Wow. What a ride this has been. It's not over yet, and I was going to wait until the final verdict was in, but I decided to chronicle what has happened so far, offer advice if you're doing this mod, and will update it as I go. And I'll do my best to keep this short. ***Disclaimer: everything that may sound like I did something, is really Paul (Charg-um). He is a WHIZ, went way above and beyond in helping me do this project. There's no possible way I could thank him publicly enough! He'll probably add to this, as we endured the pain together!*** I bought: - 3-ring headlights - tails - fogs Started with the headlights. First, the quick rundown of FAIL: - Melted a headlight in the oven. Don't ask. :whistle: - Broke a halo during installation. :whistle::whistle: BUY EXTRA RINGS!! After not having a car for two days while we left the front end off waiting for a new ring, installation went smoothly the second time around. Got everything installed, and WOOHOO...paydirt. Got about half-way through the tails (installed, but not wired) that same night. IMPORTANT: Unless you're brave, I highly recommend professional installation on the tails. They're not like the headlights, in which you're removing a seal. There is hard, glued plastic holding the tails together, and you have to BREAK it to get that lense off. It is NOT easy, and a little scary. Head's up! Anyway, the headlights lasted 24 hours. :dumb: Drove back over to Paul's house the next day to finish the tails, and he said, "Hey...lemme see how they look in the daylight." Turn them on, and "Uh oh." One of the inverters sh!t the bed. And in that fun, expanding, melt the one next to it kinda way. Ugh. So, we (he) had to take the front end off again, and pull the inverters. Luckily, we didn't wire up the tails, so I had the two inverters from THAT, that I could use to get the front end working again (and in time for the BMC meet this weekend!). So, I have to send those two inverters back to be replaced before my tails can be hooked up. I'm disappointed, but so it goes. With electronics, you never know, and with ANY mod, sh!t happens. We learned a LOT between last weekend and last night, and I want to thank Paul again for his dedication to the project. Had he known what he was getting himself into, he would've mysteriously been "out of town" when I called, methinks. :worthy: I'll finish by saying this...I have yet to see a mod this SICK in person on our cars. For all the trouble, potential issues, and drama that they cause, when they work, it is MIND-BLOWING how amazing they look in person. I also added low and fog HIDs (6k), which you'll see in the pics. It's like a whole different car. Now for the pics: :friends:
Yeah, you can't beat the look of those Halo's. I would have bought them moons ago had they been reliable and didn't require all the pain they were to fit to the car. LOOK AWESOME though!! Great work guys!
very cool pj!!! i will def have to check them out at bmc this sunday!!! although, i can only imagine with paul, how the other light melted......hehehehehehe he was probably out playing with his "blue balls" wasn't he?????? (inside joke that the florida peeps will understand from the m&g's) lol
I'll be honest, if I ever had to do it again, it would be a LOT easier. I did EXACTLY as the AAC instructions stated, and we didn't follow our instincts. The connections on the inverters are the biggest culprit. I'd recommend snipping them off and soldering the connections. Reliability solved. Thanks! LMAO...the headlight was just one of those things that we didn't predict properly. It was a bonehead error on all four of us that were there at the time. Luckily, the dealer had one in stock that same day, so it wasn't much of an issue, other than $$$.
My halos have been very reliable, atleast after the initial install. I was sent some cheapo inverters that blew after 1 mile. Complained and got some focuz-tecsperfect since. What ever you do dont put the inverters inside the housing!
3 days since everything was fully up and running, and so far, so good. Got a bit of a flicker at start-up on one of them, but it's holding strong, and so are the inverters. If all goes well, I'm going to send back the one that fried (and the one it destroyed in its wake) on Monday to get the new ones for the tails. Keeping my fingers crossed!
They look wonderful PJ. All the crap you and Paul went through to get them working is now paying off. lol I bought my kit off of ebay (projectors included) and have never had any issues. haha The HID's are kickass, no? I only have the headlights and fogs though. I am considering the highbeams in the near future though. hehe
Thanks! HID's should be a first mod option for most. They make SUCH a difference. They're so bright, I'm not sure I'll ever use my highs again. Thought that might be the case, so I went lows and fogs as well. Paul's got pics of the trick ballast location that we used...since we had the fascia off, the best location was on the back of the bumper. They look and work great there. I take that as a compliment! We said the same thing when we took those pics. :friends: Thanks!
looks sweet i would have to agree that the HIDs are one of the better and first mods that should be done!
What about the tails Where did you get the stuff to do it? Wiring diagram? Once again- its demon like
