No more boxy headlight (lots of pics)

[Hero Danny]

Hey everyone!

As some of you may know, I am not fond of the "boxy" pregen headlight.

Now me not being very familiar with welding or modifying fairings, etc. I seeked out a solution that would be cost effective and easy to install/modify. One day my dream became true. Why not put a sticker "over" the headlight to remove the box look.

(Disclaimer: I'm sure someone thought about this before, so I am not taking credit, but I couldn't find anyone who has done it before.)

So here's the before picture (low beams)



Now the process... sorry this may get boring... I had to measure the light and try and draw it out on paper and then swap the paper to a "carbon fiber" sheet that I had laying around.
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Original headlight trace


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First little "angry brow" look to it to completely eliminate the box look and add a more aggressive look.


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Added a lid (bottom) and decided to try out what it would look like if I "shrunk" the brow... I didn't like the shrunken brow...


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Lid and original brow


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Transferred to the "carbon fiber" sticker.


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The front


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The cut out


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Final product...


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Before High beam


After High Beam


Some additional angels and photos (yes I know my front fairing is cracked)




I was pretty happy, but felt I could do better... So I modified the lid a little more...







I don't like the modified lid very much, so I am going to revert it back, or try to maybe make it a little smaller.... I figured i'd snap a photo of it anyway for you guys.

I'm proud of this and I think it fixes the (in my opinion) only flaw with the pregen for a very affordable price and little amount of time..

On a side note, I "may" start to make these for the community, give em away for free (plus shipping costs)... sort of a thank you. Haven't decided yet though, I'll have to start mass producing and it would most likely be a limited time affair.

Also, I checked the brightness on this and the functionality of the headlight before and after.... the first modification I made had "very" little affects on it... the second modification had about a 15% decrease in visibility... because of this I wouldn't exactly recommend it. It is still workable and gives off more light than most motorcycle headlights, so it is acceptable.

[Hero Danny]

Crap, I just realized this should be in the "farkles" section... I'm sorry Alex

[eddiekay]

Simple, cheap....nice approach.
Wonder how close the vinyl wrap suppliers come to OEM paint ?

[Hero Danny]

Originally Posted by eddiekay

Simple, cheap....nice approach.
Wonder how close the vinyl wrap suppliers come to OEM paint ?

I thought about that, An idea would maybe be getting a white vinyl (if they sell em) and just get some OEM spray paint to lay over it.

[NevadaWolf]

Interesting solution. Gotta love motorcycles, doesn't take much to make them unique.

Random general question, the adhesive on the material you used, would be be affected by the heat of the high beam if left on for awhile?

[eddiekay]

wolf asks a REAL good question. Gotta wonder if adhesive is necessary...possibly static cling material ????? When I thought about the OEM paint I was thinking commercial possibility too. Still...selling die cut sheets in OEM color for pre-gens is an extremely limited market....painting the material yourself is extremely labor intensive....but still...I love the idea for it's simplicity. Hmmmm....a lot of guys put blue bulbs in just to look cool...covering half the lens with a translucent blue film would be cheaper, faster, easier than replacing the bulb....and if static cling were used, you could do the mod in like 2 seconds and un-do it even quicker.
ANYBODY HERE GOOD AT PHOTOSHOP ?.....What would a headlight look like with half the lens covered in blue film....orange or yellow film ? Very Euro/BMW I bet.

[flitecontrol]

How did you measure the decrease in light output, just eyeball it?

[Hero Danny]

Originally Posted by NevadaWolf

Interesting solution. Gotta love motorcycles, doesn't take much to make them unique.

Random general question, the adhesive on the material you used, would be be affected by the heat of the high beam if left on for awhile?

Not sure, I live in MA so it's no where near as hot as it is where most of you guys live.. but I've had it on in 80 degree weather for about 5 hours and it didn't peal.. I always drive with my high beam on in the day time, it's something my father told me to do. It allows people to see you easier.

