[mkcpu]

Once you cut off the beam alignment to fit the projects...what do you use to keep it secure ?

[squidlyboy]

I brainstormed about dozen different ways to do it using different bracket ideas hanging it off of different areas of the housing, but in the end, bienarcis showed me this TRS video that convinced me using JB Weld epoxy putty (gum epoxy is the term they use in the video) is the best way to go. You have infinite possibilities of adjusting the lights just right while the epoxy sets.

The whole video is good, but the pertinent part of the video that answers your question starts around 2:20

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Speaking of which ... i'm a little worried about the option Mike over at Extreme Powerhouse is giving people over in the other thread to get the non-etched acrylics for their halogen angle eye retrofit. Blown LEDs are gonna be a LOT more visible if you can see each individual LED in the clear (non-etched) acrylic.

Thanks for asking

Hi,
Please tag me when you mention me or Extreme Power House in your posts so that i know and i can reply.
You must have misread one of my replies. We encourage all our customers to get the etched option, we actually offer etched as the default option.
We send the etched rings unless a customer specifically asked for the non-etched ones.

[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

I brainstormed about dozen different ways to do it using different bracket ideas hanging it off of different areas of the housing, but in the end, bienarcis showed me this TRS video that convinced me using JB Weld epoxy putty (gum epoxy is the term they use in the video) is the best way to go. You have infinite possibilities of adjusting the lights just right while the epoxy sets.

The whole video is good, but the pertinent part of the video that answers your question starts around 2:20

That was helpful..thanks.... I am still trying to cut through the beam alignment to fit the projector...

[thornfrog]

Great work bienarcis !
I have halogen headlights. Can you pm me for pricing and details about the halo ring only upgrade? Is coding required or is it plug and play?

[a803sgo]

How about using a hot knife attachment on the front of a soldering iron to cut away the permaseal, something like this...

[squidlyboy]

That might work for the outer seal, but the harder, more difficult task is to break the inner seal. For that, i've found that the best (only) tool is what bienarcis refers to as the hook and pick tool. You have to go in at an angle and come up on the other side to break the inner seal.

Its a weird motion, but you hook into the outer permaseal layer until the tip hits the back of the housing lip, then turn the handle counter-clockwise to get the sharp hook to point down towards the inner seal. Then you use the hook tip as a pivot point, and swing the handle upwards so that the tip digs behind the lens cover towards the back of the housing and underneath into the inner seal.

It sounds a lot more complicated to explain than to do. Its actually a very natural and intuitive move to get it under there. It might be hard to see, but the last pic shows the end of the tool actually underneath the lens. Once you get it under there, you can pull it along to break the inner seal.

[cbfx]

Incredible. Is anyone taking orders to retrofit?

[squidlyboy]

bienarcis does an excellent job describing the process of breaking the inner seal in his disassembly video (around 2:25 mark), but i thought i'd chime in my $0.02 on the process.

Breaking the outer seal is easy, as you can (as he decribes) use a larger flat head screw driver and push your way around the entire headlight. Breaking the inner seal takes more patience and finesse, using this twisting motion with the hook/pick tool. And its usually remnants of this inner-seal that will be the last thing holding the lens to the housing.

Btw.. perma-seal I've discovered is more or less heat-resistant (and also not re-usable). It just crumbles into a million pieces. When you use a heat gun, you are not really heating up the perma-seal (you are somewhat), but more you are heating up the back of the housing, to soften it up and make breaking the seal/bond between the housing/lens/permaseal a little easier

[mkcpu]

Chrome paint for beam alignment.

While I was cutting the beam alignment to fit the projectors, the chrome paint kind of came off from the sides and around... Is there a good spray paint that I can use ? (i want to keep the same chrome color)

Thanks

[squidlyboy]

I had the same problem. Seems like they use electrolysis or some form of electro-plating of a super thin layer of chrome finish onto the bowl/housing. Mine came off when i put blue painters tape over it thinking it was going to protect it, when in fact it took it right off. bienarcis said to just handle the bowl with a soft micro-fiber cloth.


