Big update to my tired headlights!
#16
Lexus Champion
iTrader: (10)
I watch too much Disney channel with my daughter...
You can see a distortion of a supposed straight line in the second pic of the fence.
Last edited by OG Dada; 04-16-15 at 04:26 PM.
#17
Lead Lap
iTrader: (8)
It's my camera. GoPro have a wide angle lens, therefore the pic you're looking at right there may look like a straight forward shot, but it's actually a full 170º view. Like I said, I don't have a good camera right now, as I broke it in our last trip to Disneyland. LOL
You can see a distortion of a supposed straight line in the second pic of the fence.
You can see a distortion of a supposed straight line in the second pic of the fence.
#19
Lexus Champion
iTrader: (10)
The bulbs size the TSX projectors use is D2S. I bought it from DDM Tuning, 5k - which is what OEM equipped cars use. The finish of the glass give it a bluish hue when looking directly at it, but the projection is very close to natural light so it looks amazing compared to 6k and up bulbs.
#23
Instructor
Clean tail lite interiors
Nice job on the head lites. Anyway of doing that to tail lite interiors?
I've got about 25yrs of gunk & smoke built up in my tail lite interiors. Anyway to clean them?
I've got about 25yrs of gunk & smoke built up in my tail lite interiors. Anyway to clean them?
#25
Lexus Champion
iTrader: (10)
Thanks kez!
Not sure what you mean sir, anyway you can post a pic? The inside of the tail lights doesn't have chrome reflectors, it's just painted silver, that I can fix. Not sure about what you mean by smoke and gunk, is it cracked? Or just leaking water?
I just buy this bunch from AutoZone that goes 220,400, 800, 1000 & 1200.
I just buy this bunch from AutoZone that goes 220,400, 800, 1000 & 1200.
Last edited by DaveGS4; 04-28-15 at 08:42 AM.
#27
Instructor
interior side of the lens
Sorry, I just meant cleaning the interior side of the lenses. They are not damaged in anyway just 25yrs old and have never been cleaned - 92 SC
#28
Bad ***! That looks awesome. I always wanted to get this done on our SC but never had the funds to do it. The only thing I would do different is get a more oem light spectrum probably a 4500K, less blue, more white.
Looks stellar though and I bet it is so nice to have that light output in an SC. My current car has "regular" old school lighting with a filament bulb and tonight I drove in a 2015 RX450H with LED and HID lighting and it is such a big difference in visibility.
Lexus should have put HID's in the SC from the factory to begin with, at least on the 98 and 99 models like they did the last LS400.
Looks stellar though and I bet it is so nice to have that light output in an SC. My current car has "regular" old school lighting with a filament bulb and tonight I drove in a 2015 RX450H with LED and HID lighting and it is such a big difference in visibility.
Lexus should have put HID's in the SC from the factory to begin with, at least on the 98 and 99 models like they did the last LS400.
#29
Lexus Test Driver
iTrader: (8)
So as an observer looking from above the cutoff line you see indirect, reflected light that has bounced around the projector lens itself that isn't as bright co-mingled with the blue hues from the cutoff, then as an observer moves down and crosses the cutoff line they'll see a blue flicker before they see pure white light once they are observing from below the cutoff line.
So the actual blue hue that everyone chases isn't coming from bulb color but from an angled cutoff in a projector housing.
Here's a proper unhindered cutoff, you can see the color shift that happens from white to blue to purple, to light background glow to nothing. As an observer crosses the cutoff they see the flicker.
Of course there are several mods individuals can do to a projector shield and projector housing to influence the color, vibrancy, or area of the colorful cutoff, and some projector shields have less of a cutoff, and there is a difference in cutoff between fresnel and clear lens projctors as well. Some shields have even have an almost invisible cutoff, which is more efficient but loses some of the "look at that" effect of a color mod. Some people even go crazy with mods that come out like this, which was accomplished by placing washers on the mount for the projctor shield forcing to tilt farther away from the light source.
This provides an even more vibrant flicker to observers as they cross above and below the cutoff line. There are even crazier mods done by some to achieve ridiculous flickering affects above the cutoff line. Such as cutting a slit in the projector shielding itself to create more artificial flicker to observers without crazy angles to the shield itself, such as this retrofit.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/lig...ml#post5326809
Unfortunately a lot of people don't realize where, why, or how the flicker comes from, and they just buy ricey colored bulbs without any thought for usable light below the cutoff line, or poor reflections/glare on wet roads. Obviously I'm talking about the 8000k and up crowd, but honestly these days I even consider 6000k to be a little ricey. I have 3 sets of bulbs currently for my low beams, a 4500k, 5000k, and 5300k. I can scarcely tell the difference between the 4500k, 5000k and 5300k, I even tried putting one on one side, and another on the other side and I could only tell that they were different, my eyes had trouble figuring out which was which if I didn't already know. I'm only running the 5000k's because one of the 5300k's was faulty when I bought it, they've since sent me another pair for free, but I don't see any point in switching them out now since the bulbs have a burn in period and I like how my set looks now.
*EDIT* - Just went through my garage stuff and realized I actually have the 4500k's in my car right now, the 5000k's and 5300k's are sitting comfortably in their boxes right now. So obviously what I said above about the 4500k's being a touch too yellow for my liking was wrong, which was why I removed it, and clearly I can't even tell the difference among the 3 which is just proving my point that the difference among these colors is extremely subtle and up to preference. *EDIT*
Anyways, sorry for the ramble. I just spent most of last summer trying to get my brain wrapped around all of this stuff, and I think a good retrofit does wonders for the modernity, safety, and driving comfort of these cars.
Last edited by eknine9; 04-29-15 at 01:54 PM.