HID Retrofit 2009 Tacoma Extended Cab

Subd

 

Are those 2.5" or 3" lenses? Will 3" fit in the housings easily?

I've read some mixed messages on if the 3" lenses are actually any better than the 2.5" as well. Anybody have any info there?

 

The question I can not seem to find the answer to, well two actually, is how do you know where to drill the holes to get a good horizontal alignment and second, do you have to cut out the lower section of the bowl out to fit the wires or is this for the projector itself??

 

Tough question for the first one. I put the projector in the bowl and lined it up the best I could using the horizontal and verticle lines in the chrome portion of the bowl used for projecting the Halogen light beam. Believe me this was the hardest part of the install. Basically the second point of no return.

The notched out square that you feed the wires through will be there when yoy remove the halogen shroud.

Hope this makes sense.

 

Just got off the phone with Matt from TRS. He didn't know if the 3" would fit, but was sure the 2.5" ones would. Apparently the only difference is cosmetic, 3" fills housing a bit more, but doesn't produce any better quality output.

My FX-R 2.5" stage 3 kit with upgraded bulbs is on it's way!

I just need to figure out what I'm going to do for the BLHM now. Debating if low gloss black over everything except the lenses will be to much black, or if I should leave the shrouds chrome or something. My 2009 Access cab is metallic grey.

 

fallon, you can check out my gallery. I too have metallic gray truck and was torn on what to paint. I wound up painting the bezels and shrouds satin black and leaving the reflectors stock chrome. Gives a nice contrast IMO.

 

I spent the extra $$ and did it with BSP.

 

Humm, that actually sounds like a pretty decent idea. Any issues with the chrome flaking or getting roughed up from when you stuffed the projectors in?

Got the snow tires & black rims on today. Not completely happy with them... I think they unbalanced things. Hopefully removing some of the excess bling on the front here shortly will even things out again. Rims got a bit chipped on the edges due to sliding in the bed & I forgot to tell em to use the black lugnuts sitting in a bucket in the cab, pretty easy fixes though.

 

No issue at all. The mini d2s or h1 projector does not really touch the stock reflector bowl at all. The provided big white washer sits between the projector and the bowl itself.

 

I'm going with the FX-R's and will be enlarging the "bulb hole" to 2.75". Guess I'll have to see how it looks after I do the cutting.

 

You might want to remove the two tabs on the bowl before using the hole saw. Makes it a lot easier cut. I used a small fine tooth saw.

 

I have the first projector roughly mounted to the first bowl, but now yet glued in & have run into some shroud fitment problems.

Did you guys use the centric rings when installing the shrouds? My gattling shrouds are lose by about a centimeter without them. But when I put them on the FX-R's the tabs inside the shrouds barely fit & I can't slide the shroud down to get the lens somewhat even with the top of the shroud. If I push any harder, I'm sure the tabs inside the shroud will snap off, and even then I think the inside diameter of the shroud will still be to small. I've already trimmed half an inch or so off the bottom of the shroud. This is the case with the mounted projector as well as the one just sitting on my table.

Any thoughts?

 

Yes I used the shroud rings and I used the high temp sealant to glue them to the projector and the shroud. I did not want them vibrating off the projector. The bead of red, in the pictures, is the high temp sealant.







Is this the information you were looking for?

 

How close was the inner rim of the centric ring to the top of the shroud? The closest I can get it is about an inch apart, if I try and slide the shroud on any further I'm sure I'll snap the tabs on the inner part of the shroud. I was planning/expecting to have the inner rim of the shroud somewhere between flush with the lenses and about a centimeter from it.





It was all I could do in those photos to keep the shroud on with my gut & one hand while taking the photo with the other. If I let go, the shroud will pop off and get a couple inches of height easily. Even if I did clamp it down for gluing I don't think it would be good for long-term durability. The centric rings positively latch into place & I was expecting the shrouds to do something somewhat similar, or at least a firm fit that needed to be glued in place.

P.S. Even scuffing, cleaning really well, priming, then painting isn't enough. You need to remove the chrome from the shrouds with bleach or oven cleaner it looks. Sadly the massive chipping & flaking of the paint is even worse in person than the photos. Will work on that after I get the mounting sorted out.

 

Here are two pics of the ring pressed on the shroud and the ring is seated all the way down into the shroud.





When I put the shroud on to the progector the shroud was seated right down to the surface of the projector. During the course of my research I had read a few instances where guys had to remove some of the back portion of the shroud to make it fit into the reflector bowl and at the same time be fully seated on the projector. That was not the case with my retrofit.

This pic, not the best due to the CCFL being illuminated, shows the shroud on the projector sitting in its final resting place in the reflector bowl.



I still felt the shroud might vibrate off so I did use the high temp sealant to glue it into place. So far I have not had any issues after 9 months of driving around.

 

Got off the phone with TRS... They said the original Gatling Gun shrouds are a rather old design & don't fit the FX-R's the best.

For $15 to my door I have a set of value Orbits coming now. Value = minor surface blemishes, but with dechroming & black paint in their future anyway that wont matter. I figure $15 is going to be an easy price to pay compared to worrying if the gattling's will come loose down the road. I could have exchanged the gattling's, but they'd already been painted & one trimmed.

 

Glad it is working out for you. Once you make the hole cut in the reflector you have crossed the point of no return.

Drilling the 4 mounting holes in the reflector bowl was very nerve racking as well.

 

Ya, major picker factor with both steps. Have one projector loose mounted to the carved bowl, probably carving the other bowl tonight. Will wait until I have the new shrouds probably this weekend to glue it all up. Luckily the wife is out of town for another couple weeks (I get the oven, the kitchen counter & her vehicle).

Did you decide to trust the lines in the bowl more or matching the projector output to the tape on the wall to get the rotational alignment? I figure as long as I'm reasonably in the ballpark I can get the vertical & horizontal alignment sorted out.

 

Trust the lines with mounting but you still want some wiggle room. Put the bowl w/ projector mounted back in the housings and mount on the vehicle before to confirm horizontal cutoff before epoxying the bowl to the projector. You have one shot, do it right, do it once.

 

agreed, put the bowl w/projectors back in the housing and mount on vehicle to make sure the horizontal is lined and matches the other.

it's a PITA if you have to redo it... like burt said, Do it right and do it once!