I've been seeing the vinyl wrapped cars and dipped cars a lot now
Great way to protect your paint and you could do the whole job with dip and look.good for cheaper but honestly I think the vinyl looks good. Would look better in flat black
But imo stock colors alabaster is the best color
Good luck

 

Well it's been a while i thought i would post up some progress. I scrapped both the dip and vinyl ideas. Honestly i don't want to ever have to to worry about vinyl /dip coming off in a car wash or having to touch it up all the time. I will most likely end up getting the car re painted the factory red color, or at least the hood and bumpers (they are the most worn).

So this weekend i decided to convert my front parking lights to LED's but i didn't really like the position of the stocks lights so i went a little custom. From what i could find on the web, the silver rings around the factory projectors are 100mm outer diameter and 75mm inner diameter. While there is no angel eye kit for the crossfire, there is one that is extremely close. The 2005-06 Hyundai Tiburon had dual projectors with 100mm and 80mm rings, so they are about perfect for this project.

So let's get started...

These are the angle eye's i bought...



hey can be purchased at Hyundai Tiburon SMD Angel Eyes - Vehicle Specific - Angel Eyes The options i chose were Color: White, Vehicle: 2005-2006 Tiburon, and Wiring: OEM. They take a while to come in as this guy (Paul) builds them on order. They also sell every other kind of light imaginable, great quality too.

Anyways, to get started you will have to get the headlight out. There are four bolts, two on top and two on bottom. The passenger side bottom bolts are the hardest to remove because the coolant reservoir is always in the way. Just keep working on it and you will get them out. You may have to remove the bolts holding the font bumper to the fender and radiator support. You will have to play with the light housing a bit to get it out, removing the bottom nuts on the housing itself helps.





Now that the headlight is out, we can have a little fun. Do not put the light in the over, it will not work. I tried the over at 250 for 30 minutes and the silicone sealant would still not budge. It's funny how Mercedes had all these interior leaking problems with this platform but they have somehow invented the strongest sealant known to man. This may seem like a hack job, but the only way i could get this to work was by breaking the plastic lip. The lens fits over the housing and then a lip goes around the other side. Take a screw drive and pry it horizontally. DO NOT pry against the lens or housing unless you want to risk cracking either of them (and these lights aren't cheap). We will make it look nice later in the process.



As you can see the lip breaks nice a cleanly...



Repeat the same process on the bottoms and sides...



Next your going to take a butter knife (yes it is the best tool for this job) and slide it between the lens and housing to break the inside seal. DO NOT use a sharp knife, if i did i would have been stabbed multiple times.

After about an hour of work they come apart!



This is pretty self explanatory, get some Permatex all purpose clear epoxy and glue the angel eyes to the projector rings and it will end up like this. Make sure they are centered!



If you get some extra epoxy on some of the other parts of the headlight you can use some brake cleaner to remove it. Just be careful as it does have acetone in it and will remove the silver paint if you use too much.



Now it's time to solder these wires, i used same gauge speaker wire so it would not stand out against the chrome parts of the housing.

 

The wires exit were the factory parking light was located...



Now get a sanding block and sand down any parts of the remaining plastic lip, just because it is sort of a hack job doesn't mean it has to look like one. After cleaning the inside of the lens and housing with Windex (do it now, you only get this chance once) you can put them back together. One tube of Permatex ultra black RTV did both lights and matched the color of the Mercedes silicone exactly. Put the RTV all around the edge of the housing and slide the lens back on, we broke the clips that hold the light on so dry it vertically like this (i used a little added heat because my garage is below 40 degrees.)



After a few hours of drying put the light back in, the cover that goes on the housing will no longer have clips because we broke them, i installed some black metal mini hooks you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot. Just reverse the steps to remove the light.

And if all went well this is your end result. These cell phone pictures don't do them any justice at all, maybe tonight ill break out the camera and get some good pics.









So what's next? Well i found out the my ICM is going bad, awesome. The lights have been intermittent for a long time but i figured it was a loose connection. But after i get that replaced i'm working on rebuilding two of these. I'll post more about that when i get more of the parts together.

 

Looks cool , too bad there isn't any angel eyes or halos on the market for us , and Mercedes makes some tough glue yet I still have condensation on the inside of the lense makes no sense

 

i believe there was a recall on the caps which would let water into the headlight assembly.

 

nice work, i would love to see you plastidip your car as recommended its great stuff!

 

Well today was fun, i went out to the park with the girlfriend. Locked the car and when i came back the car would not unlock with the fob. So i unlocked the car with the key and the all so annoying alarm goes off. Now i know why the call it a skreem module.

Anyways i had to reset the car by unplugging the battery to get it to start. Can this be caused by a low battery? or is it usually always the skreem module going out? I don't have the VARTA battery anymore but my alternator has been causing the lights to dim at idle.

 

LOL they are not a sealed unit, just the lense and body sealed. Get the replacement cap kit and they will be fine, I think it is like $10 to reaplce all the caps and get the right breather hoses....

 

And search maxcichon's thread about cleaning the water spots off the inside with 99% pure methanol ( worked GREAT for me )

 

Here's the kit, only half of the components shown in the kit are sitting on the bag, the other parts are the parts replaced.

 

They do sell a halo kit for our car at http://www.automotivelightstore.com/...ndhalokit.aspx

 

those are CCFL lights, i particularly wanted SMD

 

Gotcha...where the SMD cheaper? Cuz if these are brighter and less expensive,I'll do this asap.

 

The SMDs are brighter, and more refined IMO, and at a cost of half the other kit, it is a no brainer...

 

Def no Brainer, looks like i have a new project to begin in. A few weeks Thanks

 

Let me know if you want to do a second set, my car is resting for the winter LOL