Lippys SP Turbo - Rear splitter arrived

[Lippy]

Having taken the frunk apart and seeing under all the covers im not happy with the state of the rust and crap in the bonnet area but really like not having the plastic liners there and just having the parts on display like a normal engine bay.
The bonnet area has been dusted off and a quick wipe over but I think im going to treat all of the rust in the engine bay and repaint it and whilst im there remove all of the black brackets that are pretty rusty and give them a quick coat in black paint. When the covers go back on if they go back on then everything I do will be covered so I dont need to worry about if I sell it people seeing that the color doesnt match.
I do also like taking something that looks rusty/dirty and repainting it and making it look nice again  s:P s:P



Thinking on mounting my 10lb Nitrous bottle in there at the moment   s:? :? s:?  

My quote on the gauge holder has been agreed at £20 + VAT and turns out the lady who quoted me the cheap price actually owns the company so thats good!

Just ordered some led sidelight bulbs for the number plate lights, front side lights and in the process of buying some more lights to try and make the  scock cock scock pit a bit less dim :/

You'll see my plans for that shortly though...

Heres the fuse box I made for all my aftermarket gubbins, the bracket is aluminium so nice and light like originally on the car

[JoniiBoii]

Hmm I agree the osram night breakers to me were no different from standard ones, was devistated after shelling out the dollar taking the bumper off and then replace both sidelight and main bulb to see they were no effin' different! Owell, as hated as they are on here I'm happy with my HIDS.

[ChrisGB]

My personal  review on Osram Nightbreaker bulbs (h7 +90% light, facelift)

My existing bulbs were Osram but not tinted blue on the top and bottom of the bulbs (I think they are the OEM bulbs as previous owner said he didnt change any bulbs)

I fitted one bulb today and couldnt see any difference during the day which I guess can be expected, the upto 90% more light is accurate as upto 1000% would still be true... lol

I took her out for a drive in the dark, around town and down back roads etc... and finished my testing parked in absolute darkness up against a fence to look at the beam pattern. around town I honestly couldnt see any difference at all due to other lighting, in dimly lit areas ie inbetween street lamps I could see a small difference they were ever so slightly whiter and possable slightly brighter but nothing worth mentioning.

However on the back roads and areas with no other light you can see that the Nightbreaker bulb is both whiter and bluer, (its not a massive amount like HID's but I really didnt like avoiding police in the past because of HID's and they are now becomming illegal anyway) the brightness I would say is +10 / 15% in all honesty which is enough for me, the bulbs are still rated at 55watts each so no excessive draw through cables that are designed for that power bulb, the beam pattern seemed to be sharper where they kick left on the standard reflectors inside the lamp (might be due to the color difference). The light also seemed to be brighter at distance which is what it says on the packet so that is true also but not the 35meters it states to be fair.

For the £11 delivered I paid through Ebay with free delivery I'm pretty happy with them and would recommend them as an upgrade provided you dont mind fart arsing about fitting them as its so un-necessarily awkward and time consuming to do on our cars!

I have tested the Nightbreakers in H7 in a different car. They gave a metered 0.7 stop more light than whatever VAG usually use (I believe they where Osram too). That equates to about 70% improvement. The blue tint on the glass actually absorbs some light. Phillips Xtreme made a metered 0.85stop (85%) improvement. The Nightbreakers I had only lasted 3 months in the Fabia VRs and they gave up within 24 hours of each other. Just bought a set of H4 Nightbreakers for the Mini as they claim to have doubled the life. These new bulbs are definitely brighter than the Ring that was in there as a spare, and a fraction brighter than the 2 year old Philips Xtreme that was in the other side. Don't intend keeping the car long enough to need to replace them.

Where you can make some amazing gains is in the main beam. Using the HIR bulbs from Toshiba, slightly modified to fit the main beam, I got 1.6 stops improvement (so 160%) as well as a really solid and even illumination field. You can get them here http://www.finemotoring.com/.

Quantifying light output is difficult though. Twice as much light does not equal twice as bright to the human eye.

[Lippy]

Im interested in these bulbs you have linked but they are pretty expensive at approx £40 per pair the common bulbs nightbreakers and extremes are only about £11 - £20...

Id be interested to see some pictures of beam parrerns! the website looks like it was programmed in DOS but doesnt mean they arent any good.

[ChrisGB]

I'm interested in these bulbs you have linked but they are pretty expensive at approx £40 per pair the common bulbs nightbreakers and extremes are only about £11 - £20...

Id be interested to see some pictures of beam parrerns! the website looks like it was programmed in DOS but doesnt mean they arent any good.

