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Projector retrofit, 1994 940

Ursan

Bored Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2004
Location
Satan's Kingdom, Ma.
So I'm doing a Morimoto Mini H1 retrofit. I went with the "defluting" route as older Volvo headlamp's are, well, square and large and I thought that lens forming would be tricky at best and overly large lamps with clear lenses wouldn't look too good.

So, I'll start with the the the tools:

Drill press:

IMG_20141001_211338.jpg


Belt sander:
IMG_20141001_201303.jpg


Media:
IMG_20141001_195826.jpg

IMG_20141002_190705.jpg
80, 120, 240 grit.
IMG_20141002_190549.jpg
320,500,800,1500 and 3000.

The before:
IMG_20141001_201225.jpg


The after:
IMG_20141001_201716.jpg


IMG_20141001_201954.jpg


The lens:
Before:
IMG_20141001_195853.jpg

IMG_20141001_195846.jpg

Light output:
IMG_20141001_210526.jpg



Marking off:
IMG_20141001_211127.jpg


IMG_20141001_211114.jpg


This is done because the entire lens doesn't need to be "defluted".

The process is to start off with the 80 grit on a 3" rolock adapter on the drill press. It could be done with a hand drill, but the press is much easier to sand into the lens fresnels.

I used plenty of water so as not to burn into the plastic and to keep it cool as a cool pad cuts best.

After the 80 I move up to 120 and then 240 just to sand a circle.

Once all the fresnels are flattened, I switched over to 320 grit using a Griot's Garage 3" Random Orbital Polisher. Again, keeping it moist, but not wet, I slowly sand the swirl marks down. Followed by 500, 800 and 1500. Switching to the Meguire's 3000 grit sanding pad, things really change. It's almost polished:
IMG_20141002_190423.jpg


Mind you, this is without polishing, just the Meguire's S3F3000 pads. (only one)

The output results:
(little fuzzy, sorry)
IMG_20141002_215320.jpg


I also sanded smooth the front of the lens from 320 up to 3000. It was rather pitted so I sanded it smooth and removed the stock clear coat.

I compounded and clear coated it inside and out and:

IMG_20141002_215008.jpg



IMG_20141002_215030.jpg




I've done this same thing with my other Volvo that has glass lenses. Those take a WHOLE lot longer. Days actually instead of hours. I was a little nervous about getting these clear again, but the Meguires pads and the random orbital sander did the trick.

Once I clear coated it, it was virtually crystal clear.

I'll follow up in the next days and weeks with the projector mounting and completion of the lamps.
 
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Bezels.

I'm making bezels to give the projector additional support.

Since the stock lamps are only made of plastic, I was uncomfortable with having the mass of the projector mounted on such a small surface area.

Also, this will help reduce or eliminate the projector bouncing inside the lamp.

They will be mounted to the backside of the projector and is screwed into the shroud.

The bezels will eventually be bonded or screwed into place within the lamp once I make the fine adjustments and correct the rotation of the projectors.

These bezels are exactly 6 1/16" (168mm) round with a bit cut out of them as shown.

IMG-0536.jpg


IMG-0533.jpg


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Completed the lamps: Getting ready for fitting. Luckily I don't need to pull the entire frame as the lamp housing pops right out.

IMG_20141020_213256.jpg


IMG_20141020_213143.jpg


The center bezels are just aluminum plates that I cut to match the bowl of the reflector. It's there to steady the projector and act as a heat sink. It'll be bonded to the bowl before installation (semi-permanently)



Also, created a dust shield.

IMG_20141020_212831.jpg


I used some ABS cement to bond them together. I'll need to trim another 25mm to clear the battery and air intake box once installed. No biggie.

IMG_20141020_212905_hdr.jpg


I cut a 23mm hole into the rubber cap and pressed the Morimoto grommet through.

IMG_20141020_212931_hdr.jpg


IMG_20141020_213008.jpg


This should keep most dust, moisture and zombies out.

IMG_20141020_213037.jpg
 
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Sanding technique.

So a few people contacted me with more specific questions about how I sanded out the aperture for the projector beam.

As I posted earlier, I used a 3M 3" "roloc" pad holders and generic roloc pads.

The roloc grits I used are from 80 through 240.

After that, I switched to Meguiars Unigrit 3" pads in grits 320,500,800,1500 and 3000.

The process is fairly simple. I taped off the outer surface of the lens as it was brand new and I wanted to protect the coating that's already on it.

Once that's done, I marked off the area where the projector's light hits the lens:
IMG_20141001_211114.jpg


Once that's done, I'll fill the inside of the lens with a small amount of water to lubricate and cool the process. Water must be changed out as it becomes contaminated. Expect up to 10 changes.

From the inside, I center the 80 grit sanding disc in the circle drawn on the blue tape and start at the slowest speed my drill press can manage (900 rpm) This allows better control and keeps the plastic lens cool.

HOT LENSES WILL WARP AND BUBBLE OUT ON YOU<caps> Don't forget to use clean cool water, change often as debris can be driven into the plastic surface.

You only need about 30 minutes @ 80 to define the aperture and flatten out the fresnels.

Once the surface of the aperture is flat and all or nearly all evidence of the fresnels are gone, you switch to 120 and then 240 grit to remove most of the sanding lines.

After that I switch to a 3" dual orbital polisher from Griot's Garage and used a 3" foam interface pad

This allows the pad to confirm to the surface and makes for a better sanded/polished surface.

Once I get to 320 grit, it looks something like this: (25 minutes total)
IMG-0544.jpg

IMG-0546.jpg


From there I work up to 500, 800 then to 1500 grit.

This is a 1500 grit pad:
IMG-0548.jpg


Results after 8-10 minutes:
IMG_0550.jpg

This is not polished, only sanded

Then I moved to 3000 "grit" (not really grit, more of a compound impregnated pad)

3000 grit pad"
IMG_0549.jpg


Results:
IMG_0552.jpg


IMG_0556.jpg


I'll be using Opti-Lens Permanent Headlight Coating to coat the sanded/polished area to UV protect it and fill in minor imperfections.
 
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Lovely sanding work, remind me why you need to do this for your new projector lights?
Do the original facets scatter it into crazy places causing high glare?
 
Exactly. The beam becomes inefficient and tends to scatter the light and can cause glare for oncoming people.

The projector beam patterns are there, "more or less" even without sanding, but there's no neat cutoff and the light appears diffused.
 
Love the way you polished those out. Looks way better than trying to improvise something, but still subtle enough that it'll look stock. Literally the best of both worlds.
 
I had the same thought.. the lighting definitively improves from stock but idk maybe if you paint the inside of the lamp black maybe it could blend better just for looks. You could paint it since the projector light does not reflect in that surface as opposed to stock

The lighting looks great, but I wonder what can be done to make it less Johnny 5? Thinking about doing the same mod on my car.

Johnny5-5.JPG
 
The lighting looks great, but I wonder what can be done to make it less Johnny 5? Thinking about doing the same mod on my car.

Not seeing the Johnny 5 so much. This is why I didn't completely smooth out the lenses. I wanted to try to obscure the projectors as much as I could. If one mounts projectors in the TV screens, this is what you get. My other choice is to mount Bimmer 7/5 series projectors and go with the quad round look.

I had the same thought.. the lighting definitively improves from stock but idk maybe if you paint the inside of the lamp black maybe it could blend better just for looks. You could paint it since the projector light does not reflect in that surface as opposed to stock

I tried black, but the dark color made the projectors even more noticeable. Right now it's matte silver.
 
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