headlight projector whats good to build some headlights

Are these for show only or will they be used on the road / MOT'd ?
It makes a difference as road / MOT means you will have to abide by the rules and regulations (I don't know what they are other than they exist) as last thing you want to do is spent time and money making the lights only to find they are an MOT fail.
Using standard fitment lights rather than cheap eBay items is a good idea as at least you will know they conform.
However I can't help wondering why you want to "reinvent the wheel" when there are plenty of decent aftermarket light already available. I can understand if you were planning radical body modifications and therefore need lights to fit in with your design but seeing you intent keeping the original boxes then surely it'd be simpler to buy decent "off the shelf" e36 uprated headlights. Even brand new standard with decent bulbs will probably be a big improvement of the current old items if you don't find they are good enough. You'd be surprised at how much difference a slighly dull refector, that you only notice when next to a brand new item, make to light output.

Paul h

Good point about ageing wiring. Neighbour had a e46 diesel and had to change the injector wiring as it had deteriated - he said a common BMW problem
Might be worth adding relays so the main and dip wiring from column switch simply work as trigger and main feed for lights comes direct, via fuse, from battery.


Paul H

If your planning on using them on the road without going through the MOT to check the beam pattern and fitting the self leveling your being pretty selfish, those lights are often blinding even when fitted by the manufacturers let alone by an amateur who decides to give his fat mate a lift home in the back in the dark.

Just fit driving lamps for when the road is dark and remember to turn them off when you get back into street lit areas.

Years ago I had a pickup truck with 4 lights in the grill, 4 on the roof and one at the base of each A pillar, i flashed a guy i knew coming towards me up a dark lane one night (I had forgotten to turn the extra spots off the main beam circuit after being off road) and I ended up towing his MG metro out of the roadside ditch, he couldn't see so steered off the road to avoid hitting me.

Hi, most BMW e36 lights are halogen so that is the MOT sorted. Most headlight reflectors with a clear glass will give a spot/pencil beam. The dip comes from partly the offset filament and partly the prisms moulded in the glass. HID conversions are not entirely successful because the lamp is bigger than a halogen lamp and is not all in the focal point of the reflector and so you get some light scatter. HID reflectors are different to counteract this, so in short you need proper HID lights. Which is what you are asking for I know that. A lot of cars with HID lights nowadays don't have round lights. So if you can live with the compromise of a conversion that will be your cheapest option. Sorry I could not be more help, but I was just as frustrated when I looked into doing similar.

Colin

I have a mate who works at a garage and has acess to the best headlight beam setup equiptment available
so I wont be blinding anybody thats the point of trying to do it properly
not just buying some crappy ebay jobbies that give out curse word light all over the place

very good reply colnerov cheers mate

this is why I'm asking if for instance you have an audi whatever model and you find the hid lights have good output beam and you rate them highly
compared to your ford whatever model that had bad lights that blinded everyone