DIY: HID Projector Retrofit Guide

gigabit · Apr 30, 2014

So I haven't seen any instructional posts on how to do a retrofit to our 6.7's with HID projectors and I hope this is useful for the DIY'ers.

This is my first retrofit and I am far from even a somewhat "skilled" professional :clapping:

The standard halogen lamps really do suck... and here we go!

I heated the oven to 220F and heated the headlights for 10 minutes and it was still rock hard and set on the glue. the type of glue that they use is not reusable like all the other retro's you've seen on youtube.

I found that 235F and heating for 15 minutes is all you need. you need to push at the upper outer corner of the lamp to get it started and then you push the edges apart, starting with the top side and work to the top inner corner. once that loosens up, you can then go down the lateral side. elbow grease is needed.

once the clear is apart, only the lower chrome bowl is attached to the black pastic, the rest is all once piece and attached to the clear plastic lense.

gigabit · Apr 30, 2014

then after that, the amber corners are held in place by 3 prongs that you have to squeeze together.

removing the lower bowl from the black plastic was a PITA, but can be done with small amount of WD-40 at the ball-in-socket retraining pieces. remove the outer one first with a flat head screw driver by prying it upwards. then the other two on the medial border require more force to pop them out.

i dont know the name of this piece but it has to be removed (last pic of this post), as it functions only with halogen bulbs. it's held in place by a T-hex type of screw

gigabit · Apr 30, 2014

there is a low-center protrusion that needs to be dremel'ed out so you can squarely place the projector in. once that is done, you can see that the projector cannot be securely fastened due to the rear H13 socket. I am modifying this to use H1 bulbs. i had to shave off the inner and outer ledges for it to be able to receive the new squeeze mount.

gigabit · Apr 30, 2014

so now the projector can be seated and "secured" in the back. this is just in the test fit stage so i can get a feel of how it will look. the shroud is a test shroud as well. i will wire it for LED halos and PTM the chrome pieces and paint black chrome to the shrouds. more to come! we're not even 50% of the way finished.

R8rone · Apr 30, 2014

Looks good!

jdgleason · Apr 30, 2014

Looks good man!

Radioflyer · Apr 30, 2014

Looking good! Nice instructions as well!!

jwlandry · Apr 30, 2014

Looks good.

gigabit · Apr 30, 2014

thanks!

i got started with the upper bowl for the projector install. this one was easier in a sense, in that it didn't require as extensive shaving to be able to get the lock nut on in the back.

what makes it somewhat troublesome is that it requires specific ares of shaving to get it to point straight forward. as you can see, i had to remove some of the fins to create an even and level surface so it sits in there squarely. i haven't drilled the holes in the upper bowl yet to feed the hi/lo cables to pass through, i should have, but didnt and "washed" the debris out of it and was too lazy to go back.

they're just laying in on top of each other at the moment.

next steps to be done:
1. strip the chrome
2. waiting shipment of shrouds
3. test halos, wire, and feed them through
4. paint bowls and shroud
5. aim the projectors

im sure i'll run into trouble with the aiming portion, but cross my fingers that i dont. if you dont run into trouble, the install isn't worth it

anyways, here's the pics so far.

jdgleason · Apr 30, 2014

Out of curiosity - how much of the base of the projector do you have exposed behind the shroud? I usually set the projectors much deeper than that is the only reason I ask.

gigabit · May 1, 2014

jdgleason said:
Out of curiosity - how much of the base of the projector do you have exposed behind the shroud? I usually set the projectors much deeper than that is the only reason I ask.

that's one of the reasons why im going with a different shroud so there's no light leaks.

the apollo 1.0 is like 1.8" and there's maybe 1-1.25 finger breadths i'd say... and panamera is much longer where i have to modify it much more and there'd be no leaks.

some of the first gen shroud designs were not gor the mini h1's and they are more shallow.

i have a set of fx-r's that i never installed from a few years ago and the projectors are shallower. ultimately they fit better with the 1st gens.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

AK3403 · May 1, 2014

I'd like to start by saying, you have done on great job so far. Secondly, I am beyond jealous of you. I have a spare set of Chevy headlights from my previous half ton sitting here, that no one seemed interested in. So I decided to use them as a project... And I can't even peel those tight little suckers apart after many times in the oven. I envy your skill and patience.

fsu stroker · May 1, 2014

Subscribing, I've been wanting to do this forever but I just never have the balls to do it

Or the money.

jdgleason · May 1, 2014

gigabit said:
that's one of the reasons why im going with a different shroud so there's no light leaks.

the apollo 1.0 is like 1.8" and there's maybe 1-1.25 finger breadths i'd say... and panamera is much longer where i have to modify it much more and there'd be no leaks.

some of the first gen shroud designs were not gor the mini h1's and they are more shallow.

i have a set of fx-r's that i never installed from a few years ago and the projectors are shallower. ultimately they fit better with the 1st gens.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ahhh! Makes sense buddy.

gigabit · May 4, 2014

so i fired up the morimoto mini with 4300k bulbs, which is a test color as i will be going with the xB 5000k (backorder), and you can see the cut off and color flicker. i didn't have a shroud on with these pics and therefore the light is not very discreet within the bowl. decent out of the box. i wont be doing any modifications to the unit itself bc i wouldnt know what i was doing anyways.

gigabit · May 4, 2014

as an aside, i installed my diff cover! there was some small leak, but i tried torquing the bolts from 16 ft/lbs to 20 and removed some fluids, cross my fingers

neverkickn · May 4, 2014

If I could do it over I would have used a fresnel lense. My cutoff line is too sharp and I don't have the light up high to reflect off street signs and such.

gigabit · May 5, 2014

it's all wired up now, i just need to shave the shrouds and gett proper horizontal aiming prior to getting the housing painted. i added the morimoto control to the side plastic with 3m professional double sided tape. it ain't budging, it's on there pretty tight. there were four 10mm bolts that you have to remove, one on top, two on the inside side, and one on the bottom to remove the headlights. i hooked up the main wiring harness to the driver side and there are accessible bolts that you can use to ground the harness.