F..cked up my headlight lens cover...

Capo79 · Sep 27, 2011

...so I made a new one!

Story begins like this: Capo figures his projector lense on his FZ6 isn't good enough. Browses the Interwebs and by chance ends up finding a website, HID Xenon Kit, Xenon Lamp, Digital Ballast, Angel-Eye Bi-Xenon Lens, HID Flashlight, Offroad HID, Work Light, that displays his FZ6 after the first bi-xenon retrofit.

Holy crap. What are the odds?? Seriously, they had used a picture I posted on this forum a couple of years back, for commercial purposes, and I end up finding it among billion of websites! Anyway, I demanded that they removed it and that I got compensated. Fortunately, they agreed (I really didn't mind, though) and we agreed that I could get a better projector as a compensation and that they could continue to use my pictures. I only paid 42$ in shipping, which is nothing really.

Got the projector, only to see it was too big for the headlamp assembly. The lense cover wouldn't shut properly. I then thought it would be a GREAT idea to melt the plastic just a tad... Jeez... It doesn't take long before it's melted beyond recognition, and not that many degrees beyond what it takes to get it off the headlight in the first place. So, be aware everyone! Do NOT put it in the oven if the temperature is above 110 degrees celcius.

So I was stuck with a serious problem. What to do? I didn't have a suitable mold to make a new cover, and didn't have the equipment for any type of vacuum molding either.

I then came up with the brilliant idea of replicating the KTM style headlamp covers. I just had to make sure it was symmetric, and that the hole for the projector lense was centric and big enough. I filled the headlamp (with the projector in it) with crumbled tin foil and tape, packed it dense anough to make a solid surface, while -as I said- had to keep it symmetric (which was not easy!). I poured polyester on top of that and covered it with fiberglass. I did that three times, which gave a three-fold lamination. That should suffice for the rest of the bike's life, I guess. The result from this was of course a VERY rough surface, which had to be smoothened with fiberglass putty. Then sanding. A LOT of sanding.

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of this process as I went along. It took the whole weekend, from morning to late evening. Also, I'm guessing no one is stupid enough to make the same mistake I did, at least not now after I have told my story...

To cover the lense opening, I used polycarbonate plastic approx 3 mm thick. It really is great to work with, and relatively easy to mold around curves, as long as they are wide enough (too concave or convex curves will end up giving you unwanted folds in the plastic). I then spray painted it with the same black colour I've used before on the headlight fairing.

Now: Here are the end results. I'm quite happy with it, and the light output from the projector lense itself? It's freakin' awsome, and probably four times better than the old one.

(I can try to fix a couple of comparison shots tonight, by the way - here is another website giving you an idea of the difference, allthough the cut-off is a bit different on my new headlight projector. Old projector: G1. New projector is G3: Asian-Made G1 and G3 Bixenon Projectors )

Capo79 · Sep 27, 2011

Close-up. It's a bit grainy, but I took the photos inside the parking garage at work with my mobile phone. As you can barely see, the plastic cover is glued on top of the home made lense cover. I will try to make some sort of ring on top of this again, as to get an ever smoother transition.

Full Throttle · Sep 27, 2011

I think it looks great. Great job!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk

jay5687 · Sep 27, 2011

Looks good if that is the look ur shooting for

Capo79 · Sep 27, 2011

jay5687 said:
Looks good if that is the look ur shooting for

It sure was a whole lot easier than trying to mold a sheet of plastic. I guess it's pretty subjective what people think of such a mod, but it definately gives the bike an original look.

I'm still not sure if I want to keep the orange on the tank, though. I might end up painting it white or something. We'll see.

Wh0M3 · Sep 27, 2011

Looks nice, I know how a small mod can go wrong fast, your tank looks very much like what I did to mine. I have the hole fixed now and am taking off the paint to use some bondo to make it look better then I will paint it. I would be interested to hear the story behind your tank mod.

degake · Sep 27, 2011

Capo79 said:
Story begins like this: Capo figures his projector lense on his FZ6 isn't good enough.

Could you tell what isn't good enough about that projector? (As it seems to be the only one that will fit the naked headlight?)

Grtz,

Degake

Capo79 · Sep 27, 2011

degake said:
Could you tell what isn't good enough about that projector? (As it seems to be the only one that will fit the naked headlight?)

Grtz,

Degake

Well, if you take a look at the second link I refer to in my first post, you'll see what I'm talking about. Actually, I felt immidiately after the first try-out of the G1 projector that the output wasn't very good. Especially compared to the xenon headlights on my car. This is of course due to the fact that the projector bowl, or rather the back reflector behind the lens, itself has a small diameter. That means less reflection of light. Not only did I think the beam was very narrow, it was also faint and didn't light up the road as well as the original H4 halogen bulb. So there you have it... Now, on the other hand, I have a freakin' search light in front of my bike. Cars seem to notice me much earlier now as well, despite that I have aimed the lamp lower than before.

Capo79 · Sep 27, 2011

Wh0M3 said:
Looks nice, I know how a small mod can go wrong fast, your tank looks very much like what I did to mine. I have the hole fixed now and am taking off the paint to use some bondo to make it look better then I will paint it. I would be interested to hear the story behind your tank mod.

