Clear light and Angel Eye Conversion - The Project and Story
- Thread starter cj10jeeper
- Start date
kab said:Room for another one in the club?! I've just finished the conversion on my 03 3.0 from tango xenons to clear light and angel eye xenons. I've also wrapped the tango domes in mirror film.
Have to say a big, big thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. Couldn't have even started without all the tips on here.
I wouldn't say it went smoothly (especially getting into the lights: lost count of how many dremmel discs I got through!) but I got there in the end. When I've calmed down from the excitement of it all and stopped just standing in the garden staring at it, I'll try to add to this thread with a few things I learnt as I went along.
I think the next thing is someone has to work out how to make them come on when you unlock the car - would love it if they came on when I walk towards the car!
I read somewhere that you can simply program this at your stealer at least to leave the lights on for a defined number of seconds when shutting the car. I suppose it is also possible the other way around? I would like to do this conversion too but not quite ready yet to cut open the lights... I also would have to look up where to find those lovely rings
Do you have any pictures of the fitting job?
Nice work - well done. Reminds me of my Zed before I replaced the bumper with a facelift version
Thanks for the comments guys!
Brad_Pritt I'm afraid I don't have pictures of the build, but I pretty much followed (slowly!) the guidance in this thread. The angel eyes are the 80mm ones which there's a link to on one of the earlier pages.
Just to add a few comments from my own experience, in case it helps people about to do this:
- I cut about 5mm from the join (i.e. in the black plastic so the lens was undamaged).
- the plastic is quite thick, so it does take patience, and for some reason I kept destroying cutting discs. Probably me being clumsy but I do advise having a few to hand so you don't have to go to the DIY shop half way through for more discs (like me!).
- following earlier advice I used surgical gloves when handling the inside bits to keep finger prints off. There was quite a lot of plastic dust though, so it needed cleaning up carefully.
- there's lots of room behind the inner workings to glue in the angel eyes' inverter. I used high temp clear silicone for this, and to glue the angel eyes in.
- as per earlier comments, fit the outside angel eye to the plastic trim, and the inner one to the light housing. The wires can be fed over the top of the lights to the inverter at the back.
- the wires for the side lights are brown and grey. Grey is live (oddly), so this connects to the red inverter wire. The brown connects to the black inverter wire. I did this the wrong way round initially and got the dreaded check bulb light on the dash when connecting the lights up. Lots of swearing at this point but luckily I could reach in the back of the light and change it.
- putting them back together and fitting them to the car is surprisingly quick. Can't believe how easy it is to get the bumper off - there are instructions elsewhere on the forum for this, but it's just a 20min job. You'll need torx sockets for this and for some of the screws inside the lights.
I had a donor clear xenon for the first one I did so at least I wasn't going to damage the one on the car. Doing the second one was more scary as I had to butcher the one on the car to keep xenon lights, but at least I had the experience of doing the first one.
So, definitely worth doing! Once you're inside the lights it's all straightforward but it takes a bit of effort to get in there.
Brad_Pritt I'm afraid I don't have pictures of the build, but I pretty much followed (slowly!) the guidance in this thread. The angel eyes are the 80mm ones which there's a link to on one of the earlier pages.
Just to add a few comments from my own experience, in case it helps people about to do this:
- I cut about 5mm from the join (i.e. in the black plastic so the lens was undamaged).
- the plastic is quite thick, so it does take patience, and for some reason I kept destroying cutting discs. Probably me being clumsy but I do advise having a few to hand so you don't have to go to the DIY shop half way through for more discs (like me!).
- following earlier advice I used surgical gloves when handling the inside bits to keep finger prints off. There was quite a lot of plastic dust though, so it needed cleaning up carefully.
- there's lots of room behind the inner workings to glue in the angel eyes' inverter. I used high temp clear silicone for this, and to glue the angel eyes in.
- as per earlier comments, fit the outside angel eye to the plastic trim, and the inner one to the light housing. The wires can be fed over the top of the lights to the inverter at the back.
- the wires for the side lights are brown and grey. Grey is live (oddly), so this connects to the red inverter wire. The brown connects to the black inverter wire. I did this the wrong way round initially and got the dreaded check bulb light on the dash when connecting the lights up. Lots of swearing at this point but luckily I could reach in the back of the light and change it.
- putting them back together and fitting them to the car is surprisingly quick. Can't believe how easy it is to get the bumper off - there are instructions elsewhere on the forum for this, but it's just a 20min job. You'll need torx sockets for this and for some of the screws inside the lights.
I had a donor clear xenon for the first one I did so at least I wasn't going to damage the one on the car. Doing the second one was more scary as I had to butcher the one on the car to keep xenon lights, but at least I had the experience of doing the first one.
