DIY Angel Eyes Impreza 04-08

[LightWerkz]

DIY Angel Eyes 2004/5 WRX/STi

Time Needed: 2-3 Hours Total - First Time

Difficulty Level - 1 Being Easiest - 10 Being Hardest - I would rate it a 5. Basically just time consuming, although it can be a bit intimidating for people opening up headlights for the first time. Anyone can do this, just follow the instructions

Items Needed:

Oven
Flat Head
Philips Head Screwdriver
JB Qwik Weld - 1 Pack
Masking Tape
Electrical Tape
Soldering Tool or T-Taps
1 LightWerkz 04/05 WRX/STi Angel Eye Kit



Remove the lamps from the car, and go inside and preheat your oven to 225F.


Sit down and place a towel down on the table and place the lamp face down. You want to remove the rear cap first, this will allow hot air to get inside the lamp and speed up the process of getting the lamps open. Also remove the 9 small philips head screws holding the lamps together.







You must wait until the oven is preheated. The reason why is the oven reaches very hot temperatures to get to the desired temperature faster. if you put the lamps in earlier, you will melt the plastic easily, so be careful. Place the lamps in the oven (everything attatched) and set the timer for 10 mins.




Once the lamp comes out, be careful it will be hot. You will want to lift the 3 tabs up on the bottom side of the lamp. Use a flat head and stick it in and give it a flick of the wrist to pry it oven. once you get it a bit opened, stand the lamp up and pry apart the housing. You can work your way around, but you will be able to pull the housings apart easily, just wear gloves if its your first time since its going to be hot!





Once opened put the back half of the lamps to the side and place the front housing and lens on the towel. You want to remove the one screw and place it in your cap thats on the side. Remove the housing, and then place the lens to the side. If you want to remove the amber, have the housing on it front side down and push the center amber piece out from the side. The side amber reflector is a bit trickier. We use a razor blade to lift it up and then it comes right out. The razor blade is really thin, it gets in and pops it. A flat head can be used as long as its not too thick.









Now your 105mm CCFL Angel Eye kit is going to provide rings that are going to slip right into the high beam area. They fit in, but they will fall out if nothing is holding them. Use a piece of masking tape on each side to hold the ring in place so you can turn it over and permanently mount it.




We use JB Kwik Weld. Its a very quick drying epoxy so you must work fast. Do one side at a time if you dont want to rush, and do it right away as this stuff dries fast. You want to put about 1 inch of epoxy to each side away from the wires. No more then that, otherwise you will see it from the outside. There is a nice lip in the high beam area of the housing that covers the epoxy, so no worries! Let the epoxy dry for one fulll hour. Even though its quick drying, it needs time to bond.








Now your CCFL rings are in place. Insert the housing back into the lens and put the silver philips head screw back to hold these two together. Stick the wire coming from the angel eye over the high beam section of the reflector and out the back. You will be making a small hole in the rubber seal to pass the wire through. Once its out, pull it tight and make sure no wires are showing from the front. Preheat your oven once again, and place the lamps inside for 5 mins. This will soften the sealent, and allow you to get them back together. once the timer goes off, remove the lamp and squish the lens back in place, making sure all tabs line up. Place the 9 screws back in place, hand tighten them as much as possible and put the lamps back in the oven. This is the final stage, your softening up the sealent and making sure all the air holes are covered. *** You do not need extra sealent!




Repeat the above procedure for each side. Now all thats left to do is wire up the inverters!


The easiest and cleanest method is wiring these to the parking lamps. You are unattatching the harness, and putting aside the black and gren/red wires, this is your power and your ground. Tap right in, and use solder to make a nice connection if possible. Use electrical tape on each of these connections and your all set Enjoy your newly angel eye fitted lamps!

[LightWerkz]

[JSMexUsa]

Great job, looks really nice, you made it look really easy to do with those instructions.
Thank you for sharing your secrets with all of us.
You are probably the only profesional retrofitter that shares all that info in the hid world.

[LightWerkz]

Thanks Jack. I tried to make it as simple as possible so people are put at ease when they recieve a kit. I was going through the same directions over and over, now I can just link them to this

Next up is the 06-07 Impreza Angel Eyes !

[Alex]

Nice writeup.

[Subi4Lyf]

Thats awsome I want..lol

[WR1X]

Looks awesome, have been hunting for the good CCFLs and details for the MY06. Itchin' to get my hands on those instructions...

I'm keen to know how I can possibly fit 2 in each lamp, one around the high beam.

Also, how the flip do you get the headlamps out of the car in the first place?