I had an accident a few weeks back, got hit by a car in a roundabout while lane splitting, tumbeled over, and dented the tank and screwed up my fz1 handlebar. I had the original bar laying around and figured the tank was screwed anyway, so I smacked the crap out of it with a rubber hammer on both sides. I then used what is called chemical metal and other types of paste to smooth out the not so smooth hammer markings. It is still not 100%, but it will suffice until winter. I will probably work om it whenever I get the time over the winter. Still, from a meter away you don't notice that it isn't completely even. The real drawback of how the tank is now, is that it doesn't hold as much fuel as before...

Wh0M3 · Sep 27, 2011

Capo79 said:
I had an accident a few weeks back, got hit by a car in a roundabout while lane splitting, tumbeled over, and dented the tank and screwed up my fz1 handlebar. I had the original bar laying around and figured the tank was screwed anyway, so I smacked the crap out of it with a rubber hammer on both sides. I then used what is called chemical metal and other types of paste to smooth out the not so smooth hammer markings. It is still not 100%, but it will suffice until winter. I will probably work om it whenever I get the time over the winter. Still, from a meter away you don't notice that it isn't completely even. The real drawback of how the tank is now, is that it doesn't hold as much fuel as before...

Wow. we have similar stories, I was trying the same trick with my handle bar, but kept the front fairing, I turned them till I couldn't go any further because of the fairing but found I was hitting the tank. My tank was dented by a previous accident, then had a few other scratches/ dents from when I stored it. Found some random items pilled on top of it while I was on deployment that added to the dents in the tank. (not a happy moment for me)

So I figured the tanks isn't perfect so why not mod it. Rubber hammer and a few min later it looks pretty much the same. I'm working on it now with the use of Bondo to make it smoother. I also plan on using Flat Black paint to hide some of the blemishes as well. I'm not going to paint it all, but do some kind of design over the dented area.

The problem with mine is I got a bit over zealous with it and put a hole in the tank, it's fixed now thanks to a local welding shop.

Over all I'm kinda pleased with how it is turning out and hope I can make it look better with the touch ups.

Capo79 · Sep 28, 2011

Wh0M3 said:
The problem with mine is I got a bit over zealous with it and put a hole in the tank

I did that too! I didn't bother welding or anything, but used steel epoxy instead (once again, thanks to Nelly on the forum for his advice):thumbup:

That epoxy workes great, it still hasn't leaked for several weeks.

Check out my crash-thread, where I have posted a few pics:

http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-general-discussion/39965-so-i-crashed-monday.html

degake · Sep 28, 2011

Capo79 said:
Well, if you take a look at the second link I refer to in my first post, you'll see what I'm talking about. Actually, I felt immidiately after the first try-out of the G1 projector that the output wasn't very good. Especially compared to the xenon headlights on my car. This is of course due to the fact that the projector bowl, or rather the back reflector behind the lens, itself has a small diameter. That means less reflection of light. Not only did I think the beam was very narrow, it was also faint and didn't light up the road as well as the original H4 halogen bulb. So there you have it... Now, on the other hand, I have a freakin' search light in front of my bike. Cars seem to notice me much earlier now as well, despite that I have aimed the lamp lower than before.

Do you remember how much clearance you had between the G1 reflector and the headlight cover?
Because I want to try the G5 (as its almost as short/compact as the G1, but seems to have the same/better capacities as the G3 projector).

Grtz,

Degake

Capo79 · Sep 28, 2011

degake said:
Do you remember how much clearance you had between the G1 reflector and the headlight cover?
Because I want to try the G5 (as its almost as short/compact as the G1, but seems to have the same/better capacities as the G3 projector).

Grtz,

Degake

Hmmm... If I'm not totally mistaken, I think it was between 2,5 and 3 cm clearance. However, if you aim the reflector at the lowest possible setting with the adjustment screw, you will probably get even more clearance. That was my hope when I got the G3, but it wasn't enough (obviously :ban:...).

The reason why I went with the G3 and not the smaller options, was the fact that at that point, I had seen pictures of the actual output and comparisons with the G1 which was a very good reference. I didn't want to go with a projector that I didn't know had better perfomance, hence possibly do all that work for nothing.

Have you seen any tests of that projector, or made enquiries with the manufacturer?

degake · Sep 28, 2011

:Flip:

Capo79 said:
Hmmm... If I'm not totally mistaken, I think it was between 2,5 and 3 cm clearance. However, if you aim the reflector at the lowest possible setting with the adjustment screw, you will probably get even more clearance. That was my hope when I got the G3, but it wasn't enough (obviously :ban:...).

That will be enough room, as the G5 is only 5mm longer than the G1 projector :thumbup:

Capo79 said:
The reason why I went with the G3 and not the smaller options, was the fact that at that point, I had seen pictures of the actual output and comparisons with the G1 which was a very good reference. I didn't want to go with a projector that I didn't know had better perfomance, hence possibly do all that work for nothing.

Have you seen any tests of that projector, or made enquiries with the manufacturer?

Over at HiDPlanet they had a discussion about the G5 projector...
They say it's alot better than the G1/G3 versions, but offcourse isn't as good as the OEM versions (or some versions made by TRS, e.g. TSX projectors). :rockon:

I think I'll go the G5 route :Flip:

Grtz,

Degake