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I had this over on FTV6, so I figured Id share with yall as well.
So, as most of you 93-97 Camaro guys know, our head lights sucks, and there are no after market HID kits for them. If you are to install the HID's in the headlights the light pattern is scattered, which causes empty spots of not light on the road and blinding other drivers. I decided I would go ahead and put HID's in anyways. Its amazing how much brighter they are than the halogens, but I was having problems with there being next to no light in the center of the road while driving at night. I combated this with my halogen fog lights. However, I no longer have fog lights due to my intercooler cut out, so I needed a way to fix this problem.
So, I did a lot of reading and found out that the problem with HID's in non-projector style housings is that the light emitted from the tip of the HID bulb scatters the light pattern. This causes the light to not "bounce" off the concave light housing correctly, which leads to completely wrong light pattern. So companies started making "caps" for the tips of the HID bulbs. This stopped the light from exiting the tip of the bulb, which gave the correct lighting patter. This is why you see halogen bulb's tips have paint on them, to give the right pattern.
I found several companies that will cap your HID's for you, but it cost about $20-50, and that makes it to where I was going to be without lights for at least a week. So I decided to cap my own bulbs and save some money and time. Here is how I did it:
First I had to get the HID's out of the housing. When I initially installed the HID's I had to use silicon to hold them in place. So I cut away the silicon and pulled the bulbs out. Here is the bulb (sorry for the crappy pic):
Then I took a small piece of aluminum foil:
And wrapped it around the tip of the bulb. You must be careful when doing this. The bulb and the wire coming out of the bulb are very delicate, so try not to touch the bulb with your fingers. (once again, sorry for the crappy pic, the lighting was confusing my phone's camera)
And both bulbs capped:
You can see all the left over silicon from the last time these were in the housing, but I cleaned all that off before reinstalling. I also smoothed out the aluminum and made it even all the way around after taking this pic. I also put a VERY small dab of super glue on the aluminum foil where it wrapped over itself, this kept the cap in place.
After you cap the bulbs you just put the bulbs in the housing, clamp the bulb and the housing together with a large C-clamp or any other kind of clamp, and put silicon around the base of the bulb (the black part) and the housing. Let the silicon set for 24hrs, reinstall the headlights, and you're done!
I dont have any pics of the housing all put together, but if anyone wants I can take the housing out of the car and take a pic of it. As soon as I get the car back from the hobby shop I will also take a night pic to show the pattern. The difference from before the capping and after the capping is AMAZING! There are no light-less spots and the patter has a nice cut off (not like a projector, but like the halogens had). They are still just as bright as they were before, but you can see so much more now that they project right.
So, as most of you 93-97 Camaro guys know, our head lights sucks, and there are no after market HID kits for them. If you are to install the HID's in the headlights the light pattern is scattered, which causes empty spots of not light on the road and blinding other drivers. I decided I would go ahead and put HID's in anyways. Its amazing how much brighter they are than the halogens, but I was having problems with there being next to no light in the center of the road while driving at night. I combated this with my halogen fog lights. However, I no longer have fog lights due to my intercooler cut out, so I needed a way to fix this problem.
So, I did a lot of reading and found out that the problem with HID's in non-projector style housings is that the light emitted from the tip of the HID bulb scatters the light pattern. This causes the light to not "bounce" off the concave light housing correctly, which leads to completely wrong light pattern. So companies started making "caps" for the tips of the HID bulbs. This stopped the light from exiting the tip of the bulb, which gave the correct lighting patter. This is why you see halogen bulb's tips have paint on them, to give the right pattern.
I found several companies that will cap your HID's for you, but it cost about $20-50, and that makes it to where I was going to be without lights for at least a week. So I decided to cap my own bulbs and save some money and time. Here is how I did it:
First I had to get the HID's out of the housing. When I initially installed the HID's I had to use silicon to hold them in place. So I cut away the silicon and pulled the bulbs out. Here is the bulb (sorry for the crappy pic):
Then I took a small piece of aluminum foil:
And wrapped it around the tip of the bulb. You must be careful when doing this. The bulb and the wire coming out of the bulb are very delicate, so try not to touch the bulb with your fingers. (once again, sorry for the crappy pic, the lighting was confusing my phone's camera)
And both bulbs capped:
You can see all the left over silicon from the last time these were in the housing, but I cleaned all that off before reinstalling. I also smoothed out the aluminum and made it even all the way around after taking this pic. I also put a VERY small dab of super glue on the aluminum foil where it wrapped over itself, this kept the cap in place.
After you cap the bulbs you just put the bulbs in the housing, clamp the bulb and the housing together with a large C-clamp or any other kind of clamp, and put silicon around the base of the bulb (the black part) and the housing. Let the silicon set for 24hrs, reinstall the headlights, and you're done!
I dont have any pics of the housing all put together, but if anyone wants I can take the housing out of the car and take a pic of it. As soon as I get the car back from the hobby shop I will also take a night pic to show the pattern. The difference from before the capping and after the capping is AMAZING! There are no light-less spots and the patter has a nice cut off (not like a projector, but like the halogens had). They are still just as bright as they were before, but you can see so much more now that they project right.
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