DIY Projector retro...

*Jay*

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I have never been a fan of HID kits being installed into halogen headlights. They always throw a dangerous amount of glare at other drivers, make your HI beams useless, and IMHO leave your car look like a cheap POS at night. I had them installed in my Cobra for all of one drive to work before I pulled them.

This has been on my list of things to do for a while now so with some extra time on my hands I went ahead got started. I am not going into detail on how to remove your bumper, wire your HI/LO HID kit or how to bake open your headlights, just search for it and you will find more than enough info.

This posting is nothing more than information for anyone who likes to do things on their own and is in no way meant to be an all inclusive set of directions. With that being said if you choose to do your own retro proceed at your own risk and have fun with it, its really easy to do and worth while. I have absolutely ZERO desire to do this for money so please don't ask me for a quote.

Parts...
Morimoto H1 projectors, will include Shroud, projector, rubber gaskets, alignment plates, bulb mounts, bulb clips, mounting nut.
Bi-xenon: Morimoto Mini H1 4.1 - HID Projectors from The Retrofit Source Inc

9007 HI/LO HID kit (includes HI/LO harness/relay)
OR
9007 LO beam only HID kit (no soldering required, no relay harness included)

H1 HID bulbs (these are what will be installed in your projectors)
HID Kits, BMW Aftermarket Bumpers & Lighting, DEPO - DDM Tuning

Spare set of headlights (optional)

Flat black spray paint

Tools for retro...
Flathead screwdriver
Phillips screwdriver
Hacksaw
File
Needle nose pliers
Solder gun (only for HI/LO)
Utility knife
Painters tape
Pencil
Thin ink pen (used only to remove the connector from the HI beam wires on the projector)

Step 1
Remove and bake open your headlights, 220 degrees for 20 minutes worked for me. Make sure you get both screws and both pins pulled before you start to separate.

Step 2
Remove the halogen reflector bowl, there are 3 mounting tabs holding it in remove the single one first (on one side) then slide the bowl out from the other 2 (on the other side).

Step 3
Remove the bulb cap with a flathead screwdriver from the halogen reflector bowl.

2012-02-26121555.jpg


Step 4
Cut the rear portion of the halogen bulb mount off with a hacksaw.
2012-02-26121723.jpg


2012-02-26122658.jpg


Step 5
Tape off and mark where you will make the clearance cut for the mounted projector and shroud. Score the rear line deeply with the utility knife and cut the other 2 with the hack saw. When you make the 2 cuts on the sides you can snap the rear one cleanly where you scored it.

2012-02-26123505.jpg


2012-02-26124524.jpg


Step 6
Clean up the edges with your file and then spray paint the reflector bowl flat black. I did this to cover up my cut marks on the chrome reflector, if you don't paint it then your cut marks will be very visible.
*NOTE*
You can drill a hole below the bulb hole through the reflector bowl for the HI beam wires, this way you can seal the headlights with the stock rubber headlight gasket undamaged. (NOT PICTURED)

I cut a small hole in the rubber headlight gasket, removed the connector from the HI beam wires, ran the wires through the rubber headlight gasket, sealed with a few drops of silicon and reinstalled the connector.

Step 7
Mount your projector (labeled which side is TOP) and shroud. From front to back it will be in this order, shroud - projector - thin rubber gasket - painted reflector bowl - flat alignment plate - projector mounting nut - bulb mount.

Flat alignment plate (note the alignment tab, this is where you will rotate the projector from once installed)
2012-02-26161721.jpg


HI beam wires running underneath the reflector bowl.
2012-02-26162152.jpg


Assembled
2012-02-26162132.jpg


2012-02-26161812.jpg


2012-02-26162203.jpg


Step 8
Reinstall the reflector bowl with mounted projector and bake/reassemble/seal your headlights.

No rubber gasket or bulb installed
2012-02-23193645.jpg


Rubber gasket and bulb installed (here you can see the silicon)
2012-03-05124539.jpg


For those doing the HI/LO kit here is how you will wire the DDM connector
2012-03-05121306.jpg


Step 9
Wire up and install your HID's (cut off the HI beam connector from DDM harness and solder on the ones provided with your MORIMOTO kit), reassemble your bumper, reinstall your headlights and enjoy glare free extremely usable HID light.

