Porsche Headlight Retrofit [from CAD, prototyping to finish)

[Nine8Six]

Originally Posted by particlewave

Every time I have to fix one of these, I use JB Weld.
Not one of my repairs has failed over the years.

You are getting me worried. Did you ever had anyone who've sent back their headlight for a repair on the lens?!? If so do you mind letting us know which member exactly please, just so I can keep track of failure rate and what needs improving, if anything at all. Thanks, Charles

PS. The kit you are looking at never had their lens mounted, hence Evan's question. The whole idea behind that parted-out kit was the member wanted to install his own angel eye kit and assemble the kit himself, which he never had a chance to do and sold the kit to Evan.

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by Nine8Six

You are getting me worried. Did you ever had anyone who've sent back their headlight for a repair on the lens?!? If so do you mind letting us know which member exactly please, just so I can keep track of failure rate and what needs improving, if anything at all. Thanks, Charles.

Hi Fred, the lenses on both of my projectors have come detached once and been repaired. The first one was repaired by Charles/Particlewave a couple of years ago, and the other one I repaired myself with some coaching from Charles. To be fair, my car was involved in a couple of front end fender-benders, and I'm not complaining. These are still awesome headlights and everyone who sees them loves them too.

You mentioned somewhere very recently that you're working on an improvement for the next version to secure the lens to the shroud with something mechanical, clips or screws, instead of glue. I think that would be a great idea. Right now I'm working on a spare set of headlights that will utilize Morimoto Mini H1 7.0. These projectors utilize a mount that clips right into the existing Halogen bulb socket. (I'm not using that feature this time, I am putting them in a set of Litronic reflectors). Have you ever considered just making a shroud that would be used in conjunction with the Morimoto Mini Bi-Xenon? It would simplify things for you, all you would need to worry about is the shroud, buyers would then just use it with the Morimoto parts they purchase on their own.

[Nine8Six]

Thanks for letting me know, Paul. Interesting though, why am I the last one to find out about this :/

You are correct, I'm working on revision of those same style projectors and this will include a lens adapter. Not much because of failure (I'm seeing <1% here) but more because I finally have means to do precision ID thread-milling operations with the new machine-tools I run here. An option that wasn't available at the time.

For the upcoming dev; I'm keeping the exiting CGT design, 2.5" lens config with same angle, aperture, H1 fitting, and will carry on using AES(company) improved version of those projectors you refereed too. ps. Paul, if we are to engineer some (new) car projectors & features it ain't going to be those dumb 1968 style lamps but more touching the areas of Adaptive Sense, Auto-Leveling and automotive led technologies. I've done quite a bit of studying on those subjects last year and may resume those research and prototyping in the near future. This would of course reach a wider market, not only Porsche.

Anyway. Some content for later. For now I'd like to pass my sincere apologies for the trouble this caused to you. if there is anything at all I can do to offset the burden please shoot me a PM and we'll find a way to square this issue. Thanks for letting me know and sorry to hear about your fender-benders :-(

[particlewave]

Fred: no worries, bud. There was a rash of them about 1.5 - 2 years ago (maybe six, IIRC).
I figured that you have gotten a bad batch of epoxy or something and I wasn’t able to contact you to see what I should use, so just went with the JB Weld.

Not as pretty as your epoxy, but it’s all hidden in the shroud and all of the repairs have held up so far (both of mine were this way).

Like I said, it was just a few sets and I’ve never heard of another failing (aside from Paul’s, which was due to an accident) , so I didn’t think too much of it.

[PaulE]

Hi Fred, glad to see you are back in action, hope all is well!

[tommy583]

Hey Fred welcome back again. Big Jake is back as well. I wonder who is next? Could be Johnny Danger of Maybe Johnathan Landa.

[rick3000]

Originally Posted by tommy583

Maybe Johnathan Landa.

I was having a good morning until this post.

[TTGator]

Looks great!

[amagalla]

I need some help here. I have a set of these lights that I installed in 2015. Now I have a couple of issues with them. First is that the angel eyes don't work anymore. How do I go about testing to see what has gone wrong? Second, the lens in one of them has come unglued. I know that Fred initially used a high temp epoxy when he built them. What should I use to reattach the lens?

Thanks.

Tony

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by amagalla

I need some help here. I have a set of these lights that I installed in 2015. Now I have a couple of issues with them. First is that the angel eyes don't work anymore. How do I go about testing to see what has gone wrong? Second, the lens in one of them has come unglued. I know that Fred initially used a high temp epoxy when he built them. What should I use to reattach the lens?

