tim8oland

crafty man!!! i'm amazed at yur craftsmanship. you're doing a good job...and you're crazy detailed!!! i'm loving your progress. i'lll be checking in again tomorrow to see what's next. until then...

bguild

right back at ya, here is a shot of the bixenon projector loosely mounted

bguild

i have this problem. when I bought these projectors 3 years ago, they didn't come with rings. I had good intentions of finding some, but never did. So now I am having to use the stock projector shields as rings. One issue, they dont fit over the new assembly. So you gotta cut 'em all up, remove the mount tab, make slots, etc. It was a royal pain in my ***.

bguild

here is the shield notched. check out my ghetto notching. luckily, no one will see that once this thing is reassembled.

folks, this is what you get when your only grinding tools are a dremel, and a hacksaw. let that be a lesson to you.

bguild

here is the projector mounted front view with the shield on top. Look at that spacing between the projector lense and the shield. That is just not acceptable. What will I do?

bguild

You must remove the lense mount from the projector. The reason you want to do this is so that you can use it as a stencil to mark out where you need to cut for bolt holes, notches, etc.

bguild

fit it into your grey mount plate opening, and start marking the mount plate with all the cuts and notches you will have to make to accomodate this thing. A few things to consider:

1) This took me hours upon hours of trial and error. Just when you think you've got it, something else is hitting and you can't correctly mount the projector.

2) Watch out for the grey mount plate itself. There are some areas here where you have trimmed down so much that the plate kind of loses it's integrity. It's no longer as strong as before. Mine cracked in one area. I got lucky and it wasn't a critical area. Take care.

3) If you are putting in bixenon projectors, take note - you must carve out enough material to allow the shield to actuate forward and back. My freakin' shield kept getting hung up, and remedying that issue probably took me another two hours of trial and error.

Last thing you want is to assemble the whole thing and realize... "oh damn, I have no high beams because my bixenon shield is stuck". By then, the headlight is already sealed and you will receive a darwin award.

bguild

This is probably the product of 6 hours of total cutting, sanding, filing, bench grinding, hacksawing, etc. Yah, it doesn't look pretty, but before you judge it, realize that 1) it works and 2) ain't no one 'cept you guys going to see it. This whole project has just been a ball buster. If this doesn't look good when finished, I am going to **** a brick.

bguild

here is the finished mounted projector. And before you are like "well, that looks like crap, just realize that the high temp RTV used is to guarantee even fitment of the stock shield on the aftermarket projector. If I had freakin' rings (most of you will have gotten them with your projectors), you will be money.

bguild

Yes, tonight I am waiting for the RTV to dry, and tomorrow I will clean it up with a razor blade and glass cleaner. Then, it will look decent, at least on the part that matters (the projector glass).

Tomorrow is headlamp reassembly day, and I am psyched. The entire headlamp assembly is already apart, and just needs to be buffed inside and out and cleaned up before I reassemble. Also, I already pulled out the orange plastic. So, end product will be BMW OEM E36 bixenon projectors, shiny clean headlamps, and clear corners with silverstar ultra bulbs.

bguild

ok guys, the moment you've all been waiting for. reassembly time.

first pic, a mounted, cleaned up projector.

bguild

what you are seeing here is the end product of simply the best headlight cleaning system I have used to date. And trust me, I have use many of them, including pretty much every plastic polish that exists.

This is a reconditioned headlamp using the 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System. It is a bunch of sanding discs (500 grit, 800 grit, 3000 grit), followed by a special polish. It's hard to see in the pics, but this might as well be a new headlamp. It is crystal clear. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it.

3M Part # 39008. Go get one NOW. There are generally very hard to find according to my local NAPA.

bguild

here is another shot of a shiny headlamp. isnt it purty?

bguild

This was kind of unexpected. I had to cut out a piece of the black housing to accomodate the motor for teh bixenon plate. That's ok, I'll just have to figure out how to get a decent seal back there, so no moisture gets in.

bguild

Projector assembly and reflector mounted back into the housing.