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My Q45 retrofit Project

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Old 02-24-2010, 06:13 PM
  #1  
ChrisNelson
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Default My Q45 retrofit Project

I'm starting a project that I hope to have completed sometime this summer. The Infiniti Q45 has really weird OEM projector lenses with HID lights behind them, called the Gatling Projector:


These are OEM pieces with a very unique look. What I've done is purchased 1 OEM Q45 headlight and 1 OEM 350z headlight, and I'm going to take them both apart and do a Q45 Projector retrofit in my spare 350z headlight, along with some other headlight mods like demon eye, halo, blackout and possibly some LEDs.

Once I master this trial retrofit I will do the mod to my own car's headlights.

This is what it should look like when finished, just not as blue:



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This is what my car looks like now:
Old 02-24-2010, 06:21 PM
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ChrisNelson
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Tonight I started on the project - tearing apart the old Infiniti headlight:
THIS THING IS HUGE!
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Baked it in the oven to loosen up the silicone:

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Then after it was heated up I pried on the tabs on the sides and separated the lens from the housing:

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Then I removed the "gatling" projector assembly from the housing and took it apart for initial cleaning:

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Next week I'll get my new/used 350z headlight in the mail and I'll take it apart and start doing the retrofit.
Old 02-24-2010, 06:32 PM
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cliffrlp
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Great write up so far! I've seen another black z with this retrofit somewhere on the forum. Is your 350z headlight coming from an 03-05 or 06+??
Old 02-24-2010, 06:32 PM
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Prone
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Nice to see there is people with imagination and originality left on the forum. Hope it turns out the way you planned it to. Good luck
Old 02-24-2010, 06:34 PM
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ChrisNelson
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Originally Posted by cliffrlp
Great write up so far! I've seen another black z with this retrofit somewhere on the forum. Is your 350z headlight coming from an 03-05 or 06+??
I've got an '05 so I'll be using those headlights
Old 02-24-2010, 06:40 PM
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Kwame
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Unfortunately, the light output from the Q45 projectors is not as bright as our OEM ones.

Good Luck.
Old 02-24-2010, 06:43 PM
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gregom
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Kick ***! In for progress!

Those projectors are really weird, i've seen a few mods over at the hidplanet.com forums with them. Not my style but definitely unique and i'm sure you'll get lots of comments in public.

I retrofitted some projectors into my headlamps a couple weeks ago, but that was just my cheap way of making 2006+ bixenon headlamps. I used BMW M3 E46 projectors...

Good luck with your mod, take lots of pics for us! You MUST take some comparison light output pics for us, output on the road and the cutoff on a wall. Really curious to see the differences here.

BTW I think your car has a cold... it's sniffling.
Old 02-24-2010, 07:01 PM
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Kiriller
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Subscribed, want to see your end result, besure to post a dyi, people would love to do this on their own, i my self is fine with the 06, but for 03-05 folks this is pure win
Old 02-24-2010, 07:10 PM
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Awesome effort.

The blue car above is mine. I don't know if you have pm'd me about these, and I am sorry if I did not reply (I get so many pm's I just stopped replying b/c of lack of time). I bought them from the original inventor of them (the silver z in your post). The black Z subsequently purchased them from me.

The hardest part about this mod is shaping the internal assemblies so they look oem. Also, because of the heat dissipation, standard paint will cause fuming on the plastic lenses. That is why mine had a textured paint because they were the best to handle the heat yet still look nice. Make sure that you measure the height on both sides. Take as much time as you can, because the efforts you exert in the fabrication phase will make all the difference for the life of your setup.

The lights I had were my favorite mod by far, and look absolutely stupid (in a good way) at night time. My brother said that my car looked akin to a moving exotic when I used to have them at night time. This is a really tough modification, but kudos for your effort.

Good luck.

Last edited by GQ 350z; 02-24-2010 at 07:11 PM.
Old 02-24-2010, 07:28 PM
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Wow! Good stuff! Looking forward to the progress!

Out of curiosity, are you going to lose high-beams with this project? Looks like the cut-off shields are built-in and do not move... is that correct?
Old 02-24-2010, 08:08 PM
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in for the coolest mod that ill never have
Old 02-24-2010, 08:43 PM
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I suppose you could make your own version of this with bixenon capability. It would be a fun little project for a fabricator.

When I initially saw the Q45 a couple years ago I was hoping all the little lenses were individual projectors with their own projector bowls and some LED's. I think of someone spent some time on the engineering we could have a true LED multiprojector headlamp. Imagine a 25-30 microprojector LED headlamp... could be awesome.
Old 02-24-2010, 08:43 PM
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Originally Posted by gr8scott_o
Wow! Good stuff! Looking forward to the progress!

Out of curiosity, are you going to lose high-beams with this project? Looks like the cut-off shields are built-in and do not move... is that correct?
Correct. Good catch.
Old 02-24-2010, 09:23 PM
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Yea, I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the high beams - but I've got a couple interesting ideas.
Old 02-24-2010, 09:55 PM
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Yeah there is quite a few cool things you could concoct... get those engineering juices flowing! Sounds like fun!
Old 02-25-2010, 05:39 AM
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In for you to make me a set when your all done...
Old 02-25-2010, 06:00 AM
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GL op... makes the Z look possessed. In for the finale!
Old 02-25-2010, 06:24 AM
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Good stuff
Old 02-25-2010, 07:00 AM
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vex008
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good job so far.
sub'd

Last edited by vex008; 02-25-2010 at 05:10 PM.
Old 02-25-2010, 10:01 AM
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ChrisNelson
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Started on the Demon eye mod today. Used a flexible StreetGlow LED strip. Comes pre-packed with 3m body panel tape which I believe will be strong enough to hold. I am a little concerned that the heat of the HID bulb will pose an issue for the LED strip, but only time will tell. They are pretty durable so it will likely be OK.

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