1st gen tacomas with HID lights! Pictures please!

Don't buy just the bulbs. Please do a retrofit instead. It'll cost more, but it'll give better light output and not blind others on the road. Our stock housings are not set up to run HID kits stock, which is the reason for doing a retrofit.

Also, 8000k will not give you the brightest output. But if you prefer the blueish light over the brightest, then go for 8000k if you feel like it...


Here are two retrofit kits that I recommend.
http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=227

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=237

 

When you buy 8000k bulbs you only loose how bright and how far your light goes... The best kelvin temp is around 5000k it's a pure white and has the highest lumens.. 6000k has a slight blue if that's what you want... A projector retro will get you the brightest far reaching light that won't blind on coming traffic

 

It amazes me that with all the information available to members of the forum, we still get people looking to buy 8000k bulbs and throwing them in their stock housings. That's what irresponsible teenagers with lowered ricers do, that's not what respectable tacoma owners are about

 

Haha I was one of those teenagers that put 6000k HID's in my stock housing of my 96 Tacoma....

 

You still had the mind to get 6000k bulbs! That's still close enough to white. I'll probably go with them when I do my retrofit but I can't tell you how many times I've read:

"yo I want to get 8000k bulbs because I saw them on my homies civic and they're SOO bright and I want to brightest, most blinding lights ever"

It's fucking purple and looks terrible...just terrible. The only thing worse is coupling them with piss-yellow fog lights

 

Haha true. On the fog lights though, people tend to go with yellow because they are better for fogs. I just personally hate the look of yellow fogs and will be going LED in the future for fog lights.

 

Oooo LED would be awesome. Yeah yellow just doesn't do it for me i know it reflects off the fog better but it's just such an ugly color for light, especially after it took technological advances this long to make pure white driving light

 

Agreed. Whenever I do get a plate bumper I'm going with Rigid Industries Dually's.

 

Yep! I've got the same Taco as you and just finished my retrofit a week or so ago.

I used these

Pilot Performance Lighting WI-HL5A H4 Conversion 6054 Head Lamp, D.O.T/SAE, Color Box

Pilot 7x6 housings.

And the Miromoto H1 6000K kit from TRS plus their butyl sealing glue. Use the H4/9003 wiring harness.

eBay one of these for $5: H4 HID Bi-xenon Error Warning Canceller Leakage Module and plug it into the unused factory harness on the passenger side when done. That will create a load and allow your high beam console indicator to work again. Mine arrived yesterday. Plugged it in and voila'.

You also need some

$7 J-B Weld 8265S Original Cold-Weld Steel Reinforced Epoxy - 2 oz.

JB Weld.

Other than that, all you need are your oven, Dremel tool with cutoff wheels and cutting bit, and safety glasses. And do the cutting/grinding in the garage or outside. Really messy fine plastic particles are created.

Note that the projector appears to be sagging a bit. It was. I managed to catch and correct that before the JB Weld set all the way. Use a little bit of metal tape (high heat for water heater use) to secure the projector to the housings. JB weld right over the top of it. Allow it to set up for 30 minutes or so, then go test fit them in your truck. See if your cutoff lines are even in the ballpark. One of mine wasn't, that's how I discovered how severe it had sagged. You should be able to gently move the projector close to where it needs to be. Carefully take them back out and set them so they won't move any further and let cure another couple hours. Then before re-sealing, wipe down all inside pieces (including the lens and inside of the cover) with the alcohol wipes to remove all fingerprints and particles.

JB Weld is more runny than I expected. A little bit got inside the housing where I didn't have it sealed all the way. You can only see it if you look for it though. Also got some on the wiring when I was test fitting, and apparently a drop on the bumper. Oops. So just be mindful and careful.

Pilot housings before:



Heating in the oven:



Gently prying the two halves apart:



After prying the covers off, remove the existing glue while it's still warm and pliable. I worked on it when it was cooler, should have reheated it. When I removed the glue, some of the chrome was pulled off. I touched it up with a sharpie just to be sure black didn't show through. If I had blacked out the headlights, this wouldn't be an issue.



Also note in this picture that one of the retaining clip holders is bent a little. I should have corrected that with a pair of pliers so it's seated all the way. I'll do that at some point when I feel like pulling the front end apart again.





The passenger side headlight looks twisted in this picture. It actually isn't.





The driver's side projector needed to be turned ever so slightly clockwise (looking at the back) as you can see a slight downwards slope. I can live with this though. I might even be able to do something with the way it's mounted to correct this if my OCD annoys me too much.



Sorry no pictures of during/after the cutting & shaping of the reflector holes for the projectors. I got a little impatient and didn't want to stop to take pictures. I wanted it done!

This ended up being a two day project. Thought I could do it in one, but no. I'd allow a weekend. Hopefully you have another vehicle to drive.

 

sweet, now get them things aligned!

 

dang that looks sick! but im not to sure of retro fitting, though i do like the light output. but whenever i have stuff that needs a dremel, i take it to my grandpa since he is like a master carpenter. but he isnt doing well ATM and im too scared to just plung into it so i thought i would just buy some reflectors

 

The two scariest things for me were:

1] Dremeling the Pilot housings. What if I made the holes too big or something? Then I realized that it was ok. It was only $30 and I could just order new ones and try again.

2] Using the JB Weld. That made it permanent and if I had screwed up then ALL of it was a loss. $320 > $30.

Luckily neither of the above came to be. Just go slow with the Dremel and test fit over and over. Do little bits at a time. The second housing went easier than the first.

I'll add another picture here. On the back side of each housing are little nubs on each corner. Grind/cut them flat. The retaining ring that holds the headlight in wouldn't fit properly with them still there since the edge had added thickness. This caused some issues with being able to screw the ring down correctly.



TRS actually sent me a link to a 7x6 retrofit video that was really helpful. It gave me the basic concept of what I would have to do. Check it.

Oh, and one more thing...on the driver's side the battery is right there. If I would have made the reflector hole too big, then the projector would have gone too far back and hit the battery. That would have been a bad thing. So measure how much room there is from the back of one of the mounted Pilot housings (with the mount bulb mounts and nubs cut off). You do also have to make the hole big enough so that when the projector goes in, the clear housing covers can go back on and be resealed without hitting the projector lens.

Now I apparently just have to take a screwdriver to them for adjustment as there's only supposed to be one step, not two. Oops. Live and learn. (Thanks Cody.)

This was the hardest mod I've done to my truck. I'm pleased with how it turned out even though it might have been a little more perfect had I slowed down just a little. I think.

 

it's all good, always happy to see another retro instead of a HID kit!
you'll love it that much more as well, man!

 

Another $400 and I can knock the Honda out too. Although, I will miss my 8000K bulbs...sure do like that color. Yeah, I know they have less lumens, but still.

 

I forgot about this mod. I want to do it so bad! but I have other needs...

 

Said no one ever

 

Well it's either do a retrofit or or buy sliders. I think I need sliders more haha

 

See slightly better vs protecting the truck

I think protecting wins this round

 

Haha yeah. I may do it if I have some extra money I want to spend.

 

now i really want to do this........but im scared to just start cutting up my headlights. cause i know i get impatient with things and it wont go over well...