The ultimate headlight upgrade H4 (not LED or HID)

Correct. As shown

$350 Toyota Genuine Parts - Headlamp Assy, Lh (81150-04210)

here.

Minor difference in the DRL appearance, overall it is pretty subtle, unless the non-TSB DRL has melted.

Most all modern headlights are now polycarbonate due to the complex shapes.

 

Volunteering a project for someone to do, figure out product install then DIY

A-pillar police spotlight
it can be pointed anywhere you want and looks BadAss

you might even be able to find it cheap used
and maybe even mount whatever Pod you want on it

you know you want to

according to Unity website they even have a 6" HID version with Millions of lumens

 

I used to work on cop cars. Those really arent to difficult ro install. The bigggest problems they encountered was the fat cops used them to pull themselves out of rhe car. Shorting them internally in a bent stalk. Just an fyi user advise

 

Has anyone protected their upgraded headlights to last

like PPF film, ceramic coat, or Opti-Lens?
Opti-Lens is $50 and claims to only last like a year

so far I just apply 303 sometimes

 

If I remember correctly quite a few in this tread do.

I ceramic coated my original oem ones after refinishing and it’s still holding up great 1.5 years later. Will probably need to redo a light refinish and another application of ceramic next year. I used cerakote. 20$ and an hour worth of my time isn’t bad to me for fresh lenses that last 2ish years of full sun.

2k clear is thrown around a lot as well as lamin x.

 

Cerakote is a good product.

 

Is clearcoating nutty? Not shaker can but hvlp spraying automotive quality.

 

Nope. I had a shop sand mine down and clearcoat them about a year ago. So far, so good.

 

Its what is yellowing and peeling off the headlights now. Sand down the old failing clearcoat and re-apply. You dont even need a HLVP Sprayer. You can get away with 2k 2 Part. A little more expensive but can get the job done if you dont have all the tools. Its 2 part and for 20ish dollars you dont even have to clean the gun.

$25 USC SprayMax 2K Glamour High Gloss Aerosol Clear

https://www.amazon.com/SprayMax-Gla...sd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&smid=ALRPFGEN62HZC

 

Interesting

Any input ftom actual users? How long did it last? Other issues?

 

The 2K clear is a great option, IMO it's the only way to lay down a nice thick clearcoat from out of a can.
I've got a couple cans in the garage and some hazy headlights, thanks for the tip Limited!

 

I used the Ceracoat kit and then used 2k clear ( the linked product, don't know if others make it) over that as extra protection. The 2k product "orange peeled" and the projected light pattern suffered. It sucked. So I sanded off the 2k and did the ceracoat all over again.

I'm not a painter and just barely know enough to identify the problem as "orange peel". So, of course YMMV and I probably messed up a step in the process.

 

Looking at installing my harness today and I'm wondering about the OEM harness plugs. Driver's side gets used with the new harness. The passenger side, just flop around? Ok, I can zip tie it out of the way, I just don't like the exposed plug. Anybody find/use a dummy plug for that side?

I suppose most aren't concerned because I haven't seen this addressed in the 245 page thread...

 

I put electrical tape over the opening on my passenger plug to keep grime out. The OEM harness isn't very long, no need to zip tie it in my opinion.

 

I definitely thought about it. Didn't bother with electrical tape b/c I hate gooey tape residue. On my '02 Tundra I cut and crimped a connector similar to the corners and used discrete relays to fire D&P, L&H so all connectors are used. On my '05 Tacoma I have the passenger side dangling and exposed, but the H4's aren't waterproof anyway so it's a bit of a moot point. At some point I might do the same cut and crimp for the '05 Tacoma that I did on the '02 Tundra since it's possible to add a short H4 extension later on to "go back to stock" if I ever really wanted to downgrade.

I like sealed connectors, but these 2nd gen Tacoma reflectors are killer, just wish we had an H4 shaped halogen with a sealed connection in the rear.

 

I live in the heart of the rust belt, so leaving my passenger side connector dangling unprotected just wasn't an option. I packed the OEM female connector with Dielectric grease, then slipped a small plastic bag over it, I then sealed the open base of the bag with a zip tie. I then zip tied the connector up and out of the way with the open end of the connector facing down. When I sold the truck 3 years later and removed the harness, everything looked perfect.

 

2" drop from Centerline at 25'

Thats pretty easy to do...

 

@crashnburn80 Thanks for making my life easy. My wife informed me Friday she wasn't happy with the light output on her 2009 4Runner. In my search for finding the brightest bulbs this thread popped up. Along with all the links I needed to make life super easy. I was planning on building a harness myself and now I don't have too. If we ever end up at the same campfire beers are on me.

 

If you have trouble finding 100w bulbs I can send you a couple. But, yeah, I even bought two harnesses because I can’t find nicer female H4’s than what Mike uses. And I’ve bought parts from quite a few places.

 

I’m thinking of gathering parts to make this upgrade on my 2012. The original lenses are starting to fog over after 10 years. I’ve got the Pro headlights in my online basket. Thinking it might be smart to grab these while they are still available. Do you think this part will continue to be offered for a few years yet?