It seems really sturdy, no pealing at all. The secret is to just clean the headlight really good before the application. That's it!

On a side note, I just peeled off the old lid and it was super easy and left no residue behind. Interesting to say the least.

Originally Posted by flitecontrol

How did you measure the decrease in light output, just eyeball it?

I took before and after pics for the day time. At night time I took some chalk and outlined on the driveway the corners of where the light went, and then re-did them the next day with the sticker. Again with the brow it was barely any different at all. With the second lid I have it actually messed with it a decent amount, I mean the 15% I gave before may have been a little conservative. I'd say it's more like 20-25%. I should of photo'd the chalk lines but I didn't think of it at the time and washed them away.

All in all, I would say doing the brow is completely safe. barely any reduction of light.

Originally Posted by eddiekay

wolf asks a REAL good question. Gotta wonder if adhesive is necessary...possibly static cling material ????? When I thought about the OEM paint I was thinking commercial possibility too. Still...selling die cut sheets in OEM color for pre-gens is an extremely limited market....painting the material yourself is extremely labor intensive....but still...I love the idea for it's simplicity. Hmmmm....a lot of guys put blue bulbs in just to look cool...covering half the lens with a translucent blue film would be cheaper, faster, easier than replacing the bulb....and if static cling were used, you could do the mod in like 2 seconds and un-do it even quicker.
ANYBODY HERE GOOD AT PHOTOSHOP ?.....What would a headlight look like with half the lens covered in blue film....orange or yellow film ? Very Euro/BMW I bet.

I agree that would be cool! I'm not good at photoshop but I may give it a try, not sure yet. If anyone else has the skills then by all means!

I have about another 6 feet of this stuff, so If I get a good formula going I will start giving some away to people.

[CZroe]

First of all, the headlights on black bikes look a little better than colored bikes particularly because the black on the windscreen no longer contrasts with the fairings and, thus, doesn't draw so much attention to the boxy headlight (band of black ending abruptly at the light in the middle of an otherwise colorful fairing). Simply painting the fairings black goes a long way, especially when combined with the vinyl like the OP. Because the black on the windscreen blends with the black fairing, it makes it look more like a modern fairing that completely encloses the headlight. That said, I saw a 2007 for sale on 2008 that did a mod very similar to the OP's even though the bike was black.

Next, I think why you are having trouble finding a shape you like on the bottom is because your designs have the lowest point in the center, just like the top. Most modern designs either completely separate the left and right or they "pinch" them apart in the middle from the top AND bottom. A very small spike in the middle that sloped sharply down before gradually rising to the sides would look even better.

Because I was concerned about the heat that the light puts out, I bought green headlight mesh and traced the design of a J/K headlight. I planned to have some matching paint whipped up so that I could trace the outline that I wanted which extends outside of the area of the boxy F headlight, then I would trace the full outline and cut the mesh to fit over and around the stock light. I think that it only needs a tiny bit of black covering the middle on the bottom to pull this off but I can probably oversize it slightly to get away without even that. Even through the mesh it might need some dark headlight tint to blend better with the black fairing, which means getting the brightest bulb you can buy to power through mesh + tint.

My concern with painting anything flexible with matching paint is that the matching automotive paints are not flexible and will almost certainly crack and flake off.

I've also got a spare, cracked, J headlight that I intend to experiment with on one of my F-bikes, but everyone has probably given up on waiting for me.

[Hero Danny]

Originally Posted by CZroe

Next, I think why you are having trouble finding a shape you like on the bottom is because your designs have the lowest point in the center, just like the top. Most modern designs either completely separate the left and right or they "pinch" them apart in the middle from the top AND bottom. A very small spike in the middle that sloped sharply down before gradually rising to the sides would look even better.

I was wondering when you would comment
That would be difficult to pull off, but I like the idea.
I was mainly trying to emulate a newgen 250, I really like the headlight on them.

Originally Posted by CZroe

I've also got a spare, cracked, J headlight that I intend to experiment with on one of my F-bikes, but everyone has probably given up on waiting for me.