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I don't know of a good spray paint. I ended up finding a crappy extra headlight (all tabs broken off) just for spare parts but it had a mint bowl/housing inside ($15 on Ebay)

Just curious ... did you end up nicking parts of the bowl with the dremel tool by accident during cutting? I'm surprised that just the vibration from the cutting would make the chrome finish come off... that's a little TOO brittle

[mkcpu]

I think it has to do more with the way I was handling the bowl/housing, at the beginning. Then I realize that the chrome finish was coming off and I started to use a cloth to hold it...

[squidlyboy]

If all you have is paint coming off the edge of the bowl like in your pic, you are lucky, since the DTM corona rings will more or less hide all that.

I put tape all inside and outside the bowl, so the chrome was coming off everywhere . Inside the bowl is actually not as big of a deal if you are putting a projector in there as it will hide most of it. But if your high-beam bowl is going to be empty, you'll want to be more careful. That and the outside of the bowl along the sides that you want to leave in primo condition.

I noticed the hole you cut is pretty small compared to mine. How far out does your projector stick out? Did you do any fittings yet to see? For me, in order to sink the projector back far enough i really had to take a lot out. Actually, i think the hole that you cut looked like my original one as well... when i mistakenly thought the hole needed to be only as big as the back of the projector (oval). But when i put the mini-gatling shroud on there.. oh-oh. All of a sudden, i realized in order to recess the shroud back, the hole in the bowl needed to be MUCH bigger...

The first pic below is my low-beam hole for my passenger side headlight. This was the size of hole needed to get the front/outer edge of the mini-gatling shroud to be flush with the outer edge of the acrylic ring. The only thing that protrudes past that edge is the curvature of the glass lens (by about 1/4" - 1/2"). Its got to be close to flush to make it look good.

The 2nd below pic shows how much each projector protrudes past the edge of the bowl without the acrylic rings on

The last pic shows the protrusion with the rings on

[mkcpu]

I am doing both. I just got to cut one of them so far. ... I was thing to cut it more, so it can fit better. I just looked at the ones bienarcis did, and his were sticking out too.

[squidlyboy]

Looks like you have about 1.5" of low-beam projector poke Here's my low-beam, but passenger side headlight...


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Btw... you probably already know this, but the back black plastic housing for the low-beam will also have to be cut in order to sink the projector back far enough. Only on the low-beam side is there this extra obstruction Real PITA

But yeah, as far as bienarcis, originally they were sticking out on his personal headlights too... until someone pointed that out, and i think most of us agreed it would look better if it were more recessed - see posts #32-#58. So he re-did his also by doing more cutting in the housing.

Btw... i don't know if you ended up getting his acrylic rings or not (doesn't look like his??), but, doing a quad set up, you may have issues getting the ring to fit on the high-beam housing AND having a projector in there. The iJDM LED rings that his acrylic rings are designed around are not meant for an F30 (their website says its F30-compatible, but that's BS - they were designed for the E90). The LED ring for the high-beam housing, as you probably noticed is way smaller than the outer edge of the bowl. He made it work by using an L-bracket and "floating" the ring over the center of the high-beam bowl. It won't fit by just running the LED ring around the edge of the bowl.

The problem with this is that with a projector in there also, the ring will obstruct it unless 1) you really recess the projector WAAAYY back or 2) use a different ring. I did both. I found (by accident) another DTM-style LED Corona Ring that is a perfect fit for F30, and comes with acrylic extrusion covers that look just as good as his. Unfortunately, its not a retailer/e-tailer and so you can't just order them online. I had to get it directly from the manufacturer and they made me buy a boatload of them ($$$) since they normally don't deal with the end user I don't know what i'm going to do with all of them, but it was the only way i was able to get the rings to fit _along_ with having a projector in there.

[a803sgo]

So you guys went with gatling gun shrouds, I was told go with e46-r, should I go gatling instead?

I got these rings...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261888138770

squidlyboy are you saying these wont fit round the high beam housing?

I'm making a start taking the headlights apart this weekend, never done anything like this before and am actually looking forward to it.