[LightWerkz]

DIY Painting + Angel Eyes 2006/7 WRX/STi

Time Needed: 4-5 Hours Total - First Time

Difficulty Level - 1 Being Easiest - 10 Being Hardest - I would rate it a 6.5. Basically just time consuming, although it can be a bit intimidating for people opening up headlights for the first time. Anyone can do this, just follow the instructions

Items Needed:

Paint
Sandpaper
Oven
Flat Head Screwdriver
Philips Head Screwdriver
JB Qwik Weld - 1 Pack
Masking Tape
Electrical Tape
Soldering Tool or T-Taps
1 LightWerkz 06/07 WRX/STi Angel Eye Kit

Remove the front lamps and say goodbye to the factory look


Preheat the oven to 225F.


Remove the Silver Philips head screws on the back of the light and place them inside the low beam cap. The removal of the cap allows air inside the lights to speed up the process of the heating. Also serves as a place to place the screws




Once the oven is preheated, place the lamp inside for 10 full minutes. Place the lamp on a towel and flip it around to lift up the tabs holding the lights. Use a flat head screwdriver to begin separating the two halves of the lights. If you have a prying tool, use it, this comes in handy! Go all the way around and once you lift up the front part of the housing, put the rear to the side.








Remove the Philips head screws holding the inner housing to the lens and place these in your cap so you don’t lose them.



Now to mount the angel eyes we are going to drill very small mounting holes. This will allow us to pass the wires through that will anchor the angel eye down and hold it firmly and permanently inside the housing. Turn the housing down and drill two holes, one at 9 o’clock and one at 3 o’clock. Then you want to drill two small holes to pass the wires through. If you do not have access to a solder tool, drill a larger oval hole to pass the connector of the angel eye through.




If you are using this opportunity to paint your lights as well, mask off the front with masking tape. This may take a few times to get a nice circle, but take your time, its not easy to get it the perfect if its your first time doing this.



Use 400 grit sand paper to rough up the edge of the projector bezel. This will ensure that you get better paint adhesion and a nice smooth edge.



Use a coat or two of primer first, and then use the paint you wish. After you allow time to dry, remove the tape.


Use 32 gauge wire (double up on it) and wrap it around the angel eyes in the 9oclock and 3 o’clock positions.



Feed it through the housing, and use masking tape to hold it firmly in place.

Mix up some jbweld kwik, and place it directly on the wire holes. You don’t need to add too much, this stuff is very strong!



Give the JB about an hour to dry. Remove the tape and trim off the excess wire. Place it back inside the housing along with the Philips head screws. If you have access to an air compressor, make sure to spray the insides of the housings to make sure no dust or partials are floating around. If not, use a can of dust off or similar products.

[LightWerkz]

Remove the high beam bulb and rubber cap. Stick the angel eye wires under the high beam section and pull it out.



Now you are ready to place your light back in the oven. Place it inside for 5 minutes to soften up the sealant. Once the timer goes off, the sealant will be very soft and you can clip all the tabs and align the housing. Once its all together use the rest of the Philips head screws inside the low beam cap really fasten the halves of the lights together. Once you get all of them in, place the light back in the oven for 5 minutes. This extra time allows the sealant to spread out, eliminating any small air leaks.

Once it comes out, turn the light around, we just need to add the angel eye inverter and we are all done here.

Cut a hole in the rear cap, and feed the white wires through.






Cut about half the length of the wire off the power and ground wires.



Find the indicator lights (between high beam and low beam) and trace the wires. Cut off the black covering, and make some space. Strip off some portion of the wire so you can tap in for power. If you have t-taps you can use them, this method works too.





Tape it up with some electrical tape when your done, and use double sided tape to mount the power inverter to the bottom of the housing.


That’s it, your all done now

Enjoy!

[cdub]

that looks amazing. thanks for the write up.

[WR1X]

Looks awesome. I'm keen to see if a same size ring could be mounted around the high beam. Also, that seems a very skinny ring. The TSX conversion images from previous posts show a fatter ring that I much prefer. Can you get hold of these?

[LightWerkz]

They come enclosed in the plastic. They are removed since it fits better without, but its up to you if you want to use it.

[paulmofyourhand]

i liked the idea with using the pliers on the 7th picture (or is that a snap ring plier?).

great job as usual

[cannibal869]

Great write up!
Thanks man, you and your angel eyes rock!

I installed these last night - a few pics and thoughts if others don't mind...

I decided to make these DEMON eyes instead of angel eyes though...

First, I got the Angel eyes and masked off parts of them, exposing basically the 11 o'clock to 3 o'clock portion of (what I decided would be) the passenger side ring and the 9 o'clock to 1 o'clock portion of the driver's side ring

Next I chose some aluminum high temp paint... couldn't find any chrome paint which is what I was really looking for... oh well.

