Sorry my lights and i have been busy and you may have forgotten!

[rcboy514]

Damn those are SICK!!! i want some sooo bad lol great work!!

[losenone]

That is hottt, holy crap.

What kind of paint did you use for the headlights?

[marlin29311]

daaaaaaaaamn nice work!

[kuhan]

you and brandon are awesome!!!

very very nice...

Mad skills!!!

[BlackNWhite]

Woah. Just... WOAH.

We want a write-up.

[dangeris]

I can't see the pictures Since I can't see the pics, Brandon is STILL the Shiz-nits !!!!!

ouch that kind of hurts, nice setup by the way, if you think this is crazy wait until later this week when you see a setup that's leaving here i think you guys will crap your pants

We can't wait to see that one!!! No disappointment from you so far
Modified by dangeris at 7:14 AM 10/27/2008

[AppleBonker]

Wow, looks good. Since I missed out on Brandon's GB, looks like I'll probably try to do this one on my own. I'm looking forward to your write-up, and the time I'll certainly be spending on working this out myself. I can only hope my lights turn out half as well as yours.

[SHIFT_COUPE]

Looks great bro!

[toxik]

Looks amazing, exactly how I'd want my lights to look

[theoctopussi]

best ones so far! nice

[GryStrm]

What kind of paint did you use for the headlights?

..i used engine paint!....good upto 500 deg...but the light doesnt get anywhere near that...i used an infared therm..and the hottest i measured the surrounding area was 190-200 closer to the element is around 275 300...but thats pratically touching it....now these are numbers for a hid light...halogens wil burn hotter

[LongBeachCoupe]

infrared thermometer?

[mpbclutch33]

What type of projectors did you end up using and where did you get the projector Turn signal? That is sweet! It's weird, I absolutely hate the orange reflector in the OEM housing, but when you darken the housing like yours, it looks pretty good.

[losenone]

..i used engine paint!....good upto 500 deg...but the light doesnt get anywhere near that...i used an infared therm..and the hottest i measured the surrounding area was 190-200 closer to the element is around 275 300...but thats pratically touching it....now these are numbers for a hid light...halogens wil burn hotter

Thats what I figured, just checking I'll pick some up today, maybe ill paint the engine cover too just for the hell of it, hopefully the silver color matches up

[GryStrm]

lol..it aint no thing they cost like 20 bucks from auto zone...they use em to measure engine block heat and exhuast heat,,,,it has a laser pointer so the readings are point specific!

[alphapig]

Looks amazing.

[rjdmmfl1]

To be honest, I really don't know why you are bothering with a write up... there are only a couple people on this forum that have the balls / skills to repeat this install. Its just not a simple thing to do. Very good work, taking nothing away from Brandon, but defianetly a unique setup... Looks scarily like the Audio led's..... and I like it!!!!!!!!!!!

[Infantry1327]

WOW, I have been waiting to see these completed since the OP, and now that I have seen them, the only words that come to mind is "WOW"

[GryStrm]

uhhh...well...i know what your saying but....this is partly a learning forum as i see it..and even though someone might not try to do this...there are elements of what i did that can be applied to other areas...wiring, molding, etc....for example..the vacuform process i did can be used to create a custom housing for audio mods, housings, etc.....the wiring set up i did using relays can help some one looking to trigger one thing by activating or deactivating another.... i learned so much from your mods..even tho i didnt do a thing with audio!

...aside note....remeber the power acoustik stuff we spoke about?....i ended up putting 2 hdvd9grdk headrest in the lady's tribeca took me about 2 hours and those things rock bro thanks for the tip off...

as i was saying....even tho people wont do what i did in whole...they maybe able to do it in part!!!

plus i wanna cool subtitle!!!!

[AppleBonker]

there are only a couple people on this forum that have the balls / skills to repeat this install.

Haha. I think I'm probably one of those crazy people. I don't know if I have the skills, but I didn't know if I could make a fiberglass enclosure before I started. I've got the balls I guess, but I'm definitely going to buy an extra headlight to work on in case I mess it up (plus I'm sure it's gonna take me a long time and I can't really drive around without a headlight).

as i was saying....even tho people wont do what i did in whole...they maybe able to do it in part!!!

plus i wanna cool subtitle!!!!