I haven't given up on ya! I check your post every so often for updates

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by Hero Danny

...I was mainly trying to emulate a newgen 250, I really like the headlight on them.

The '08+ does have a spike in the middle from the bottom. It might block the bulb if you made it too tall, and it would probably look too short if you didn't stretch the area beyond the area of the headlight. One way to do this is to make a border of CF vinyl all the way around that covers some fairing and some headlight in such a way that only a little bit actually comes up over it from the bottom. I'll try to mock something up in MSPaint to show what I'm talking about when I get back to a PC.

Edit: Oh, and you probably don't want to copy the profile of the '08+ light exactly because it is not flat and doesn't translate perfectly. I threw masking tape over it and traced but then I couldn't flatten my template after I pulled it off!

[Hero Danny]

Originally Posted by CZroe

The '08+ does have a spike in the middle from the bottom. It might block the bulb if you made it too tall, and it would probably look too short if you didn't stretch the area beyond the area of the headlight. One way to do this is to make a border of CF vinyl all the way around that covers some fairing and some headlight in such a way that only a little bit actually comes up over it from the bottom. I'll try to mock something up in MSPaint to show what I'm talking about when I get back to a PC.

Edit: Oh, and you probably don't want to copy the profile of the '08+ light exactly because it is not flat and doesn't translate perfectly. I threw masking tape over it and traced but then I couldn't flatten my template after I pulled it off!

Yeah man! Make a MS paint mock up, I love visuals!

I confess my pattern isn't perfect, mainly because the pregen headlight curves every so slightly and I didn't predict that. lol but it's close!

Btw on an unrelated topic, is that you in your avatar? It's hard to see but it looks like a dinosaur doing a wheelie, which is just hilarious!

[CZroe]

I didn't finish before I had to go to work today (Windows 7's MSPAINT sucks) but I really like what I was able to design so far. A few strips of vinyl can dress up the stock headlight AND the stock windscreen very nicely! I've got a slightly more complicated design involving layers and mesh to make the headlight area appear larger (thinner borders).

I will definitely finish tonight, but I'm thinkin' this is totally marketable, (C) Copyright J.E.Turner (just in case). I'd love to get a vinyl guy to partner with for these front end dress up kits. Of course, I'll share any template I make so anyone can freely duplicate the design. I just wouldn't want to see it produced for sale in places like eBay unless I'm the one doing it.

[Hero Danny]

Hey, If you start mass producing them, I'll probably pick one up to save the frustration of making them. lol ^_^

[CZroe]

OK, I'm just going to start doing this a post at a time because it's the only way I can organize all my diagrams.

First up, the source images.



Next, we'll fill in the headlights:


Now we pull the filled in area out so that we can create outlines:


Time to overlay out outlines and color-code to see what parts of the headlight are still exposed. Only the yellow portions would be visible from the original headlight:


It still doesn't look right. We can solve most of that by adding a border to finish the shape. I color-coded the new pieces red so you can see that the new, expanded, border sits mostly out of the headlight area. We still have a large area on top that doesn't quite fit with the border thickness the rest of the way around, but I've got a good idea for that which you'll have to wait for:


Let's stick it back on the bike to see what it looks like so far:


Hmm, it looks like it extends onto the windscreen a little bit and we've got a big area on the top of the headlight which we still need to figure out what we are using to cover with. Don't worry! I've got a plan. You'll see in the next post.

[CZroe]

Now, we move on to reshaping the windscreen with black vinyl. First, we outline and mark the screw positions. After cleaning things up, I remove two of the mounting bolts (hope they aren't necessary).

I don't show how I got the next shape, but I basically copied the top outline, flipped it upside-down, then deleted some of the horizontal line connecting the two sides so that it would fit it inside the remaining mounting bolts. This is the new false line for the windscreen.

Lastly, we fill in what remains visible of the headlight and windscreen.


