Mintaka (Honda Prelude) CustomLightz HID Headlight Retrofit

Mintaka is Holly's1994 Honda Prelude VTEC. Holly bought Mintaka roughly two years ago. Mintaka had almost exactly 72,000 miles on her when Holly bought her, which is REALLY LOW for a Honda Prelude, especially a 1994. The previous owner had done a few modifications including Enkei wheels, an AEM cold air intake, and an aftermarket exhaust that we're not sure about the manufacture on. Also, the Mintaka has the clear JDM parking corner lights. Otherwise, it's stock.

The headlight output has always left something to be desired. The glass on the headlights was in great shape. The issue had to be the bulbs. Holly and I have recently been spoiled by driving Cagalli Yula (Subaru BRZ Limited) which comes with OEM HID headlights. The difference is pretty staggering between HID and halogen headlights. Also, the added visibility and thereby the additional safety of the HID headlights is wonderful, something I first noticed around 5 or 6 years ago when driving a friend's Nissan Murano. Driving the Murano and talking to my friend James got me interested in the headlight retrofits.


There are multiple ways to add HID headlights to your car. In one case the HID bulbs are added without modifying the housing. This puts out very intense light output through a housing meant to distribute to the maximum of its ability the weaker output of a halogen bulb. In many ways it is worse than driving with your brights always on. These are the people driving that blind you all the time.
Another method is to retrofit HID projectors into your existing headlights. This modification uses the focusing of projectors in order to maximize the output of the HID light bulbs while not blinding other drivers. This is where CustomLightz (CustomLightz on Facebook) comes in. Bjorn has been doing HID headlight retrofits for years now. By his own estimation he's done 1200-1500 retrofits, which as far as I know, makes him the most experienced int he game. If you want it done right, have CustomLightz do it.

Anyways, here are pictures of Mintaka and the headlight retrofit.

Before image of Mintaka's headlights against the apartment wall:

 Before image of Mintaka's headlights and parking lights:

Heat guns were used to remove the glass. CustomLightz did the retrofit work.
MiniH1 projectors were used with K-type shrouds.
Denso ballasts were used, which are OEMs and built real well.
Also, 4300K HID headlight bulbs were used.

 
Completed and mounted headlights:

Image of the engine bay with the AEM cold air intake:

 Image of the Enkei wheels:

Previous owner also blacked out the tail lights:

Headlights on:

Images of the headlights in daylight:

 After image of Mintaka's headlights against the apartment wall:

 
Headlights and parking lights on after the HIDs installed:

Needless to say the light output has increased significantly.
There are no issues with the headlights blinding other drivers.
The headlights are now wonderfully distinctive.
My favorite aesthetic feature is that there is now a distinctive gap between the headlight and daytime running light while before they just blended together.