Background:
I bought two FourSevens Quark Ti, AA & CR123 back in 2009 when they were first released as limited edition (750 units). They were highly anticipated in CPF as the first budget titanium light ever to hit the market, anything made of titanium at that time was considered premium and many times more expensive.
These came with the latest LED with highest bin at the time: XP-G R5. Also a programmable buck/boost driver with very nice UI. Sadly, using the newest CREE LED also meant unexpected results: many of the units released had greenish tint and people were unsatisfied, and this probably caused the hype for “4Sevens” to die shortly after. The same reason I never gave them real use.
Not my light, didn’t take pictures before heat treat:
So after so many years having these Ti lights sitting on the shelf collecting dust I decided to bring them a 2015 upgrade:
-Replace clouded reflector with one from FT with same dimension and lighter OP finish.
-XP-L HI V3 2B on 16mm noctigon
-Qlite with 8x7135, guppydrv fw
-Spring bypass
-Heat treatment
First I started by disassembling the head, it was heavily gued and wasn’t coming apart. I also lacked the right tools so went with heat, and it worked:
But the heat melted the centering disk:
All components out:
Didn’t take any pictures of the anodizing process 
But here is done and new components are in:
Added copper braid to driver, to improve ground connection
XP-L HI in place and driver installed
22AWG Spring bypass
Light OP reflector fits XP-L nicely.
Anodizing turned out really blue! The Quark Ti came with a matching blue rubber boot 
Close up:
With my Quark Ti 123, I’m planning to mod it the same way but with a nichia 219C.
Beamshot
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After the mod it is at least 3 times as bright and draws only 2.1A from my cheap UF 14500 so I’m ordering some Sanyo 14500 from MTN. I wish I had polished it before the anodizing, I might do it with the CR123 Quark, but I don’t know if I have enough patience to do this by hand.
I compared it side to side with a DD XM-L2 U4 in a S2+ reflector (larger and deeper) and the XP-L HI with the small reflector wins!! This is becoming my favorite LED.