Only way to really appreciate them is to see the results from the car. I used to run 130W auxiliary driving lights on my Senator and these are brighter than they where. The beam pattern on the mains is normally a fairly even spread with a couple of darker areas vertical in the pattern just off centre. These bulbs just give a wide and solidly illuminated field. I think it is because the filaments are slightly fatter than the standard 9005 bulb. If you find yourself in the Essex area, get in touch and you can have a look for yourself.

Chris

[StuC]

I think it's great that you are getting on and modding your car to suit your needs  :-) :-) :-)

This did make me chuckle though...

Heres the fuse box I made for all my aftermarket gubbins, the bracket is aluminium so nice and light like originally on the car

Thinking on mounting my 10lb Nitrous bottle in there at the moment   s:? :? s:?  

 s:-D :-D s:-D

[Lippy]

Unfortunately I have only ever been to Essex once and that was passing through working in Colchester and returning to London area. I might just buy a set of those bulbs and see for myself! what is the color temperature like? is it more white/blue than the OEM yellow/orange color? Any pictures would be greatly appreciated!

I love modding cars, anything that can be repainted, slightly changed in color to make it different from everyone elses or uprated from the standard part  s:) s:)  Its probably the worse addiction to have as its expensive and a waste of money but I do most of it myself and try to keep the budget reasonable :/

[ekimq]

There are US-based sellers on eBay offering a pair of HIR bulbs for under £40 delivered, so that's not far off the Nightbreakers.

HTH, Mike.

[Lippy]

Any chance you could link them in hb3 fitting or the ebay item number as i cant find them  s:-( :-( s:-(  
seriously considering getting a set

[onion86]

Does look like you would necessarily be interested with your statement about keeping the bits on show, but I was hoping from your previous experiments that you might be the person to try making an extra large frunk box out of fibreglass as there is a lot of space that the original box doesn't fill.
This is something I've been interested in doing for a while but not really got the brains for it, I reckon it could be 60-100% larger than the original but still fit to original fixings (plus some others around the side) thus allowing the spare tyre to stay in situ... obviously the lid wouldn't fit, but with a front strut brace I can't have a lid anyway.

[Lippy]

Does look like you would necessarily be interested with your statement about keeping the bits on show, but I was hoping from your previous experiments that you might be the person to try making an extra large frunk box out of fibreglass as there is a lot of space that the original box doesn't fill.
This is something I've been interested in doing for a while but not really got the brains for it, I reckon it could be 60-100% larger than the original but still fit to original fixings (plus some others around the side) thus allowing the spare tyre to stay in situ... obviously the lid wouldn't fit, but with a front strut brace I can't have a lid anyway.

To be honest I dont think it would be worth doing, only reason I say that is because I dont think fibreglass would be that suitable which would mean you would need to make a mould and then get a plastic panel made using the mould which would be expensive, also getting the mould to be a nice curvy shape and not look like its got jagged edges all over the place would be a nightmare, other thing to take into consideration is that there are parts under there that get hot and you dont want to be putting fibreglass or plastic panels near heat.
I think you'd only get 50% bigger taking into consideration the areas to steer clear of and the shape it would leave might be pretty unusable?!?
If you were a large company and had access to decent machinery and you were going to mass produce it then yes I think it would be worth doing but for me it would be just too time consuming tbh...

I just removed my spare tyre and if I get a puncture the other half will need to bring it out to me  s:) s:)  on long journeys id put it back in though

[ChrisGB]

Any chance you could link them in hb3 fitting or the ebay item number as i cant find them  s:-( :-( s:-(  
seriously considering getting a set

You are looking for HIR 9011 bulb from Phillips. They have taken over manufacturing from Toshiba. You have to cut one of the tabs down to convert it to fit the HB3 lamp housing. Found them for £29 on ebay, not sure on shipping fees. There are some other HIR bulbs out there, but are known to be little better than normal bulbs.

Chris

[Lippy]

Any chance you could link them in hb3 fitting or the ebay item number as i cant find them  s:-( :-( s:-(  
seriously considering getting a set

You are looking for HIR 9011 bulb from Phillips. They have taken over manufacturing from Toshiba. You have to cut one of the tabs down to convert it to fit the HB3 lamp housing. Found them for £29 on ebay, not sure on shipping fees. There are some other HIR bulbs out there, but are known to be little better than normal bulbs.

Chris

have you bought these bulbs youself Chris? Im just thinking if they are tried and tested then id get a set but I dont want to do the dummy run and find they dont fit :/

[ChrisGB]

Any chance you could link them in hb3 fitting or the ebay item number as i cant find them  s:-( :-( s:-(  
seriously considering getting a set

You are looking for HIR 9011 bulb from Phillips. They have taken over manufacturing from Toshiba. You have to cut one of the tabs down to convert it to fit the HB3 lamp housing. Found them for £29 on ebay, not sure on shipping fees. There are some other HIR bulbs out there, but are known to be little better than normal bulbs.

