Update 7: Losing Hope
Well I think I've come to the conclusion that this may be a lost cause after all. While the glare is completely gone (I mean completely---I put the halogens back in and the glare is worse than the HIDs), the setup has introduced new problems. What I'll likely do is pay someone to retrofit projectors into a pair of stock housings.
While this method of glare shield can easily be done and definitely cuts down on glare, it brings up a few issues:
-Like the good doctor mentioned, the high beams lose distance. I checked them out, and while they are better than the old HIDs I ran, they don't go very far. Better, but still worthless.
-Since the light can't "scatter" to the lower half of the reflector, the upper half is
extremely bright. So much so that I can walk 50 ft away off to a side and it's bright to look at. I'd be pissed if I passed someone on the road like that. It's pretty much getting rid of one type of glare and adding another....
-Heat. Regardless of whether or not the glare shields are painted, the heat on the bulb is way higher than it should be, which will shorten its life. It's so hot that the bulbs are starting to show it physically. Also, I managed to slightly burn the upper section of my reflectors (shown in one of the following pics). Not a big issue at the moment, but I hate that it happened. Sometimes guinea pigs die.
I am tired of dealing with it for now so I threw the halogens back in and re-aimed them. While I'd love to get this to work, I don't see it being anything more than a big headache. Retrofits are still the only proper way to run HIDs, and I may go with them in the near future (end of the month).
My observations so far:
My goal was to reduce glare. Did I do that? Yes, reduced it almost 100%. The stock halogens have more glare than the HIDs. The problem is that the other aforementioned issues were brought up in the process, effectively crapping on my work. For now, the HIDs will RIP in my glove box.
(For the output pictures, both are underexposed....it's hard to get a good shot of these at night because my exposure meter on the camera doesn't work as well. Headlights are brighter than they show.)
In order, the pictures show: low beam/high beam/bright/bright/BRIGHT/halogens/burnt area....
