The Project Pad

The General Lee does it...

loxxrider wrote:The General Lee does it...

I'll def need more clutch and power. Maybe less weight and a different car too.

Well then you should do that

Lol

loxxrider wrote:The General Lee does it...

Oh come on. I'll do it in my b5 and just hope it breaks.

Woot!

found your page. What did you wind up doing with the cable on top of the transmision when you put it back in. I want to get rid of mine just to clean up the bay a little. Is that some safety feature to collapse the steering column in a head on collision? I'm glad you and Chris have come so far in 200 exlporation. You have a super clean car. How did you get the front turn signals grey? Im sure it is one of your many pages in here.

2.5TYPE44 wrote:found your page. What did you wind up doing with the cable on top of the transmision when you put it back in. I want to get rid of mine just to clean up the bay a little. Is that some safety feature to collapse the steering column in a head on collision? I'm glad you and Chris have come so far in 200 exlporation. You have a super clean car. How did you get the front turn signals grey? Im sure it is one of your many pages in here.

I cut them to make removing the trasmission on my back a bit easier. I haven't looked into remving them just yet, but I'll probably just cut them on the other side as well and be done with the system. To remove everything, I believe the cables run all the way back to the seat belts. Too much work in my opinion. I'll just leave them there.

Thank you for the kind words. Mine is rather simple in comparison to Chris's and yours but there aren't a ton of us hard core T44 guys out there. Glad to be part of such a great, knowledgeable group of enthusiasts (unlike the B5 crowd).

The corner lights I assume you're speaking of? They are part of the European spec headlamps which include the grayed out corner lenses. They also do not light up anymore and I used that circuit for the now present city lights. You may not have see, I have also added bi-xenon projectors to my headlights as well:

amd is the best wrote:You may not have seen, I have also added bi-xenon projectors to my headlights as well...

Call me bi-xenon-curious, but what does your beam pattern look like with those projectors casting through fluted lenses?

ur20v wrote:

amd is the best wrote:You may not have seen, I have also added bi-xenon projectors to my headlights as well...

Call me bi-xenon-curious, but what does your beam pattern look like with those projectors casting through fluted lenses?

LOL! It disrupts the cutoff a bit but its acceptable until I figure out if I want to attempt to polish the glass clear or fabricate my own lenses. The light output is substantially increased and it's not blinding to oncoming traffic.

I have to get some better shots but here's with the lens:



Without:



A few others:

I saw the write up. I love it. I almost want to start researching into some custom glass shops to see if they can reproduce the glass lens, but make it to where it still shows the bad@$$ bi-xenon with out fogging it out to much. If you had a 200 euro lens without the diffusing in the glass (clear), could you run it like that? Let me know. I might start some research on it tomorrow to see if any shop is willing to give it a try without some huge minimum order. Or try to talk Paul Fern with Custom Autocraft into doing it. It looks like he was starting to do some of that.

2.5TYPE44 wrote:I saw the write up. I love it. I almost want to start researching into some custom glass shops to see if they can reproduce the glass lens, but make it to where it still shows the bad@$$ bi-xenon with out fogging it out to much. If you had a 200 euro lens without the diffusing in the glass (clear), could you run it like that? Let me know. I might start some research on it tomorrow to see if any shop is willing to give it a try without some huge minimum order. Or try to talk Paul Fern with Custom Autocraft into doing it. It looks like he was starting to do some of that.

Recreating the glass lens without the fluting would be the best way to do it however my plan was to use a polycarbonate and make a vacuum mold of the current lenses. Would be much easier for a DIY'er. Having new glass would be ideal though. I wouldn't know the first place to even begin looking for someone to recreate the Euro glass lenses without the fluting. If you know someone, count me in!

I spoke with Paul a bit about his and he mentioned that his were polished smooth/clear by hand! I would love to attempt it on mine but I don't want to ruin my only lenses and picking up a spare set of Euro T44 glass is hard to come by.

I soooo need to go Bi-xenon with my headlights...