Chris

have you bought these bulbs youself Chris? I'm just thinking if they are tried and tested then id get a set but I dont want to do the dummy run and find they dont fit :/

The ones I run are the Toshiba ones. I know that the patent passed to Phillips and the bulbs look identical. How they perform I have no idea, but if one of my mains blows, I would give the Phillips a punt. They are still made because they are OEM fitting in Corvettes and in some combine harvesters.

Chris

[trevsmr2]

I love modding cars, anything that can be repainted, slightly changed in color to make it different from everyone elses or uprated from the standard part  s:) s:)  Its probably the worse addiction to have as its expensive and a waste of money but I do most of it myself and try to keep the budget reasonable :/

All looking good mate
Hurry up and extend the centre console ,then i can see how you did it   s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

[ChrisGB]

Unfortunately I have only ever been to Essex once and that was passing through working in Colchester and returning to London area. I might just buy a set of those bulbs and see for myself! what is the color temperature like? is it more white/blue than the OEM yellow/orange color? Any pictures would be greatly appreciated!

I love modding cars, anything that can be repainted, slightly changed in color to make it different from everyone elses or uprated from the standard part  s:) s:)  Its probably the worse addiction to have as its expensive and a waste of money but I do most of it myself and try to keep the budget reasonable :/

Thing with main beam bulbs is that if you are using them as they should be used, no one will ever know the colour anyway. They are supposed to be 3600K. This is about mid way between a 2800K standard halogen and a 4300K white HID. The blue HID are normally around 6400K. Blue is not good though as it reduces visible contrast and makes judging distance more difficult.

Chris

[Lippy]

Blue hids are 8000 kelvin but i get what you mean i wont be using them to blind people with!  if they are 3600 kelvin then that is perfect imo! have you got these hir s fitted to your car currently?

[ChrisGB]

Blue hids are 8000 kelvin but i get what you mean i wont be using them to blind people with!  if they are 3600 kelvin then that is perfect imo! have you got these hir s fitted to your car currently?

The HID burners are standard at around 4300K. Manufacturers introduce compounds into the gas to tint the colour. The down side of this is that it reduces both light output and visual contrast. Most manufactures fit something around 6400K these days as it is more fashionable and these are blue tinted. The aftermarket takes things further with 8000K and beyond. Some of these are simply dangerous as the light output is so poor.

I still have the HIR bulbs in my car, properly effective. I have a spare set of compact additional main beam lights that I was going to mount, but against the HIR bulbs, you cannot even tell if they are on or off.

Chris

[Lippy]

Cool thats all i needed to know!
Where do i order i set from and how much are the hir s? (considering you rate them so highly)

Any links would be much appreciated or brand etc...

[ChrisGB]

Cool thats all i needed to know!
Where do i order i set from and how much are the hir s? (considering you rate them so highly)

Any links would be much appreciated or brand etc...

 m http://www.ebay.com/itm/PHILIPS-9011-HI ... es&vxp=mtr m

However, reading up on the Philips HIR1 it would appear that these are not actual HIR bulbs, On this basis I would possibly go for something else. Can you get Philips Xtreme or Osram Nightbreaker in the right size?

Chris

[Lippy]

Been tinkering a little today (not for long as its been bloody cold outside!)

Basic idea behind this modification is that I love actually having a glove box in this car but I can never find anything in there especially from the drivers seat...

I bought some sideways firing white SMD strips through Ebay and cut to length, used a small grommet to hide the cables through out of sight, used a car alarm pin switch (short version) but removed 45% odd of the internal spring as it made shutting the glove box difficult with the whole spring in there (usually pushes a bonnet open not a flimsy plastic glovebox)

I still need to wire the + cable from SMD's to a relay which will then connect to my fuse box I made the other day  s:) s:)

took a little while to do as I didnt want anything visable and being vary careful about damaging the condition of the car.

Heres a piccy, should be fairly self explanitary after reading the above (sorry about blurry piccy but I was bent down in the footwell looking up to actually see it all)

[uktotty]

I did it about 3 years ago

And the rear bins

[trevsmr2]

Looks good
Ive just put some in the cubby boxes behind the seats ,
wired to the door shut switches ,after all you cant get in the boxes unless the door is open

[Lippy]

And im sure someone else did it years before you too;-)

I didnt want any bulbs on show in mine, my last cars have looked like disco on wheels and im sticking to accent lighting on this one.

Did you wire yours to a door open switch to get the lights to turn on?

Cheers trev, seems like this is a fairly common mod but deffinately worth doing, i think im going to have some dim red lights in the cubby holes too!

[uktotty]

Did you wire yours to a door open switch to get the lights to turn on?

Push to break switch in the glove box