97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Finally got the lights sealed up and threw them together with my other matching lights to do a little photoshoot, and see how everything matched up. I am very happy with the retro, took me almost 3 years to find the right set of projectors. This is the 4th set that I settled on. I originally started with A6 projectors, then moved to BMW e46 projectors, then moved to FX projectors, and after seeing Mike (VXCL's) retro with TSX projectors on dragon's car, I settled on TSX D2S projectors. Mike and Joe have been my inspiration for 4 years to do a retro, and finally got the right parts together, and found projectors that I knew would mount. A few things, I didn't like how Mike just covered up the projo housing with a cover, so I decided to take his design and improve on it. I trimmed and painted bezels, and wrapped the reflector in 2x2 twill carbon fiber to match my hood. I am VERY happy with how they came out, and it was well worth the 3-4 year wait to get them done right. I will post more better pics when I get the bumper back on in a week or so, just couldn't keep the secret anymore. Pics were taken with a Kodak 10 Megapixel

You all know what they looked like before








Smoked the corners to make them match my smoked corner lenses, and help pull the black projector bezels in with the black projector fogs.








Close-Ups















D2S baby


On the car, also painted my bright red hella horns gloss black, got one or two touch-ups to do.


Big man helpin out puttin the headlights on




Testin out my new high bulbs, ballasts aren't wired up right yet














Big man posing for the camera again


Probably the best up close shot I got of the retro.


Having some random fun


Lemme know what you think, I got a lot of wiring to do in the engine bay and hopefully I'll get the ballasts tied up this week. Got Hella Gen 3 HID Ballasts, custom made professional wiring harnesses with fuses and relays, 6000K Phillips D2S bulbs, and xenon depot ballast cover housings.

Also was playing with my new 2nd gen CL smoked chrome radiator mounts, that I got from ThinJim, not sure if I like them yet or not, what do you guys think?

AznX TL

zomg those look great.......you should do a pair for me or i may have to go to pittsburgh and................:thief:

hybridnrg

iTrader: (4)

oooohhh I likey!!!


what kind of high beam bulb do you have?

and hook up those damn HID's i want to see!!!


all in all, very clean job, I like the carbon fiber you put behind the projector.

G22_Powered_YA1

*DROOL*


makes me almost wanna go out and do mine................ but no money

03silvertypeS

Looks great, Chris!! Hopefully, one of these days I'll be able to see them in person (maybe, when you're car's in one piece).

civic_slayer

Awesome job Blackack I love the carbon fiber. One question though how much harder would it be to put projectors as your highbeams?

AznX TL

im not gonna lie.........it looks like you put projectors in your dog's eyes haha

CLpwner

ahhhh ahhhhhhhhhhhh ahhhhhhhhhh I just came...

lnsyone

good shit bro

klepto

great job, i love the touch with the CF, wonder if theres some way you can incorporate it into the high beam housing though. oh and all those pics and no cutoff pics?

XxAtTheGatesxX

I'm a fan. That's one of my next projects probably.

What part of Pittsburgh are you from? I'm suprised I haven't seen your Acura before. I go there often for family.

Oh yeah, and awesome dog.

AznX TL

you wouldnt have seen his acura because it doesnt move much because of it being under construction.

acuratl_2nr

looking good but curious to know why you didnt blackhouse them??

CLpwner

He said something about he doesn't like it on a black car... I think...

DaInFaMMuS1

whoaaa...beautiful!

Cocoa

iTrader: (2)

Freaking sweet!

herbalist

looks good. the CF is a nice touch.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

I hear ya bro, I have well over a grand invested in just my headlights, but I think it was well worth it in the end, now just gotta finish up the ballasts to get the full effect.

CLpwner

A grand!!! What cost so much...

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

I live in the north hills of Pittsburgh, a lot of people know my car around here. Black, tinted out with a stock wing and tinted tail lights. It's been MIA for almost a year ripped apart in pieces. The bumper, fogs and all will be back on in the next 1-2 weeks. What part of Ohio are you from? And how often you come to the burgh? I work downtown.

