rivcrazy2000
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- Anchorage, AK
So a few weeks ago I ordered a complete plug and play HID kit and was actually very disappointed in the light output. People who have stock H.I.D. cars have always told me that they can see forever down the road and that the sides of the road are lit up so much better than regular halogens. I drive the Parks Hwy a lot, usually once every 3 weeks sometimes more often, which is 365 miles of nothingness between Anchorage and Fairbanks and back again in the span of a few days. I bought sealed Silverstars but was really wanting more light, you never know when a moose is going to pop up and with the HID I would definitely have more time to react. So I grabbed the PnP HID kit and wasn't impressed, crazy light pattern, lots of glare, etc. Here is a pic of the before.
I knew the bulbs were capable of the light I wanted but something wasn't right. So I started searching the net and wound up at a good HID site that was a wealth of knowledge and then found a company in America (good people excellent products and service btw) TheRetrofitSource and ordered up what I thought would be the easiest to install projectors in our small housings, some shrouds, some correct bulbs with adapters to work on my previously purchased ballasts, and the projectors themselves. Well I found out quickly they weren't going to fit trying to use the method they were intended to be installed with so I had to do some cutting and drilling into the reflectors. Here is the breakdown of how to do this.
1. Separate the lens from the reflector housing. Stick the whole unit in the oven at 265 for a few min is how I did mine, take a box cutter and cut the original sealant to separate the lens from the reflector bowl.
2. Start to fit the projector to the reflector, I started off on my first one with just taking a little bit off at a time, on my second I knew how much material to remove so I just hacked off that much. When you're done though your reflector should look something like this.
To Start:
After Cutting:
3. Then go ahead and trim your projector shrouds, mine ended up like this, the smaller one has been cut, the larger is going to get cut for the 2nd headlight later.
4. Now somehow I either didn't take this picture or deleted it by accident but then you sink the projector down into the housing and make sure your beam is flat! This is crucial it will drive you insane if it isn't done properly trust me I didn't check the first one and had to tear it all apart to fix it. This adds a lot more time to the project don't forget this. I just stuck an LED Mini Maglite into the projector and rotated it until it was correct.
5. Seal the lens back up, on our little H6054 reflectors this also does a heck of a job holding the projector/shroud in place. It's so cramped in there it will sandwich the projector and hold it in place while you use an adhesive on the back to permanently secure it. When you're all done with it this is how it will look installed.
6. When you are all done you want to align the headlights so they are putting out the proper light pattern. Here is what mine look like right now unadjusted. Ideally those two little step ups will match each other on the right side so that other drivers do not get blinded by your light.
When I started this I had a pretty good idea on how I was going to do this projector install but I thought I could help out anyone who was wanting to do HID's the correct way. Just so you know even though adding projectors to your lighting setup makes it so that you have a lot less glare and affect other drivers to a tiny fraction of what all the A-holes running PnP kits in halogen reflectors use, this is still an illegal lighting upgrade. This is just the proper way of retrofitting our lights with HIDs so that your light pattern is focused on the road instead of going off into space blinding other drivers and lighting the tops of trees. I've never known anyone who got hassled for running HIDs in a regular halogen light but these make you a heck of a lot less noticeable and are much more curteous to other drivers which is the main reason I did them. You will not be disappointed with these like you will be with generic PnP kits I guarantee it the light is much higher quality. I still have some pics to take so I will post them later along with the parts and tool list. I hope you guys enjoy this and that I don't get too flamed for putting the HIDs in.
I knew the bulbs were capable of the light I wanted but something wasn't right. So I started searching the net and wound up at a good HID site that was a wealth of knowledge and then found a company in America (good people excellent products and service btw) TheRetrofitSource and ordered up what I thought would be the easiest to install projectors in our small housings, some shrouds, some correct bulbs with adapters to work on my previously purchased ballasts, and the projectors themselves. Well I found out quickly they weren't going to fit trying to use the method they were intended to be installed with so I had to do some cutting and drilling into the reflectors. Here is the breakdown of how to do this.
1. Separate the lens from the reflector housing. Stick the whole unit in the oven at 265 for a few min is how I did mine, take a box cutter and cut the original sealant to separate the lens from the reflector bowl.
2. Start to fit the projector to the reflector, I started off on my first one with just taking a little bit off at a time, on my second I knew how much material to remove so I just hacked off that much. When you're done though your reflector should look something like this.
To Start:
After Cutting:
3. Then go ahead and trim your projector shrouds, mine ended up like this, the smaller one has been cut, the larger is going to get cut for the 2nd headlight later.
4. Now somehow I either didn't take this picture or deleted it by accident but then you sink the projector down into the housing and make sure your beam is flat! This is crucial it will drive you insane if it isn't done properly trust me I didn't check the first one and had to tear it all apart to fix it. This adds a lot more time to the project don't forget this. I just stuck an LED Mini Maglite into the projector and rotated it until it was correct.
5. Seal the lens back up, on our little H6054 reflectors this also does a heck of a job holding the projector/shroud in place. It's so cramped in there it will sandwich the projector and hold it in place while you use an adhesive on the back to permanently secure it. When you're all done with it this is how it will look installed.
6. When you are all done you want to align the headlights so they are putting out the proper light pattern. Here is what mine look like right now unadjusted. Ideally those two little step ups will match each other on the right side so that other drivers do not get blinded by your light.
When I started this I had a pretty good idea on how I was going to do this projector install but I thought I could help out anyone who was wanting to do HID's the correct way. Just so you know even though adding projectors to your lighting setup makes it so that you have a lot less glare and affect other drivers to a tiny fraction of what all the A-holes running PnP kits in halogen reflectors use, this is still an illegal lighting upgrade. This is just the proper way of retrofitting our lights with HIDs so that your light pattern is focused on the road instead of going off into space blinding other drivers and lighting the tops of trees. I've never known anyone who got hassled for running HIDs in a regular halogen light but these make you a heck of a lot less noticeable and are much more curteous to other drivers which is the main reason I did them. You will not be disappointed with these like you will be with generic PnP kits I guarantee it the light is much higher quality. I still have some pics to take so I will post them later along with the parts and tool list. I hope you guys enjoy this and that I don't get too flamed for putting the HIDs in.
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