My 50W FX-R Retrofit Build

It's always something, right?

 

4 days later I put the first headlamp assemble back together at 2230. All buttoned up with new butyle rubber. ... I went to aim her and... the adjustment screw female half stripped out.... FML

 

mad props to those people that get good enough at this to crank out a set in 6 hours. I am at 4 days and counting on the first one. ... having a parts bin would have helped a lot!

I swear I'm not inept. I can build a motor in my sleep, CAD/CAM, I'm an engineer, I used to teach composites manufacturing, but DAMN!

 

whats going on man =\ ...

 

It will all be worth it in the end. I was debating between the FX-R and the miniD2s and I went with the miniD2s just for ease. Now after seeing more pictures of output, I want to upgrade to the FX-R. Where are you in MD, I'd like to take a look at yours in person when you get them all done.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/gr...buy-25-off-lets-see-list-thanks-matt-trs.html

 

Yes, really, I feel your pain believe me. The balljoint socket that allows the shield to pivot horizontally and vertically kept popping off when I adjusted mine. The top screw that adjust's horizontally was maxed out clock-wise and was putting too much pressure on the joint, thus popping it out.

What exactly do you mean it half stripped out? Before you cooked the light and put it all back together, did you cut the excess part of the screw? I know it's difficult, but maybe a picture would help.

4 days? that's nothing. I've been at this retrofit for a month.

 

just to add on to the excess part of the screw. All four of my screws were shortened using dremel then to seal the small gaps and ensure the nut doesnt get loose, JB Weld

 

Don't tell me 4 months! Argg. Haha

With the way the projector is mounted the adjustment screws are about in the middle. The L/R screw is cheated to the right though.

The black plastic tab that the adjuster screws screw into completely stripped out for the Up/Down adjustment. I think it happened in the open when I baked it back together.

When I pulled it back apart last night I used 100% silicon caulking to bill those adjsuter tabs. I will drill a small hole into it and allow the bolt to grab whats left of the original threads and hopefull get enough purchase on the silicon. If it doesn't look like that will work I think I will need to JBweld them and drill and tap holes :s.

do you mean did I cut the excess off of the bolts that hold the projector into the bowl? I cut the top ones since they could hit something, but I never trimmed the bottoms. They looked like they cleared. I will check it when I get home and cut them if I need. The white 'ball socket" tab has been staying put, thankfully.

I live/work in the far south of SoMD. But would be willing to meet up somewhere reasonable for a Tacoma day once the truck is all back together.

Frustration?
I pulled them back apart last night at 2300. I will investigate after work today.

 

Damn dude! so much cleaner than mine! I'll get some new pics up tonight.

 

thanks some pics would help !

 

^Seriously, that is entirely too clean looking AnT. Jelly. I'll show pics of mine later..

 

thanks guys

check out my sig for some more pics if you'd like... the reflector bowl shaved as well so the projector sits compltely on it..vice on the grooves and what not of the bowl.

 

i believe the main purpose of the shroud is to cover up the projector, not to fit into the bowl!

how come you cut the metal tabs off
curious to see the pics when u get home.....

 

I cut the metal tabs off the bottom of the projector so that the shroud would actually clear the projector and cover it up the way it was advertised to.

here you can see before shaving the tabs:


And here is after. (This is an older pic. I actually shaved them down to the point where there is barely a crescent from the original holes. I drilled the new holes in the very corner of the tab.)


I shaved part of the shroud to clear the reflector bowl too. It touches in about 7 places. I thought about making a clay mold to do a full impression and get a "perfect" fit between the bowl and shroud but couldn't justify the time or cost in clay when you have to look very hard to see a gap at all (its only a 1-2mm in most places and is black on black).



In other news, I didn't get around to taking any photos tonight snice I got home from work so late... but I fixed the stripped adjuster screw tabs and re-assembled the first headlight! I remounted it for a final check on the truck and it looks pretty damn solid! I drove it around the neighborhood to see how 50W of FX-R was. It is very nice. I'm actually a little disappointed in the light output but I think I've been staring at them in a white-walled room for too long and was expecting the sun. Also, I think the one 50W HID is outshining both of the factory headlights combined. The highbeam is pretty sweet. I'm really looking forward to seeing it with both!

 

Been a little slow with the build the last few days. I'm waiting for my new ballast and projector shield to arrive from TRS. The ballast was sparking on the surface. TRS customer service was great. They had me cut the wires and send them a pic with the ballast destroyed and they dropped a new one in the mail the same day.

The shield in one of the projectors was giving a shit cutoff. I snapped a cell phone pic of that and sent it to TRS and they dropped a new shield in the mail too. Im' hoping the new parts arrive today so I can finish this build up this weekend. I have 600 miles of driving to do Monday.

Overall, I don't like the naming of the products implying they are Japanese when it is obviously chinese crap, and the build quality is fairly low... however, the performance seems good so far and with painless returns and group buy prices it is hard to beat.

Last night I trimmed the other shroud and got a good fit in the reflector bowl and painted all the surfaces black. The pictures would look the same as those already posted.

I do have 2 questions
What does everyone do with the rubber boot in the back to 'waterproof' the headlight assembly. The Bulb base and connector seem 100% incompatible with rubber boot :-/.

When wiring them up, are you guys installing inline fuses with the included harness? The harness uses the stock wiring to trigger the relays to fire the lights and highbeams.

 

for the rubber boot, you need to cut it to make the hole a bit bigger... if you can wait a few hours till i get home, i can take pics of before, during and after...i have a pair that i need to cut/modify.

im not adding any fuses or anything to whatever has been provided with the harness.. just plug it all and fire em up..

 

I trimmed the hole with a razor blade, it's more of a dust cover than a water resistant cover.

For the high beam connection I spliced the high beam connector off my H4 philips HID bulb (what I had before a D2S retrofit) and connected it the FX-R high beam wires for a plug-n-play fit.

True thing about the Morimoto's being chinese quality in terms of build, but they do perform extremely well. The shield inside one of my projectors got stuck halfway down and I had to go in with a screw driver to pop it back up. Haven't had the problem since..

 

rubber boot. popped it inside out and starting cutting along the 4 notches.

 

300 degrees is to hot for the headlight you will weaken the rear of the housing ie the gray plastic for sure making it brittle.

i hope this was a typo you probably should have used a heat gun thats how i did all of mine.