USAFzombie

iTrader: (1)

It wasn't really aimed at you. I hate people that do nothing but bash someone else's opinion of what looks good, so long as it doesn't hinder the car.

(I say that because I can't stand stupid huge rims on cars. They serve no purpose and make the car hard to handle.)

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

All I will say is, the cutoff isn't the only thing that blinds people, it's also the blue light. Like I said, it causes your iris to close, and now you are blinded and can't see well at all at night once that guy with the blue/purple lights drives past you.

Just saying. Not hating.

USAFzombie

iTrader: (1)

I'm not disagreeing with you on the blue light facts. Never heard that before. But I have extremely sensitive eyes, and the blue lights don't bother me.

I mean extremely sensitive in the fact that I have blue eyes, and had PRK surgery. (Which makes your eyes extremely sensitive to light)

I will agree the HIDs are excessive to a point, but my Camaro is pointing down so far that there is no way they can be effecting people. My truck on the other hand...... I will admit I feel like a jerk driving it at night. It will just have to do for now. Just found out my transmission is officially skipping second gear. There goes $1600 out of my car fund.

The Alchemist

iTrader: (19)

I too have blue eyes and wear sunglasses with a UV blocker and polarized lens almost year round. It's rare that I'm outside during the day without sunglasses.

VIP1

Either way, get the correct bulbs that fit those housings. I bet if you posted a pic of the beam pattern on a wall at about 15-20 ft distance, it would look messed up due to the wrong bulbs.

1bdbrd

iTrader: (12)

Here is why this combo is dangerous:

Based on a quick image search I think that these are HID bulbs in a halogen projector (i.e. your setup):



This is an HID setup with a proper HID projector:


There are kits available that you can easily retrofit proper HID projectors these days into halogen housings and have pretty good and safe success. The above kit can be found online for around $315 and has fit into stock housings without the work involved in a true retrofit. Its basically the same job you performed in the original post but gives proper and safe light output for you and other drivers.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

There isn't anything "dangerous" about these lights with HIDs. Sure, you don't get as much light spread as with a good HID projector (like from BLS for example), and the cutoff isn't quite as clean, but you also don't throw light all over the place either like just shoving HIDs in stock housings.

Here's a pic of what mine looked like on my old car.. note yes there is a slight rotation issue, but the car had been hit before I got it. Twice.



A pic standing off to the side a bit, like as a car is passing. Hm, no glare.



And standing literally RIGHT in front of the car. Even here there is only a little glare, which duh is to be expected right in front of the car



And a road shot - do be aware the pic is a little over exposed, it doesn't look quite this good in real usage.



Obviously these don't compare to something like what BLS has to offer (I should know, I have those on my current car now ) but they still aren't bad.

USAFzombie

iTrader: (1)

That's basically how I felt about it. They still are way better than the stock lights with HIDs, and I wasn't about to buy new bulbs for something that was never listed as being an H1 setup. Had the lights said "HEY, WE USE AN H1 INSTEAD OF A 9006"... I probably would've bought H1 bulbs when I was making my orders.

Either way, I still think the new headlights look great on the car.

1bdbrd

iTrader: (12)

I will commend you on having a much better cutoff than most people do. Around here we don't even get halogen projectors in front of the HID bulbs. It's just people with some POS car and an ebay kit blinding every one. Oddly the worst one I've seen was an E46 M3 with an upgraded HID setup Sunday night. It was piercing to even look at, even half a mile in front of the guy.

USAFzombie

iTrader: (1)

There are a large amount of those around here. Then again there are a lot of $1200 cars with $5000 rims on them as well. .........Just sayin.... lol

I feel bad with it in my truck, but I haven't gotten the projector lights for it yet. I generally just drive my truck to base. On base they have street lights, so I can just turn off my HIDs as soon as I'm pulling up to the gate. (part of why I drive the truck is because I can't do this in the Camaro yet)

It's requested that you turn off headlights as you come into the gate to SecFo to not blind them with anything. Rather annoying GM made it where you can't do that in a lot of vehicles.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

This spring sometime I'll get some pics of my real good cutoff and light spread from my BLS setup. And the highs... oh yeah, lights up a stop sign a mile away

02_Camaro_Dave

I think the HID's look good. Just have to find the right set for myself that won't cause to many problems when installing.

VIP1

1bdbrd, I know what you are trying to say and you are mostly correct, but you chose bad pics for comparison. A shot 5ft from the wall can't in any way compare to a pic 20+ft from a wall. Even some HID projectors look like that at that distance.

However, on HID Planet, there are some better comparison pics at similar distances to show the difference. A good HID projector will always beat out a Halogen projector with an HID kit.

That being said, some Halogen projectors handle HID well. Not perfect, but decently enough. Unfortunately, I wouldn't classify the ebay H1 projectors for the Camaro as "well". More like "passable". The Morimoto Mini-H1 is the exception. It handles HID well, since its actually a aftermarket HID projector designed around an H1 HID kit.

That's an easy fix. Just short together to two wires that go to the sensor on the dash. Further notes and pics are in the Lighting FAQ.

USAFzombie

iTrader: (1)

Yup. I glanced through it. I'm waiting to order the rest of my stereo parts and LEDs for the interior lighting swap. Basically the entire interior is stripped out right now, so I will mess with the DRL soon.