DIY Smoked Ellips

[MattM20]

has anyone heard of or had any experience with these?:

http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=44293&item=7903056375&rd=1

from what i can tell with google translator, it consists of replica materials of what is used in real smoked hella ellips that give it the smoked effect. it doesnt seem too hard install even though the instructions are in german. for $44 US, i think it might be worth experimenting with it.

[e304lyfe]

well, they will only work if you already have euro ellipsoids.

taking the glass is not all too easy. if it was, it would be a piece of cake.

[nando]

yeah getting the glass out is not easy! and if you break them, there are no quality replacements. the low beam parts are useless (painting the reflectors yourself is easy!), but the high beam part looks like it's good. if you can figure out how to get the lenses off the low beams without breaking either the lenses or the buckets, give it a shot. :)

I'm pretty sure the bracket that holds the ellipsoid lense in place is also black on real Hellas, so it might not look exactly like the real thing, but it might be close enough..

[e304lyfe]

I'm pretty sure the bracket that holds the ellipsoid lense in place is also black on real Hellas, so it might not look exactly like the real thing, but it might be close enough..

dont know what you mean... but just painting the reflector black is basically the same as original smoked hellas.

[nando]

no.. like in this pic:


the one on the left has a black housing (except for the backside, which was left silver to reflect rather than absorb the light), the one on the right is just silver. the reflector is a seperate peice and is not painted.

looks like this inside the ellipse:

http://www.325ix.com/pics/smoked/MVC-670F_8x6.jpg

normally it would be quite bright. in the second picture, the gray stuff around the housing is just the glue on the high beam lense. it's actually all black underneath. :P

this ebay auction has some great close ups of real smoked to give you an idea of what it should look like:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2478730272&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

I think it could look great if done properly, but it's not easy.. you'd also have to cut slots in the high beams to line up the crosshairs.

[Ryan Stewart]

MY ellipsoid lense and lense pattern plate are all unfinished metal. The only black is the plastic that is white in regular ellips. In the low beams the lights are identical except that the plastic that blocks the lense AROUND the ellips (which exists in the white euros I have seen) is black instead of white.

The blocking ring, I comes back away from the glass to meet the ring around the ellipsoid lense: http://photos.imageevent.com/rstewar...t/blackout.jpg

The part you cant see is the windowblinds that are behind the citylight (the pic is upside down).

Nothing on my lense is painted black except for the trim rings.

[Inspar8r]

Figures it was only a matter of time before someone else caught on. At least i was the first ;). Those lenses are pretty easy to pop off in the oven. 350* for 5-6 min, and you should be set. Then you just need to put in the black shields, and paint the low beam outer ring.

Making your own shields is the tricky part.

[Bryson]

heat the shit out of the glass with a heat gun and it should get hot enough to melt the sealant enough to pry off, without damaging the housings at all. I didn't wan to try the oven when I did mine.
I know it's a shitty picture, but look in my avatar to compare self smoked ones to stock silver ones. In that picture there is no high beam, as days before it was shattered on the freeway :(

[Inspar8r]

heat the shit out of the glass with a heat gun and it should get hot enough to melt the sealant enough to pry off, without damaging the housings at all. I didn't wan to try the oven when I did mine.
I know it's a shitty picture, but look in my avatar to compare self smoked ones to stock silver ones. In that picture there is no high beam, as days before it was shattered on the freeway :(

I used a heat gun and cracked the glass, because the glass expanded while the rest of the assembly did not.

Use the oven, it's safer and your headlights will not melt. I did the same thing to paint the trim inside my IS300 headlights too...

350* for 6 min or so should do it... use a pair of winter gloves to work with the parts when they are hot...

[rwh11385]

picture of the baffle?
so it just goes on the reflector as a + and then still allows the light to reflectg on the other surface of the reflector?

what did you make it out of?

[T.Dot E30]

I took apart my US ellips a few weeks ago to do this.

Haven't goten any good pics yet, these are crappy, no tripod and low light = blurry.

[EtaSport]

What method did you use T dot? I tried this very badly awhile ago with only a hairdryer for lack of heat gun. So I know what its like to break some lenses (they were already cracked). I'm not quite brave enough to try again, but it looks like some people are having luck doing it, might try again now that I have the template for the highbeam.

[rwh11385]

might try again now that I have the template for the highbeam.

pics?

how did you get it, from where?

[EtaSport]

might try again now that I have the template for the highbeam.

pics?

how did you get it, from where?

I will email you the file. It is a pdf. When you print it out, set it to 100% since sometimes page set-up changes the scale.

edit: for those curious,

http://www.r3vlimited.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?highlight=smoked+hella&t=19250

I sent you an installation guide that I found too rwh

[rwh11385]

:D

thanks a bunch man!

I was searching around and couldn't find the baffle. Rock on.