1995 Volvo 850 T5 -- 2 din install

**LiquidKernel** · 01-17-2006, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by UnsanePyro

The TL is going pretty well, I've got a couple little issues with ti right now, but really stuff that is my fault so I can't complain.

I actually opened VS back up, I think I'm gonna start posting over there again, it's a cool group of people.

Did bing move out to Cali?

Yep, bing lives in San Jose I think... I saw him at the Santa Cruz meet last last year.

**LiquidKernel** · 01-17-2006, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by Cris

What's that I read in your sig: custom LED brake lights, BOSCH E46 Single-Xenon retrofit? Could you post spme pics of that?

Of course...

The LED brake lights are nothing special really. A little later I'll do one for the top bar of the tail lights using SuperFlux LEDs. Currently I have 40 LEDs on a PCB where the brake light bulb used to be. In the photo below the left tail light is on the right, and the right is on the left.

What's cool though is that it does the super quick on-off like LED tail lights do.

The BOSCH projector retrofit is an HID retrofit I did to my headlights. Used 2.5" BOSCH single-xenon projectors, BOSCH gen2 ballasts and Philips 85122 D2S bulbs. Currently I have fluted lenses on the front, so the cutoff is distorted, but it's still a world of difference versus stock. The output is VERY good, with a nice wide spread (on a dark freeway at night I can see atleast two lanes to the left and right of me). Down-the-road illumination is pretty good too. Not as good as Acura TL or Lexus LS430 projectors, but still good! The 3rd photo has a pic of the beam pattern, which is really bad due to the flueted glass lenses. Fourth photo shows the projector and shroud w/o the flueted lens.

As you can tell, I like lighting

**blacklancer** · 01-17-2006, 04:55 PM

how did you do the rear led's??

**LiquidKernel** · 01-17-2006, 05:14 PM

Originally Posted by blacklancer

how did you do the rear led's??

PCB with 40 LEDs, seperated in sections containing 4 in series, two sections are then wired up in parallel and that set of 8 are sitting in series with a large wattage resistor (forgot the ohm rating though).

Cut out the part of the tail light that holds the bulb and stuck the board in place instead.

**jon102034050** · 01-17-2006, 05:17 PM

sweet headlights, i've been going to put some Helios HIDs in my alti for a while now, just cant seem to find the money right now though.... Do you think it was worth the time/money? btw how much did it cost for the headlights?

**LiquidKernel** · 01-17-2006, 05:22 PM

Originally Posted by jon102034050

sweet headlights, i've been going to put some Helios HIDs in my alti for a while now, just cant seem to find the money right now though.... Do you think it was worth the time/money? btw how much did it cost for the headlights?

Oh man, doing a retrofit is SO worth the effort. Shoving HIDs into stock halogen housings is not only illegal/annoying to other drivers, but you get horrible output (basically you get a big bright spot infront of the car, no useful light).

I did my retrofit SUPER cheap. Let's see...
OEM Volvo 850 Headlights: ~$90 for the pair used from eBay
BOSCH E46 Single-Xenon projectors: ~$80 for the pair, used from HIDplanet forums
BOSCH Gen2 ballasts: ~$120 for the pair, used from HIDplanet forums
Audi A4 2.5" shrouds: ~$50 for the pair, used from HIDplanet forums

$340 for a proper retrofit solution with 0 downtime on my original headlights? I couldn't have asked for more! Now I just need to spend $80 on buying plastic front lenses and sanding them down to remove the flueting (making it clear).

It's so worth it man. Go check hidplanet.com forums, many people have retrofit Altimas.

**Cris** · 01-18-2006, 12:07 AM

Those look really sweet!

I wanted to fit a HID system into my Escort, but it has flueted glass...how did you say you were gonna make them clear?

Now, if you posted these, you just got to show us the rest of stuff in your sig...

**LiquidKernel** · 01-20-2006, 02:05 AM

Originally Posted by Cris

Those look really sweet!

I wanted to fit a HID system into my Escort, but it has flueted glass...how did you say you were gonna make them clear?

Now, if you posted these, you just got to show us the rest of stuff in your sig...

There is a guy on the VolvoSpeed forums that took plastic aftermarket replacement lenses and sanded the flutes down. Then polished the plastc with polishing compound and finally sprayed a layer of UV high temp clear coat.

Ah nothing too special. Just the orange LED backlights on my instruments and a 5-series and 7-series-like orange blow coming from the ceiling of the car down to the center console... love that feature. Not many pics of my Koni's or my SpeedTuning ECU upgrade

Okay... MORE PICS AND UPDATES!

Today's work included:
* Moving the LCD forward a bit
* Cutting and temporarily tacking in the bezels together until the bondo work is done
* Extending the LCD's CCFL connector, allowing the control board to sit horizontally inside the cage, away from the LCD panel itself (required for the connections)
* Checking out the new BIOS image I made

18 gauge, 600V rated wires in place of the CCFL backlight connector

Connector on other send, heatshrink tubing covers contacts

Bios image

The motherboard, DC-DC PSU, hard drive and my ATX bench PSU that I'm using to get 12Vs from. The DC-DC PSU is super small. You can see the VGA cable and USB cable plugged in. The USB is for the touch screen.

The skin I'm using.. pretty

More to come..

**Rafster** · 01-20-2006, 02:13 AM

Originally Posted by LiquidKernel