Here's the updated pics with Umnitza's work. I will be taking more pics tommorrow because I couldn't get the shutter speed where it should be in the bottom pic:
Here's the look in the daytime. Note the rings are housed in a corrugated sleeve that enhances the halo effect. I also replaced both the DRL's and the blinker to the chrome bulbs to get rid of the "fried egg" effect:
Overall the finished effect of the halo's over AAC is much brighter due to the ring housing. Here's a picture of the AAC. Sorry the lamp was dirty when I took the pic, but you can see the difference between the thin (AAC) and thick corrugated look (Umnitza).
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Even though the halos look pretty cool at night, this story doesn't end on a happy note with Umnitza.
See this pic below to the right of the reflector:
The installer cut the lamp at a bad spot and caulked it in a way that it is in the exposed view. The other side is similar. I complained to Matt that this work is "worse than AAC" and is unacceptable and embarrassing for me to show you guys on the forums.
See AAC's work below. They cut the lamps in a different location so as to not have any cutting and reseal work to be seen from the outside. Also note their thin ring sits on the rim of the low beam lamps in comparison to Umn's ring being inside the diameter. At nighttime, the rings on the rims show up nicely from the side view.
Gee after all this expense, what is the moral of this story?
1) AAC has my passenger side lamp for a free redo because BOTH rings won't come on. It was one at first and I switched ballasts to verify it was the ring and not the ballast and about a week later the 2nd ring went out.
I haven't received that lamp back yet. I'm still not a fan of their customer service. AAC's email box for Justin the owner (
[email protected]) remains full and the only one that works for him is "
[email protected]". Go figure that one.
2) Umnitza only offered "free labor" and discounted rings if I send them another set for them to tackle. Unfortunately for me the lamps you see above is a lesson learned for them. They say if they cut the lamp in "the same place as AAC" it won't seal properly and condensation will result. In the 2 weeks I had the AAC lamps, they didn't have any condensation, and it has been pretty wet and rainy up here in the Northwest.
I haven't decided on eating a new set of lamps to send back to Umnitza for round two, but I probably will because the exposed caulking job is horrible to see in the daytime because that is all I see because I know it's there!
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** Sigh ** I hope you guys learn well from my money dumping experience. I do like Umnitza's rings over AAC's for the enhanced and thicker ring effect. I also think better ballasts are in the Umnitza kit. The funny thing I have learned is that the car has to be running for either AAC or Umn rings to start up fully. Battery power alone wasn't enough to start the rings up to full brightness.
I know of one more vendor who does halo installation and that is Jazejeff who installs rings like AAC's. He quoted $450 installed on another forum if you send him your (or extra set of) lamps.