Had another project for the look of the car. This was to blackout the tail lights.
A reminder of what they started out looking like:




Got the lights out and ready to put VHT Nite Shades on them


Then it was time to get them on and see the results. Without the parking lights on:

With the parking lights on:

And outside in the sunlight:

 

Getting caught up... I've been getting lots of various projects done or worked on for an upcoming move. I pulled out the rear seats to get retrimmed to match the front. While they were out I got the windows tinted finally. They're 35% so they will be legal where we're moving to.


The rear seat came back and threw it in. Looks good with the matching interior.


All this was done just in time for one of the main import car shows in Europe, Japfest. It was a great day out at Silverstone race track.





Now it's just finishing up a couple of things and prepping the car to be shipped next month. The main thing right now is the headlights, I've got a second set that I have opened up, and stripped the chrome housing so it'll be a glossy black. I'm replacing the original projectors with a new set of LHD Bi-Xenon HID projectors. Also swapping the original high beams with 9600 lumen LEDs.

 

What's the ring hanging down on the lower right there? if you pull it, does it explode four seconds later?

 

Haha, didn't think about explaining that. It's a part of the Japanese auto scene. It's a Tsurikawa, this is an explanation of it from a couple of sites that describe it.

The ‘hang ring’, otherwise known as a ‘Tsurikawa’ as it’s called in Japan, is basically a hand strap people are supposed to hold on to when riding the bus or train standing up. The Tsurikawas became a sign of rebellion. Members of the Bosozoku, a rebellious younger subculture, would steal Tsurikawas and blatantly hang them off their car’s rear bumpers; ideally dragging them on the ground until they disintegrate. This was illegal and by flaunting one in public on was a subtle way of giving the middle finger to society. Since then, Japanese car enthusiasts use it as an expression of the freedom it represents and they can be bought from many car accessory shops and have many different styles. (Ironic really)

 

Interesting.

I like my explanation better though.

 

The time has come around for us to move and getting the car shipped to the new location. Being over 25 years old, the projectors don't throw the kind of light modern headlights do, plus they are for RHD roads, so I decided to swap them out. I got a second set of headlights I pulled apart, installed new LHD projectors and blacked out the headlight shroud while I was at it.
Here's the old and new headlights:


And here's the light cast by first the old ones on low beam and then the new ones with low beam then high beam. I forgot to take a pic of the old headlight's high beam.



Lastly, here's a pic of it with the new headlights in the wild. I also raised it up a little bit before I took it to the port to get onto the boat. I'll probably keep it where it's at now because there's a few times it's been inconvenient being lower.


The boat left yesterday and should be picking it up in a couple of weeks.

 

Where are you moving from, and where are you going to?

 

Moving from the United Kingdom to North Carolina. Dropped off our Durango earlier and it departed at the beginning of this week.

 

Your steering wheel is going to be on the wrong side.

 

Yep! My '70 Nissan Laurel that's sitting in storage in the US is the same way. Makes drive-thrus inconvenient, but I never liked going through them anyways. Parking garages can be difficult. Been dealing with that in the Durango while it was here these last few years. It's worse in the Durango because it's a LOT more difficult to reach over and down from the wrong side to get the parking card in or out of the machines.