How to: r8 headlight mod....lots of PICS!!! (56k dont bother)

[Hailcesar75]

this is my first how to so take it easy on me. if there is anything i missed ,let me know so i can fix it.

i suggest you get a second pair of oem headlights to do this.

things youll need.:

masking tape, pencil, thin ruler, twelve 10mm leds for each headlight with the highest mcd ( youll find this in ebay), youll need twelve cuz youll be wiring them up in series of four. You wont be able to fit any more. speaker wire or similar wire, black paint, primer, sanding sheets, vht nightshade, dremmel with sanding tool, glue gun, 9v battery,

first thing to do is take apart your headlights. hopefully you know how to do this by now. if not shame on you.but seriously, if not ill try to help you with this.

pre heat your oven to 200 degrees and set to bake. remove all headlight wiring and bulbs, put headlights in and leave it there for about 10 minutes. if your unable to pry apart , put them back in and check again in 5 minutes. careful when your prying them apart cuz the glue will sag like a grilled cheese sandwich. if you get some glue on the housing its fine. you can remove it with goo gone. once you have them apart, unscrew the three bolts on the back of the headlight. sorry but dont know what size it is.

sand down the chrome housing till it looks like you sprayed primer all over it



have your drmmel ready, pencil and ruler.





lay the ruler on the straight lines right in front of where the bulb goes and draw multiple lines like so. these will help you in cutting the slots so their straight and face forward





then cut your slots and use the lines to keep em straight and even. i suggest you make the slots every inch.



once your done cutting the slots grap your paint supplies and get to painting
primer first then black paint. you can clearcoat if you want.

this part is optional but if you want, nightshade the signal housing. gives it a nice dark look when the bulb is on

before

after



grab ur leds and battery and test em to make sure their working. just tap em on, dont leave em on for too long



insert an led in each slot to make sure they fit



once your sure they fit apply a small bit of masking tape and attach like so



attach all the leds with the tape on the slots. * very important, make sure you tape the leds with the longest prong on the right side on each led*. grab your glue gun and apply at the base where the prongs touch the led.






once it has dried you can remove the tape.



and your housing should look like this



now bend the prongs like shown. leave the outer prongs alone and dont connect them to anything. thats where the wires will be connected. you should have a negative on one side alone and a positive on the other





grab ur solder and get to soldering



connect ur speaker wire but dont solder them yet. you wanna make sure which is negative and which is positive. go to the engine of ur car and connect one wire to the battery rod under the red cap on the fuse box and the other wire to a ground. youll then know which is negative and positive.once u know, solder them to the ends of the series.



connect the other series llike so. then attach another speaker wire to each negative wire and the other to each positive wire, you can see how i have them wired up





tape all the wires up with electrical tape.

drill a hole on the back of the housing. this is where the wire will come out to connect to a power source. then apply a small amount of glue from the glue gun



clean everything up with some invisible glas so theres no finger prints anywhere.



attach the three screws back to the headlight on the back. now putting the headlight back together can be done in two ways. use rtv silicone and apply liberal amounts to the slot where the lense gets attached to or do what i did. stick both ends of the headligh back in the oven at 200 degrees and let the glue get soft again. then put back together.



you can either tap into the drl wire or just attach to a switch like i did

again, please take it easy on me. i know theres probably alot of holes in my how to that ive missed so just let me know and ill fix. thanks for looking.

[cobalt123]

nice write up

[Hailcesar75]

Thanks. I had these pics for awhile now. Lol

[dunit121]

do u have pics of them on? i wana see how they look being so low and maybe being covered by the body line?
also i herd that night shade on headlight housings could cause them to turn green over time... not sure but thats just what i herd

[Hailcesar75]

I have some in my album. Or in the r8 headlight mod , take two thread

but they shine up well and don't get blocked by anything

---------- Post added at 12:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:18 PM ----------

There wouldve been more pics but the limit was 25 lol

[dunit121]

ohhh cool then

[CFCobalt]

nice write up....and if i can find a second pair of headlights im doin it!

[sfwg]

Originally Posted by CFCobalt nice write up....and if i can find a second pair of headlights im doin it!

dont be a pussy

[YelloEye]

Sweet write up man, any chance you can host all those here on CCF and change the REF?

(I know, I'm kinda a nazi about it )

[Aredtear]

Any way you could just make me a pair and send'em to me? I pay big monies..... you take cheeto's as payment right? hahahaha, Btw they look AWESOME!!!!!