Post your 1st gen retrofit (01-04 only)

Haha.. Yeah, the chrome ones definitely look cross eyed. Hard to find one with a usable angle.

 

Looks good tho. Better than I can do. I took one glance at Photoshop, and said fuck this I ain't got no patience for this. Lol.

 

Thanks Troy. I appreciate the effort.

I am liking this one a lot. Anyone know which shroud that is?

Yeah, maybe. I kinda like a little bit of chrome in the front.

 

That my retro i did

Apollo 3.0 shroud. Only required a bit of trimming to fit over the projector.

 

Of course, now that you point that out, I see it. No wonder it looks good. Your's is one of the cleanest setups I've seen on a 1st gen.

So its a blacked reflector and shroud with a single while halo behind the shroud?

 

Yup thats it!

 

Do you have the halo wired to a switch or do they come on with the parking/marker lights are on?

 

I tapped into the parking light.

However, I wish I had made a switch to turn them on whenever. Having the dash lights come on with the halos and front/rear parking lights makes me not turn them on as often as I would.

 

I can see advantages either way.

How bright are those halos. Are they easily visible during the day?

 

I think they have just the right brightness during the day. Its not super dull or super bright, definitely noticeable if you are looking at it. At night it projects light at least 10 ft.

I can grab some pics tomorrow during the day to show you the brightness.

 

This is just a crappy cell pic but this is just halos on. I did not focus on the halos, just the bumper though I can get some better ones tomorrow.

 

Maybe almost bright enough to be DRLs?

 

Ehhh.. Yeah, but its not SUPER bright during daytime.

I thought about running the halos as DRL's. But thought it would be easier to wire it to the parking lights (which it was).

If I were to do it again, I would wire is so that when the truck turned on, the halos would turn on. Then, when I wanted the HID's on, the halos would turn off. I've heard that the when the HID's are on it emits a lot of heat, if the halos are on with the HID is causes premature wear on the halos and COULD cause some to burn out. Not exactly 100% sure on that though but i think its what TRS recommends.

 

If they were wired to a separate switch, you could control when they are on or off and wouldn't have to worry about excessive heat. I have my PIAAs wired that way and only have to remember to turn them off sometimes.

 

It was definitely and afterthought I had. I might go in the future and change the wiring up on it to exactly how I want it but for now its probably going to stay like that for awhile.

Are you just waiting for the group buy to get a 5th taker to get your retros done?

 

TRS Morimoto Mini Stage 3 Kit
Mini Gatling Gun Shrouds/Housing-painted gloss black
35W 4300k Bulbs
70mm Morimoto XB Amber Angel Eyes- Independent switch/Daytime use only 90% of the time.

 

Yeah. I was hoping to get ambiguous to build me a set but I'm not sure if that will ever happen. Hopefully that 5th person comes along.

Which projector did you go with? Is that an FXR or D2S?

 

D2S, I didn't want to cut into the back of the headlight. But if someone else is doing it for you I believe the FXR has a slightly better light output.

Hope that 5th person comes along, would be sweet to see some retros on your truck!

 

If I'm doing it, might as well look good too, right? However, the primary reason remains better light output. It is getting more and more difficult to see well at night with the current headlights.

Did you use OEM housings or an aftermarket one in your retrofit? BTW, really appreciate you letting me ask all these questions.

 

No problem! Always enjoy talking about retros! You helped me get a better idea for the bumper I want to make and let me ask a lot of questions!

I used aftermarket headlights because the ones I had were really hazy. I also got the black corner lights with the headlights also. Its been around ~7 months of AZ heat and sun and I see absolutely no signs of the headlight becoming hazed or and distortion in light output. Also no condensation in the headlights, but I also sealed them with the sealer purchased from TRS.

(http://www.ebay.com/itm/2001-2004-T...yota|Model:Tacoma&hash=item5668fd486a&vxp=mtr)

Light output on my headlights was terrible which was the main reason I looked to upgrade. After the retro it is amazing how much better I can see at night.

Here is a link that shows the differences between the D2S 3.0 and FXR. Disregard the D2S 2.0 in the thread. You can see how different the light output is, for the gain I personally thought it was not worth cutting a huge hole in the back of the headlight.

http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/sho...i-D2S-3-0-vs-Mini-D2S-2-0-vs-FXR-output-shots

The retrofit was really easy to do, took me about 4 days to complete start to finish. If you do decide to do it yourself, make sure when you get everything mocked up and on the way you want put it on your truck before you seal it back up and make sure the lights are level. My passenger side light is slightly angled up and it drives me crazy but the other one is perfect.

I followed this guide:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/1st-gen-tacomas/310539-2004-tacoma-projector-retrofit.html

To install the halos i used this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1166Dy9SQU

To seal the headlights I did this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duFXYRt_nD0

If you have anymore questions I would be happy to answer!