Page 1: - Home
Page 2: - Angel/Demon Eyes Gen I
Page 3: - Angel/Demon Eyes Gen II from Levi
Page 4: - Photos of Angel/Demon Eyes
Page 6: - Fender filler ideas
Page 7: - Rear powered sunshade retrofit
Page 8: - Exhaust tips project
Page 9: - M Parallel Wheels and Pole Positions added
Page 10: - DIY SilverVision bulbs
Page 11: - Adding the 99-01 Rocker Panel Covers Project
Page 12: - DIY HID retooling/retrofit
Page 13: - BMW Navigation Retrofit (retooling) for a virgin E38
Page 14: - Betties's Calipers get painted
Page 15: - DIY Shdowline Trim with Blackout Tape

BEFORE

AFTER
Headlight Facelift DIY Makes your 95-98 headlights look like the 99-01 style for a few hundred bucks vs. buying all new headlights for $1,200-1,400 depending on where you buy

Let's start with the important stuff, what you need and where you can buy it and how much does it cost as of 2002:
Qty Part no Description PRICES

1ea 63-12-8-381-327 Covering Glass L-$49.95
1ea 63-12-8-381-328 Covering Glass R- $49.95
2ea 63-12-8-361-290 Gaskets-$6.00 ea.
1ea 63-12-8-386-321 Lens holder frame L-$85.00
1ea 63-12-8-386-322 Lens holder frame R-$85.00
1ea 51-13-8-236-891 Covering primed L-$14.95
1ea 51-13-8-236-892 Covering primed R- $14.95
1ea 51-13-8-236-889 Support plate L- $12.25
1ea 51-13-8-236-890 Support plate R- $12.25
1ea 63-13-8-387-633 Side lens white L- $28.00
1ea 63-13-8-387-634 Side Lens white R- $28.00

Maximillion Importing Company
800-950-2002
maximportshane@comcast.net

E38 95-98 upgrade steps for 99-01 look
Remove the turn signal lens as per the diagram
Remove the metal trim below the headlight by using a flat screwdriver to lift the plastic clip at the center most end of the trim and then silde it toward the center of the car to release it.

This gains access to the 2 torx screws as shown that are located on the bottom of the headlight housings accessed here.
Next remove the two philips head screws located on the top of the headlights.
Release the clip that hold the fender edge to the headlights by placing a screwdriver into the clip as shown and pushing toward the center of the car to release. Once this clip is released, you may have to pull the fender edge away from the clip to release it fully.

Next remove the rubber gasket around the top of the headlight now. This is pried toward the front of the headlight out of the clips you can see on it. Once free, fold it up and out of your way.

Remove the power connecton on the rear of the headlight and then pull the housings forward evenly to remove them from the car. Lift up on the front edge as it comes out so as to not scratch the bumper covers and to balance the headlight as it comes out.

Once the headlights are out of the car, loosen the 3 hex screws on the bottom of the headlight holding the trim bracket, slide it out and discard it. This piece is replaced later with the new style unit so leave the screws in place.

Next remove the glass headlight covers by releasing the metal spring clips, by prying the clips up and with a rocking motion toward the front with a flat blade screwdriver

Remove the inner diffusion lens frame by removing the three torx screws located at the top corners and one in the bottom center. Discard this piece as it is replaced with the newer lens frame and diffusion lenses

The first trick I learned doing this part of the mod, is to hold the new style lens frame up to the headlights now and mark the center point of the low beam projector lens onto the new low beam difussion lens. I used a small piece of masking tape to mark the center on the new lens.

Next remove the Low beam plastic diffusion lens from the new frame by lifting slightly on the clip at the top rear of the lens openings and pull the lens toward the rear and upward to remove. Be careful of the tabs on the bottom just lift and wiggle them back and forth until they let go, they are tight. If they are really tight use a small flat blade screwdriver to pry them out.

The Low beam lens needs to have a hole cut into the center of it to allow the projector lens of the North American spec low beam lamp to clear it. The old lens has this same hole, so I used this as the size template to draw a circle onto the new one. Centering the old lens hole
on the new lens using the center mark you made earlier to align it. Then using a lead pencil (because I learned the hard way that marking pen was pretty hard to get off later) draw the outline of the hole onto the new lens. Once you have the circle marked, drill a series of small holes through the lens on the inside of the circle leaving just a small amount of plastic in between these holes.

Support the lens from below with a piece of wood when drilling to avoid cracking it. A sharp drill bit is a must and use a sharp drill bit @ 1/4" diameter and go slow with the drill speed too.

After the holes were done, I used a small fine toothed coping saw blade I had laying around to cut the spaces in between the holes to get the center out. If you don't have a small fine toothed saw blade that will go through the 1/4" holes you drilled, find a
sharp knife (razor knife) to cut GENTLY between the holes making several passes on each spot to get the center piece out.
Next the outer edges of the hole need to be smoothed and brought out to the pencil line. I used my drill motor with a small sanding drum held in my vise, and worked the lens hole out to the line carefully!!

I used sandpaper to complete this work by hand. I finished off with 1500 grit auto paint sandpaper to get the edge looking smooth and clear, but I'm crazy and you don't have to go this far. Just make sure the hole is round and large enough to allow the projector lens to pass through it without touching (it will melt it if they are too close !). I test fit it over the projector a few times as I worked to keep things from getting away from me.

Place the Low beam lens back into the frame and test fit the new frame into the headlight housing. You'll notic that when doing this, there are several tabs on the bottom and sides of the new lens frame which would line up with clips in the newer headlights housing. They are not there in the 95-98 housings so I had to cut some of these tabs off completely or shortened
them with wire cutters, leaving enough to keep the frame in place. On the bottom tabs, there were some ridges in the housings which needed to have a slot cut into the frame tabs to allow them to fit together. I used two methods for this area, one I cut off the ridge inside the headlight housing with a hacksaw blade laying flat against the bottom of the housing. The second time I cut a slot in the tab to align the ridge so that the tab slid onto the ridge in the housing. Both worked fine, and I can't say which you would prefer, just test fit until you have clipped off the bits that get in the way of it fitting into the housing to approx. the depth that the old lenses were. That is to say
so that the lens is sitting @ the same distance in front of the bulbs as before.

Once the frame fits into the housings OK, install it with one of the torx screws that come out of the old frame in the top corner where the hole lines up with the old stud. The new glass (plastic) cover will hold the frame into the housing at the bottom when installed, so the one screw worked fine.

To install the new glass covers one or two small tabs on the side or edge of the new plastic covers need to be trimmed off. I did this with my hacksaw blade once and the second time with my razor knife either way works fine. Test fit it first to find the offending tabs and trim as needed to get the glass (actually plastic) cover to drop in place. Making sure the gaskets are properly seated in the grooves at the face of the headlight housings, press the metal clips back onto housing by setting them onto the ridges on the lip of the cover first and press back and down toward the rear of the headlight housing until they snap in place.

Install the new trim bracket onto the bottom of the headlight housing using the same three hex screws that held the old bracket.

Reinstall headlights and then turn signal lenses into car (reverse of removal above) However you will notice that the new turn signal lenses do not fill the openings in the fenders all the way. This is discussed more on page 6, but for now line up the top tab on the new turn signal lens with the top slot on the headlight housing and line up the center tab with the clamp assembly on the headlight. These two are plenty to hold the new lens in place, the bottom tab on the new lens just slides in to empty space along the side of the old style headlight housing.

Install new front metal trim piece onto the new bracket by placing the top edge onto the bracket lip and press downward until it snaps in place. These may need painting before they are useable for your car.

You are now done!!!