Thanks.

Tony

JB Weld is what I use to reattach lenses...carefully. You don’t want to see it.
Several years after many repairs, I can say it is far superior to the original epoxy, it’s just not clear.
Not a dig at Fred, just what it is.

Your AE’s are dead. Mourn them, then move on.

[amagalla]

Originally Posted by particlewave

JB Weld is what I use to reattach lenses...carefully. You don’t want to see it.
Several years after many repairs, I can say it is far superior to the original epoxy, it’s just not clear.
Not a dig at Fred, just what it is.

Your AE’s are dead. Mourn them, then move on.

Well, if I have to take that stupid thing apart to reattach the lens, I might as well fix the AE at the same time. My real problem now is looking at the factory wiring, all the jacket is peeling away from the wire on the original wiring. I think I'm going to have to rewire the factory plugs. What a pain.

Tony

[amagalla]

BTW...do you happen to have the "flash to pass" relay diagram?

Tony

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by amagalla

BTW...do you happen to have the "flash to pass" relay diagram?

Tony

These are the flash to pass relay diagrams. They are somewhere in the 81 pages of this thread but I happened to have saved it. I was in the same boat as you with the Angel Eyes last year. They start to burn out and flicker. They are epoxied into the inside of the shroud, and looked impossible to get out without ruining the shroud, so I just deactivated them by cutting the wires to them and reactivating my parking lights. You will see what I mean when you take yours apart.

I also had to re-glue one of the lenses in my projectors. I found that a clean, empty Progresso soup can was the perfect diameter for resting the shroud in face down after carefully gluing in the lens so that it could cure with the lens in the correct position.

For the cracked and falling off insulation, I found that clear flexible heat shrink tubing and heat shrink butt connectors with solder and new sections of wire did the trick for me on a spare set of headlights I built up over last winter. Good luck!

[particlewave]

Originally Posted by amagalla

Well, if I have to take that stupid thing apart to reattach the lens, I might as well fix the AE at the same time. My real problem now is looking at the factory wiring, all the jacket is peeling away from the wire on the original wiring. I think I'm going to have to rewire the factory plugs. What a pain.

Tony

IIRC, the LED AE ring is epoxied in, as well. It shouldn't be too hard to dig (dremel?) it out, though.

Originally Posted by amagalla

BTW...do you happen to have the "flash to pass" relay diagram?

Tony

The diagrams Paul posted are not quite right...the first one is to turn the AE's off when headlights are on and the second was for a more specific application.
This is the flash to pass relay diagram if you have original halogen high bulbs:



Also, to remove the nut, try some heat. Get a small butane torch and heat the post so you don't damage the reflector bowl. Careful, now...

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by particlewave

The diagrams Paul posted are not quite right...the first one is to turn the AE's off when headlights are on and the second was for a more specific application.
This is the flash to pass relay diagram if you have original halogen high bulbs:

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, sorry!

[amagalla]

Originally Posted by particlewave

IIRC, the LED AE ring is epoxied in, as well. It shouldn't be too hard to dig (dremel?) it out, though.

The AE on mine wasn't epoxied in. It was held in by the black retainer ring, which was epoxied to the lens that was epoxied to the aluminum base. The black ring and the lens were no longer epoxied so everything came out with no issues. We'll have to wait an see if the other one is like that too.

Originally Posted by particlewave

Also, to remove the nut, try some heat. Get a small butane torch and heat the post so you don't damage the reflector bowl. Careful, now...

I used wd40 and a heat gun, I got it to the point where the WD40 was smoking, and still no go. What I'm going to do is unscrew the assembly (with the lens, AE, and the high beam iris) off the post and leave the post in there.

Tony

[amagalla]

anyone know the size and tread pattern of the nut on the back of the stalk that holds the light in the housing? I have to repair my lens and this is proving impossible to get off.

Tony

[PaulE]

Originally Posted by amagalla

anyone know the size and tread pattern of the nut on the back of the stalk that holds the light in the housing? I have to repair my lens and this is proving impossible to get off.

Tony

The serrated nut circled in blue? After removing the bulb, you should be able to get a pair of pliers or channel locks on it and loosen it.

[amagalla]

Yep that's the one. It's stuck on, but good. I think I got some rtv on it or something because it will not move.

Tony

[particlewave]

No worries, Paul!

The second one would work, but I think Tony has the single throw relay. I’m not 100% sure either, I guess.