[squidlyboy]

The E-46R shrouds are shallow, but they are also very wide(height x width). The Mini-Gatlings are not as wide, but are a little deeper. I had to do a little cutting on the low-beam mini-gatling shroud to make it recess as far back as i needed it to go. The high-beam shroud was fine by itself.

E-46R Dimensions(From TRS)
Height:108mm (4.3 inches)
Width:135mm (5.4 inches)
Depth:37mm (1.5 inches)

Mini-Gatling Dimensions(From TRS)
Height:90mm (3.6 inches)
Width:90mm (3.6 inches)
Depth:52mm (2.1 inches)

I think its just your preference really. Either way, you'll probably have to do some shaving/cutting to make it fit, so its probably what looks the nicest to you. TRS told me that the mini-gatlings were the smallest that i would be able to find. They all look cool and stylish and you really won't be able to see much of them, so i wasn't as concerned about the style. I was just looking for the smallest.

As far as the LED rings go, i'll just post some pics to let you make up your own mind. The F30 reflective bowl/housing takes a 120mm ring for the high beam bowl, and about ~130mm ring for the low-beam bowl. I say "about" 130mm, the way BMW made the molding, the high-beam bowl encroaches into the low-beam bowl, so its the ring for low-beam bowl is a little under 130mm. The iJDM rings are 105mm/120mm. But like i said, bienarcis was able to make it work very nicely by centering the rings, rather than lining it up from the bottom. They look great, and you can't even tell. Unfortunately, i have an extra projector to stick in there, so i have some additional challenges that make them not so practical.

Here are the iJDM LED rings. Notice the ones in the high-beam bowl is way too small. The ones in the low-beam bowl are closer, but still don't fit (they are not shaped properly to align with the curve of the bowl near the top). Bienarcis was able to make the smaller one on the high-beam bowl work by floating the acrylic extrusion in front of it using an L-bracket from the top of the housing to hang it over, but with my extra xenon projector (+shroud), the small ring becomes an obstruction.

But to give them a fair shake, iJDMToy is constantly getting new products in so they may eventually have something that fits better. Just make sure you ask them what size their rings are. Don't just accept the fact when someone tells you that their rings are F30-compatible. bienarcis told me they weren't perfect, but i didn't know what he meant at the time. And i certainly didn't have a quad retrofit in mind at the time either.
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Here are the ones i found from an overseas manufacturer that are a perfect fit for the F30. I was not able to find an online retailer for these. They made me buy bulk since they don't really deal with end-users. But they are spot on as far as the 120mm/~130mm size that our F30 halogen housings take. Notice also how much more room the LED ring on the high-beam side gives the projector. Lots o' room I got a bunch of extra rings that i don't need so if anyone wants to pick up a set, just PM me.
.

The other nice thing about these rings is that the acrylic covers come installed on them already, so don't need to mess with glue or anything else. I just had to put some double sided tape on the back of them, and they fit PERFECTLY around the lip/edge of the low-beam and high-beam bowls

I can't tell what the sizes are for the ones you got Ebay... it doesn't really say what the sizes are. It seems like they have a whole bunch of different sizes, but they don't say which ones are for the F30s. But they look pretty good

[mkcpu]

Originally Posted by a803sgo

So you guys went with gatling gun shrouds, I was told go with e46-r, should I go gatling instead?

I got these rings...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261888138770

squidlyboy are you saying these wont fit round the high beam housing?

I'm making a start taking the headlights apart this weekend, never done anything like this before and am actually looking forward to it.

____________________________________

The ones from ebay, are the same as I bought. They use the iJDM one, witch are smaller. (look at squidlyboy' pics). The onyl cool think about the ones on ebay, it comes with a canbus, and it will not display any errors or flickering. (but that can be overwritten by coding)

I think the ones that squidlyboy has, are a perfect fit.

