im all about retrofits, but cant do one on the company truck, so this is where my wife's '08 mazda 3 comes in! She had the H7 projector halogens. through searching here and a few other places, i found out i could simply get the bowls from an OEM HID mazda 3 and screw them right to my wifes headlight brackets and she would have HIDs!
so heres the progress...
cut out the halogen cutoff piece in the housing and installed the HID bowls last night
i sanded down the cutoff, as the OEM mazda cutoff is all bumpy and it really shows w/ the TRS clear lenses. but now i am getting some light above the cutoff. is this just from the shield right in front of the cutoff? i found a post here where a dude painted and then cut off the shield and his light above the cutoff went away, just wanted to make sure i would get rid of this light before i cut the shield and did something irreversable! this is the cutoff, what do y'all think....
i'll continue posting pics of the process, as i haven't found much concerning the swap from halogen to HID bowls on the mazda 3.
01/28 UPDATE:
so my weekend filled up quickly with a bunch of last minute stuff, so i did not have time to finish the retro. i cut off the "squirrel finder" tabs on the front of the cutoff shield and painted everything flat black. i initially painted just the front, but still had the rainbow above the cutoff. ended up painting the top of the shield as well, because it was sanded smooth with 2000 wet sandpaper and was therefore as shiny as the chrome bowl...this fixed the problem! i will be playing with a combo of lens and bulb spacing this week and should have everything installed this coming weekend. i also solved how I am going to close up the back, as the igniter now sticks out of the back of the headlight. i found the OEM HID headlights have a little more room behind the projector to account for the igniter.
1/31 UPDATE:
figured out the lens spacing. i placed 2 #8 washers between the bowl and bracket. ended up getting some nice color, but more importantly a nice crisp cutoff! below are pics of the cutoffs which were shaved of their squirrel finders, wet sanded along the top for a smooth cutoff and painted flat black (including the top of the cutoff) to get rid of the glare above the cutoff.
next are distance pics and showing the blue on the cutoff on the curb (sorry, crappy iphone pics)
a crappy iphone garage door shot
and finally a bulb spacing shot from the idea here: http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?30246-oem-mazda-3-bulb-spacing. first is no spacing, second is the bulb spaced w/ a 1mm or so wire.
Thats all for now folks, hopefully finishing up the retro this weekend!
super bowl update:
finished up everything yesterday. here are pics of the extenders i had to install in the back as well as the mounts i made for the matsushita ballasts in the OEM mounting location. i cleaned up everything last night and put the headlights all back together. i will be cleaning up the lenses with the 3M restore kit and wiring everything up before superbowl. i'll post output shots tonight or in the coming days...
all sealed up and ready to mount!
clearance behind the headlight
TRS harness mounted up good enough for now. i will clean up the wiring down the line, but its good enough for now.
and the moment we've all been waiting for...the output shot. notice that the driver side is slightly rotated. the OEM HIDs have a pin on the bowl that lines it up. i centered the 3 mounting holes when i screwed on the bowls. i guess i should ahve lined up the cutoffs with the cutoff lines from the halogen shields i cut off. i'll fix that this weekend. but overall stoked how this turned out!!
so heres the progress...
cut out the halogen cutoff piece in the housing and installed the HID bowls last night
i sanded down the cutoff, as the OEM mazda cutoff is all bumpy and it really shows w/ the TRS clear lenses. but now i am getting some light above the cutoff. is this just from the shield right in front of the cutoff? i found a post here where a dude painted and then cut off the shield and his light above the cutoff went away, just wanted to make sure i would get rid of this light before i cut the shield and did something irreversable! this is the cutoff, what do y'all think....
i'll continue posting pics of the process, as i haven't found much concerning the swap from halogen to HID bowls on the mazda 3.
01/28 UPDATE:
so my weekend filled up quickly with a bunch of last minute stuff, so i did not have time to finish the retro. i cut off the "squirrel finder" tabs on the front of the cutoff shield and painted everything flat black. i initially painted just the front, but still had the rainbow above the cutoff. ended up painting the top of the shield as well, because it was sanded smooth with 2000 wet sandpaper and was therefore as shiny as the chrome bowl...this fixed the problem! i will be playing with a combo of lens and bulb spacing this week and should have everything installed this coming weekend. i also solved how I am going to close up the back, as the igniter now sticks out of the back of the headlight. i found the OEM HID headlights have a little more room behind the projector to account for the igniter.
1/31 UPDATE:
figured out the lens spacing. i placed 2 #8 washers between the bowl and bracket. ended up getting some nice color, but more importantly a nice crisp cutoff! below are pics of the cutoffs which were shaved of their squirrel finders, wet sanded along the top for a smooth cutoff and painted flat black (including the top of the cutoff) to get rid of the glare above the cutoff.
next are distance pics and showing the blue on the cutoff on the curb (sorry, crappy iphone pics)
a crappy iphone garage door shot
and finally a bulb spacing shot from the idea here: http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?30246-oem-mazda-3-bulb-spacing. first is no spacing, second is the bulb spaced w/ a 1mm or so wire.
Thats all for now folks, hopefully finishing up the retro this weekend!
super bowl update:
finished up everything yesterday. here are pics of the extenders i had to install in the back as well as the mounts i made for the matsushita ballasts in the OEM mounting location. i cleaned up everything last night and put the headlights all back together. i will be cleaning up the lenses with the 3M restore kit and wiring everything up before superbowl. i'll post output shots tonight or in the coming days...
all sealed up and ready to mount!
clearance behind the headlight
TRS harness mounted up good enough for now. i will clean up the wiring down the line, but its good enough for now.
and the moment we've all been waiting for...the output shot. notice that the driver side is slightly rotated. the OEM HIDs have a pin on the bowl that lines it up. i centered the 3 mounting holes when i screwed on the bowls. i guess i should ahve lined up the cutoffs with the cutoff lines from the halogen shields i cut off. i'll fix that this weekend. but overall stoked how this turned out!!
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