My Q45 retrofit Project
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:
This is what my car looks like now:
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:
This is what my car looks like now:
Tonight I started on the project - tearing apart the old Infiniti headlight:
THIS THING IS HUGE!
Baked it in the oven to loosen up the silicone:
Then after it was heated up I pried on the tabs on the sides and separated the lens from the housing:
Then I removed the "gatling" projector assembly from the housing and took it apart for initial cleaning:
Next week I'll get my new/used 350z headlight in the mail and I'll take it apart and start doing the retrofit.
THIS THING IS HUGE!
Baked it in the oven to loosen up the silicone:
Then after it was heated up I pried on the tabs on the sides and separated the lens from the housing:
Then I removed the "gatling" projector assembly from the housing and took it apart for initial cleaning:
Next week I'll get my new/used 350z headlight in the mail and I'll take it apart and start doing the retrofit.
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.
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.
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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 
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.
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; Feb 24, 2010 at 07:11 PM.
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?
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?
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.
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.
Good stuff
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.
