Sup guys, About to start my first retrofit. Iv taken ALOT of cobalt headlights apart, every kind they sell usually several times. 3rd Gens are my fav. Due to needing to repaint my lenses due to some clearcoat issues in some spots, I had an idea. I want to retrofit my Gen 3's and shave and fill the LED's in the shroud to delete them all together from the light.

Heres my old Gen 3 setup.
Started like this:


Then this, 3BSpec Orange CCFL halo's i put in there.



Well the clearcoat on my lenses start peeling so I have to remove them to repaint them.

I had some spare Gen 4's in my attic. Bought OEM lenses, blacked them all out with basecoat clearcoat. Put them on my car temporarily untill my Gen 3's are done.

Pic of these:





Well Now I got my Gen 3's apart. Seems like a straight forward retrofit. Heres some pics of my progress so far.







What Projecto's should I get to swap them out with. I was thinking FX-R's. Or Acura TL's. Opinions?

 

fx-r's......, was thinking about doing this myself

 

FX-R cutoff



TL




I think i like the LS430. TSX REPLICAS Better. more even, wide, and bright beam

 

yea i saw that thread too, both are awsome...best bang for the buck kinda thing, just depends on the price

 

i love my fx-r's. great cut off and the light output is amazing.

 

What size is the stock 3rd gen projector? If it's a 2.5 inch lens, do FX-Rs. If it's 3 inch, to TLs Im betting it's 2.5 inch, so do the fx-rs. It'll be way more work to cut out extra to fit the tls and you'll have to custom fit shrouds. Far more work than it's worth, although tls are sexy. I think you should do a quad retrofit into the high beam housing, and I love that you're shaving the led spots, those were the ugliest part of the 3rd gens imo. You should shave the little pyramid bumps on the bottom outside of the lights too. I have those, smooth would look so much better.

 

Of course im gonna shave the pyramid things

see the LS430 beam seems to be my favorite so far but i dont know where id find that. Dont plan on messing witht he high beam. I never use my highbeams and i figure a bi-xenon retrofit will be plenty bright for a highbeam. I thought about wiring the Gen 3 stock highbeams up so when i turn on Hi's i have the retrofit Hi's and the gen 3 hi's on at the same time lmao. SUPER HIGH BEAMS!

Believe the projector is 2.5 inches. I like the FX-R's but i dont at the same time.... Probobly have to go with them though. Its not the modifying im worried about but the fact i already have the CCFL's and if the lense is too big they wont fit around them. Then ill have to order more and thats a pain in the ass.

 

I know how you feel about the fx-rs. I love them for their ease of installation, but I hate the streaky beam pattern and the foreground cutoff. I think when you put in the bixenons the halogen highs will kick on anyways, at least they do when you install bixenons on cars that already have separate high beam bulbs. I love the brightness and smooth beam pattern of the TLs which is why that's what I'm doing. If it wouldn't be so much more expensive I would do a quad retrofit myself cuz it would look awesome.

TRS has LS460s in the VIP projector menu, I wonder if they're the same thing just newer model?

 

the double high beams would be ****** tight lol. the sun wouldn't have **** on that light output

 

If the LS430s weren't low beam only I would get them too. They have a much better/smoother low beam pattern due to the fact that they don't have to reserve any light for the high beams like bixenons do.

 

gest when do you plan on finishing up on these? Or at least making some progress on the lights just without the proj's i guess.

 

I think im going with these:

Low beam: Lexus RX-AFS / TSX-R Lens - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source LLC

Low beam: Lexus RX-AFS / TSX-R Lens

Low beam only. But that wont be a big deal as ill have the 3rd gen highbeam. "Offering 95% of the S2K's performance"



2.5" projecto. Seems like a nice smooth pattern. Nice sharp colorful cutoff. No foreground cutoff. With some 55w 8k's behind em im thinking it will be a nice clean setup

 

go with the LS430's its a lot smooth and wide compare to the TL and FXR's.

 

I already went ahead and ordered the Lexus RX-AFS with the TSX-R lenses. The other ones were the best but the price was a bit high.

 

id do the lexus projectors but you might **** some people off with that beam btw i love those orange halos

 

Good luck. I'm waiting on the S2K-Rs to put into my Gen4s.

 

Subscribed. I'll be doing this too if you can make it work.

 

projecto's are ordered. will be dremeling out the LED's on the shroud sometime this week. Then ill have to fiberglass the hole i made in it and fill it in. will probobly do that all at the same time. probobly have to do it twice as the Headlight Housing itself extends twords the shroud for the LED's and if I fill it in the LED's and plastic supporting them wont let it fit back together.

 

Build me a set of retros?

 

That **** is sick.

 

The eyelids you have painted on the first pic, is that on the inside of the lense or the outside and did you clear over those? Looks really nice man.

 

Just read that you're going with 55w 8000k.
You were doing great up until that point.
Not only do kit bulbs run hotter than OEM bulbs but they give off more UV rays which are murder on projector bowls.
Running a kit bulb at 55w in this small of a projector is pretty much guaranteed to burn the bowl.
If you really MUST have some color you should go with the GE Super Blue(9000k). Aside from running cooler and give off less UV rays, they will also last much longer, and be brighter(as bright as a 9000k bulb can be)
Here are the bulbs
Amazon.com: GE D2S 9000k HID Super Blue Replacement Bulb: Automotive: Reviews, Prices & more

but PLEASE read through these threads before even buying those. they are rated at 1850 lumens. the typical oem hid bulb is 3400. You will be losing a HUGE amount of light(remember you multiply it by 2).
Everything you ever wanted to know about HID bulbs.
HID bulbs, UV measureing test

When yuou run an HID bulb at 55w you're cutting it's lifespan. This is magnified with kit bulbs. It is also magnified by kit ballasts. They don't regulate the current as well as OEM or high quality aftermarket ballasts do, particularly at start-up. I'd consider going with a boosted OEM ballast or these from TRS.
Morimoto 5Five Ballasts (50w) - HID Ballasts from The Retrofit Source LLC

 

Wow I completely missed him saying that. JL I agree with you completely.

 

Yeah I have 6000k and find myself wishing I had gone with 4300k or 5000k just for the light output.

 

Same here, will be doing that next time. I just put 5000ks in a friend of mine's 3rd gens and they're way brighter than the 8000ks that I used to have in my 3rd gens. I wish I would have taken a comparison shot, I had both color bulbs on at the same time to compare them for myself. BTW, in all those projector comparison shots above, those bulbs are 4300k. Just an FYI