2012-02-23193636.jpg


2012-03-04151510.jpg


If you need to adjust the rotation of the projectors you will use a flathead screwdriver to tap on the tab of the alignment plate. You can do this adjustment with everything fully installed but the headlight removed from the bumper, no need to disassemble the projector. You can use the factory adjustment for up and down.

On a difficulty scale of 1(easy) - 10(hard) I would rate this a 3, the hardest part was baking open the headlights. And its been crappy outside so sorry no cutoff or night time shots.

*EDIT*
Added H1 bulbs to the parts list. I forgot to mention that you need the 9006 adapter to plug into the ballasts but the H1 bulbs are whats installed into the projector itself.
 
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earico

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Nice work.

I agree this is the proper way to do HIDs.
 

*Jay*

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Thanks for the compliments everyone, I hope that some of you will find this useful if you ever care to give it a try yourselves.

How did you mount it to the reflector? Just at the back?

Yes just at the back. If you look at the last 2 pics in step 7 you will see whats holding it on. First pic is just the alignment plate, second pic has the mounting nut. Pressure from the rear is applied by the mounting nut pulling the projector tight against the halogen reflector bowl.
 

stangin99

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Yes just at the back. If you look at the last 2 pics in step 7 you will see whats holding it on. First pic is just the alignment plate, second pic has the mounting nut. Pressure from the rear is applied by the mounting nut pulling the projector tight against the halogen reflector bowl.

I hope that it doesn't break! The material the reflectors are made out of can not handle a lot of stress. Hopefully one bad bump in the road doesn't knock your projectors loose in the headlamp.

Otherwise good work.
 

*Jay*

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I hope that it doesn't break! The material the reflectors are made out of can not handle a lot of stress. Hopefully one bad bump in the road doesn't knock your projectors loose in the headlamp.

Otherwise good work.

That reflector bowl is tougher than it looks. Trust me, after sawing on it for a bit I can promise it wont break from the weight of the projector, from the material I removed or from any normal sized bumps in the road. Those projectors are mounted solid and wont be moving any time soon unless I want them too.
 

black 10th vert

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Very nice, thanks for posting! I recently sold my FXR conversion projectors because I never seemed to get around to doing the retro, but these look WAY simpler to mount and adjust, so I may go with a set of these at some point. Did you get the relay harness from RFS, or is it the DDM? I just noticed that RFS has a complete kit available with these projectors, ballasts, bulbs, shrouds, and harness. Is there a reason you used the DDM stuff instead, or was it because you just re-used the setup you had already and just made it work with the real projectors?
 

*Jay*

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Very nice, thanks for posting! I recently sold my FXR conversion projectors because I never seemed to get around to doing the retro, but these look WAY simpler to mount and adjust, so I may go with a set of these at some point. Did you get the relay harness from RFS, or is it the DDM? I just noticed that RFS has a complete kit available with these projectors, ballasts, bulbs, shrouds, and harness. Is there a reason you used the DDM stuff instead, or was it because you just re-used the setup you had already and just made it work with the real projectors?

I have been using DDM stuff for years without any complaints. I stuck with the DDM stuff this time around because I already had a kit for the HI/LO 9007 bulbs. All I did was buy some new H1 bulbs to go into the MH1 projectors. The DDM 9007 kit plugs into the stock bulb socket and goes to the ballast. From the ballast you can run whatever bulb you want.

I cant really say anything for the RFS complete kit since I dont have it. It looks like for $150 you get the bulbs, ballasts and 9007 relay harness. For $65 you can get the HI/LO kit that I used ($50) with an extra set of H1 bulbs ($15) for alot cheaper. Im sure if you contacted DDM directly you could just buy that 9007 relay harness separate and get a H1 kit instead saving you even more cash.

I have no idea on the difference in quality for the price but again I have had no problem with any of the DDM stuff I have used over the last few years.

Still no night shots yet, I have a problem with one of the MH1 projectors. I am getting multiple cutoffs from one projector, waiting to hear back from TRS right now. This is probably because I bought a set of the first gen MH1's on a blowout sale ($60). I have a newer model MH1 installed on my Altima that works flawlessly, this is probably why they were on sale LOL. I think Yuke175 talked about the quality control problems with MH1 projectors, lucky for me TRS has awesome customer support.
 

keith89

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on the to do list. I know there's a member here selling complete retrofits, but this is a much cheaper option if you can handle doing it yourself.

