[hskrRT]

Damn, have to be a member to view the threads there. Thanks for the pictures though. Really does show a huge difference.

 

[brad81987]

Damn, have to be a member to view the threads there. Thanks for the pictures though. Really does show a huge difference.

No problem. And again, that's a site user that has tried to do accurate comparisons of everything out there. Once installed in a vehicle, some of the differences may be lesser. Who knows. I was trying to find a good compromise on price, performance and difficulty and think these do well. These projectors use a standard H1 HID kit bulb so you can save money and get any old HID kit if you want (ie- DDM Tuning has $29 kits with lifetime warranty....) I'm considering this for my motorcycle. About $160 for everything.

 

[brad81987]

Got a couple garage shots tonight. This is with the left projector and the right light still stock.

Note: car was aiming somewhat downhill towards the garage door and I haven't done any official aiming yet. They came out a little underexposed. They looked brighter on the camera screen then they really were for some reason. You can see the yellow blob from the pathetic factory halogen on the passenger side. I did take a short drive. Just one of these more than outperforms both stock headlights. I'm very very impressed.

 

[2k1AmberR/T]

What's that little zigzag in the cutoff line?

 

[brad81987]

All HID projectors have it. I think it's to keep the beam slightly lower on the left side to minimize blinding traffic coming the other direction.

 

[AFDakRT]

I really need to get off my ass and do this. I drove home tonight in the rain and I might as well have not had my headlights on. I couldn't see shit. Feel like making some money? :jester:

 

[brad81987]

I really need to get off my ass and do this. I drove home tonight in the rain and I might as well have not had my headlights on. I couldn't see shit. Feel like making some money? :jester:

LOL, sorry but I'm still way to new at this to offer that and just don't have the time. Trying to make sure I get mine all done before I have to go to DTW for my summer internship.

 

[AFDakRT]

LOL, sorry but I'm still way to new at this to offer that and just don't have the time. Trying to make sure I get mine all done before I have to go to DTW for my summer internship.

You said these projectors take H1 bulbs right? Figures cause I have Hella ballasts with D2S bulbs from my FX35 kit. Waste of $500 that was. :jester: After daily driving my BMW with projectors and DDM 5000K HIDs my fuckin truck looks like I don't even have the lights on.

 

[brad81987]

Yeah, any H1 kit will do. I bought a pair of E55's last year when I was planning on doing a retro on my bike. Also got bulbs and some Hella Gen III ballasts from TRS. Don't know what I'm going to do with it all. If I end up doing my bike, I'll probably use these since it's easy. That means the Hella ballasts are a no go, plus they arn't waterproof and their too big for a bike. I'll probably get a DDM Slim kit when I do that. Should be good for $200 total. IDK how much the other stuff would be worth. E55's arn't the best unit, awesome high beam but not really good width.

 

[2k1AmberR/T]

WTB pics of your 5k HID's...are they 'white' or maybe just have a slight colored tint to them? I think the biggest issue I have with HID's besides the price is the fact that I don't want some blue ass fucking lights like all the ricers you see with 8k's haha. How's the 5k look? Have any pics?

 

[AFDakRT]

WTB pics of your 5k HID's...are they 'white' or maybe just have a slight colored tint to them? I think the biggest issue I have with HID's besides the price is the fact that I don't want some blue ass fucking lights like all the ricers you see with 8k's haha. How's the 5k look? Have any pics?

They're white. Factory HIDs are 4300k so these are damn close with no blue at all. Blue sucks. I have 55w 5000k in my headlights and 35w 5000k in my fog lights. The higher wattage drowns out some of the color so my fog lights are bluer than my headlights because of the lower wattage which pisses me off. I bought some 4500k bulbs for my fogs to fix this, probably put them in this week. Unfortunately this is the only pic I have, this was the night I installed them.

 

[2k1AmberR/T]

Thanks a bunch, that really helps. I kinda want some yellow-ish fogs for the utility, 35w is probably what I'll go with as well. I guess I'll need some glass housings.

 

[AFDakRT]

Thanks a bunch, that really helps. I kinda want some yellow-ish fogs for the utility, 35w is probably what I'll go with as well. I guess I'll need some glass housings.

3000k is what you want for yellow HIDs. And 35w should be fine in plastic housings, DDM recommends 35w for fogs. I probably could have went 55w cause mine are glass but whatever.

 

[Rendell]

Looks really good.

 

[brad81987]

Thanks a bunch, that really helps. I kinda want some yellow-ish fogs for the utility, 35w is probably what I'll go with as well. I guess I'll need some glass housings.

Check the picture I posted about the Micro DE's on the last page, the one is a 3000k kit, so you can see how yellow it is.

