gianfranc

Here are some pics of my retro which was completed in Dec but only fine-tuned today.

I am using honda s2000 projectors with my oem xenon hella ballasts and philips 85122+ bulbs. Light output with the stock projectors was not bad especially with a 6000k hid kit but these are soooo much better. Much wider and much more intense and they use proper d2s bulbs. Most people on hidplanet.net agree that s2000s and ls430s have the best single xenon projectors. I'm really happy with the output! Way brighter than the OEM stock reflector xenon headlights.

The right side beam is still not perfectly aligned but it's ok with me (still wish they were perfect though) as the current alignment was finally achieved after 3 attempts. The previous 2 attempts were done by a US based retrofitting company that couldn't align the beams properly as they didn't have a test car. The cheese graters are really hard to aim projectors on as any adjustment has to be done with the headlights removed from the car. So it's impossible to aim the headlights while the headlights are on.

All in all, the cheese graters make retrofitting much easier than on the stock halogen or xenon headlights.

Result after the 1st attempt



Result after the 2nd attempt



Final result after the 3rd attempt

da_guitarist

cool project! Did you try the cheese grater projectors with the factory xenon bulbs? Is that even possible?

gianfranc

Thanks!

The stock projectors on the cheese graters take h7 bulbs. So you will not be able to use your stock bulbs (d2r) unless you buy h7 to d2s adapters. You will need to make a notch on the d2r bulb and shave off the ceramic coating to increase brightness to that of d2s bulbs.

Silverbillet

It looks good bro. I am thinking of getting some cheese graters myself. Just pondering if I should sell my car or slap more money on it.

gianfranc

Thanks! If you care about light output, I say get the cheese graters. A 4300k hid kit in the stock projectors are brighter than the OEM xenons (with new bulbs) I had.

gregory13lil

I have the cheese graters as well and I am happy with them so far, But I would like to upgrade to HID like you did. What kit did you use and how much did it cost. Did you install it yourself? Any pics?

Thanks,
Greg

DCarrera

so, if I am reading this correctly, I could get the H7 cheese grater assemblies and install the D2R bulb with minor mod (or no mod) in to the H7 housing? What is the deal wih the D2s bulbs, making them brighter? I thought the Xenon were all pretty similar with a 35W rating.

CLK FAN

Your car gives me flash backs and great memories from when my car had the same wheels.

gianfranc

I used a philips 6000k h7 hid kit but is cost a hell of a lot. Abt US$550. Don't think it's available in the states though. The reason why i got it is coz it's supposed to be the best in the market and it's made by philips, meaning it's as realible as any OEM xenon.

Here are pics from a previous thread of mine.
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...599&highlight=

gianfranc

Well yes you can install your stock d2r bulbs. However, you need to purchase (on ebay or hidplanet) h7 to d2s adapters so that the bulb fits snugly in the h7 socket.

d2r bulbs have a ceramic coating on the side of the bulb coz reflector type xenon housings might cause glare if too much light is emitted from an unprotected hid bulb. They don't have optics to focus light as well as projectors. d2s bulbs are brighter coz they are meant to be used in projectors. Since light output is focused when seen from projectors, there is no need for any ceramic coating on the bulbs. The ceramic coating means that d2r bulbs are not as bright as d2s bulbs. This is why you should also scrape off the ceramic coating when used in the stock cheese grater projectors to get more light. Of course, you don't have to if you don't want to. The difference is noticeable though.

gianfranc

clkfan, haha i've seen you pics on mono Vs.

Well, actually I really like BBS LMs too! It's the only BBS rim that I like. Your car looks great, rep or not. Would change but I've loved Brabus for more than 10 yrs, so don't think I'll change. Haha.

amenva

Does anybody have the projector headlights with black housing? I'm still struggling if I should get the Silver ones like the pictures up there or the black ones for my black CLK 320. It'd be great if there're pictures with the car. Thanks.

What do you think, guys?

amenva

Aslo Gianfranc could you post some more pictures of your CLK in daylight? Yours looks so cool. Thanks

gianfranc

amenva, thanks for the compliment! I'll take more pics soon.

For pics of the black projectors, search for posts from the userid "noir" on benzworld. His pics here have been deleted.

For more pics of the chrome projectors, look at page 32 of the CLK Picture Thread.

s.f.clk02

williams just posted up a whole bunch of the black projecters on a silver car. there on the other forums

amenva

s.f.clk02 thanks for the tip. I tried to search but I still can't find williams's posts. There are many of them...

Could you post a couple of links to his threads? Thanks again.

clickclkboom

nice cutoff

gianfranc

Thanks!