I already have an HID kit from HIDGUY. I guess the ballasts should be ok and i just need to get the H1 bulbs.
 
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*Jay*

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*Update*

Contacted TRS about the double cutoff Im having on one projector and its something Im gonna have to deal with or try and fix myself. Im gonna just fix it myself. They suggested I do some poking around on HID planet for some help. There are a TON of posts regarding the Morimoto H1 projectors and how to tweak them to perfection.

Here are some pics of what I am talking about (if its hot spots pictured please let me know), when I get it fixed I will let you all know how it went down. It should just be adding or removing some washers in between the lens and projector base. These are DDM 55 watt 5000k bulbs, a little too blue (inside the headlight) for me still so I may will drop down to DDM 35 watt 4300k that I have laying around. These photos are with only the driver side headlight going.

15 feet from wall.
2012-03-12032337.jpg


15 yards from wall.
2012-03-11192736.jpg


This might be a next winter project. Nice work.

No need to wait for winter, if you got a spare weekend that should be plenty of time.
 

stangin99

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Make sure it's a projector problem instead of a housing/lens problem. There are 2 flute lines in the housing lens that could distort the beam at a distance. The only way around that is to re-position the projector, or sand the flutes down(not easy).

Otherwise as you said, play around with washer and/or bulb spacing.
 

*Jay*

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Make sure it's a projector problem instead of a housing/lens problem. There are 2 flute lines in the housing lens that could distort the beam at a distance. The only way around that is to re-position the projector, or sand the flutes down(not easy).

Otherwise as you said, play around with washer and/or bulb spacing.

I thought that might have been my problem (flute lines) when I covered the headlight lens with my hand and blocked part of the lens eliminating the top cutoff. I ruled it out since I was getting such a clean (but dim) cutoff on top, I didnt think that the line could replicate another cutoff that well.
 

stangin99

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I thought that might have been my problem (flute lines) when I covered the headlight lens with my hand and blocked part of the lens eliminating the top cutoff. I ruled it out since I was getting such a clean (but dim) cutoff on top, I didnt think that the line could replicate another cutoff that well.

An easy way to check if you happen to take the housings apart again is to fire them up with the lens removed. See if it is still distorted at distance (up close might look OK) or if it is now perfectly clear.
 

*Jay*

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An easy way to check if you happen to take the housings apart again is to fire them up with the lens removed. See if it is still distorted at distance (up close might look OK) or if it is now perfectly clear.

That was the plan, time is a commodity at the moment for me. Plus I wanted to paint the shrouds flat black as well as do a flat black demon eye. The chrome just makes the projector stick out too much.
 

black 10th vert

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An easy way to check if you happen to take the housings apart again is to fire them up with the lens removed. See if it is still distorted at distance (up close might look OK) or if it is now perfectly clear.

Yep, I agree this would be the simplest way to rule out the lines on the outer lens causing the double cutoff. Did you test fire the retrofit before you sealed them up? Was it doing it when you tested them, or did you just not notice because you weren't at the distance where it shows up?
 

*Jay*

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Yep, I agree this would be the simplest way to rule out the lines on the outer lens causing the double cutoff. Did you test fire the retrofit before you sealed them up? Was it doing it when you tested them, or did you just not notice because you weren't at the distance where it shows up?

Like an idiot I didnt test fire, the other set on my Altima were perfect right out of the box so I assumed these wouldnt be any different. A lesson learned the hard way it looks like, at least I still have the OE ones from Ford so downtime is not a problem.

The double cutoff shows up more in person than what these pictures show but its not that bad, Im just real picky. They are still a million times better than HID bulbs in a unmodified headlight imho.
 

*Jay*

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Still dont know how but the double cutoff is being caused by the headlight and not the projector. I opened up my retro to try and fix that and painted my projector shrouds black while I was in there, I like the black much better. Looks like the next step is to sand down the headlights and re-coat them with a 50/50 mix of mineral spirits and spar.
 

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