well that was tiring reading through all of that. Mostly misinformation, myths, and people talking about something they don't know about 100%.
I have done retros for about 2 years now on all different kinds of headlights. That is my experience and where my knowledge is coming from.
I don't really know where to start because i don't feel like quoting everyone who gave wrong info. I guess ill start with the HIDs in an open housing.
HIDs in open housing headlights are illegal, dangerous, and incredibly annoying. UNLESS they came from the factory with HIDs installed in the open housing. These(ie Lexus, infinity, Cadillac, Acura and so on) headlights are equipped with what is called a casper shield. This is a small metal shield formed in a specific shape and placed under the bulb to prevent glare and light from shining down in the housing thus in turn preventing it from reflecting out and up into other drivers eyes. The shape of the casper shield comes in with the headlights cut off, the shape will give a headlight a straight line cut off.
Doing a projector retrofit is perfectly legal too. When doing this, you are using a projector from another vehicle, as stated before such as an e46 or other common projectors, and installing it into your housing. These projectors are legal and there is nothing wrong with doing it.
getting into the technical aspects of projectors. The cutoff is the line where the light stops and is prevented from going any higher due to a shield inside the projector covering the bottom have so no light is projected out above the cutoff. People want HIDs that are purple and blue that's great but the output is going to suffer due to the high temp(color). The higher you go(in kelvin) the less output your going to have. The blue and the purple 'look' that people are after is the cutoff from a distance. The vehicles cutoff bounces in and out of your eyesight making the oncoming vehicles headlights appear to flash purple and blue. This color comes from the projector itself, when the light gets to the top or middle of the projector, because of the half dome lens, the color of the HID is bent across the spectrum causing it to show a purple line at the cutoff. BMW's, Range Rovers, and Acura's have the nicest cutoffs with the biggest segment of purple at the top, this is simply for looks and can be adjusted if your doing your own retro by bending your shield.
The person who said they get the same output having HIDs in their open housing compared to a projector is incorrect. It may look bright but it is not focused light. You have stray light beams shooting off in every direction. Where as with the projector, those beams are all focused and projected into one common direction cause the light to be more concentrated(brighter) and a hell of a lot better beam pattern that will go exponentially farther than an open housed HID.
Inspections your fine, like i said this is very legal. Plus like other people said, if your working at an inspection station, your either not a genius in the first place or you just don't care. They are not going to even notice as long as you do a decent job.
If you have any more questions about them id be glad to help you out or clear something up. Earlier you mentioned halos, they are a pita to install but well worth it. I have done halos both cffc and the bmw style.
here are some pictures of my other vehicle with projectors and halos as parking lights:
CUTOFF:
I have done retros for about 2 years now on all different kinds of headlights. That is my experience and where my knowledge is coming from.
I don't really know where to start because i don't feel like quoting everyone who gave wrong info. I guess ill start with the HIDs in an open housing.
HIDs in open housing headlights are illegal, dangerous, and incredibly annoying. UNLESS they came from the factory with HIDs installed in the open housing. These(ie Lexus, infinity, Cadillac, Acura and so on) headlights are equipped with what is called a casper shield. This is a small metal shield formed in a specific shape and placed under the bulb to prevent glare and light from shining down in the housing thus in turn preventing it from reflecting out and up into other drivers eyes. The shape of the casper shield comes in with the headlights cut off, the shape will give a headlight a straight line cut off.
Doing a projector retrofit is perfectly legal too. When doing this, you are using a projector from another vehicle, as stated before such as an e46 or other common projectors, and installing it into your housing. These projectors are legal and there is nothing wrong with doing it.
getting into the technical aspects of projectors. The cutoff is the line where the light stops and is prevented from going any higher due to a shield inside the projector covering the bottom have so no light is projected out above the cutoff. People want HIDs that are purple and blue that's great but the output is going to suffer due to the high temp(color). The higher you go(in kelvin) the less output your going to have. The blue and the purple 'look' that people are after is the cutoff from a distance. The vehicles cutoff bounces in and out of your eyesight making the oncoming vehicles headlights appear to flash purple and blue. This color comes from the projector itself, when the light gets to the top or middle of the projector, because of the half dome lens, the color of the HID is bent across the spectrum causing it to show a purple line at the cutoff. BMW's, Range Rovers, and Acura's have the nicest cutoffs with the biggest segment of purple at the top, this is simply for looks and can be adjusted if your doing your own retro by bending your shield.
The person who said they get the same output having HIDs in their open housing compared to a projector is incorrect. It may look bright but it is not focused light. You have stray light beams shooting off in every direction. Where as with the projector, those beams are all focused and projected into one common direction cause the light to be more concentrated(brighter) and a hell of a lot better beam pattern that will go exponentially farther than an open housed HID.
Inspections your fine, like i said this is very legal. Plus like other people said, if your working at an inspection station, your either not a genius in the first place or you just don't care. They are not going to even notice as long as you do a decent job.
If you have any more questions about them id be glad to help you out or clear something up. Earlier you mentioned halos, they are a pita to install but well worth it. I have done halos both cffc and the bmw style.
here are some pictures of my other vehicle with projectors and halos as parking lights:
CUTOFF:
I just bought some.