[squidlyboy]

Before you start tearing your headlights apart its a good idea to get a reference to where your stock halogen headlight cutoff lines are. This is so that you can make sure your new bi-xenons are lining up approximately to the same reference line. You don't want to put back your lens only to find out that your new xenon bulbs are pointing a full 12 inches further up (or down) than your stock halogens due to some error introduced when you were cutting up your headlight.

bienarcis has a setup using a clamp/vise on a small piece of wood. I used a cheap clamping workbench from harbor freight for $20 along with some L-brackets, screws, and wing nuts. You can use a piece of 2x4 on a couple of wooden saw horses, or whatever else you can find mount your headlights on ... as long as its stable, steady, and sturdy. The main thing is that you just want to make sure that you are measuring your cutoff line from your headlights in the exact same position before and after the retrofit work.

So a simple procedure would be (before tearing apart your headlights):

1. Position the headlight rig in a flat sturdy location about 20-25 ft from a nice long horizontal wall. Mark where the legs of the rig are on the ground with blue tape, so that you can return to this exact position/location after the retrofit is done
2. Fasten the headlights to the rig. On the F30 halogen headlights, there are two mounting holes on the bottom of the housing that you can insert long screws through and secure with some wing nuts.
3. Turn on the low-beam lights and mark approximately where the original halogen cutoff line is on the wall with some blue painters tape .
4. Do your retrofit work - and after securing your new projectors into the housing with the epoxy putty -i.e. while the epoxy is setting/curing, remount your headlights to the rig
5. Turn on your low-beams again, and make sure your new beam cutoffs are approximately where your old cutoff is using the blue painters paint you put on the wall previously as a reference.
6. Adjust as necessary while the epoxy is still fresh and setting. It doesn't have to be perfect as you can/will use your headlight fine tuning adjustment knobs later, but try to be as close as possible. Note: The lens cover has an attached piece of trim that comes uncomfortably close to the bottom of the acrylic LED covers and could potentially alter its positioning if there is an obstruction. You'll want to pop the lens cover on during this step to make sure it clears, and make any adjustments necessary while the epoxy is still soft and moveable.
7. Remove from rig, then finish the rest of retrofit work - e.g. wiring and resealing lens cover on housing with fresh line of butyl rubber

[a803sgo]

Thanks for the replies.

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

I think its just your preference really.

I'm going with the gatlings.

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Bienarcis was able to make the smaller one on the high-beam bowl work by floating the acrylic extrusion in front of it using an L-bracket from the top of the housing to hang it over.

Do you have any more info on the bracket?

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

Here are the ones i found from an overseas manufacturer that are a perfect fit for the F30

Can I get some more info on who this is?

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

I got a bunch of extra rings that i don't need so if anyone wants to pick up a set, just PM me.
.

Would you ship to the UK? Obviously I’ll pay the shipping.

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

I can't tell what the sizes are for the ones you got Ebay...

They are 105mm and 120mm so not right even though the seller has said they will fit.

Originally Posted by mkcpu

The ones from ebay, are the same as I bought.

Did you get these to fit properly?

TIA.

[squidlyboy]

L-bracket is just a small piece of acrylic that is heated, then bent into an "L".

You glue the top (horizontal) part of the "L" to the top of the housing, and the side (vertical) part of the "L" to the back of the LED ring/acrylic. Thats how beinarcis did his. There will be two L-brackets, one for each side of the acrylic. The acrylic cover then just "floats" over the center of high-beam housing (e.g. think concentric circles). bienarcis is brilliant for thinking outside of the box like that, working with what you have ... me, i gave iJDM a piece of my mind

Its just my preference, but i'd rather have my rings sit along the edge of the housing (i think it looks better), plus it gives me more room for the high-beam projector to fit in there. In addition, the entire back of the ring is secured/attached to the full edge of the housing via double-sided tape, so its gonna be more secure than being attached by 2 points (the 2 L-brackets). You also don't have all these extra things hanging off the top of your housing. Its just a cleaner look and a lot simpler. Simple is better. But thats just me.

[a803sgo]

Thank that makes much more sense now.

What are the blue strips on your acrylics?

Originally Posted by squidlyboy

me, i gave iJDM a piece of my mind

I did the same with the eBay seller and he's now sending me some 128mm rings, if these are no good I'll buy them from you so thanks for the PM.