After painting, I followed the install instructions provided by Lightwerkz. Two small addendums - I threaded the wires through a small slit I made in the back of the high beam gasket. I also mistakenly used regular JB Weld, not the JB KWIK weld as recommended in the DIY... my error - definately go with the kwik weld if you can since the cure time for the regular stuff is 6 hours.

oK now onto installed pics...
These things are really really bright - the last pic is the light output as seen from the hood bonnet with my parking lights and halos on ONLY - no other lights on in the garage!

There's a pic with both the halos and the low beams on. I have a WRX, so no HIDs for me... at least not yet.. perhaps at a later date, but for now no.

I don't like the really white Halos next to the sort of yellowish low beams. Just looks funny to me... so what I decided to do was the following -
I did the DRL disable mod as seen on scoobymods.
I plan on running my car always with the parking lights and HALOs on - basically using my HALOs as my DRLs from now on.
I'll reserve the regular low beams for when I really need them.

Also, one other thing in case you're thinking of doing this. when painting the Halos, make sure you put a few coats on them and really cover all the
light that you want to cause you can kind of still see it in mine... not much I can do about it now, but overall I'm actually quite happy with how things turned out.

-C

[WR1X]

I was planning my project with my "spare" headlamp units last night.

I have already opened them up a couple of weeks ago. Nearly melted the first because I saw 225 in the instructions and didn't think that it was 225F not 225C as all ovens over here are in Celsius!

I have masked, primed and painted one housing although I ran out of metallic black paint and now can't find another store as the one I got it from only had the one can and the other nearby had none either! So I have only masked and primed the second housing.

I can mount a second 94mm CCFL around the high-beam although it has to go with the wires at the top rather than at the bottom but that's no sweat.

So, looking forward to:

• locating of the metallic black paint;
• completing the painting of both housings;
• finding time to drill and mount the CCFLs;
• re-assembling headlamp units and.........;
• showing off the results...

[cannibal869]

Thanks for the writeup.

I have a suggestion / thought on a future project...

I was thinking about this after I saw Iron Man... that new Audi R8 is so pimp.. and part of what makes it look so cool are the headlights - that little band of LEDs that runs right along the underside of the lights.

And you know, the overall shape of the audi's headlights is very similar to the 07 wrx/sti's.. Then I was thinking - you know with the HALO setup that you have, it would be very easy to use the power inverter and just plug in a strip of LEDs that could simulate this on an 07 subaru.

kinda like this.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldeeno/2314436829/

I mean, if you bake open the headlights anyway, it seems that there is prob. enough room in there to double stick tape down something like this (maybe there is stuff from computer cases that can also be adapted?) or maybe something like this?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/48CM-...spagenameZWDVW

Anyway, just a thought
-Chris

[WR1X]

Yeah, that had crossed my mind as I saw Ironman and had seen the RS8 but twin halos and LED strip... just too pimp... have to choose... hmmmm...

And the LEDS in the strips are much closer together so the look would be different... but not less pimp.

They are not too expensive so I was thinking of buying some and mocking something up as I have all the time with my project on "spare" lamps.

Will let you know how I go...

BTW, the 2nd halo on the high beam has revealed some interesting results...

I can mount the halo the same way up as the low-beam halo, but...

The reflector for the high beam, which is integral with the projector housing is some sort of ceramic(-like) (plastic?) substance which is very abrasive. I drilled it to mount the halo wire exit holes and the dust scratched the reflector paint very easily!

Glad this is a "proof of concept" not the real housings...

[Alex]

Originally Posted by paulmofyourhand

i liked the idea with using the pliers on the 7th picture (or is that a snap ring plier?).

great job as usual

Lock ring pliers, not snap.

[AaronCompNetSys]

Installed mine yesterday, they look great. Thanks Caesar!

Here are some tips from my 5 hour experience:

1. Out of the oven, your goal is speed. Make sure all the screws and padding are removed first. The sealant acts like contact adhesive when cool.
2. Headlight removal for 05 04 Impreza WRX: http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/show...hreadid=384488
3. If you blow the fuse for the parking lights, it is labeled "Tail Clearance" in the in-cabin fusebox.
4. "Running wire over the high beam and out the back": you will probably need to remove the reflector for the parking light and turn signal light, 3 screws.
5. Additional item needed: silicon sealant, to seal the gasket that you cut for the CCFL wires.
6. Recommended location for ballast: taped to the turn signal wire, resting on the low beam housing

Recommended complementary bulbs - LED SuperWhite parking bulbs

[pimp4lyphe]

I cant wait to buy a pair of these. just cant afford them yet. My retro project has dried out my pockets