Want better performance from your headlights?

[jdurrty]

Well today is your lucky day! I bought a spare headlight from the junkyard the other day and started to experiment around a little bit. After some disassembly I found many reflectors inside which inhibit the amount of light that the headlights can produce. I got down and dirty with my grinder and below are some of the results. I am in the process of blacking out the inside of my headlights and fog lights by painting the chrome bezels black. As I have 3 tests this week, progress will be slow but I should be done by this weekend and will have all the pictures of each process. But for now here is what I have:

From the side



From the top



From the front



3 o'clock in the afternoon from 50 feet away



3 o'clock in the afternoon from 100 feet away



At night from 100 feet away



At night from 50 feet away red arrow is the normal 50watt h.i.d. beam



Red circle is the normal 50watt h.i.d. beam projection



Side shot



This is the light produced by only the modified projector



My feet from 100 feet away



Yes, I know this is most likely illegal but when adjusted correctly, the modified projector produces no more glare than the stock projector. Now I will get 3x the light without blinding oncoming traffic. Let me know if you have any questions

[yodawill2000]

Pics after tweaking a must !!!If I saw that coming as it is my CHL would start vibrating. LOLJ/J

[driverdriver]

That's a lot of light.

Good stuff!

[Infinitiguy19]

Isn't the point of the OEM DOT approved headlight to provide as much light as possible but to refrain from blinding other drivers?

[qship96]

What a mess you are creating, both for yourself and every driver who unfortunatley must cross your path driving while you have those home made clusterfuk headlights glaring at them.....trust me, the talented lighting engineers squeezed out every lumen thet could without creating the glaring fireballs you are turning out in your parents garage

[naladude911]

where did u put ur turn sigs

[jdurrty]

What a mess you are creating, both for yourself and every driver who unfortunatley must cross your path driving while you have those home made clusterfuk headlights glaring at them.....trust me, the talented lighting engineers squeezed out every lumen thet could without creating the glaring fireballs you are turning out in your parents garage

Haha well someone woke up this morning with a stick up their a**. First off, for demonstrative purposes only, I had the modified projectors pointed straight up into the camera, not pointed down like they will be, hence my statement:

“…but when adjusted correctly, the modified projector produces no more glare than the stock projector.”

Second, I realize that the engineers of Nissan/Infiniti do their best to comply with stringent DOT requirements for safety, but the design of these projectors are almost as old as I am and are horribly inefficient and what I did only frees up the amount of light produced in the 25 – 50 foot focus range. And since I’m in the college of engineering at Arizona State (go sun devils!) getting my degree in automotive engineering, I think I know what I’m doing. But thank you, for your ill-conceived attempt to sound like you know what you’re talking about here. And finally, be sure to get all of the facts straight first before you vomit a verbal “clusterfuk” of non-sense all over a public forum – it just makes you look silly.

naladude911: I put the turn signals in where my corner fog lights should be and put in a set of driving lights in where the old turn signals used to be. I took out the driving lights before the pictures were taken that’s why my bumper is empty, but you can see the excessively huge orange turn signal bulbs in the corner fog lights in the first picture. Since I’m blacking out the inside of the signals, I will have to redo my signal configuration, but the picture below should give you an idea of what it will look like when I’m done.

[qship96]

You are clueless regarding headlamp design,period. Headlamps are not toys,fashion statement items, or decorations.....they are designed for the safety of the driver and all other drivers sharing the public roadways. Until you get a master degree in optics and put in 5-10 years working on lamp design,dont expect to improve what the experts created.

[PyR0NiAk]

If you can keep it from blinding other drivers, good on you. If not, you're begging for someone to knock out your headlights with a ball bat when you're stopped at a redlight behind them and glaring out their mirrors.

[1994 infiniti j30 190+]

naladude911: I put the turn signals in where my corner fog lights should be and put in a set of driving lights in where the old turn signals used to be. I took out the driving lights before the pictures were taken that’s why my bumper is empty, but you can see the excessively huge orange turn signal bulbs in the corner fog lights in the first picture. Since I’m blacking out the inside of the signals, I will have to redo my signal configuration, but the picture below should give you an idea of what it will look like when I’m done.

you know you could just get white bulbs and put those in so its not orange inside. and how did you put the turn signal connector in the park light spot? just cut the plastic to make it fit?

[qship96]

If you can keep it from blinding other drivers, good on you. If not, you're begging for someone to knock out your headlights with a ball bat when you're stopped at a redlight behind them and glaring out their mirrors.

What, you dont keep a couple handfulls of small steel ball bearings in your center console? One handfull dropped out your drivers window generally will take out both offending headlamps and windshield of the offender following you at 60+ MPH

[jdurrty]

You are clueless regarding headlamp design,period. Headlamps are not toys,fashion statement items, or decorations.....they are designed for the safety of the driver and all other drivers sharing the public roadways. Until you get a master degree in optics and put in 5-10 years working on lamp design,dont expect to improve what the experts created.

I kept all of this in mind when modifying the light which is why, in the very first picture I posted, there is no difference between the stock and modified headlight regarding glare. And if building movie projectors with my neighbor for the better part of a decade doesn't qualify me when it comes to one of the most basic and crude projection headlamp designs ever, I guess you're right and I don't know what the hell I'm talking about(underlying tone of sarcasm)! I respect where you are coming from, but honestly, I know what I'm doing.

[jdurrty]

If you can keep it from blinding other drivers, good on you. If not, you're begging for someone to knock out your headlights with a ball bat when you're stopped at a redlight behind them and glaring out their mirrors.

I live in Arizona, the land of lifted trucks and h.i.d.s. Its a fact that you will get blinded at least 5 times a night, so whatever may come of my headlights will only be a drop in the bucket.

[jdurrty]

you know you could just get white bulbs and put those in so its not orange inside. and how did you put the turn signal connector in the park light spot? just cut the plastic to make it fit?

Actually, those orange bulbs are my turn signals. I was lazy one day, so I ended up just drilling a big hole and put the bulb and the connector from the turn signal in the fog lamp. That is why the bulb looks so large - its the wrong bulb for that specific lamp. I like your idea with the white lights though, I might have to try it!

[PyR0NiAk]

What, you dont keep a couple handfulls of small steel ball bearings in your center console? One handfull dropped out your drivers window generally will take out both offending headlamps and windshield of the offender following you at 60+ MPH

LOL I used the ballbat example because I'll never forget my friend's dad doing it to someone. He juststopped on the middle of a 1 lane bridge. Got out, grabbed a crowbar out of the back of his truck, and smashed both headlights. He, then, calmly got back in the truck, put it in gear, and drove on like nothing happened.