Appearance: How-To: Better color band/light output on projectors
08-02-2007, 06:00 PM
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How-To: Better color band/light output on projectors
Ok guys my first How-to so please know that I may make mistakes...And also I want to thank 06lasersss/c for letting me use some of his pictures.
PLEASE READ EVERYTHING BEFORE TOUCHING YOUR LIGHTS! You need to know the information I'm going to give you before you mess with the lights.
**WARNING** Cobaltss.net, 06lasersss/c, or I will NOT be held responsible for you messing up your projectors.
INFO:
First of all we all know the ebay projectors aren't the greatest things ever made....but they are in fact better than most with an awesome cutoff for halogen. The reason these projectors are not the best is because they focus light too much in one place.
This is because the bulb is not spaced quite right. Also notice how the light is not very uniform and some times you have dark spots. This is also due to the bulb not being spaced quite right.
HOW-TO:
Step 1: Remove the 4 screws around the back of the headlight. Then take a hair dryer and blow the headlights where the gray sealant is. Pull apart slowly while you continue to blow. GREAT! now they are apart. You should have 3 pieces of the headlight. (The back, black middle with projector and high beam attached to it, and your clear lens.)
Step 2: Clean your projector lens with some alcohol so that they are nice and clean.(now be careful not to touch them or you'll have to clean them again).
Step 3: Look at the top of the projector so that it looks like this....
Circled in red is the metal piece inside the projector that creates the cutoff line. This metal piece is called the "shield." This is what you will be spending the most time on...so saddle up partna. Now what you want to do is take the projectors out to your car and plug in your head light. Do not turn on your lights yet. Now to achieve a really good color band we will need to slightly bend this shield. If you want the blue/purple color band like me, then you need to bend it back towards the light bulb. I believe that if you bend it towards the lens you will get a red/orange color band. Anyways now you want to put your thumb down on the front of the shield and put some pressure on it to bend it back towards the bulb like this.
DO NOT BEND IT TOO MUCH! IT HARDLY TAKES ANY BENDING TO CREATE A LOT OF COLOR. After bending mine I noticed that I couldn't really tell I bent it all that much....so keep that in mind. So when you bend it a little turn on your lights and shine it on a wall that is no closer than 25 feet. Shining it on a wall closer than that will not show the correct color. Mine when shining on a 25 ft. wall I got a really bright blue....then I shined it on a wall really close to me it was ugly and brown....Also keep that in mind. So keep bending until you get a really intense color right at the "kink" of the light. GREAT NOW YOU GOT THE COLOR RIGHT! This will not have a lot of color, just right at the kink.
Step 4: Now that you have a really nice color right above the "kink" I will now show you how to get better output. The projectors have a really bad bulb holder on the back that holds the bulb straight in the projector like this
This is what causes the dark spots in the light beam. What you want to do is actually have the bulb sit like this in the projector
This allows for more of the light to go over the shield which will allow more light to come out of the projector. When you are bending the shield and get a lot of color just above the "kink", try putting the bulb in the upward position like it is supposed to sit. You will then notice how much of the color comes out. You will no longer have color just above the "kink" but you will have color above the whole cutoff line like this.
GREAT! but how do you keep the bulb in that position? Well that's where I had to get creative. I had to make a bracket of some sort to hold the bulb in that position. So this is what I used for the bracket.
Just a washer I found around the house. I bent this in the shape of an "L" and slipped it in around the top of the light bulb to hold it in that position just like in this picture
So that is how you get the best color band and light output. Hope you enjoyed this How-To! Also to see how It looks visit my thread I started here....Took apart projectors - Cobalt SS Network
PLEASE READ EVERYTHING BEFORE TOUCHING YOUR LIGHTS! You need to know the information I'm going to give you before you mess with the lights.
**WARNING** Cobaltss.net, 06lasersss/c, or I will NOT be held responsible for you messing up your projectors.
INFO:
First of all we all know the ebay projectors aren't the greatest things ever made....but they are in fact better than most with an awesome cutoff for halogen. The reason these projectors are not the best is because they focus light too much in one place.