Definitely do it. I'm no mod, but with how long that write-up will probably be, I'm sure it will be deserving of a custom title.

BTW, did you ever answer what projectors you used? I don't think I saw that anywhere. And I love the idea of quad hi-beams. Please take some pics of the cutoff pointed at a wall with the hi-beams off and on!

[LongBeachCoupe]

I think he used benz projectors

[rjdmmfl1]

uhhh...well...i know what your saying but....this is partly a learning forum as i see it..and even though someone might not try to do this...there are elements of what i did that can be applied to other areas...wiring, molding, etc....for example..the vacuform process i did can be used to create a custom housing for audio mods, housings, etc.....the wiring set up i did using relays can help some one looking to trigger one thing by activating or deactivating another.... i learned so much from your mods..even tho i didnt do a thing with audio!

...aside note....remeber the power acoustik stuff we spoke about?....i ended up putting 2 hdvd9grdk headrest in the lady's tribeca took me about 2 hours and those things rock bro thanks for the tip off...

as i was saying....even tho people wont do what i did in whole...they maybe able to do it in part!!!

plus i wanna cool subtitle!!!!

I feel you my dude, and like Applebonker, I may not have the skills, but I definately have the balls... I have two sets of factory headlights, and I'm gonna definately open them up, and do the LED mod that you did! That ish is BANANAS... looks better than I originally thought it would!

Glad the power acoustiks worked out! And yes, you';re right, this is a learning forum, I just don't want folks to underestimate the difficulty of these if they want to try this out on their ONLY pair of working headlights... on that note, I know a guy that's got extra hadlights for cheap.. hit me up folks via email for his info!

[dangeris]

Now I sees the pics. Excellent job GryStrm! those lights turned out really well

[Kanard]

they would look evil on the RED. i want them ! lol i like them on the silver/grey. looks ill .. everything matches well also.

[Voodoo Coupe]

they look sick. I definatly cant wait for the write up...

To be honest, I really don't know why you are bothering with a write up... there are only a couple people on this forum that have the balls / skills to repeat this install. Its just not a simple thing to do. Very good work, taking nothing away from Brandon, but defianetly a unique setup... Looks scarily like the Audio led's..... and I like it!!!!!!!!!!!

some of us live for custom fabrication, others learn to love and perfect it in time because they cant afford the high dollar parts or people to do it for them, reguardless, and honestly the exclusive club you're in is a lot bigger then you may think.

[rjdmmfl1]

they look sick. I definatly cant wait for the write up...

some of us live for custom fabrication, others learn to love and perfect it in time because they cant afford the high dollar parts or people to do it for them, reguardless, and honestly the exclusive club you're in is a lot bigger then you may think.

I don't think its an exclusive club at all... ANYBODY can start modding at any time they like, there's no secret handshake. As I mentioned in my follow up thread, my only concern is people underestimating the difficulty of this particular mod. I wasn't even including myself as one of the two people on this forum that could pull that off successfully, I was thinking more about Grystrm and Brandon.

You don't just develop the skills to do a projector retrofit overnight or because you saw it or read a write up on a forum. Its takes a while to learn the intricate details that make a job look good vs perfect. I personally am only willing to try the led mod because its "simple" enough for my novice hands to do, but I'm not gonna try a projector retrofit.

Juding by posts alone, the vast majority, I would say 95%, of folks on this Altima coupe forum (including myself) do not have the skills to do what grystrm did. And if they want to try, my siggestion would be for them to have a spare set from ebay to work on rather than trying it out, jacking it up, and then having to fork over hundreds of dollars for a replacement set of headlights.

So I'm not sure why you felt the need to chime in with your sarcastic tone, but regrading your parting statement.. I would argue this... Indeed the number of individuals that could successfully pull off what grystrm did is extremely small, that club is exclusive and my money is on the bet that you are not in that club, and neither is over 95% of NICO.. and neither am I!
Modified by rjdmmfl1 at 9:05 AM 10/28/2008

[LongBeachCoupe]

Obviously it takes a skilled.. more over, experienced... hand to do something like what Gry has...(does voodoo have the talent? im sure we will find out!)

