Grillcraft grilles

headlight:

I used an HID kit from VVME. They are cheap, and have a good reputation in the BMW forums. The slimline ballasts are a breeze to fit. I chose 4300K (the OEM color) all the way around.

Rather than blind oncoming traffic, I retrofitted a projector assembly into the stock VTX headlight assembly. The projector has a moveable shield that comes down (up actually) to produce a sharp Z cutoff. The high beam switch just moves the shield out of the way.

Chet at Rattlebars recommends modifying the headlight circuit with a relay to relieve the notoriously fragile stock starter switch from frying. But in this case, the circuit is actually running less power than stock (35W HID versus the stock 50W/60W halogen), so I left the circuit alone. But the 100W halogen auxiliary high beam (see below) is triggered by a relay from the high beam circuit. limiting the total wattage handled by the starter switch to a single 35W HID.

fog lights:

The Hondaline Interstate fog lights use H3 bulbs. The swap over to HID is pretty simple, but a hole needs to be drilled into the backing plate. The HID power leads come directly out of the back of the bulb, whereas the halogen H3 has leads at 90° to the bulb. The blub shield also has to be pushed out just a bit to clear the end of the HID bulb.

The slimline ballasts are no problem to tuck away anywhere. But since the leads are fairly short, they need to be near the bulbs. I fabricated some mounting plates from .1" aluminum. The ballasts are mounted with rivnuts. This position has the ballasts up and out of the airflow, and out of sight.

The fog lights are wired to a relay that is triggered by the low beam output. This allows the starter button to kill to fog lights also when the starter is engaged. There is a switch in the center panel under the seat/tank junction for an override disconnect. The high side of the relay circuit is wired into a Fuzebox mounted under the right side cover.

auxiliary high beam:

The HID headlight is plenty good, but I wanted a halogen light somewhere up front to support a modulator. I chose a 1400 series driving light from Hella. It throws a beam way down the road, especially with an upgraded is Interstate fog lights use H3 bulbs. The swap over to HID is pretty simple, but a hole needs to be drilled into the backing plate. The HID power leads come directly out of the back of the bulb, whereas the halogen H3 has leads at 90° to the bulb.

harness:

I am a fanatic for neat wiring, so my normal practice is to wire everything up, test it, and then disassemble and make an OEM-quality harness. Here is the harness for all of the lighting: