I currently own a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Es. I want to convert my light housing and the lights to an evo 8 setup so that I can have hid lights. I am going through this trouble as to the fact that in pennsylvania they are illegal to have unless they have a projector housing. Anyone with any advice or help to how hard this conversion will be would be greatly appreciated.

 

That can't be true... unless all the lexus are illegal in pennsylvania as well (they have HID's without projectors). And Some mercedes and jaguar have HID's without projectors. Even some BMW have HID's without projectors. Anyways... aftermarket HID's are illegal, period (be it with projectors or without).

 

Well thats always good to know in pa factory hids are legal because they are not nearly as bright as what I plan on buying. As well for them not to be illegal as pertaining to pa law I would need to have a projector housing inside my light. Anyone have any ideas. Bump to a good sale for your hids and housings.

 

ive seen some of ur posts... did u just get a lancer?

 

I just got it in january, why do you ask?

 

I just didnt take much interest in doing a lot of things till the last month or two

 

Because this is one of the questions that gets asked a lot by a lot of newer forum members. The Evo and Lancer front ends are very different so without some body work the conversion isn't gonna happen.

 

I realized that it would take some body work I was just wondering what kinda money I was looking at spending to do the body work and how much time it would consume.

 

crap, uhh, run a search, this exact thing was just discussed very recently. It would into the thousands, would have to get new hood, new fenders, HID kit, housings, and then all the labor for it to be done (unless you do it yourself)

 

Well, assuming he got the headlights and ballasts from an Evo, that would cut the cost of the kit and housings. But yeah, the money is gonna be spent on molding the front to wrap around the headlights.

 

with a little knowledge on body work, fiber glass, and metal work... It probably wouldn't be too hard or expensive. The big cost would come in on the paint job, unless you can paint too.

 

what a newb thread

 

the big cost will come from new fenders, front bumper, and hood

 

even with a little knowledge its a costly conversion.

parts needed to do evo conversion:
-front bumper
-front L/R fenders
-front L/R headlights
-hood
-radiator support
-evo radiator

those parts would cost a pretty penny from a junkyard if you are lucky to find a complete front untouched from since most junkyards take in cars that have been totalled and the most common areas for a car to be totalled is in the front. so....yeah...

the other part is taking off your stock radiator support and rewelding and re-aligning the support to have the proper fitment....this requires alot of time to do. Not only does this require time but you would also need to install the evo radiator since its shorter than the lancers and wider. You can install stock fans or slim universals from pep boys for 60 a each.


then theres the question of "why dont you just mold the headlights onto the stock lancer front?" well the evo headlights aren't as tall as the lancer headlights meaning mounting the evo headlights will require to extend the hangers on the headlights which are a ***** to do without making it look like it was a mickey mouse job or modifying the radiator support which will be an even heavier task to do. Then comes to extending the hood down to fill in the gap between the evo headlights and stock lancer hood. Then re-shaping of the fenders will be need and possibly widened since the evo headlights are longer than lancer headlights.

 

its asking for a really experienced bodyshops experience to do...it is possible to do at home DIY type of thing but you'd need to have the experience/skills to do this...that along with the proper tools...