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How-to HID projector retrofit

Ok this is a pretty complex project and it’s not for everyone. The first thing I recommend you do is get an extra set of headlight so you have plenty of time to work on it, and you don’t destroy your only set of headlight. Not every retrofit will be the same, some things I did on mine may not work with yours. My write-up is meant to be a guide, and not a specific how-to.

The first step is obvious, you need to separate the lenses from the headlight so you can figure out how everything is going to work. With my car it was easy, the lenses were held in using butle rubber. To remove it I turned on the oven in the kitchen to 150-200* and set the lights inside to heat up. I gave them about 10 minutes ( make sure you keep an eye on them) for the rubber to warm up and then I began to pry them apart. There were locking tabs on the bottom of the light, so I had to lift them over the tabs and SLOWLY I pried the lenses off. Now this is how I got my lenses off, I have heard of many people having to cut their lenses off with a dremal because it was bonded to the housing. It’s up to you to figure out how to remove yours.

Sorry no pictures were taken during this step.

Now with the headlight apart, it’s time to figure out where the projector is going to go. I used a Audi Valeo Bi-xenon projector, it is rather large and requires some cutting of the housing to make it fit.

http://www.g20style.com/New_pics_2006_031.jpg

Time to position the projector. You want to use the original headlight as a guide for mounting the projector. Here’s some points to keep in mind while examining the housing for fitment. You need the bulbs holders to be in basically the same position so you can change the bulb if needed. You also want the light to shine in the same direction. Look for lines on the headlight housing that show direction of the light. My housing had lines on the bottom that pointed in the direction the light will shine. This was a good reference point for me, I knew I had to have the projector in line with these for the light to be straight. You also need to make sure you have the projectors positioned right. Make sure the high beam shield is at the bottom of the projector. ( I made this mistake as you might pick up in some of the pictures, but I corrected it before the final mounting)
Once you figure out where the projector will go, it’s time to find out if it fits. Mine were rather deep and required cutting out the back of the reflector and the housings. Keep in mind the more you cut the more you need to seal when done, so don’t go blindly cutting away plastic.

http://www.g20style.com/projects_011.jpg
http://www.g20style.com/projects_015.jpg

With your lights inside the housing I recommend testing the beam position before you go any further. I put the light in my car temporarily and connected the ballast straight to the battery. I parked min my driveway about 15-20 feet from the garage door and adjusted the beam till it was straight and at the right height. You also want to make sure your cutoff line is straight, otherwise your projector needs to be rotated.

http://www.g20style.com/on_car_002.jpg
http://www.g20style.com/on_car_004.jpg

When I liked how everything was aimed I used a hot glue done to temporarily lock the projectors in place. I didn’t want them to move around while transporting them to my work bench for final mounting. The I used JBweld epoxy to secure them permanently. My projectors were snug fit in the headlight so I felt this was more than enough, but a lot of people choose to use nuts and bolts to secure them. This another instance where it depends on your circumstances.

Now your headlights are retrofitted with projectors. But it’s important to keep the light in the projector and out of the headlight housing, or else you will have horrible glare. So you need to build a shroud to keep the light contained. For this step I used ABS plastic. The trick is getting a tight fit, so I used cardboard and tape to build a template, then transferred it over to the plastic.

http://www.g20style.com/projects_012.jpg

Then I built a tube to encase the projector using a piece of PVC pipe and more plastic, and crazy glued the whole shroud together.

http://www.g20style.com/projects.jpg
http://www.g20style.com/projects_017.jpg

That completes the technical portion of the retrofit. You can leave it as is and have a working HID projector set up, but I went a little further and made it more visually pleasing. I added a little body filler to the shroud to give it more shape, and I added a chrome accent piece using a pipe shroud I found at ACE hardware. I also painted the whole assembly using some metallic charcoal paint. Here are some completed pictures.

http://www.g20style.com/projects_035.jpg
http://www.g20style.com/projects_037.jpg
http://www.g20style.com/projects_063.jpg

And last but not least, you need to close up the rear of the headlight housing if you cut it up to fit the projector. I used some more ABS plastic to build a box around the Bi-xenon solenoid, then I silicone it all to seal it.

http://www.g20style.com/on_car.jpg

I then found some 3″ rubber pipe terminators to seal up the bulb and socket portion of the lights.

http://www.g20style.com/projects_075.jpg

Now you need to replace the lenses, it’s very similar to the removal, just place in the oven and soften up the rubber. Then push it all back together, and your finished.

http://www.g20style.com/headlights_installed_001.jpg
http://www.g20style.com/headlights_installed_004.jpg

3 Comments so far

  1. Melvin December 11th, 2007 11:21 pm

    how much would you charge me to do my 91 nissan sentra lights?? i’ll get you the projectors.

    Thank you.

  2. ericdd January 8th, 2008 3:46 pm

    sorry, I don’t have time to do these. check out HIDplanet.com there are a few people there that could do it for you.

  3. Payday Loan January 22nd, 2008 2:48 pm

    Hundreds of visitors will probably find this exclusive info in refernce to as lots of people have found that the exclusive info is fascinating! I appreciate all the aid you gave.

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