[inky]

Just thought I would share the mods on the GF's Element. Tricked out the Element a few years ago thanks to this forum and a couple Hawaii members but the little lady does allot of night driving and the lights are not that great. Figured she has her stock lights on the side(from when I put some black aftermarket units in) so I could mod the stock lights and take my time with it.
Bunch of research done and there are enough threads on removing and clearing the lights out there so use um.
All the parts can be sourced through Ebay BUT, I don't like dealing with used parts from questionable sources with no recourse for "embellished" parts so I got everything from here
http://store.theretrofitsource.com/
complete kit with everything you need, OEM parts, lots of options (ballasts, shrouds, light color) wiring harness, the full 9 yards. More expensive this way but I don't want to open this badboys again because of bad parts!
http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18585
aaydemi's thread......awesome info and it covers everything perfectly. Only a few differences in what I did. I bolted my HIDs the same way and used this video as a guide http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qExaAFgvquE&feature=related everything you need and watching it get done will give you a boosted confidence cause it's really not as hard as you think.
everything got a good coat with JB weld to hold it in place after you have centered the lights perfectly in the reflector.

From this point on I detoured a bit. I don't care for the big bug eye look to the lights and wanted something a little more sporty and contoured so I figured removing the actual lens and molding the inner plastic with the outer lens frame and painting the whole thing body color may create the look I was after. Discussed everything with my bodywork guy (also redoing my 51 merc) and left the lights in his capable hands.

As you can see he did a phenomenal job with the project dropped on him. He peeled all the chrome off and trimmed the inner lip to fit the now cut down lens to fit in the little oval area. The turn signal lens was tinted and fitted into its original place and everything sealed up to create a water tight enclosure just like the original

from here I installed the shrouds and installed an extra set of "angel eyes" I had laying around to the projector.

and put the whole thing together to test everything out

Unfortunately I can't get a picture of it installed on the car at this point since I have no time to install it till next week. Pray it works out aesthetically and isn't a complete bomb. Figured this whole thing was gonna be a hit or an epic fail.
I will keep you posted and hopefully have pics up for you guys next week.

 

[marksbug]

yup the jurry's still out to lunch.kinda hard to tell without the rest of the E.

 

[spdrcr5]

the work done so far makes looks very well done. Can't wait to see it all installed. Fill in your profile so we know where you are and the info about your gf's Element.

Welcome to the EOC!

 

[Snuffleupagus]

Nice! Can't wait for the finished product.

 

[Eww-an E]

Great job! I'm sure they will look awesome on the E'.

 

[Robel]

Looks awsome i like it!!!

 

[inky]

K gang, got the lights installed today along with the halos and fog lights. It was a loooong day(3 separate wiring systems) so by the time I got done it was too late to get pics so tomorrow i should be posting them up for ya to peruse through. All in all I like the way they came out, definitely a little different!

 

[Westy_]

cant wait
:zombie011:

 

[inky]

heres a few pics, usual disclamers(bad light, car dirty, taken with iphone)
I'll get better pics later

 

[M1 1I 1K 1E]

Looks awesome man, wish I had the money to spend on a quality retrofit.

Bring on the night shots!

 

[Eww-an E]

^^Yeah,I agree it does look pretty awesome. Looking forward to seeing your night shots too.8)

 

[SK8nLMNT]

god i wanna do this!

 

[marvin the marshen]

Lookes great . good job (long live TRP)

 

[Alaskan_Toaster]

*****AWESOME!!*****
Looks fantastic. I just put in a set of PIAAs for now, but, with this info, just might do the HIDs someday :roll::jump021:

 

[inky]

All this time I thought I had put up a night time shot......guess I was wrong. Sorry guys, I guess better late than never.
Update to this is that I had some water issues in the beginning and fried 2 sets of inverters for the angel eyes so I just yanked them out when I went to seal them up for good. By having the 2 separate lenses for the headlights It was a bit of a pain to get them to seal good but it seems fine now finally. Other than that I couldn't be much happier with the conversion:grin:

 

[Eww-an E]

^^Now that's some Hotness right there. 8) Looks great!

 

[galor_12]

questionssss

when you had the angel eyes before, where did you connect them to turn em on? parklights?

what are the specs of the projectors that you used? looks like you really needed a bigger shroud as there is a lot of space inside the headlights eh?

i've been bugging Matt @ TRS for a while with regards to the projector retrofit (he's recommending their in house brand) but still stymied as i still want to use the exisitng factory DRL system.

great work anyways!

 

[deerfoot]

Holy crap! Super impressive! Major props!

 

[inky]

I used the harness I scavenged from my BMW angel eye kit similar to this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wiri...ptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories you can find them as cheap as $20 or so instead of Umnitza's overpriced stuff. You can make it yourself if you want, it's basically a relay and two power triggers. I used the running lights as one trigger so the AE would flash when arming/disarming and the other was triggered from the plug under the dash that has the power/run position. I'm positive you can find a power wire under the hood that is hot in the run position but I was in a rush and knew the plug under the dash was available.
The lights are FX/R lights with the gatling shroud which is actually a big shroud. It's allot tighter than it looks in the pics due to the fact that I used the inner plastic piece as the outer shell of the lights and cut the clear lens to fit into the oval of the painted shell. I could have gotten a wider shroud but I like the aggressive look of this shroud instead of the smoother shrouds they have and depth wise...this one is about 1/8th of an inch away from the clear lens so I have no play in that regard. Now I have a real light tint on the clear parts so you don't notice the shroud nearly as much and it looks "angry" as my friend says.
Thanks deerfoot for the compliment

 

[chuckc1971]

Inky et al:

I've been looking at a lot of these retrofitted HID projectors and do all of them require the cutting/grinding, as well as, JBWeld, silicone, etc. (such as the video you posted) in order to be installed? Maybe my apprehension is unfounded, but it seems pretty thrown together and likely to break/come loose, be positioned incorrectly or vibrated/knocked out of position.

I notice that there was another retrofit on this board where the projector essentially tightened up against the back of the factory reflector or looked like it does. I wish I could find the link, but was this a cheesy e-bay projector?

Final question, is a kit/projector actually designed first and foremost for a retrofit easier to install correctly than modding TSX projectors or what have you?

Thanks for answers to the newb questions.