This is because the bulb is not spaced quite right. Also notice how the light is not very uniform and some times you have dark spots. This is also due to the bulb not being spaced quite right.
HOW-TO:
Step 1: Remove the 4 screws around the back of the headlight. Then take a hair dryer and blow the headlights where the gray sealant is. Pull apart slowly while you continue to blow. GREAT! now they are apart. You should have 3 pieces of the headlight. (The back, black middle with projector and high beam attached to it, and your clear lens.)
Step 2: Clean your projector lens with some alcohol so that they are nice and clean.(now be careful not to touch them or you'll have to clean them again).
Step 3: Look at the top of the projector so that it looks like this....
Circled in red is the metal piece inside the projector that creates the cutoff line. This metal piece is called the "shield." This is what you will be spending the most time on...so saddle up partna. Now what you want to do is take the projectors out to your car and plug in your head light. Do not turn on your lights yet. Now to achieve a really good color band we will need to slightly bend this shield. If you want the blue/purple color band like me, then you need to bend it back towards the light bulb. I believe that if you bend it towards the lens you will get a red/orange color band. Anyways now you want to put your thumb down on the front of the shield and put some pressure on it to bend it back towards the bulb like this.
DO NOT BEND IT TOO MUCH! IT HARDLY TAKES ANY BENDING TO CREATE A LOT OF COLOR. After bending mine I noticed that I couldn't really tell I bent it all that much....so keep that in mind. So when you bend it a little turn on your lights and shine it on a wall that is no closer than 25 feet. Shining it on a wall closer than that will not show the correct color. Mine when shining on a 25 ft. wall I got a really bright blue....then I shined it on a wall really close to me it was ugly and brown....Also keep that in mind. So keep bending until you get a really intense color right at the "kink" of the light. GREAT NOW YOU GOT THE COLOR RIGHT! This will not have a lot of color, just right at the kink.
Step 4: Now that you have a really nice color right above the "kink" I will now show you how to get better output. The projectors have a really bad bulb holder on the back that holds the bulb straight in the projector like this
This is what causes the dark spots in the light beam. What you want to do is actually have the bulb sit like this in the projector
This allows for more of the light to go over the shield which will allow more light to come out of the projector. When you are bending the shield and get a lot of color just above the "kink", try putting the bulb in the upward position like it is supposed to sit. You will then notice how much of the color comes out. You will no longer have color just above the "kink" but you will have color above the whole cutoff line like this.
GREAT! but how do you keep the bulb in that position? Well that's where I had to get creative. I had to make a bracket of some sort to hold the bulb in that position. So this is what I used for the bracket.
Just a washer I found around the house. I bent this in the shape of an "L" and slipped it in around the top of the light bulb to hold it in that position just like in this picture
So that is how you get the best color band and light output. Hope you enjoyed this How-To! Also to see how It looks visit my thread I started here....Took apart projectors - Cobalt SS Network
Last edited by TommyP; 05-17-2012 at 09:24 PM.
08-10-2007, 05:35 PM
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Any ideas how to make the HID bulbs fit better? I know that im gonna have to make the bulb slot a little bigger for the return led but thats all i know so far. Great how to btw
08-12-2007, 11:38 AM
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08-13-2007, 05:02 AM
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dude thats awesome.great job... but now im going to have to do this lol.
one more thing, im guessing i would have to buy new sealant or whatever to put the lights back together or did you just use the old stuff that was on already? and if so, did you heat it up and then put your headlights back together? and if you did buy new stuff, what is it called and where can i get it lol
one more thing, im guessing i would have to buy new sealant or whatever to put the lights back together or did you just use the old stuff that was on already? and if so, did you heat it up and then put your headlights back together? and if you did buy new stuff, what is it called and where can i get it lol
09-05-2007, 04:23 PM
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Awesome right up man!
05-19-2011, 10:51 AM
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If these are gen 1
If these are gen 1 Then they use h1 bumbss for low and high beam
If these are gen 1 Then they use h1 bumbss for low and high beam
Last edited by J-Jeezy; 05-19-2011 at 10:51 AM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost
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