Hey gang. Pretty rare for me to be making a thread nowadays. Decided to finally make a build thread. Not a car build thread but instead for my lights. Multitude of requests have been submitted and well i decided to finally show a glimpse. Not just because of the requests. I also gave my word to Justin over at D51 i would show a sneak peak. Not for nothing i see TODAY a "quad" setup teaser pic and all i can do is face palm . 1 projector looking at you and the other looking at the car over next to you........................enough of that. Onward laddy

So lets begin. My car has seen way too many retrofits in its lifetime. Ive owned it for almost 3 years now. ok maybe 2. Started to get deep into retrofits at the end of 2012. I could never hold onto to a set because in my mind. Everything has a price. To an extent of everything of course. One day i sat down and thought to myself. What do i got to show on my car to define me and my dedication to the car.( It already has a built motor and turbo swapped. 07 lsj btw with 32k miles on the body at the moment.) I decided to make a unique set of retrofits. TADA. That will be it. I went back and looked thru almost 3k+ photos. Man did i do a crapton of retros. i counted almost 45 cobalt retros. A few oddballs here and there. Alas i looked thru and NOTHING tickled my fancy. Then 1 day i decided hey i wanna use my car during winter to get it retuned. It sat in the driveway with no headlights. So.........instead of me using a stock pair of lights to drive the car, i made a quick retro.



You guys probably know them as i already had them for sale after i got the car tuned. Just your simple mini d2s setup with a nice SS etching in it Blue halos and cool white demon eyes. I did test paints with it . Blue flakes on white. lol. Just ok in my eyes. wasn't for me. However. these have been on the car for almost a month. Record breaking actually.
After the retune. I began to work on what i wanted. I thought about what to make while doing a 3rd gear pull getting data logged. only 21 psi since its cold so don't worry. Not going fast.
I decided to make a QUAD setup and not just for looks. More for FUNCTIONAL purposes. I bought a few things i aint have like the 2nd set of projectors. At first i was going to do a simple setup using a custom projector but I'm going all out. Why not? I take pride in my ride =]
I took the guts out of an OEM set of lights. Began to test fit stuff prior to cutting. Hit a brick wall. Thought of how to come around it. Found out how. Morimoto Matchbox 2.0.



Even with this tiny projector. There was A LOT of cutting involved. took a few hours to get it where i wanted it. Pics show what i wanted. I then knew this was a GO. I took out my TUNED Maxima OEM projector with Black series lenses . i also got it converted to BI XENON. To do so it cost the price of a mini h1. So i sacrificed it to the retro gods. BOOM. bixenon tuned maxima projector. I tested the light output and well FXR and got NOTHING on these. The light output pics are for a later date :3



Started the process. Got stuff cut up. Fell into a pickle. Could not decide between shrouds. Of course i couldn't decide. They look so cool. I started to go thru my collection and found 2 candidates. Apollo v3 and the famous Panamera. I was leaning towards Apollo but panamera may be on the car in near future.



Now the fun part....HALOS!!!!!!!!!!




Ok I'm down to the last few things and 1 MAJOR item missing. My turn signal. I attempted to relocate my turn signal however i felt comfy with. This was not happening so easy. I was going to use double led for switchback but too small. I even bought the cheap silicone tubes on ebay. Def bad decision but i needed the ideas. I positioned them in diff locations. i still can't decide which imma use. The final product being used will be from Diode Dynamiks. Decided to go naked on this 1.


Amber totally sucks.
It will do though just because i know DD will be way brighter and way better quality.

Overall I'm deep in price for these lights. Will it be worth it? Yes i have never been so excited to finally make something worthy to compliment my car. I have no cut any corners on it nor will i cut a corner with the headlights.

Btw.

to power on the matchbox i will be using XBh1 bulbs and to power on the maxima i will be using Potted Denso ballasts with CBI bulbs. All brand new.

more progress pics will come. All parts came from Theretrofitsource.com except the strip. It will be coming from diodedynamiks.com

I'm thinking of adding color changing demon eyes as well. Those are a big maybe. Unless you guys add some feedback to em.

 

another random pic......i play with these a lot actually.






see how bad the amber is? totally blows

 

Damn bass those are looking really good!!!!!
Your the God of making retros

 

haha ty. i try my best is all. i gotta get these done soon b4 race season starts. i need to paint the shrouds gold and the rest is a final secret lol. maybe not much of a secret since ill just slap a photo on here.

 

Man i really like the way the turn signal is going to light up like in the last pic

 

same here. You gotta keep in mind this is on Chrome. Once I'm done coloring. It will be a lil dull. So switching it out for a better led strip should compensate. As i hop. lol.

 

Im sure it will, if you go that glossy black like the one u used in my set im sure you will get a good output

 

Damn bro you need a test mule??? I know a black car might be interested

These are top notch... I've been waiting to see a true quad projector setup for our cars, with proper sized projectors. the smaller projector flows so much better on the outside. And IMO, the amber turn signal doesn't look bad at all. amber is amber... who likes amber anyways lol

FYI, seen this car and been in this car a bunch of times. by far one of the cleanest LSJs out there. Engine is so clean looks like it just rolled off the dealer lot.

 

Duude loving where these are headed! What strip did you get from diodedynamiks? Been looking for something like that for a long time!

 

The switchback smd. I have to special order it still. Diff lengths

 

Nice. I like where this is headed

 

coming along real good so far

 

Ordered the switchback strip.
12 inches X 2. 120$+5 for shipping. Wowza.
http://www.diodedynamics.com/store/catalog/product/view/id/22124/s/dual-color-semi-flexible-3528-smd-led-strip/category/33/

 

Lol how much are you in there money wise? Or is it a secret?

 

If I had to guess at least $600, but I'll let the OP respond to confirm.

 

I think hes way more deep into them

 

Yeah, probably, just releasing FXR's have cost me $530 in parts alone.

 

The Denso and cbi bulbs are 500 alone.
Maxima after all 250
matchbox 120
led strips 120
xb35 hid kit 150? Forgot.
Halos - 80 and 75?

 

Lol yup i knew he was deep in it but man will they make a great set of retros. It should all be well worth the money once done and whats better than free labor

 

I came.

 

ok Revised prices.

D2S Hid system. Denso and cbi. 465$
H1 XB 35w System . 170$
Maxima - 60
Black lenses - 40$
H1 Solenoid - sacrifice 120 mini h1 - 120$
Tune for maxima - 60$
Switchback strips - 125
Panamera Shrouds - 40
Centric Rings - 10
Halos RGB XC - 60mm expansion - 50
Halos RGB XC- 80mm with remote - 90
Lights - 100 (locking it at 100 paid more)

Things still needed. Final prep. Final paint. RGB Demon eyes system. Average price 80$ X 2 so 160. gonna try to reduce cost on it somehow.

So yeah that is 95% accurate of what i got into the lights.

 

Beautiful work man. Wish I had the extra funds to pick up a baller set off ya. Need to go fast first. Perhaps one day haha.

 

haha. i decided to go fast b4 i did anything appearance. my car looks stock with tc wheels. just nicely done motor work lol

 

1500 dollar + headlights omg that is awesome. Does that include the headlights themselves?

 

Read.....another 300 for a few things I need done on them. If I hit the 2k mark. I will flaunt these and tell every cobalt owner these headlights cost more than your car!

Ha I kid. The amount of money in em ain't squat to what I've put into my car. But hey I'm a die hard enthusiast. Pretty rare to find em nowadays.