Why I can never go back to HID kits in halogen projectors... Pic Intensive
#46
Intermediate
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Personally i think you just wasted a whole bunch of money and someones time.
my light output beats your aftermarket HID and is just as good as your retrofitted ones. it all boils down to the HID kit you use. and there are come crummy ones. maybe you just got a crummy one.. because i do know for a fact that my HID output its pretty sharp like your retrofitted ones.. i also have better output then most bmws audi and benzes however there light pattern is different. and i still have better output then people with Stock HID lexus'.
just my $0.02USD..
my light output beats your aftermarket HID and is just as good as your retrofitted ones. it all boils down to the HID kit you use. and there are come crummy ones. maybe you just got a crummy one.. because i do know for a fact that my HID output its pretty sharp like your retrofitted ones.. i also have better output then most bmws audi and benzes however there light pattern is different. and i still have better output then people with Stock HID lexus'.
just my $0.02USD..
Retrofit beats kit every day of the week. This is not opinion, rather, fact. I like how you failed to post pics of your "amazing" output that rivals that of a retrofit. So, let me.
Here's my old HID kit on my Supra. 10K; output was more like 8K. Notice no definable cutoff and light scattered everywhere. Better than stock I guess, but not by much, considering blue light on a black road isn't conducive to night vision.
Here's my Infiniti FX-35 conversion I did on my Supra. This is one headlight. The other one was being finished. Bulbs are Phillips 85122+ with a little color mod and polished lenses.
Little garage testing...
Now here's both headlights... excuse the image quality, but you get the idea.
#50
Racer
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I didnt even know there was a thread you made on your retro until now ELL Y!!
Great results! Looks really good. Your beam/cutoff dosent look like it bows down as much as i thought it would. The color is great too. Happy for you. Three 2IS retrofits; any more?
I am going to redo my retro with RL's. I was thinking about doing the SC430's again but the cutoff bows down just a tadddd bit. The RL's are more straight and just a hair bit brighter on the sides than the SC430's and the slope is pretty sweet. We'll see. I'm getting the RL's in by Monday next week.
Again, your retro looks great!
Great results! Looks really good. Your beam/cutoff dosent look like it bows down as much as i thought it would. The color is great too. Happy for you. Three 2IS retrofits; any more?
I am going to redo my retro with RL's. I was thinking about doing the SC430's again but the cutoff bows down just a tadddd bit. The RL's are more straight and just a hair bit brighter on the sides than the SC430's and the slope is pretty sweet. We'll see. I'm getting the RL's in by Monday next week.
Again, your retro looks great!
#51
Pole Position
iTrader: (1)
I didnt even know there was a thread you made on your retro until now ELL Y!!
Great results! Looks really good. Your beam/cutoff dosent look like it bows down as much as i thought it would. The color is great too. Happy for you. Three 2IS retrofits; any more?
I am going to redo my retro with RL's. I was thinking about doing the SC430's again but the cutoff bows down just a tadddd bit. The RL's are more straight and just a hair bit brighter on the sides than the SC430's and the slope is pretty sweet. We'll see. I'm getting the RL's in by Monday next week.
Again, your retro looks great!
Great results! Looks really good. Your beam/cutoff dosent look like it bows down as much as i thought it would. The color is great too. Happy for you. Three 2IS retrofits; any more?
I am going to redo my retro with RL's. I was thinking about doing the SC430's again but the cutoff bows down just a tadddd bit. The RL's are more straight and just a hair bit brighter on the sides than the SC430's and the slope is pretty sweet. We'll see. I'm getting the RL's in by Monday next week.
Again, your retro looks great!
#53
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It's too bad our stock OEM HIDs don't look as good as these retrofits on this thread..... is it the projector that Lexus uses on the IS? When I test drove my car, I couldn't tell if it had HID headlights..
#55
Intermediate
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The easiest way to tell an HID system from a halogen system, apart from the "white" light the [OEM] HID will give off, is the "startup" and shutdown of the light itself. HID gives that "instant-on" look of an LED, whereas a halogen slowly lights up and glows, if that makes sense. HIDs sort of warm up and become brighter too, but the on/off effect they give is unmistakable from halogen.
#56
Lexus Test Driver
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I bought the parts myself on ebay, HIDplanet forums, craigslist, etc. I then sent in the parts to Rich at HIDIllusionz. Most retrofitters will offer tsx packages (which really aren't the best projectors) for roughly the same amount of money that I paid for my superior SC430s. You can google for them. I dropped it off in person since they are in brooklyn. However, it is a bit costly (my entire setup in the end which included another set of used headlights + all parts) and cost me ~1K. But you gotta pay to play, and if you do the retrofit yourself with your own headlights, you can easily cut the cost of a retrofit in half.
I had it painted by HIDIllusionz flat black. Not sure what they used!
Thanks Mahcah! The beam is really quite sharp- the 55w ballast definitely adds to the brigthness and width, and I easily overpower most stock setups I've seen thus far on the road with me. Clear lens definitely helps!
RLs are a fantastic choice, at least from some of the pictures I have seen. They are so difficult to acquire though.
I do not really notice the bowing down of the SC430s. I can still see a pretty clean straight cutoff on parked cars on both sides of the road. To me, they seem to just fade away evenly, rather than the extreme bowing of the 2IS.
Tilting the lens! I'd like to see that output. I never knew you had a double cutoff either. I wonder how many spacers you must have used. I used two applejacks box spacers to produce my thin blue band in the center while retaining the sharpness granted by the clear lens.
Thanks for the comments
I didnt even know there was a thread you made on your retro until now ELL Y!!
Great results! Looks really good. Your beam/cutoff dosent look like it bows down as much as i thought it would. The color is great too. Happy for you. Three 2IS retrofits; any more?
I am going to redo my retro with RL's. I was thinking about doing the SC430's again but the cutoff bows down just a tadddd bit. The RL's are more straight and just a hair bit brighter on the sides than the SC430's and the slope is pretty sweet. We'll see. I'm getting the RL's in by Monday next week.
Again, your retro looks great!
Great results! Looks really good. Your beam/cutoff dosent look like it bows down as much as i thought it would. The color is great too. Happy for you. Three 2IS retrofits; any more?
I am going to redo my retro with RL's. I was thinking about doing the SC430's again but the cutoff bows down just a tadddd bit. The RL's are more straight and just a hair bit brighter on the sides than the SC430's and the slope is pretty sweet. We'll see. I'm getting the RL's in by Monday next week.
Again, your retro looks great!
RLs are a fantastic choice, at least from some of the pictures I have seen. They are so difficult to acquire though.
I do not really notice the bowing down of the SC430s. I can still see a pretty clean straight cutoff on parked cars on both sides of the road. To me, they seem to just fade away evenly, rather than the extreme bowing of the 2IS.
Thanks for the comments