The DIY will contain stuff that someone who cant do a retrofit (id assume you need many hrs of hands on work to get started in LEARNING)...

But being able to open the enclosure successfully, and just simply throwing in those sick LEDs and painting the enclosure is all i wanted to begin with!

For someone whose interested in a projector retrofit on the other hand, id assume a DIY wouldnt do them MUCH use... because if you knew how to do that sort of thing, you would have been posting about it.

What CAN be expected is a look inside whats involved, and what WORKED for Gry.. Hopefully its a complex writeup that has lots of details we can pull from it.... (I think the most useful info will be the stuff OTHER than the projector info)

Its much like some of the apple/dr writeups...not everyone can do that type of work themselves, but thru reading and exposure, the learning begins!

Id bet even money gry isnt an "experienced" retrofitter... but he learned somehow.. and it took him A LONG TIME to do his.

Im sure Dr knows best that theres nothing like the satisfaction of doing a self install rather than paying someone to do it, and other than manufacturing a grill, the headlights are almost the "holy grail" of mods that are possible.

And doc, i beg to differ, i think that you can do something like this! Maybe you would need some help/advice from friends (gry/brandon/your fiberglass guys) but i do think with the time invested properly, the DR is ready for the job!

[rjdmmfl1]

Obviously it takes a skilled.. more over, experienced... hand to do something like what Gry has...(does voodoo have the talent? im sure we will find out!)

The DIY will contain stuff that someone who cant do a retrofit (id assume you need many hrs of hands on work to get started in LEARNING)...

But being able to open the enclosure successfully, and just simply throwing in those sick LEDs and painting the enclosure is all i wanted to begin with!

For someone whose interested in a projector retrofit on the other hand, id assume a DIY wouldnt do them MUCH use... because if you knew how to do that sort of thing, you would have been posting about it.

What CAN be expected is a look inside whats involved, and what WORKED for Gry.. Hopefully its a complex writeup that has lots of details we can pull from it.... (I think the most useful info will be the stuff OTHER than the projector info)

Its much like some of the apple/dr writeups...not everyone can do that type of work themselves, but thru reading and exposure, the learning begins!

Id bet even money gry isnt an "experienced" retrofitter... but he learned somehow.. and it took him A LONG TIME to do his.

Im sure Dr knows best that theres nothing like the satisfaction of doing a self install rather than paying someone to do it, and other than manufacturing a grill, the headlights are almost the "holy grail" of mods that are possible.

And doc, i beg to differ, i think that you can do something like this! Maybe you would need some help/advice from friends (gry/brandon/your fiberglass guys) but i do think with the time invested properly, the DR is ready for the job!

Everything you said is spot on.. I think I was focusing too much on the projector retrofit, and not the fact that grystrm will be doing a full write up on the entire process... hats off to grystrm again for a superbly clean job, and for taking the time to do the write up for us ... that's giving back to the community at its finest!

thanks for the vote of confidence Brian, but even the ONLY reason I'm taking a crack at these is because I have a spare set of headlights...

[LongBeachCoupe]

attempting it without a 2nd set is just stupid IMHO.. (based on numerous botched jobs by several people)

a 2nd set should be a given... but taking that into consideration...

You are attempting something, because you think you can do it!(going into things with a "idk" mentality isnt good)

[surmanm]

im pretty ballzy when it comes to this stuff, i would definitely do this myself to tell you the truth i should have just done my own projectors, as a matter of fact anyone wants to recommend for me what projector to use im going to be trying to retro fit my old oem fog lights that i still have with some projectors and angle eyes, while im at it i decided i wanna do my own taillight led mod if anyone sees a set of taillights let me know ill buy it. i already started designing on the comp my own circuit board that im going to be etching to hold the leds a progressively smaller circular pattern of leds.i need a spare set

BTW GryStrm you are the man.....