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New custom fog lights - HID projectors & LEDs...

20K views 35 replies 27 participants last post by  shadybx7 
#1 ·
I have been working on these for several weeks now. I finally got them to the point where I was able to mount them in the car. Ill start with some fabrication pictures. The earlier pics aren't the prettiest but they accomplish my goal.

I will get better pics throughout the week as I actually get them completely wired properly, and I wash the car. Its hard to get decent night time pics due to my poor quality camera.

I started out with stock CTS foglight housings and pulled the lenses. Once they were off, I removed the divider and cut out the entire back of the housing. I bought a 6000k DS2 HID bi-xenon retrofit kit complete with real projectors and chrome shrouds. I also bought a pair of LED "DRL" lights. They are white when powered up and when power is applied to an additional wire, they switch over to amber LEDs. To fab up the new housings, I used a sheet of aluminum to form the new main housing and used fiberglass resin to finish it off and shape it up. I wont get into the details but it was a lot of trial end error, and not that easy, but they are finally done.

The new fogs mount right into the stock brackets with the stock pushpin on the one side and i had to use a nut and bolt on the other side. The level adjustment can be made and the bolt tightened to hold it in place.

The wiring was a whole different bunch of issues. When done, they "DRL"s will function similar to those on an Audi. They will only come on with the parking lights. However, when off, they will only blink amber with the directionals. When on, like I said they will be white, but will switch to amber at night and blink just amber until the directionals are cancelled, then the white LEDs will turn back on.

I thought about making a few sets of these and selling them, but due to the time involved and the cost to begin with, there is no point. I wont be able to sell a single pair and make even a penny.

Now for the pics....















 
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#3 ·
those look pretty good!
 
#6 ·
I completely removed the stock amber/clear lenses like many people on the board here do, and just make clear ones to replace them.
I then made new lenses out of a sheet of polycarbonate. It is much harder than plain lexan and it can be bent in half (with enough force) and still wont crack. Very strong to prevent any damage from rocks or road debris.

I had made a set of stock style fogs with just the clear lenses about a year and a half ago. They were nicer than stock but I still wanted more. Im gonna test the new design fogs out for a few weeks and if they hold up with no issues, I will then sell my last set of "clear" fogs on ebay.



Here are some pics from before I installed the current foglights....







And here are some pics from today.
I'm still waiting on a relay to be delivered so I can wire them up 100%. At that point I'll post a video of how the blink and such.




 
#8 ·
That's pretty awesome, congrats on figuring all of that out and making it happen! The lighting and the look (even with the lights off) really fits the lines of the car nicely.

Looks like now you need to upgrade the low beam to the same color temperature as the fogs. :)
 
#12 ·
The problem is that there are eight billion sets of LEDs available on eBay and there's little to no data regarding their output characteristics (especially color temperature). Did you strip the housing off those LED units, or was someone selling those things the way you used them?

I'm a EE and could build an awesome set of fog lamps using Luxeon LEDs and good, 4200K projection HIDs, but the parts cost would be over $200. I don't even want to mention the possibility of selling these things, because I'd have to charge over $400 to make it worth my while based on the amount of overhead (i.e. shipping and acquisition costs) and labor that would be involved.
 
#16 ·
very original.. only thing i dont think fits is the LED bar but that's the most necessary part haha.. :pop2:
 
#18 ·
That is why there are side ambers on the car too
 
#21 ·
They are all wired up now.

During the day with lights off, they flash white.
At night with the lights on, the white act as parking lights then switch to amber for turn signals.

The amber LEDs look dim during the day but they aren't that bad actually, and just fine at night, but that is why I made them blink white during the day.

Heres a quick video...

 
#24 ·
Looks really nice. Time to do a retro on the stock headlights too. It may make people think its too much like the STS but I would do another projector for the highbeam. Perhaps retro the low beam with the FX-R and then pick up a halogen valeo high beam projector from an STS or SRX and retro that in to give you quad highs since the FX-R is bi-xeon. So it would give you the HID bright at night that is nice and crisp an instant, and you would still have a normal highbeam for flash to pass.

Check out hidplanet forums if you haven't already for more ideas.
 
#25 ·
Sell these. And yeah do the headlights too. :)
 
#26 ·
Yeah, definitely sell em. I want a set badly and don't want to do them myself!!!
 
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