Ben's FX-R Retrofit-

Got sick of blinding people with the plug-n-play 6500k HID's from Xenon depot so when my philips bulbs burned out after a year (weak sauce ) I upgraded to the FX-R's with 5000k morimoto's, and 35w ballasts from xenondepot.
Started my retrofit today, tell me what you guys think and please add your impute. I've read a lot and looked at tons of pics from all you guys, thank you much by the way. Whoever can do this in 6 hrs, well, you're awesome . This is my first retrofit and honestly I'm a bit nervous cutting my lights and roasting them in the oven like a turkey.

1)Not entirely sure what I should re-seal the lights with. When done should I just put the lights back in the oven, reheat the black silicone material on the ebay lights and smash them together with alligator clips? Or reheat the lights, remove all the black silicone (bitch of a job) junk and put in a bead of 3M Window Seal. What'cha think?
Pick of the lights w/ the black seal.


2) Is the whole big enough/too small? When I put the Gatling shroud over the projector there seems to be a lot of space between the shroud and the reflector. From what I've read, most are trimming the shroud... why? From what I can tell it clears everything. Also the bottom mounts for the screws show, is that cool? Thought the shroud was supposed to cover it.
Hole




Space, is that too much space between the shroud and reflector?
more pics of the space


Rear housing:





Lastly, when I mount the four 8-32 screws with washers and bolts, how exactly do I make sure the they are mounted horizontally straight. Eye ball it and line them up best I can w/ the lines on the reflector housing? I dunno if you get what I'm saying, but thanks anyways gents.

 

Lookin good man!

1. You can just reheat the lights and put them back together. After they cool down you can run a beed of silicone around the outside edge of the lights to make sure you have a good seal.

2. The hole looks plenty big... As for the shroud I trimmed the inner ring so it would sit down further on the projector and on each corner ware the mounting screw sits.

3. To get the projectors horizontally level first you will have to eyeball it to get it as close as possible. Then you will have to mount them on your truck and plug every thing in and turn them on to make sure the cut off line is perfictally horizontal.

 

^Thanks Adam, you're the man.
I see you what you mean by trimming the shroud so it sits further. TRS provided spacers with the kit, so i'll start by removing the spacers and trimming away. Awesome! Getting excited to finish this up. I think I'll leave the housing chrome. Love the blacked out look though.

 

can't wait to see this finished, i plan on doing mine over a weekend as soon as i get mine in, curious for how long it takes you. lookin good so far man. your kit came with a power lead right ? and what are sealing the back of your housing when mounted?

 

Thanks
Honestly, it's gonna take me pretty long since I work on it between school and work when I have the time. If I had a complete weekend to devote it would be possible.

Power lead? You mean the two wires coming off the projector that actuate the cut off shield for the high beam? If so, yes the projector comes with them pre-installed

I'll be using JB weld to seal the rear housing and bolts once everything is aimed.

 

Good info! The guy probably would still need to work by pulling the lights apart and cutting the whole for the projectors, no? Or did you already have an existing hole? Window weld + Clear seal on outside... sounds like a good idea. That sucks UPS destroyed your hard work, I'd be pissed!

Plan for today: pick up JB weld, window weld and clear seal, drill holes, find a wall and start aiming then trim the shroud.

 

Made some progress today. Scratched the reflector housing while moving the projector around but otherwise it seems to coming out okay.

Anybody use lamin X on the headlights? I noticed my OEM set showed some damage after a few years.

 

looking good man, im just waiting on parts now

i went with the MCR though, i want the LEDS

 

^You can do it, I believe in you!

 

wont be my first ever retrofit

first on a tacoma though

chevy cobalts sure made some awesome lights retrofitted

 

Funny you mention that, I just saw a cobolt on HIDP with retros... did look cool.

 

What washers are these? Did they come with the kit? I only ask because I've see others use "finishing washers" that look like this:


I was thinking about the lamin x or 3M clear tape to protect these lights after putting mine on. Good idea

 

This is coming along great!

 

Looking good

 

I bought the washers and bolts from home depot as the kit does not come with hardware. They are 8-32 size bolts and I wanted washers that wouldn't 'dig' into the plastic so I chose neoprene, the ones featured with the soft back. They seem to work pretty good.
I'm sure finishing washers would work fine to, just a preference of what you like.

Thank you Holly.

Thanks Brian, excited to be done with this project.

 

Thanks for the source - now lets hope home depot has some in stock!

 

nice retro! always better to take your time, do it right the first time

 

thanks mojo

 

you might get some pm's from me when i start my retro. looking good so far man.

 

That's right, that is SMOKE spewing from the morimoto 5k D2S bulb... wtf... really... passenger side works great but this stupid bulb decided to commit suicide and internally com-bust into a smear of foul smelling polymer. When I received the package it was loose in the box so maybe that's why.

In the meantime, I went down to Ralphs to make sure my horizontal alignment was was within reasonable spec on the passenger side. Check it
I know its way high, I need to adjust the screws down and left, but horizontally the drilled holes look pretty good.

cyclopes, poor thing looks molested.



high beam...