85oceanic wrote:I soooo need to go Bi-xenon with my headlights...

Are they H4 by chance?

It wouldn't be too difficult to make a couple molds, smooth out the inside of the lenses and vacuum form new ones, like so:

http://www.saablink.net/forum/customizi ... /54770.htm

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthr ... of-polymer

http://www.mx6.com/forums/2g-mx6-appear ... ights.html

(Shhhh, don't tell Hank I'm funnelling forum traffic away!)

ur20v wrote:It wouldn't be too difficult to make a couple molds, smooth out the inside of the lenses and vacuum form new ones, like so:

http://www.saablink.net/forum/customizi ... /54770.htm

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthr ... of-polymer

http://www.mx6.com/forums/2g-mx6-appear ... ights.html

(Shhhh, don't tell Hank I'm funnelling forum traffic away!)

'Twas the plan . I have all three of those site bookmarked, lol.

Funny you link MX6.com. I was once a frequent member there.

BY HAND! I've got patience but he must have access to a sweat shop of dollar a day help. Couldn't imagine it, but I will check out these links tomorrow and call to some glass places. There is a lot of manufacturing in houston. You would be surprised, especially the ones that cater to the chemical refineries here. I will let you know what I find out.

amd is the best wrote:'Twas the plan . I have all three of those site bookmarked, lol.

Yeah, I didn't see your previous response that was posted while I toiled away on mine!

amd is the best wrote:Funny you link MX6.com. I was once a frequent member there.

Vote to ban.

2.5TYPE44 wrote:BY HAND! I've got patience but he must have access to a sweat shop of dollar a day help. Couldn't imagine it, but I will check out these links tomorrow and call to some glass places. There is a lot of manufacturing in houston. You would be surprised, especially the ones that cater to the chemical refineries here. I will let you know what I find out.

I agree!! Must have been DAYS of manual polishing. Some serious dedication. That's why I am happy with them how they are. Light performance is awesome as is. Just stinks that the projectors are kind of hidden. I look forward to seeing what you can come up with. If you end up needing a set of Euro lenses for reverse engineering I'd be willing to buy a set for R&D (if we can find some).

ur20v wrote:

amd is the best wrote:'Twas the plan . I have all three of those site bookmarked, lol.

Yeah, I didn't see your previous response that was posted while I toiled away on mine!

amd is the best wrote:Funny you link MX6.com. I was once a frequent member there.

Vote to ban.

LOL. Hey, this is the project pad. Mazda's can be allowed! For the record, it was a ~400whp 1990 Ford Probe GT with megasquirt and a GT35r

Do US market lenses fit e-code lamp housings? You can find tons of those in the junkyard and polish them, who cares if they break!

Polishing glass isn't as intimidating as it sounds if you have the right tools (drill press!) and compounds. Hell, you can cut holes in glass headlight lenses with hole saws made for glass

ur20v wrote:Do US market lenses fit e-code lamp housings? You can find tons of those in the junkyard and polish them, who cares if they break!

Polishing glass isn't as intimidating as it sounds if you have the right tools (drill press!) and compounds. Hell, you can cut holes in glass headlight lenses with hole saws made for glass

US lenses do not fit unfortunately. I still could practice polishing technique on them since I don't care about my stock set.

The correct tools are the killer part. Most industrial diamond tools are EXTREMELY expensive. I looked into it actually. More then the cost of my Euro lights and projector retrofit, for just the tools (abrasives). I was looking at the 3M Roloc products.

amd is the best wrote:

85oceanic wrote:I soooo need to go Bi-xenon with my headlights...

Are they H4 by chance?

I can't remember xD I will have to look.

85oceanic wrote:

amd is the best wrote:

85oceanic wrote:I soooo need to go Bi-xenon with my headlights...

Are they H4 by chance?

I can't remember xD I will have to look.

Well if yes, here's the kit I used; http://www.theretrofitsource.com/produc ... cts_id=237

Excellent! Thank you Nick!!!