My try at retrofitting headlights

[ctgreddy]

I wanted to improve my lighting and love trying new things so figured I'd give this a shot. So far it hasn't been too bad. The worst part was opening up the headlights. I ordered cheap 80 dollar ones off ebay because I couldnt find any others that where clear lenses with clear corners. And my god these things have some bad ass sealer that was a pain to get apart. Before these I took apart a broken set of eagle eye lights and that came apart very easy.

But anyways, I got everything for the retrofit from Joey Diaz who I found when posting about this on one of the facebook groups. Started by tearing the headlights apart and then modifying the reflector housing to fit the projector. That was pretty simple.

Then I stripped the chrome off with some oven cleaner, and prepped for paint. Just sprayed them with a satin black high heat paint. Then I just loosely assembled them to see what it'd look like and that's where I'm at currently.

Later this week or this weekend I'll throw them on the car to get them aimed correctly before final assemble, then glue together and will ofcourse follow up with more pics!

 

[Stanger00]

Looks good! Our lights are awful especially if you have another car that has factory HIDs.

 

[Kozak_SVT]

I prefer the gloss black on the backing but thats me. Looks awesome regardless and following for installation pics!

 

[ctgreddy]

I prefer the gloss black on the backing but thats me. Looks awesome regardless and following for installation pics!

I wanted something that matched the rest of the housings which is a flatish black. While what I painted isn't perfect it's fairly close.

 

[silver03svt]

Damn, I really love that look without the chrome reflector in the housing.

 

[usmcsvtwannabe]

Looking great man, keep this updated. I might have to try this with my spare headlights I have

 

[T3RM1N8R_18]

How does this improve your lighting? I don't believe that's chrome, they typically vaccum aluminum plate the light reflectors. At least, thats what we do for lawn mower lights lol. I'm pretty sure your actually decreasing the performance of your headlights removing the reflector. Unless your just going for a look.

Looks good though.

 

[ctgreddy]

How does this improve your lighting? I don't believe that's chrome, they typically vaccum aluminum plate the light reflectors. At least, thats what we do for lawn mower lights lol. I'm pretty sure your actually decreasing the performance of your headlights removing the reflector. Unless your just going for a look.

It's getting an actual projector with an hid. Which is wayyyyy superior to our stock style lights. With the projector the reflector portion in my stock light would be doing absolutely nothing other than sticking out.

 

[T3RM1N8R_18]

O, got ya.

 

[whitedevil95]

Wow removing the chrome inside looks awesome! Subn .

 

[JRH2592]

Do you have contact info for where you purchased the retrofit kit? I am definitely interested in this.

 

[Franco]

^what he said

 

[94slowbra1]

also in for parts used. looking good so far. should help with visibility greatly. what type of bulb are you using?
i know its a different housing but i swapped for the '13+ oem projector headlights in my '12 f150 harley and what a difference. the distance of the light throw is amazing. plus i think they look much better. very interested in seeing the outcome of yours both aesthetically and functionally

 

[ctgreddy]

I'll have to look at what brand the parts are. It's about the same parts that you get in the kit from the retrofit source. Uses H1 bulbs and have high beams. Just cost $50 less. Including cost of the headlights I'll have roughly $350 into these. If you are on Facebook just look up Joey Diaz III and send him a message.

 

[BigRedShaolin]

I wanted to improve my lighting and love trying new things so figured I'd give this a shot. So far it hasn't been too bad. The worst part was opening up the headlights. I ordered cheap 80 dollar ones off ebay because I couldnt find any others that where clear lenses with clear corners. And my god these things have some bad ass sealer that was a pain to get apart. Before these I took apart a broken set of eagle eye lights and that came apart very easy.

But anyways, I got everything for the retrofit from Joey Diaz who I found when posting about this on one of the facebook groups. Started by tearing the headlights apart and then modifying the reflector housing to fit the projector. That was pretty simple.

Then I stripped the chrome off with some oven cleaner, and prepped for paint. Just sprayed them with a satin black high heat paint. Then I just loosely assembled them to see what it'd look like and that's where I'm at currently.

Later this week or this weekend I'll throw them on the car to get them aimed correctly before final assemble, then glue together and will ofcourse follow up with more pics!

I have a buddy of mine custom making what he calls the 10th Anniv style headlights 4 me ill post pics when my buddy shows me how 2 lol

 

[Huachipato]

Your pictures don't exactly make sense. The second image shows you cut the reflector and the painted image shows the reflector is intact. I personally rather cut the shroud over cutting the reflector - it is a much easier cut to perform and keep straight (especially with the mini gatling shroud)

And just for future builds - it is a lot easier to paint the reflector and shroud before you bring them together. No need to use tape or fear of painting the reflector bowl if you do it the way I am mentioning.

Other than that - they look great.

 

[2000GTSTANG]

Looks nice. I agree that cutting the shroud is a better alternative to cutting the reflector. I retrofitted my headlights over Thanksgiving. After owning a few cars with factory HIDs and then retrofitting my Explorer with Mini H1s, I had to do the Mustang before I dd it over the summer.

 

[ctgreddy]

Your pictures don't exactly make sense. The second image shows you cut the reflector and the painted image shows the reflector is intact. I personally rather cut the shroud over cutting the reflector - it is a much easier cut to perform and keep straight (especially with the mini gatling shroud)

And just for future builds - it is a lot easier to paint the reflector and shroud before you bring them together. No need to use tape or fear of painting the reflector bowl if you do it the way I am mentioning.

Other than that - they look great.

Thanks for the tips. Now that you mention it I would have rather cut the shroud, didn't even think about that. Also I did paint them separately. the only reason the tape was on was so I didn't accidently scuff the projector lens while test fitting everything.

 

[ctgreddy]

Well got them all back together over the past few days. Cant wait to actually get the car out in darkness and see how much better they are. Looking back at this there's lots of things I would have done differently, and these are by no means perfect or even close to it. But for my first attempt with really cheap lights, I think they came out good. Here's a few pics I took along the way. Will post up better pics once I get it out in the dark. Would have tonight but we've got a little snow storm coming thru right now didn't want to get it stuck in the driveway haha.

 

[Franco]

They look awesome