), cut into the back of your stock housing, mount the projector to the lamp, and seal it up. Then when you use an HID kit, it produces a flat cutoff line and a bright field of sight. This works better with a projector because a reflective housing will produce a lot of glare and not focus the beam into one spot. Just curious if anyone has done this or thought about doing it. Here are a couple of pictures of what it looks like.







Thoughts?
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[k1rodeoboater]

I've talked with a buddy of mine who has a projector retrofit business...if you find the right one you can do it. The main issue is the depth of the conversion buckets and finding a projector that will fit it, and also not impinge on the limited space you have behind the grille.

Doable, yes...easily, no

[concretekiller]

Yea that's another thing I thought about too. I knew our headlights were fairly big, just unsure about how deep. Ive also read about a mini H1 projector that a few people use with good results, but i guess they would have to be measured first before a hole saw is taken to a headlamp.
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[kieth]

Is that the high beam or the low beam ? I have a gmc so it would involve 4 headlights......it would be nice, just changing to halogens made a lot of difference (and wiring with relays)......the projector or a HID would be reallyl cool. Kieth

[concretekiller]

That's low beam. You can do a quad set-up where one set of projectors is for the low and another set is for the hi's. The Chevy guys can use a bi-xenon projector which has both low and high built into it.
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[k1rodeoboater]

Originally Posted by kieth

Is that the high beam or the low beam ? I have a gmc so it would involve 4 headlights......it would be nice, just changing to halogens made a lot of difference (and wiring with relays)......the projector or a HID would be reallyl cool. Kieth

Unless you are gonna run your highs and lows in the same bulb I don't reccomend that you have dedicated HIDs for your highbeams. The ballasts don't like to fire on and off repeatedly (I.e. flashing your highs on and off). I have a bi-xenon projector setup on my daily driver, My original highbeam bucket just has a bulb in it to plug the hole as it is non functional. Even when I had a drop in HID kit on my daily driver I didn't do the HIDs in the highs for the above reason. I know some who did and they replaced balasts every year.

For a GMC grille or early chevy grill you can run lows as HIDS but you should run your highs as halogens.

The issue with the mini projectors is that they might not give a good enough or wide enough cone of light. 9 times out of 10 it's for looks and not for function as the light output is crap
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[70-Shorty]

i think i'm going to get a pair of these and try them. I bay have to mod the bucket because they have dual bulbs, i'm going to test fit the one out of my bike and see how it fits. Then i'm sure i need to wire up a relay to do it right.

Tim

[concretekiller]

You mean put the projector in the section where the smaller bulb is at in the main housing?
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[k1rodeoboater]

Originally Posted by 70-Shorty

i think i'm going to get a pair of these and try them. I bay have to mod the bucket because they have dual bulbs, i'm going to test fit the one out of my bike and see how it fits. Then i'm sure i need to wire up a relay to do it right.

Tim

7" light?

Just as a helpful tip, before you start cutting hook the projector up to a battery and see how wide the output is at night. My buddy has done a few retrofits into bikes and he said the beam wasn't wide enough for him to feel safe riding it at night. The cuttoff was the issue in the twisties as you couldn't really see the road in the curve
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[MalibuKasey]

Interesting... I know delta makes a Classic 7" retrofit bulb that puts Xenons in (I have them in my truck)... couldnt you use those housings and just swap the bulb?

Heres the link...
http://www.summitracing.com/search/B.../?autoview=SKU

[70-Shorty]

Originally Posted by k1rodeoboater

7" light?

Just as a helpful tip, before you start cutting hook the projector up to a battery and see how wide the output is at night. My buddy has done a few retrofits into bikes and he said the beam wasn't wide enough for him to feel safe riding it at night. The cuttoff was the issue in the twisties as you couldn't really see the road in the curve
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the one in my bike above is a 7" light FOR a bike, i had the opposite thoughts, would the pattern work for a truck?
It is a light sold by harley ( http://www.latus-harley-davidson.com...lamp-Kit-4.htm ) for bikes. I can get them for $138.00 ea. This light is plenty bright, nice output. I'm thinking two would be cool. Just wanted something different than the usual fluted reflector with the dot in the center.
Tim

[k1rodeoboater]

Have you tried running that light w/o your aux lights on? I'd be curious to see the beam patteren of the projector itself.

I like the looks of that light and might want to mod it to fit on my sportster. I was thinking about going with a 7" light anyways
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[concretekiller]

Yea different projectors have different widths as far as the beam goes. There are a few different tricks you can do to make the beam have a super sharp cutoff, a more colorful cutoff, and even have a super wide beam. I've been reading on hidplanet.com for a few months and there are some crazy setups on there. But they also have a store where you can buy all the parts to do it yourself. I'm gonna keep looking into it. Since these housings are so simply designed, it might be very easy. But I'll wait until I have an actual lamp and projector in front of me before I start cutting
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[70-Shorty]

Originally Posted by k1rodeoboater

Have you tried running that light w/o your aux lights on? I'd be curious to see the beam patteren of the projector itself.

I like the looks of that light and might want to mod it to fit on my sportster. I was thinking about going with a 7" light anyways
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i ran it almost all the time without the running lights, i was having a connector issue and the running lights had some sort of issue. Bike is on my lift getting new wheels, 6 speed, more chrome and some paint touch ups otherwise id post a pic.
Tim
PS sorry for the thread drift

[concretekiller]

Originally Posted by MalibuKasey

Interesting... I know delta makes a Classic 7" retrofit bulb that puts Xenons in (I have them in my truck)... couldnt you use those housings and just swap the bulb?

Heres the link...
http://www.summitracing.com/search/B.../?autoview=SKU

That's a xenon bulb, but not an HID bulb. An HID bulb in our housing would have a lot of glare. In a projector, it projects the light into one spot.
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[concretekiller]

ha. here we go. heres a projector in a sealed beam headlamp.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/atta...8&d=1304281970

and heres one in a 7" lamp with a clear lens.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/atta...6&d=1294842121

[k1rodeoboater]

Originally Posted by concretekiller

That's a xenon bulb, but not an HID bulb. An HID bulb in our housing would have a lot of glare. In a projector, it projects the light into one spot.
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Yes and no...My dad has conversion buckets in his miata and runs HIDs. Yeah they have a bit of glare, but it's not as bad as you make it sound. I ran HID's in my stock headlights on my daily for several years before I switched to projectors, never once got flashed by other drivers thinking my high beams were on.

[concretekiller]

I just mean that compared to a non projector-type lamp, the HID performs better in a projector. That's why I wanted to do this. Better performance.
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