Ready to see what it all looks like on the bike? Just let me delete the top outline aaaaaannnnd:


BAM!

I'm actually STILL not done. I don't like that the single bulb is so easily visible, I don't like the fluted lens, and I don't like how thick the CF border we have is. I think I have a solution for all of this coming up in the next post.

[CZroe]

PC hard locked so I am done for the night.

The plan was a second CF frame with half the thickness but the same outer area. Colored headlight mesh would be applied over the exposed headlight AND the thicker CF frame before the thinner frame is applied. This would make a colored headlight shape that is slightly larger than the actual headlight and an outer frame that is half the thickness. The original thicker frame is under the thinner frame and only barely visible through the headlight mesh.

[CZroe]

First, I needed to split the headlight-shaped border around the exposed portions of the headlight so I could make a template for the mesh which is a little bit larger than the exposed headlight area. From there, well, just take a look:


And ready to see what it looks like on the bike? Here you go:

Now, you can see that I decided to switch the black and the CF parts. How do you like it?

Combine it with some headlight tint and watch the fluted glass and centered bulb disappear! I think you'll want to pick the brightest bulb you can get to power through all that though.

Oh, MSPAINT has no animation tools so I cheated on this one and used an online website for animating it:


Remember: All of the area visible within the outline *IS* the actual headlight thanks to thickening the outline in just the right places and using style tricks to hide how thick that outline really is. Obviously, I put a lot of thought into this!

Getting actual measurements and such and getting a vinyl cutter to do this for us repeatedly may be hard. It should be easy enough to free-hand if you can get a template of a '08+ headlight, some mesh, and some strips of vinyl like the CF you already have. I'll scan my trace once I find it and hope someone with Photoshop skills can clean it up into some decent line-art for us.

[Hero Danny]

Wow, you've obviously done your homework! I almost feel sad I am gonna sell my pregen, cause this looks like a fun project!

I wonder how a blue HID style on the red body would look?

[CZroe]

If doing Bi-Xenon HID with projectors, there's a lot more than can be done to hide the old design. I don't like halos and LED strips, but you can use them to further reinforce the outline. I've seen mini projectors in a wide rectangle shape ("X" projector) that could possibly scatter the beam left and right a bit more. Of course, embracing the centered light and making a completely different design more like the Ninja 250RR Mono could be pretty cool too. I'd paint everything that isn't the projector inside flat black.

And I almost forgot that you asked about the avatar:
It's from an Orkin commercial that was a parody of those home security commercials. The giant roach on a bike is supposed to be casing a neighborhood until he notices the Orkin Man watching him, which prompts him to wheelie off.

Link to original page on YouTube.

[choneofakind]

FWIW, it will look way better with the whole inside of the headlight painted matte black and a projector put in. Kinda wishing I didn't paint my shroud white, and instead made the whole thing matte black

[scorch]

cool looking headlight, something i might try one day.

[CZroe]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

FWIW, it will look way better with the whole inside of the headlight painted matte black and a projector put in. Kinda wishing I didn't paint my shroud white, and instead made the whole thing matte black

I agree. It's a lot more effort than simply throwing on some mesh and vinyl but that effort goes a long way. Your effort is a big part of why your bike is the best looking around from that generation.

[Hero Danny]

Originally Posted by CZroe

If doing Bi-Xenon HID with projectors, there's a lot more than can be done to hide the old design. I don't like halos and LED strips, but you can use them to further reinforce the outline. I've seen mini projectors in a wide rectangle shape ("X" projector) that could possibly scatter the beam left and right a bit more. Of course, embracing the centered light and making a completely different design more like the Ninja 250RR Mono could be pretty cool too. I'd paint everything that isn't the projector inside flat black.

And I almost forgot that you asked about the avatar:
It's from an Orkin commercial that was a parody of those home security commercials. The giant roach on a bike is supposed to be casing a neighborhood until he notices the Orkin Man watching him, which prompts him to wheelie off.

Link to original page on YouTube.

That commercial is the single greatest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.