Capo79
Viking spirit
...so I made a new one!
Story begins like this: Capo figures his projector lense on his FZ6 isn't good enough. Browses the Interwebs and by chance ends up finding a website, HID Xenon Kit, Xenon Lamp, Digital Ballast, Angel-Eye Bi-Xenon Lens, HID Flashlight, Offroad HID, Work Light, that displays his FZ6 after the first bi-xenon retrofit.
Holy crap. What are the odds?? Seriously, they had used a picture I posted on this forum a couple of years back, for commercial purposes, and I end up finding it among billion of websites! Anyway, I demanded that they removed it and that I got compensated. Fortunately, they agreed (I really didn't mind, though) and we agreed that I could get a better projector as a compensation and that they could continue to use my pictures. I only paid 42$ in shipping, which is nothing really.
Got the projector, only to see it was too big for the headlamp assembly. The lense cover wouldn't shut properly. I then thought it would be a GREAT idea to melt the plastic just a tad... Jeez... It doesn't take long before it's melted beyond recognition, and not that many degrees beyond what it takes to get it off the headlight in the first place. So, be aware everyone! Do NOT put it in the oven if the temperature is above 110 degrees celcius.
So I was stuck with a serious problem. What to do? I didn't have a suitable mold to make a new cover, and didn't have the equipment for any type of vacuum molding either.
I then came up with the brilliant idea of replicating the KTM style headlamp covers. I just had to make sure it was symmetric, and that the hole for the projector lense was centric and big enough. I filled the headlamp (with the projector in it) with crumbled tin foil and tape, packed it dense anough to make a solid surface, while -as I said- had to keep it symmetric (which was not easy!). I poured polyester on top of that and covered it with fiberglass. I did that three times, which gave a three-fold lamination. That should suffice for the rest of the bike's life, I guess. The result from this was of course a VERY rough surface, which had to be smoothened with fiberglass putty. Then sanding. A LOT of sanding.
Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this process as I went along. It took the whole weekend, from morning to late evening. Also, I'm guessing no one is stupid enough to make the same mistake I did, at least not now after I have told my story...
To cover the lense opening, I used polycarbonate plastic approx 3 mm thick. It really is great to work with, and relatively easy to mold around curves, as long as they are wide enough (too concave or convex curves will end up giving you unwanted folds in the plastic). I then spray painted it with the same black colour I've used before on the headlight fairing.
Now: Here are the end results. I'm quite happy with it, and the light output from the projector lense itself? It's freakin' awsome, and probably four times better than the old one.
(I can try to fix a couple of comparison shots tonight, by the way - here is another website giving you an idea of the difference, allthough the cut-off is a bit different on my new headlight projector. Old projector: G1. New projector is G3: Asian-Made G1 and G3 Bixenon Projectors )
Story begins like this: Capo figures his projector lense on his FZ6 isn't good enough. Browses the Interwebs and by chance ends up finding a website, HID Xenon Kit, Xenon Lamp, Digital Ballast, Angel-Eye Bi-Xenon Lens, HID Flashlight, Offroad HID, Work Light, that displays his FZ6 after the first bi-xenon retrofit.
Holy crap. What are the odds?? Seriously, they had used a picture I posted on this forum a couple of years back, for commercial purposes, and I end up finding it among billion of websites! Anyway, I demanded that they removed it and that I got compensated. Fortunately, they agreed (I really didn't mind, though) and we agreed that I could get a better projector as a compensation and that they could continue to use my pictures. I only paid 42$ in shipping, which is nothing really.
Got the projector, only to see it was too big for the headlamp assembly. The lense cover wouldn't shut properly. I then thought it would be a GREAT idea to melt the plastic just a tad... Jeez... It doesn't take long before it's melted beyond recognition, and not that many degrees beyond what it takes to get it off the headlight in the first place. So, be aware everyone! Do NOT put it in the oven if the temperature is above 110 degrees celcius.
So I was stuck with a serious problem. What to do? I didn't have a suitable mold to make a new cover, and didn't have the equipment for any type of vacuum molding either.
I then came up with the brilliant idea of replicating the KTM style headlamp covers. I just had to make sure it was symmetric, and that the hole for the projector lense was centric and big enough. I filled the headlamp (with the projector in it) with crumbled tin foil and tape, packed it dense anough to make a solid surface, while -as I said- had to keep it symmetric (which was not easy!). I poured polyester on top of that and covered it with fiberglass. I did that three times, which gave a three-fold lamination. That should suffice for the rest of the bike's life, I guess. The result from this was of course a VERY rough surface, which had to be smoothened with fiberglass putty. Then sanding. A LOT of sanding.
Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this process as I went along. It took the whole weekend, from morning to late evening. Also, I'm guessing no one is stupid enough to make the same mistake I did, at least not now after I have told my story...
To cover the lense opening, I used polycarbonate plastic approx 3 mm thick. It really is great to work with, and relatively easy to mold around curves, as long as they are wide enough (too concave or convex curves will end up giving you unwanted folds in the plastic). I then spray painted it with the same black colour I've used before on the headlight fairing.
Now: Here are the end results. I'm quite happy with it, and the light output from the projector lense itself? It's freakin' awsome, and probably four times better than the old one.
(I can try to fix a couple of comparison shots tonight, by the way - here is another website giving you an idea of the difference, allthough the cut-off is a bit different on my new headlight projector. Old projector: G1. New projector is G3: Asian-Made G1 and G3 Bixenon Projectors )