 

[brad81987]

So I started the second light yesterday afternoon and worked some more today. Trying to get more pictures this time around.

Here's the light opened up. While I had the oven on, I reheated it a couple times and dug out the factory sealant. The stuff that came on these lights is rock hard at room temperature. When I put the first light back together, I couldn't get the lens down all the way. I ended up going around it with silicone adhesive just to make sure. Looks like crap but not really noticeable once installed. So this time I dug the old stuff out. Picked up a ribbon of Windo-Weld for when I put it back together.

Use a rotary tool (Dremmel) to cut the locking lugs off the 9007 bulb holder so the radiator hose I used to seal the back would fit over flat. Small hole drilled next to it for the high beam solenoid.

Projector mounted in reflector

Back of the mount, with bulb holder on. The small adapter that comes with the projectors (for H7 I think.....??) fits inside the bulb hole perfectly. Then the locking nut and finally the bulb holder.

For some reason I could not get this one to tighten down as much as the first one. I thought it was because of this, but even after cutting it out, I still couldn't get it tight. I don't think it would rotate on it's own, but I didn't trust it. So I mounted on the truck, got it leveled and then used JB Weld to make some "feet" that will prevent it from rotating. Currently waiting for it to cure.

In the meantime, I started troubleshooting the high beam staying on all the time problem. I thought it might have been because my headlight connector is backwards- +12V on the common, and ground on the individual filaments. So I made a polarity conversion harness to swap it around to what is normal. I couldnt find a male 9007 connector locally to save my soul (seriously why would anyone carry them anyways) so I cut out the factory headlight connector and soldered in a 4-way trailer flat.

Hooked it up, confirmed relay outputs were working as intended, but found solenoid was not being fired no matter what........ Eventually I found that the harness I had been shipped was wired for 9004, not 9007, which has the low beam and ground wires swapped. So I just swapped the quick connects in my harness and it worked. I'm guessing that was the problem all along but at that point it would have been more work to change it back so I just left my harness in.

Test firing with both projectors installed. Passenger side still has no headlight lens on. Did a few different expose levels to make sure I got a good shot. Only have the one high beam solenoid hooked up right now.

 

[tsh3406]

Did you trim the shrouds, or just squeeze them in? Also, the Mori mini kit came with several spacers/washers but no instructions. This may show my ignorance, but which of them is needed? Is silicone sufficient for resealing the headlights?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[brad81987]

Did you trim the shrouds, or just squeeze them in? Also, the Mori mini kit came with several spacers/washers but no instructions. This may show my ignorance, but which of them is needed? Is silicone sufficient for resealing the headlights?

Thanks,
Tim

Yes, i trimmed the shrouds, as shown in the picture. Be careful though. I discovered this was actually too much. The front of the shroud fit perfectly, but the sides did not run parallel to the bottom of the headlight housing. This allowed stray light to escape between the sides of the shroud and the bottom of the headlight. This reflected off the sides of the headlight reflector and caused a ton of light glare off to the sides. The options ive been told for fixing this is either cover the projector with aluminum tape before putting the shroud on or paint the reflector black. I'm not sure I want the reflector blacked out. If I had a way to see how it would look, I may go for it, but right now im thinking taping the projector is the way to go.

I used this adapter. I believe it's actually intended for H7 applications, but it fit perfectly down in the bulb holder of my aftermarket headlights.

As far as sealing, it depends. The sealant that came on my aftermarket headlights was really hard and would not soften up well when reheated so I couldn't get the lens to seat down well. I siliconed around the first one to account for this. On the second, I dug out all the factory sealant (major PITA FWIW). When I closed it up, I used the 3M Window Weld Ribbon Sealer, as recommended by HID Planet. Unfortunately, this one leaked on my but I think it's because I 1- Skimped on the sealant, it's soft, so you can peel off any extra, dont skimp, and 2- I didn't clamp it well when I took it out of the oven. So use plenty of sealer, and make sure you have a way to clamp it well and hold it while it cools. I also think it may have leaked through the crappy "U" shaped vent tube on the light. I'll be relocating that somewhere safer.

I moved out of town for work for the summer so my project is on hold until the fall when i get back.

 

[burganb]

Nice job. This is a simple build thread. I'd like to see someone do a very detailed build thread.

 

[tsh3406]

I'm having the same issue with the high beams, I'll give TRS a call tomorrow. Otherwise, the project has gone very well. I think Brad did a great job detailing everything. Anything not covered here is really no-brainer stuff. I'll be the first to admitt, though, I know just enough to be dangerous, lol. I took a few more pics because I mounted the electronics differently, and will get them up as soon as I'm done. Glad I found this thread, it has been an enjoyable project, and definitly worth the money.

Tim