XML offroad project UPDATED WITH VIDEO!
First off let me make it clear that this project is for off-road purposes only and will not violate rule #11 as these will never be turned on while on an actual road or paved surface or whatever you want to call it. The light housings that I am retrofitting were never meant to be run as headlights or driving lights and were only meant for off-road purposes only in the first place. I hope that covers my intent and the purpose of this project. I get the feeling the mods are reading this with one eyebrow raised.
I have had a pair of KC brand slim lights mounted on brackets that sit on the bottom corners of my windshield on my jeep wrangler for a couple years now. When I bought them they had 3 choices of beam spread to choose from (flood/driving/spot) I choose the spot beam at the time and have found on that they are just about worthless to me in my typical application. After finding the world of LED and the XML emitter I wanted to do a project that used some and at the same time change my beam pattern up a bit. I took one of the housings off of the jeep and dissected it. After taking a bunch of careful measurements, thinking about the design, and sourcing parts here is where I am at with it at the moment....
VIDEO TAKEN 9/4/12 it is a very brief video and I know it is kind of sporadic. I was worried about the neighbors wondering why all their windows were lit up. The video will come into focus after a few seconds so dont worry about that. The 2 story house near the end of the video with the white railing on the second story porch is right at 100 yards away. The video has a hard time catching all the light that is being produced.
BUILD PICS BELOW...
First off you need a chunk of aluminum.
next its off to the lathe.
Done with the lathe and you get something like this...
After a little prime and paint here it is...
After that was done it was time for the finish machining in the mill. I do not have pics of this, sorry. The purpose of this process was to machien shallow pockets for each individual emitter to sit inside of so that it looks uniform and neat. I used the DRO indicator and a little trig to find all the spots to machine.
Here are all the emitters sitting in their pockets...
With reflectors..
At this point all I have to do is wire it up and get a piece of glass to bond to the front of the aluminum. After that I can reinstall it into the KC housing and it will look somewhat factory. All you will see from the front is the black area that is painted and the reflectors. The bare aluminum edge will be hidden by the housing. It will be all black when viewing from the front since the housing is black as well. I will post more pics as I close this up. This is just one side I still have to do the other. I have all the materials to do it I just want to complete one to see how it goes before I invest the time on the other.
First off let me make it clear that this project is for off-road purposes only and will not violate rule #11 as these will never be turned on while on an actual road or paved surface or whatever you want to call it. The light housings that I am retrofitting were never meant to be run as headlights or driving lights and were only meant for off-road purposes only in the first place. I hope that covers my intent and the purpose of this project. I get the feeling the mods are reading this with one eyebrow raised.
I have had a pair of KC brand slim lights mounted on brackets that sit on the bottom corners of my windshield on my jeep wrangler for a couple years now. When I bought them they had 3 choices of beam spread to choose from (flood/driving/spot) I choose the spot beam at the time and have found on that they are just about worthless to me in my typical application. After finding the world of LED and the XML emitter I wanted to do a project that used some and at the same time change my beam pattern up a bit. I took one of the housings off of the jeep and dissected it. After taking a bunch of careful measurements, thinking about the design, and sourcing parts here is where I am at with it at the moment....
VIDEO TAKEN 9/4/12 it is a very brief video and I know it is kind of sporadic. I was worried about the neighbors wondering why all their windows were lit up. The video will come into focus after a few seconds so dont worry about that. The 2 story house near the end of the video with the white railing on the second story porch is right at 100 yards away. The video has a hard time catching all the light that is being produced.
BUILD PICS BELOW...
First off you need a chunk of aluminum.
next its off to the lathe.
Done with the lathe and you get something like this...
After a little prime and paint here it is...
After that was done it was time for the finish machining in the mill. I do not have pics of this, sorry. The purpose of this process was to machien shallow pockets for each individual emitter to sit inside of so that it looks uniform and neat. I used the DRO indicator and a little trig to find all the spots to machine.
Here are all the emitters sitting in their pockets...
With reflectors..
At this point all I have to do is wire it up and get a piece of glass to bond to the front of the aluminum. After that I can reinstall it into the KC housing and it will look somewhat factory. All you will see from the front is the black area that is painted and the reflectors. The bare aluminum edge will be hidden by the housing. It will be all black when viewing from the front since the housing is black as well. I will post more pics as I close this up. This is just one side I still have to do the other. I have all the materials to do it I just want to complete one to see how it goes before I invest the time on the other.
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