1st Gen Projector Retrofit?

has anybody done/seen this? i REALLY wanna do one but dont know where to start. looked at theretrofitsource and saw the kits but idk which one to use or really how. any help would be great, just gotta be nudged in the right direction, i can figure it out from there

 

http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=392421

You could start by searching....Google was invented for a reason.

 

Good idea bro, didn't think of that! Come on now... I want to know like which projector kits you can fab into the stock housing. How can you tell which ones will work/fit? Anyone? Come tw you've never failed me before

 

The Morimoto mini or FX-R kits would be what you want to go with depending how easy you want the install to be. The mini's are the easiest to install they fit in the stock bulb location and have a locking ring that screws them in place. The FX-R kit is a little more involved and requires some fabrication to the stock reflector bowl. With the FX-R you have to cut a hole in the reflector bowl and it mounts up with 4 screws.

Both options will give you better light output and you can't really go wrong with either one. The light output will be a little wider with the FX-R's and the cutoff will be a little sharper but the install is a little harder. Hope this helps you out.

 

if you are going to retrofit your self the minis are going to be the easiest way but the way i would mount the fx-r i would not use bolts. i was told by bjorn of custom lightz that in order to get the projector perfectly sat in there he uses a ton of jb weld and basically sinks the projector directly in that waits for it to cure and works on the rest of the retrofit.

the minis are the same way the twist and lock method blows you end up with headlights that jiggle when hitting bumps and it's more noticeable than you think due to the sharp cut-off line.

the projectors that should be on your short list are the mini H1 from custom lightz they are modded by bjorn himself to produce a very very nice even colorful sharp cutoff and light pattern they also have a very nice structured high beam reffered to as a table top design pretty cool and they are budget friendly ringing in at about 120.00 a set. they are also some of the cheapest projectors to retrofit should you have a professional do the work for you which might not be a bad idea. trust me i have done 3 set's myself and it's hard to do correctly. moisture is a huge concern as is all of the dimensions of alignment. you will hear guy's saying they did there's no problems at all and that it was easy lol well take those statements with a grain of salt because i'm here to tell you it's not easy! to do the right way.

i'm a perfectionist and i want it done in the best possible way it can get a bit pricey but, in the end the difference can be night and day between a quality setup and one that was put together by a garage mechanic. the modding of projectors is a very had thing to do properly and can make a huge difference all in itself very few people imho know how to do it correctly. just food for thought it took me the better part of a year to finally figure out my set-up lol and now i'm working on being the first that i know of to do a true quad setup with either the miniH1's or the s2k in my arb fogs. it's gonna be killer!

the fx-r is a slight step up they have the most color when properly modded of any projector i have seen and i have seen a lot! the fx-r has a pretty substantial for ground limiter when compared to the mini the fx-r and the H1 mini are about equal in width but, from what i have seen the fx-r will throw more light more intensely further down the road. check out jvx drivers site of projector comparisons.

fyi the fr-x is the replica of the fx-35 projector and it is actually a much better unit that is not up for debate it has been designed and is now on it's 4th generation so it is a tremendous performer in every aspect right out of the box but, when modded properly it rivals the LS460 which is at the top of the bi-xenon projector heap. the 460 will be a little wider and i mean a little but it's intensity is lower imho and lacks in color. the 460 excells in width of beam and uniformity and it does have nice color but not like the fx-r is capable of.

best of luck and if you have any questions let me know i have been taking questions for customlightz.com on the forum as of lately so let me know or give bjorn a call he should be back in the states in about a week or so.

 

if you would like to discuss this in greater detail pm me and i will give you my number i can take the particulars of what you want to do nail everything down then i can run it by bjorn. you doing the work or just buying his modded projectors and doing the work yourself either way i'm here to help

 

Awesome thank you guys. What I intend on doing is getting new headlights, buy them basically with the bhlm already done, and then throw those on for now. While those are one, ill take apart my shitty stock ones and look for myself how hard it supposedly is. I'm decently mechanically inclined, I'm sure I could figure it out. When the funds come in, ill most likely be sending out pm's. Thanks again

 

1. which projector kits can you fab into the stock housing?
- All of them that's why its a retro

2. which ones will work?
- All of them (as long as they arnt too long their hitting the battery or air box) that's why its called a retro

DDM hid's (good quality for the price, lots of guys run them, lots of guys love them)
Morimoto mini Projectors...small, bad ass, cheap, quality, awesome light projection...its ALMOST a plug and play with that setup

the above obviously is not top of the line. but it will work very nicely and is fairly inexpensive

 

sure you could retro with any bi-xenon or single projector you want but, for instance the LS460 is massive it's like a 2 pound projector lol there is a level of skill that is required to perform a retrofit like that successfully and chances are if you never done any work of this type it's very difficult to do properly.

tl's are another large ass projector believe it or not the headlight housing that the tl's have looks very narrow but, the projector honda mashes into them are extremely large lol. the fx-r is perfect for trucks but even they require more modification to the reflector bowl to get them to sit perfectly and modification to the mounting screws in order to keep adjustability while strengthing the tabs. the reflector bowl was never meant to support the weight of a projector hanging off of it. if you off road this is something to consider as well as ambient moisture in the air when you seal them up that moisture can turn to a vapor and cause condensation in an otherwise dry headlight lol.

some have been able to imo do it well while others have including myself fucked a few up. the level of difficulty can increase drastically depending on what projector you choose if going at it yourself i would recomend sticking with mini H1's or the fx-r. this is my .02 take it or leave it.

 

The mini H1's and fx-r's are what bulb mount? I already have HID's in my stock housing. They're nice, they're ddm's, the right often goes out when offroading. I've singled out the issue to heat. Slow offroading is when it happens to heat is the only thing I can think of. Ultimately my plan is maybe this retrofit, grillcraft, hid retrofit with hellas behind the grill. I'm also gonna get an nfab light bar for only when I go offroading, they're easy to install/uninstall and will be great for our late night offroading we seem to always do, as well as camping trips.

 

search on trs they have all the info you need. fyi think about redoing your existing set-up with trs branded equipment morimoto to be exact.

as aftermarket hid stuff goes they are tops equal to or better quality than the stock components imo they are better than most stock ballasts they are all on there 2nd generation. they get your bulbs up to temp fast they are fully potted and completely weather proof and overheating is not an issue lol.

 

Literally on my way to work this morning at 330 am, my other headlight went out. So now, if I were to go offroading, id have no headlights cuz the other one goes out when it doesn't get enough airflow. I have to revert to stock lights when I get home -_- ddm is gonna gonna get an earfull (via email lol)

 

do you have slim or raptor ballast?

 

Raptor. I'm for sure gonna go with slim next time

 

thats your problem your going analog to digital when you should be going digital to digital (slim DDM ballasts)

the raptor ballast have been proven to be faulty by many, warranty them and switch to DDM slims and i can bet all those problems will disappear

 

Mini h1's are a h1...fxr and mini d2s are a d2s bulb. I went with mini d2s so I could use oem Philips bulbs. Retro fit was easy, I'm going to be re-doing it soon to some fxr's or tl's.