The hallmark of a textbook custom car is something truly handmade, and the headlight retrofit world embodies that spirit. While it may have been popular back in the day to fit another car’s taillights using leadwork to smooth everything over, these days, people are swapping entire projector setups from modern Acura headlights into older headlight housings. The results are striking to say the least.
Retrofitting projector headlight elements into reflector-style housings certainly isn’t anything new. Perhaps one of the most famous (infamous?) common retrofits involved the rather unique projectors from the final Infiniti Q45. The seven lenses on each Q45 projector unit resembled a Gatling gun, and although they weren’t the most effective projectors out there, the name and style stuck simply because of how cool they looked.
Twenty years later, and another Japanese luxury brand is at the forefront of projector swap hotness. See, back in December 2012, Acura unveiled something it likes to call Jewel Eye headlights on the then-new RLX. Essentially, each headlight features an array of LED projectors that each produce precisely metered, aimed, and managed light. From there, the tech spread throughout the Acura lineup, giving headlight enthusiasts a whole array of components to build their dream headlights with.
While swapping dedicated LED projectors into headlight housings is the proper way of giving an older car LED headlights, it’s not for the faint of heart to DIY. To start, modern headlights are either sealed with butyl adhesive, which can be baked soft in an oven, or with stronger stuff that necessitates cutting the lenses off the housings. From there, a significant amount of fabrication is required. The housing itself will likely need to be modified to clear the new projectors, new shrouds will need to be fabricated either through 3D printing or plastic welding to cover up any unsightly gaps, and oh yeah, you’ll have to go through the painstaking process of aiming the projectors correctly.
One of the better demonstrations of a Jewel Eye headlight retrofit comes from YouTuber IT Performance, and man, does it ever look difficult. He claims to have spent more than 40 hours modifying both headlights in his Mitsubishi Eclipse to accept Acura’s arrays, and while the end result looks spectacular, there’s no denying that this probably isn’t a project for beginners.
So, if it’s a pain in the butt modifying headlight housings to accommodate these Jewel Eye headlight elements, why are people doing it, other than that they simply look cool? Well, if you have the OEM headlight ballasts from Acura donor headlights, you actually only need to connect four wires per light to make Jewel Eyes light up. There’s a common ground, one power wire for low beams, one for high beams, and one for daytime running lights. Connect the dots and presto, let there be light.
There are way easier ways to get a sharp, glare-free headlight setup in an older housing, such as a single bi-xenon or LED projector in each housing, but Acura’s Jewel Eyes just look damn cool. Build a setup for a third-generation TL and it looks like a new car. Same with a first-generation TSX.
Plus, if you dig the look but aren’t willing to jump into your own Jewel Eye retrofit head-first, depending on what you drive, specialists are out there to make your dreams come true, so long as you’re willing to splash the cash. DC5 Creations promises built-to-spec Jewel Eye headlight retrofits for several popular Honda and Acura models, and the price tag ranges from $1,800 to $2,000. That’s a lot to spend on an older Honda, but for the truly obsessed, it’s worth it. Talk about a wicked cool OEM Plus upgrade.
Of course, we need to mention that the legality of retrofitting a projector array into a reflector housing is questionable at best. Even though, when done right, the light beam should feature a crisp cut-off that won’t blind other drivers, that headlight housing was only DOT-certified in stock form. So, is this a risk worth taking? Well, that’s up to you to decide. For a show car, I’d say absolutely, because this is one showstopping mod that gets the people going.
(Photo credits: YouTube/IT Performance, Acura, DC5 Creations)
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here in Indonesia we have been implanting Bi-LED Projectors into cars with HID / Halogen projectors for better lighting! Im Sure you all Americans can see this as a solution compared to using HIDs and LED bulbs which will still blind even when aligned correctly.
There are couple folks who make these Jewel Eye retrofits for S2k’s and honestly I think they look really cool.
Ugh, it’s ugly. The best part of aughts Acuras is that they didn’t have anything to do with the ‘teens Acuras. Beaks weren’t a thing and they had a crisp tailored suit element.
Also, pre-facelift so much better than post-facelift RSX as they kept the circular elements to call out the design of the 3rd gen Integra.
Some geniuses are… I CANT SEE, I’m blind!
Proper beam pattern and propper aiming might not be part of these mods. As mentioned by others blinding oncoming traffic was pretty common with these types of mods in the early 2000’s.
I wonder how these would look in the old headlight cases of a Smart 451. Wait, better question, would they even fit in a 451’s headlight housing?
Had these on my old S2000 for a while, they honestly looked a little tacky, and had quite a few issues.
photos please. would be nice.
Oh how original another “some Geniuses“ article….
Makes your stuff feel like tick toc life hacks videos..
The lights on that Eclipse are definitely never going to aim correctly. But as a retrofit afficionado I do appreciate the effort.
There are people out there that will spend $2k no problem on a CF intake and engine cover, so that much for something that not only looks cool but actually upgrades your vision at night really isn’t bad.
As long as it upgrades your night vision without harming anyone else’s. I’m highly skeptical that these will all be aimed properly to not blind oncoming traffic. And since they are almost assuredly being installed on cars with modified ride height, I think chances are pretty good that this will be an issue.
I’ve been retrofitting headlights since the early 2000s – It was done out of necessity since getting a quality set of HIDs weren’t available in every make/model at that time, and this was a cheap/fun way to get some extra lumens while customizing your ride. Opening the headlights requried baking them in the oven for 10-15 min to soften the glue.. with weird looks from the wife to follow. Now builders use a dremmel tool since glue is more like cement.
