Found this light bulb site and thought it might be worth a try.

http://www.1000bulbs.com/105-Watt-Compact-Fluorescent/31681/

http://www.1000bulbs.com/150-to-200-Watt-Compact-Fluorscent/

Possible advantages might be:
Less heat might allow the removal of the lexan.
Lower wattage mean lower power consumption.
Unless I'm mistaken these lamps have built in ballasts.
first bulb fits a medium base, others fit mogul base.
Bulbs are hot restrikeable.
Still have 8,000 hour lamplife.
Similar in size to HID lamps (at least mine)
still relatively cheap compared to my $200 dell projector lamp replacement.

Possible disadvantages might be:
May produce uneven light.
Shorter lamp life.
(possible) higher lamp cost.
might be bigger than current bulbs.
still need fans to optimize lamp life.
may not be compatible with pro reflector.

Disclaimer: It has been quite a while since I have been active on this site. I did a brief search to see if this topic is already being discussed but didn't see anything. it's possible that this is old news or simply doesn't work. If you think this is a valid avenue that hasn't been explored please let me know as I would love to try it out on my WUXGA projector.

Thanks

Epic,

Compact fluorescents are not suitable for the application because they are not a "point source" like the metal halide bulbs used.

Thanks for the quick reply. I kind of thought that might be the case. No filament right? Anyway, thanks for helping me not waste my time.

Some other builders have built using CFL bulbs. You can find more information by searching the LL forums using Google: site:lumenlab.com +CFL

You might run across a "quirk" when searching using Google, however. If you notice the thread looking "wonky" like this image, simply go up the the top right corner of the thread and click on Options and then Switch to: Standard.