Ok so it's been a couple years since I did my first CCFL angel eye conversion. This was done as a necessity due to water damage forcing my hand into opening the lights.
The results looked good, for a while, and from 6ft away. This was the end result of AE 1.0
They had to have 'emergency surgery' to correct them as I'd used 'hot glue' to secure them which proceeded to melt and screw up the installation.
I slowly began to dislike the result because it wasn't perfect. I could see glue. The lens were very tarnished despite my best 'wet and dry' efforts, and recently one of the rings had failed, leaving only 3 lit up. So it began, AE 2.0.
I sourced spare headlights, mainly spares rather than 'good ' units, so I could chop up, experiment etc. I bought a few sets of diffusers, COB LED rings etc. and set about experimenting to see what I could do to get the cleanest fit and finish I could. My current inners were sprayed by a body shop in sapphire black, but I could see a couple areas where the paint had begun to bubble, so clearly they would need redoing, whatever I chose. I wasn't that keen on the very glossy inner, as it caused too many reflections (As you can see in the above picture) and therefore made the AE ring seem blurrier and less defined. I chose to use matt black to try to reduce this blurring and keep it crisper.
I found that the diffuser I bought fit perfectly in the inner light aperture, like it was made for it even, but it wouldn't fit well in the outer light aperture. I tried a number of things including dremeling the aperture to make it fit, but everything I tried resulting in a non-OEM look that I wasn't happy with and in no way did I want anything stuck on the front face of the inner. After doing some trial fitting with the spare light, it was clear there was enough room to fit the reflector to the rear of the inner housing and it not interfere with the rest of the light. I bonded it in place using high temp silicone adhesive. I had to make a small gap in the outer wall of the diffuser to ensure the LED wires weren't pinched when fitted. I bonded the LED rings in place with a little more silicone adhesive, but not loads to ensure if I ever had to, I could remove them cleanly.
In situ:
I then set about the long clean up of previous silicone between the back rear and clear lens. The lens needed something doing to get it back to it's best as it was showing signs of much oxidation, so having watched and read numerous items on the best ways to clear coat the lens, I set about the wet and dry then clear coating. I was not happy with the result. The clear coat had cracks in it, orange peel etc and looked poor. Probably my fault, never cleared before, but do ok with colour usually. This set me back a couple days as I decided to re-wet and dry them and remove the lacquer, and go at them with the 3M polishing kit from Amazon, and a bottle of UV sealant polish.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0078IHJ1K?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A3S1RGU?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
The results were amazing. The 3M kit got them good, but you could still see faint marks, but once two or three coats of the sealant polish had been applied they looked like glass.
While I was 'in there' I noticed the projector lens were quite dirty on the rear of the lens. I had to use a trim tool and microfibre to get into it and clean it all up but the results were night and day afterwards. Very hard to see on a picture, but added a lot of clarity to the projector lens. I think this shot does it best, as it now looks like a bit chunk of crystal, before the clean it was much duller and less reflective.
I also replaced the rear doors/seals as I hope to avoid any condensation from older seals, even if only a couple years. I also taped some silica gel bags in the doors to help with any little bits of moisture you sometimes see after resealing the lights.
All back together and on the car, crisp and clean: (car isn't clean)
AE 2.0 is complete.
Thanks
The results looked good, for a while, and from 6ft away. This was the end result of AE 1.0
They had to have 'emergency surgery' to correct them as I'd used 'hot glue' to secure them which proceeded to melt and screw up the installation.
I slowly began to dislike the result because it wasn't perfect. I could see glue. The lens were very tarnished despite my best 'wet and dry' efforts, and recently one of the rings had failed, leaving only 3 lit up. So it began, AE 2.0.
I sourced spare headlights, mainly spares rather than 'good ' units, so I could chop up, experiment etc. I bought a few sets of diffusers, COB LED rings etc. and set about experimenting to see what I could do to get the cleanest fit and finish I could. My current inners were sprayed by a body shop in sapphire black, but I could see a couple areas where the paint had begun to bubble, so clearly they would need redoing, whatever I chose. I wasn't that keen on the very glossy inner, as it caused too many reflections (As you can see in the above picture) and therefore made the AE ring seem blurrier and less defined. I chose to use matt black to try to reduce this blurring and keep it crisper.
I found that the diffuser I bought fit perfectly in the inner light aperture, like it was made for it even, but it wouldn't fit well in the outer light aperture. I tried a number of things including dremeling the aperture to make it fit, but everything I tried resulting in a non-OEM look that I wasn't happy with and in no way did I want anything stuck on the front face of the inner. After doing some trial fitting with the spare light, it was clear there was enough room to fit the reflector to the rear of the inner housing and it not interfere with the rest of the light. I bonded it in place using high temp silicone adhesive. I had to make a small gap in the outer wall of the diffuser to ensure the LED wires weren't pinched when fitted. I bonded the LED rings in place with a little more silicone adhesive, but not loads to ensure if I ever had to, I could remove them cleanly.
In situ:
I then set about the long clean up of previous silicone between the back rear and clear lens. The lens needed something doing to get it back to it's best as it was showing signs of much oxidation, so having watched and read numerous items on the best ways to clear coat the lens, I set about the wet and dry then clear coating. I was not happy with the result. The clear coat had cracks in it, orange peel etc and looked poor. Probably my fault, never cleared before, but do ok with colour usually. This set me back a couple days as I decided to re-wet and dry them and remove the lacquer, and go at them with the 3M polishing kit from Amazon, and a bottle of UV sealant polish.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0078IHJ1K?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00A3S1RGU?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00
The results were amazing. The 3M kit got them good, but you could still see faint marks, but once two or three coats of the sealant polish had been applied they looked like glass.
While I was 'in there' I noticed the projector lens were quite dirty on the rear of the lens. I had to use a trim tool and microfibre to get into it and clean it all up but the results were night and day afterwards. Very hard to see on a picture, but added a lot of clarity to the projector lens. I think this shot does it best, as it now looks like a bit chunk of crystal, before the clean it was much duller and less reflective.
I also replaced the rear doors/seals as I hope to avoid any condensation from older seals, even if only a couple years. I also taped some silica gel bags in the doors to help with any little bits of moisture you sometimes see after resealing the lights.
All back together and on the car, crisp and clean: (car isn't clean)
AE 2.0 is complete.
Thanks