What you wont see in these videos is the inevitable moisture issues that are soon to follow the first rainfall or car wash. Some builds were more water tight than others, but once you crack those headlights open its going to happen. Builders stuff silicon packets or drill extra venting holes in there to combat it.
My favorite builds were a set of bi-xenon Acura TLs in my ’06 Hyundai Tucson and TSX in a ’04 R53 Cooper S. In both cases I added a gap to maximize the blue color band at the top of the beam pattern which gave it a beautiful blue flicker when others see you. Good times.
I agree fully. I’ve done a few retrofits over the years, most recently a morimoto hid retrofit into my wife’s 2010 FXT headlights along with black-housing the chrome, and a brand new set of lenses. Worked on it over a whole weekend, and loved it after I got it back together! After all of that, I got to take the lenses right back off a week later after we got some rain and they steamed up.
I ended up drilling a drain hole at the bottom, squeezing another coat of sealant in the seams, and so far (knock on wood) they’ve been good ever since.
One of these days I’ll do the same retrofit in my 23 Crosstrek sport. Unfortunately they didn’t offer my trim with the awesome directional LED headlights, so I was left with lousy halogen reflectors. I’ve seen that one company makes an adapter harness to run them off of the halogen plugs, so I may just go that route with a set off of car-part.com or something.
“beautiful blue flicker when others see you”
I’ve always thought this was kinda tacky tbh.
One man’s “beautiful blue flicker” is another man’s Pep Boys garbage.
Its the stock look for BMWs from the early 2000s, I think you’re confusing it with the 8000k bulb craze which is different.
Probably, but whenever I see it I automatically assume it’s a beater Civic with a fart can and a wing coming my way.
Next time you see a 2002 BMW M3 from 200 yards away at night, ask yourself if it looks like a beater Civic.
Only tacky because it was immolated by ricers with 8000k bulbs in shitty reflector retrofits instead of projector retros. If you get a real retrofit done with a nice spaced lens, the flicker is deep blue, but transfers to 4300k when the beam shines on it fully. Its the stock look for most BMWs from 2002 until they started using LEDs, they spaced their lenses to have flicker on purpose.. so if you think stock early 2000s BMWs look tacky then I guess thats your opinion. I think you’re confusing the look with the cheap blue bulbs.
I’ve been around a ton of builds with modified headlights, and have them myself on my Z33 (removed yellow plastic over the turn signal, swapped side marker LEDs for 6k whites, swapped in a clear xenon lens from an STi). Many guys also did some more tacky things (IMO) like black painted surrounds, halos/demon eyes, etc. It was a really, really common DIY mod in the Z community and I honestly didn’t see many at all with moisture issues nor read about them on forums, fb groups, etc. This was back in the early 2010’s. My headlights are still just fine with no moisture.
Maybe the circles I ran in just had the gluing/plastic welding figured out better?
Live in the desert maybe? Kidding.. Sure, some folks have no issues. I’ve gotten lucky once or twice, same technique. I think it has to do with what type of glue and how easily the seams come apart.
I had the so called HID retrofit done on my 2001 EU7 civic; it used new stock housings with clear covers, new Infinity HID lights, and a lot of fabrication to have it sit right and project light the way it should as well as not fog up. So, while not technically legal, you can make a headlight retrofit properly and not blind others. But it takes time and dedication, which means money.
If you shop on ebay or a local pick and pull, its cheap – I recall paying $80-100 for the projectors and maybe $150 for the ballasts and hardness. Super cheap today with Chinese ballasts.. Yeah, the legality was questionable, but if done right its the same as OEM and a cop couldn’t tell. Way safer than dropping in HID bulbs in a reflector housing without projectors.
Popular to mod these on old Accords too
https://www.driveaccord.net/attachments/s-l1600-1-jpg.542518/
https://img.benlevy.com/auto/meet/stayill20200927/img_9016.jpg
This seems like it works best on headlights where the housing matches the shape of the Jewel Eye light array best. The RSX is too large of a housing, and it just has an awkward expanse of black plastic filled in. Something like the Eclipse linked in the video looks great IMO, it fills out the housing nicely while looking clean and modern.
Side note, looking at DC5’s website, now I know why it seems impossible to find a clean mostly stock RSX. Seems like they’ve all become gaudy #StanceNation show car disasters…
Well, this is certainly better than retrofitting those awful aftermarket headlights on older F150s, but that’s just damning with faint praise.
This reminds me of an old C/D column or two where HID units were getting ripped off of cars: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15132881/in-new-jersey-they-steal-the-blue-from-your-eyes/
I want to say there was something more specific with the Acura TL, where the 99-01 units would just bolt on to an Accord of the time.
There was huge problem with Nissan HID lights getting stole because they were easy to swap into older or lower trim Nissans
Does the DSM video address the fact they are aimed inwards to be cross-eyed? I aint watching all that. In most applications they probably won’t be aimed correctly.
probably not. they’ll be aimed right into our eyes.
Hearing a RSX referred to as an “Old Car” is like a stake through my elder gen Z heart.
Does it though? *higher register*
Nope, awful, looks like a weird bug.
And, yet, you easily spend $5 at Amazon for a cheap blue tinted LED bulb that flickers and drop into a reflector housing just blind oncoming traffic. This seems like so many extra steps.
I mean to each their own but personally… not my cup of tea lol
Yup. It looks like when guys in the early 2000s would put 18″ Enkei wheels with low profile tires on their 1965 restomod Mustang…It just doesn’t fit the look of era.