a few Retrofit questions?

Hi, Started my Retrofit on my spare pair of headlights last night.waiting for the projectors to become available because i heard they were back ordered ATM, But having a baby i do what i an when i have the time haha


a couple questions concerning different things.

If i want to do passive demon eyes, what do i paint on the H1. (pictures?)

If i do the headlights i thought about doing fogs too. Has anyone done a retrofit on the Tacoma fogs?

What size internal halo behind the shroud would fit? (not sure if i will do these but ive been back and forth on it)

 

I powder coated mine. Can't remember what the parts are called now.. foreground limiter plate? And the cutoff shield. Painted the front. Taped off the backsides as well as the solenoid mounting area. There's another trick to add in an additional plate to get a better area effect, but didn't bother with that. This works fine for my liking. Keep in mind it will be fairly faint as it's passive. You'll hardly notice it unless it's in direct sunlight. But it's a cool added bonus. I will probably try to add in an led later to have it lit. I had some halos as well as ccfls, which helped it glow at night. But not really in the daytime either. An led with a direct beam on the shields would have to be done for a better glow. But the led halos won't light it up I think. Only my ccfls did because it's a 360' glow. The led halos are directional and won't really light up the projector interior. Just in case you were wondering. The halo sizes all depend on the size of your shroud. It will tell you what size to go with on the shroud listing on trs website. They are nice. But all mine have had multiple issues and have had to split my headlights a couple times to fix. I ended up giving up and disabled them. That was years ago though and I haven't heard ANY issues as of late with halos. Just make sure they are installed properly. And use the correct mounting hardware. And NOT silicone to mount anything. Or anything that will outgas. Tiny dabs of jb weld, or wire.

 

Here's the projector with a flashlight shining down on it.


And one when I had the ccfls/leds installed for a little glow. Again this would only be seen at night. Daytime you wouldn't even know the ccfls were on and they would look passive.

Ccfls only:


Ccfl + led halos:

 

Awesome thank you

 

I like the blue, but it wouldnt go with the scheme im going for my truck and i havent really found a passive one of Red that i like. So i may just skip the demon eyes.

So you say no silicone to mount. How do you mount the shrouds? i saw someone said use a certain type of silicone to do the shroud to the projector and back side of the reflector bowl? is that true or what should i use and where?

also i know that i will be drilling 4 holes to hold the projector, so do those screws go through the bowl and housing or just the bowl (sorry if thats a stupid question, just trying to get my ducks in a row)

 

I would NOT use silicone for anything. Jb weld or jb putty stuff. And depends on what projector you're doing. The newer minis don't require any cutting/drilling. If you're doing the higher end projectors, the back of bowl probably needs to be cut out. Not sure on second gens. And held in with jb weld as well. I've only heard of one guy who used screws, but can't remember what the specifics were like what projector/headlights it was. And most use tiny dabs of jb weld to hold the shroud on as well. I used silicone and it outgassed. Had to split lights to clean. No bueno. And if you do use screws, they'll go through the bowl, not the whole housing.

 

Pretty much what toendanger said about silicon. It's just messy and no bueno. If you're using mini h1, you don't need to screws, the back of it has a shaft with threads and you use the lock ring that comes with it. You will need to shave the back of your reflectors a bit.

If you're still curious about using screws, here's mine. 2nd gen with oem murano projectors. I had to cut a lot to make it fit; the bowl and projector. After its perfect, you cut the extras off.

 

awesome thank you for the help guys. mucho appreciated. i guess ill be getting some JB weld when the projectors come in.

 

Yeah man! What projectors are you going with? Mini H1 right?

 

TRS Mini H1 7.0... i actually thought about getting the Generic H1 from them and getting the clear lens' and 6.0 Reflector buckets.

 

Good choice. Very wide!

 

i wanted some, but wasnt comfortable in my cutting skills so i thought i would start off easier, and maybe in a few years upgrade to FX-R

 

The minis are great performers! In a few years, I'm sure you'll retrofit your headlights with TRS' new laser based bulbs.

 

Thats freaking cool as hell!

 

Those minis are awesome. I don't see any reason to upgrade. More than enough light. And the new 7.0's have a longer shaft now so you might not have to shave the back. Idk what they were thinking with the 6.0's. But the bowl design is nice. Can't imagine how the 7.0's are. I think you'll be satisfied though. And I really wouldn't worry about the demon eye. It's hardly noticeable if passive and not worth it unless you light it up. Unless that's an easy task for you. But there's more involved than just painting it. You also have to make sure the bixenon/high beam shield (if painting that) doesn't have paint on the top edge. It might mess up your cutoff line and be wavy. Lightly sanding it helps. But even then you gotta be careful. It doesn't come without risks. Mostly for the more involved/experienced retroers. Just thought I'd throw that out there.. The more you modify them, the more chances of something going wrong. A basic retro without any special add ons is less likely to experience any possible failures (paint defects/led halos failing/mounting issues/outgassing in my case/etc) and having to split the housings to fix is a total let down and annoyance. You can always add on later.. And is an easier task the second time around. Easier to split and less time as you know what you're doing..

 

Ya i split the lights open for the first time the other night.. and i was scared as hell haha! I kept checking them in the oven making sure i had not marks or anything haha.. I got a spare pair of lights from my neighbor for a steal as he just bought a set of retrofits from someone on IG. so i figured if worse case scenario and i broke something taking them apart i would still have my stocks, and if the Retrofit comes out nice i can sell my Stocks.

 

So after watching a few of the TRS videos online (using a honda) they showed that you used the stock headlight adjustment screws to adjust the headlight after the projector is installed. (obviously after you get them straight) so is this how i would adjust up/down/in/out? or would it need to be perfect before i seal them. i know i will be very close when i make sure for the cut off line being straight but if i want to adjust up or down later in the future i could use these?

 

Yeap! Try to get it as perfect as you can in all directions when you have the bowl in the housing, on the truck. You can fine tune left,right,up,down later. But as you mentioned, the most important is making sure the cutoff is straight.

 

So yet another question. I received some Nice H4 LED bulbs for christmas. They seller said they would exchange them for the H1 version. Will they fit in the projector housing?

 

I think there was a thread somewhere about using led bulbs. It's not as effective as hid bulbs