I'm not a big fan of blackhousing on a black CL, looks too much like raccoon eyes for me. I wanted to accent the projectors and not have them be too black, that's why I painted the bezels and smoked the corners so they'd stand out a bit more without being too black. I thought the CF would be a nice accent rather than going all black on the housings. The other reason I didn't wanna blackhouse was to accent the clear corners, but I sold those to CLpwner and got the smoked figuring they'd work better with the smoked top corners and CF. I did the CF to compliment the hood, and make my retro more one of a kind. Like I said, I loved VX's retro for dragon, but I wanted to take it and make it my own, and improve on the idea. Thanks for the feedback guys, keep it comin. Also what about the radiator mounts? I'm still undecided about them.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

It wouldn't be THAT much harder, 97acura3.0CL did dual in his, the only issue I saw is that the space is so much smaller in the high beam than the low beam it'd be a tight fit. I wanted to do a dual setup, but since I dumped so much money into so many different sets of projectors, I just couldn't bring myself to spend another $500-600 or so for another set of ballasts, wires, and bulbs. Let alone another $100+ for projectors. Besides, that's why I threw my own little accent into the high beams, just for flavor

ZeroCL

He said the black housing is too much on a black car. I'm glad i'm speaking for him, but then again ive known about these things since they were done. I've already seen most of those pictures and they looking freaking great. I'm surprised he didnt post these pictures earlier.

Cant wait to see the car complete, or atleast back together!

CLpwner

You should have made a DIY... haha

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

These are different pics than I sent you Ryan, those were taken with my 5.0 Megapixel, I didn't like the way they came out, so I took these with my buddy's 10 Megapixel camera. Came out a good bit better, though I really wanna get the bumper on her and take her out for a photoshoot in better light.

pwner, I didn't make a DIY because I don't want to be responsible for people hacking up their reflectors. The same reason Mike and Joe never made full DIY's cuz it's an intense process. I had to get a lot of help on my set, plus my goal was to have unique headlights

CLpwner

ahh ok... they look sick btw

Mulk

damn the retrofit looks absolutely sick, they came out real nice and i like the CF too, great job.. did you ever get the ballast/wiring issue figured out?

guapo187

Those look great! A few questions though: What made you settle on the TSX projectors? Was it the looks or was it a fitment or lens quality issue?

I'm wondering because there is a set of FX projo's on ebay that I am looking at getting but I'm curious as to why you passed them up as well as the e46s?

but anyways, your craftsmanship looks terrific

ZeroCL

either way, you need to get that thing back together so we can get a shoot.

asianspec

iTrader: (1)

looks good chris!

sd97cl

iTrader: (1)

nice pit.

maiyumi_chan

awesome job! lets see some cut off pics!!!

GianJ30a

beautiful. now hook them up =)

Palayah8ta

CF in ur headlight.. LOL .. i see that inner ricer in you!!


looks good though.. really really does

AcAttAcK98

iTrader: (1)

That's Fricken Sick! I have to do that to mine.. How much would it run me to doa job like that? with my own touch of course.. don't want to bite your idea.. that's not

SmokinH22CL

tight work

dragon084

tsx projectors have a nice cutoff and are an acura product.

not saying you can't use a BMW, MB, AUDI, etc etc projector,

but it's smart to use something thats used in another acura OEM,

if you know what I mean. Also, the size of the projector is

optimal, whereas a BMW x5 project is too large.

TSX is a great projector and is reasonably easy to obtain.

The lights look great,

looks just like aftermarket headlights, brand new.

clean job, kudos.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

They are acura oem, and look oem especially with the customized bezels. The A6's were too big, the FX's were a bi-xenon which I wanted but after comparision and some advice I settled on the TSX because they fit better into the housing, I also wanted to do the E46 too, but never bought them I bought the TSX instead

zhouz

that looks sick. i know you guys dont feel like you can make a fool proof all inclusive guide, but atleast if people that had done retros on CLs would give a list of what they used, maybe some pics of the tools and a rough run through of what had to be done, then maybe it could make it easier for others to do it?

you could take much better pics with a much crappier camera if you just turned off the flash and used a tripod

Shoshinsha_KiDs_CL

looks sikk. now do mine! hah jk

DaInFaMMuS1

i cant stop staring at them....them shits r hot