So, definitely worth doing! Once you're inside the lights it's all straightforward but it takes a bit of effort to get in there.
Mowflow said:
Cheers Mowflow. Unfortunately I ended up with one silver and one black, so ended up painting them both (to ensure a match) with high temp black paint. Must admit I like the look - it's actually dark grey up close rather than black. I think the darker colour highlights the angel eyes more than the silver.
There is a slight worry that the paint will fade over time but I read elsewhere on the forum that some others have done this successfully, and if I have to open them up again to respray them it's not such a big job now I know what I'm doing and the silicone sealant can be cut.
Bad_Pritt said:I'm getting more and more ready to do this myself
Thanks for the info Kab !
Just a quick question: did you go for the 80mm rings or 85mm...? :-?
80mm. The outside one is just the right size to glue to the plastic trim. The inside one is slightly small (1mm at most) to fit tightly inside the inner light housing, but as you're going to glue it in anyway, just be a little generous with the high temp silicone and give it time to bite before moving to the next stage, otherwise it'll dislodge.
kab said:Bad_Pritt said:I'm getting more and more ready to do this myself
Thanks for the info Kab !
Just a quick question: did you go for the 80mm rings or 85mm...? :-?
80mm. The outside one is just the right size to glue to the plastic trim. The inside one is slightly small (1mm at most) to fit tightly inside the inner light housing, but as you're going to glue it in anyway, just be a little generous with the high temp silicone and give it time to bite before moving to the next stage, otherwise it'll dislodge.
Thanks!
I just ordered these:
http://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/221064330126?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648
Couldn't resist
mrlozzer said:Given that there is so much interest in this mod - and as it looks so good, it's a wonder that no-one is offering to do it on a paid basis... for all those zed owners (myself included) who are too scared to get the Dremel out themselves
I have seen it somewhere... should look it up. But there was someone whoe does it
If I stumble on it again, I'll post it
Bradders75
Senior member
Assuming the cut 'n' shut method is used, the most labour intensive part isn't cutting but the scraping off of sealant from the donor lenses and existing backs. It took me at least 8 hours in total but perhaps I didn't need to be so thorough. :!: If someone values their spare time at perhaps ten or fifteen quid an hour, the cost to do this for someone else would soon rack up.
I'd seen the US firm - Tekcarbon - that do it. Problem is that on top of their charges you'd also have to pay for two lots of international shipping and quite possibly an import charge on the way back for good measure... I'd like AE, and happy to pay...but not that much! And I'm guessing that you'd have no headlights for a considerable length of time...Adamski said:
I would expect to pay around £200 - £300 for the service, this would mean me providing my existing lights and the cost to include the labour and angel lights etc
However, what about 'returns' and 'warranty'?
I recently had to reopen one light as an angel had come loose
However, what about 'returns' and 'warranty'?
I recently had to reopen one light as an angel had come loose
ranski hits the nail on the head. I've converted a couple of sets for people but end up having to warrant my work.
End of the day I do this modding stuff because I enjoy the challenge and frankly I make 5x-10x the money in my line of business than diy conversion would ever make so not worth doing.
End of the day I do this modding stuff because I enjoy the challenge and frankly I make 5x-10x the money in my line of business than diy conversion would ever make so not worth doing.
I would have thought that £200 to £300 was reasonable.
Tekarbon charge a starting price of about £200 with about a two week turnaround. That's pretty reasonable, but on top of that you've got shipping. Economy shipping to the US is about ($100) £65 one way, but takes about 2 - 3 weeks. Expedited shipping goes up to about ($150) £100 each way. So, even assuming you don't get hit for a customs charge on the way back you can either spend £330 and be without any headlamps for 6 - 8 weeks or £400 and be without them for 3 - 4 weeks. Add a customs charge on based on the replacement value of your headlamps, your likely to have to part with another £100 or so...
Tekarbon charge a starting price of about £200 with about a two week turnaround. That's pretty reasonable, but on top of that you've got shipping. Economy shipping to the US is about ($100) £65 one way, but takes about 2 - 3 weeks. Expedited shipping goes up to about ($150) £100 each way. So, even assuming you don't get hit for a customs charge on the way back you can either spend £330 and be without any headlamps for 6 - 8 weeks or £400 and be without them for 3 - 4 weeks. Add a customs charge on based on the replacement value of your headlamps, your likely to have to part with another £100 or so...
billygilly
Active member
I'm certain you wouldn't have to pay customs as its a service on a second hand item, I know of people that send watches out there for servicing.
Bradders75
Senior member
mrlozzer said:
So what you're basically saying is that people should just man up, buy a dremel and follow the instructions on this thread?
