DarkSouljur

I have a silver civic and i'm looking to get a black housing for the headlights.

I want brighter whitish lights and was at first thinking of getting HID Xenon's. After talking to riceboy realized it was a stupid idea and would probably go with retrofitting.

This thread really helped with my decision aswell:

http://www.redlineforums.com/forums/...ow-before.html

Now, somewhere in that thread someone mentioned having Silverstars as a replacement to HID's. And that got me thinking.

I don't really want to spend hundreds of dollars on my headlights. Like i said i just want a black housing with brighter white lights.

So should i spend all the money and get the Retrofitting , or just get the black reflector housing and get the silverstars? The only thing really stopping me from getting Retrofits are i dunno where i could get them done ... i don't know anyone in my city that would do them

Pheet

Well if you just really want to have a black housing headlights with a white light output then by all means, get the silverstar. I personally hate seeing HIDs on the road. It blinds the hell out of me even if they have projectors. I have a silver civic too with black housing headlights. Im no light expert but I just bought these off ebay. http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...=STRK:MEWNX:IT as a replacement for my dull yellow lights. Housing+Lights cost around $150. Not sure about the price of a retrofit/halo projectors with HID, but Im positive its way past that price range.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

well first of all, you should keep the honda headlights. those black out version are aftermarket copies and have a terrible reflector for the lo beam. keep the factory lights, open em up, and spray whatever you want with black paint. its really easy and saves $$. silverstar ultras are hardly the brightest bulb for our cars either. if you have 01-03 civic, you can use the philips XP bulbs which have the highest output available (legally). if you want even more, go with osram hyper H4 which is slightly higher wattage 65/70w (illegal, but nobody will notice). if you have 04-05, you use 9006 bulb and philips makes an XP bulb in that size as well. best thing before hid. well, almost. you can also use the catz zeta ballast system on ebay. cheaper than a new set of bulbs but it involves some custom wiring. it boosts the voltage to the bulbs so that they are getting around 15v instead of whatever the harness normally provides (12-13.5v). huge brightness increase, i would say it matches a lower performing hid projector.

DarkSouljur

Thanks for the help! I was just wondering how the black housing and stock lights are working for u now, and if u had any pictures of ur civic, would help a lot

So spraying it with black spraypaint? i couldn't spray the reflector itself could it? Because i'm going for an all black look with my headlights.

Something like This.

Are you saying i shouldn't get something like that?

And thanks a lot for the bulb info, i'll look into the osram's

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

no you cannot paint the actual reflector black, only the trim around it. otherwise you will not have any light. i believe the ebay ones are the same way and leave the middle part chrome. if you want all blacked out, and you dont mind less light at night, i would go for the headlightarmor.com light smoke tint vinyl which applies on the outside of the headlamp and will give the whole thing a smoked look. if you use the osrams with em, it will prolly be good enough to see at night.

DarkSouljur

Lol thought so

I'm going to tint the tail lights, but i don't want to tint the headlights so i'll stick to getting blackened headlights (like like you suggested painting my OEM).

Pheet

https://www.civicforums.com/forums/a...pictureid=2273

This is how my car looks like as of right now. There is also a pic of my car before i changed the housing in that album. The light pattern is kind of awkward with the new housing just like Gearbox mentioned. I dont really mind the weird output since the lamp posts here let me see well in the dark. Even if it is raining like crazy. You get what you pay for I guess.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

they look good. if you still have the stock lights, you could just swap the black trims into them and keep the oem reflector for the headlight bulb.

DarkSouljur

Pheet ur car looks pretty nice! I'm lookin for rims just like those (Black with chrome / silver outline), just wondering what kind those are?

Gear that sounds like a pretty good idea! But how hard would it be to do that? I'm not very experienced with cars right now but i want to learn

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

if you have a heat gun, its pretty easy. keep warming up the edge where the sealant is until it gets soft, then you start prying them apart. the chrome trims are held to the clear front lens with one screw, take that out and swap them around. then add some more sealant to the channel (3M windoweld ribbon butyl tape), heat it up again, and squish the two pieces back together. then go around one section at a time and apply heat, use a pair of wide nose pliars to clamp the pieces together. dont forget to reaim the lights once installed.

Pheet

My rims are Konig S906. They suit my style quite well so I love them lol. Thats not a bad idea, Gearbox. I might just end up doing that in the near future. Thanks!

DarkSouljur

Thanks gear! Can you link me to a video on how to aim lights incase i need to reaim mine?

@Pheet: I'm getting black headlights and tinting my cars tails so black rims with a silver outline will look sexy, and ur car looks awesome!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

there is a good diy on here, but basically you just park on flat ground, 25 ft away from a wall. measure the distance from the ground to the center of the headlamp where the bulb is (there is a dot or square symbol on the lens). then go to the wall and measure up that same distance and make a mark. turn the headlamps on and do one side at a time (cover the other side with a towel). the left side lower "cutoff line" should be 2 inches below the mark that you made on the wall. now, this is the official aiming instructions. every car is different, and the only way to really get a good aim is by driving the car around on dark roads (preferably straight without hills). see how the headlamps work, if you can see far enough, if the beam is hitting other drivers mirrors. you may need to adjust them up or down depending what happens. and there is an adjustment gear that you turn in the back of the lights. a philips star screwdriver will work to turn it. turn one way and they go up, turn the opposite way and they go down.

Pheet

Thanks, Dark. It will look a lot better once I drop her on some H&R Springs. Hopefully soon. Post some pics of your once youre done please