Headlight projector retrofit - HIDs to the max!

The $2 was a typo. I paid the same as you.

I am nearly done with the install. It was a piece of cake and required no cutting. I did have to sand down the lower corners of the shroud but the Dremel made short work of that. The only thing holding me up is the delivery of the LED strips which should be here sometime today. I started the install at about 8am.

Once I get everything bolted back up I get to play the aiming game. I will hopefully I will have preliminary pics by tonight.

 

I've rarely been blinded by projector style lighting. Most of the time if I do get momentarily blinded it is by raised pick up trucks with an HID plug and play kit or some Honda with a play and plat kit and poor alignment.

You don't have to be going fast to benefit from an upgrade in lighting. Simply traveling on a rural road at night can be dangerous when animals want to cross the road. Besides, my night vision is not so great after LASIK surgery.

 

Well the install went well overall but i'm not thrilled with the led strips. They are black and don't look very nice in the housing and they are starting to peel off. In hindsight I could have used silicone to keep them down. I had to rebake the headlights to try and fix them and this caused me to get glue on the edges of the lens. Ahh well, live and learn.

I'll get pictures of the output this evening after aiming them a bit. The install of the projectors was really easy and looks great! I didn't have to cut the reflector housing at all.

Here is a teaser pic of the installed product.

 

The ring around the projector is a shroud. It is designed to hide the wires and bolts. You can get different shouds and some of them have holes that you cAn hide angel eyes behind.

I left the amber lens inside. I need to open the lens again to fix the led strips but i'll save that for another day. For now i'm happy with the projectors and don't want to take the car apart again till i'm off this damn chemo.

 

It's like a sticker. You peel the paper off the back of the strip then stick it where you want. It probably would have stuck better if I had cleaned the surface better. Next time i'll apply my own adhesive just to ensure it doesn't peel again. Other than the led strips the retro went well.

 

I think you'll be happy with the upgrade. I'll try and get the headlights aimed tonight and take pictures to compare to my stock HIDs. I chose to go with the Osram 66240 bulbs as these start off at 4100k then color shift to a whiter color after 100hrs or so. They also run cooler than aftermarket bulbs. That being said, they are much more yellow than the DDM 5000k bulbs I was using and even those seemed a bit yellow.

I took a short drive up the street at 1am to see what they looked like and the cutoff was very pronounced compared to the stock HIDs. I had never seen a true cutoff until I installed my blazer foglights. Now I get the same effect with the headlights. I'm using Morimoto 5000k bulbs in the foglights and they really whiten up the foreground so the yellowness of the headlights doesn't bother me. I'm sure after everything is broken in the colors will even out some.

The only regret I have is not being more careful about installing the LED strips. I got glue where I didn't want it and failed to put glue where I did want it. All that means I will have to rebake the headlight and spend some time cleaning up. I'll post pics of the glue mess so when you guys do your upgrade you won't have the same problem.

 

I wasn't necessary. I could see if you take them apart too many times that you may need more but even baking them 4 times I didn't need any extra. I'm going to have to inspect the yellow reflector lens though. It appears I may have melted it or pushed it in a bit. It looks warped along the bottom. Hence why I am posting my failures so you guys can avoid them.

 

Yup! No more spring clip either. The lame factory plastic cover can be reinstalled as well. I always have the hardest time getting that thing back on.

 

Here are a few pictures of the projectors installed. You can clearly see the LED strip peeling off. I'm going to rebake the headlights and secure them after we finish the flooring in the new house. Priorities.

I'll post some pics of the output tonight.