My 2nd Gen BHLM & Retro

Hey guys just thought I'd post as I went for posterity. Might be useful for someone!

I decided to do a BHLM while I put in my Morimoto Mini H1 projectors.

Followed Viet2100's excellent guide here:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/lighting/65226-how-black-head-light-mod.html

I removed the headlights from the vehicle, which was a bit of a pain with my ARB bumper in the way.

I brought them in, set the oven to 300.

I removed the marker bulbs vent filters and other little plastics off the light.

Shut the oven off and popped the light in on the lowest rack, with a piece of cardboard over the rack itself, and baked for 10 mins! Kept a close eye for melting but everything was fine.

Took it out, and pried the light housing apart. People complained about the difficulty of this but I didn't find it too bad. Once i was able to get a finger or two in the corner I just basically ripped it in half like a phonebook in a strongman competition. (No I can't really do that to a phonebook )

So I was here:



FAR harder than prying the housings apart was getting as much damn glue as I could out of that channel.

Basically used an old screwdriver and kept heating the light for 5mins at a time to soften the glue.

Once I had this done, I laid out some poly, unscrewed the reflector from the backing thing, and clear lens, then set the painting part on the poly.

I masked off the blinker reflector, then primed the whole bunch of it.

I also decided I wanted black shrouds to contrast with the reflector which I decided to leave silver.



All primed!

After waiting a while, I sprayed on my paint. I chose to try flat black high temperature BBQ type paint. Prob not needed but they did not have Krylon where I was and I didn't feel like another stop

Did 2 coats, and thankfully no runs. Did the "burn" portion by moving rack to middle position, setting oven to 250, preheating, and as soon as light shut off, slid cardboard in. Put all the pieces in and baked for 5 minutes.

After they cooled off I snapped in the reflectors and lens covers for the blinkers/DTRL.

This is where I am now!



Letting those sit overnight and going to pick it up tomorrow. Get the projectors mounted in, headlights reinstalled, and everything powered up.

I'll keep you updated!

 

Well buddy wants to go snowmobiling tomorrow so I decided some late night continuing tonight instead of finishing it at my leisure tomorrow.

Since the ones I bought did not come with screws, decided to just epoxy the shrouds to the projectors.

Here they are on a rag to prevent drips.


As you can see I smudged one of them by touching them tonight, too early. I will touch this up with a tinfoil mask tomorrow. You would never notice inside the housing, but I want this done right.

Back to the horrible task of getting the damn OEM glue off of everything. This time the clear lens portion of the housing. As luck would have it I managed to glop a chunk of it on the thing while it was hot. Smudged everywhere trying to scrape it off. Crap!

Poured in some electronics grade isoprop alcohol since I did not want to melt/fog the housing with a stronger solvent. Rubbed the crap of the smudge with my finger inside the alcohol bath until it was gone. Phew! Crisis averted. Did NOT want to be looking at that forever.

Washed the alcohol off with water then put back in the oven for final bake to dry it and finish off the sealant.



Thank god! Gluing is done.

Then peeled off from my roll of 1/4" 3M window weld and laid it in the track in the part of the housing that has the reflector.

To help others, it was a bitch to find, especially in Canada. Finally looked up a part number from 3M and gave it to a clerk at NAPA auto parts. Success! That part # was 08620 by the way. Came with enough to do 2 sets of headlights at least for around ten bucks.

Here is the housing with the window weld laid in the track.



About time!

Done for the night. Tomorrow when epoxy is hard, I will slide the projectors into the housing, do a test fit install on the truck, make sure everything working as it should and relatively level/straight, then come back and seal the whole bitch back up.

Update:1-29-2012

Well it is done! From washing the lights I had some drops of water in so they fogged the light a little bit in the corner but once I get some time I'll take both lights out and hang some desiccant in the housing for a while then reinstall it.

The BHLM turned out fantastic, the projectors are amazing. The cutoff was actually fairly well aimed right away. I had to blast away to go snowmobiling so didn't have time to point them. So coming back in the dark was actually fine, they were pretty much right at the right height. They were way too high once I loaded the sled in the back to go home though so I pumped the airbags up to 60PSI and I was back in business!

I didn't know when I began they are only held up by the shaft that goes through the bulb hole. Has anyone had problems of them moving or breaking from offroading?

Anyways I'll take/upload the final pictures should be tomorrow.

UPDATE:

Ok guys there are a couple more interim pics but they are on the camera. I went to the car wash real quick just to snap some crappy iPhone pics. You can get the idea any ways.






The light is WAY more blue than it looks like in person. They are 4300k bulbs and basically look neutral white.

 

As soon as i muster the balls to stick my headlights in the oven ill be doing this as well

 

oh baby

 

I'm doing something similar at the moment too!

My DRL lenses were bubbled and cracked though and when I tried to put one back in it snapped right in half. Lucky I found a member who has an extra set laying around

 

Weird wonder what the difference is between the Canadian Tacomas which are ALL DTRL. I've never heard of anyone's lens melting. That and the USA ones which get retrofitted with DTRL later.

I've never heard of a Canadian one melting, but lots about USA ones.

Thicker lens? Different plastic? Different bulb ? Different voltage?

Mine has no cracking, bubbling, fogging, etc from heat. And I use mine constantly.

Either way good info, something to watch for!

 

Sub'd. Looks great so far! Good luck with the remainder of the mod!

 

Added content to my second post. Continued tonight! So sleepy, bed time.

 

Why did you take out the OEM glue? I've done the same procedure on Lexus IS300 lights and didn't have to take out the glue or add new stuff.

 

Well the way it comes out seems you can hardly be sure it seals properly when you put it back together. Nice to have nice new glue in. Plus the guide said so I guess!

 

very interested in this thread as I just ordered my H1 kit last week and it should be here monday. Looking good and I am curious how your color choice turns out

 

Ya got 4300K XB35 bulbs. I wouldnt do anything other than 4300k or 5000k tops.

 

Yeah this looks really cool. I can't wait to see the final product!!

 

great thread

 

Well it is done! From washing the lights I had some drops of water in so they fogged the light a little bit in the corner but once I get some time I'll take both lights out and hang some desiccant in the housing for a while then reinstall it.

The BHLM turned out fantastic, the projectors are amazing. The cutoff was actually fairly well aimed right away. I had to blast away to go snowmobiling so didn't have time to point them. So coming back in the dark was actually fine, they were pretty much right at the right height. They were way too high once I loaded the sled in the back to go home though so I pumped the airbags up to 60PSI and I was back in business!

I didn't know when I began they are only held up by the shaft that goes through the bulb hole. Has anyone had problems of them moving or breaking from offroading?

Anyways I'll take/upload the final pictures should be tomorrow.

 

i am looking forward to seeing your finalized project. How long did this take for you to do. Trying to see how much time I need to allocate since I will be using my headlights that are on my truck and not a second set

Thanks

 

I used my on-truck headlights as well. I did not work on it solid though. I did the baking/glue cleaning one day. Then epoxied the shrouds on and let it harden over night. Then next morning glued everything back together and remounted on truck.

I would GUESS total time at around 6 hours if you just screwed the shrouds on and went at it hard.

Someone is selling a pair of headlights for cheap in BST right now by the way. Maybe just get those and retro/bhlm them. Good to have in case you fuck something up too.

 

Epoxy might not have been the right glue for the job. Not sure what else I'd have used though. Recently I found out that epoxy has a very low thermal limit. It's probably in range of what you're doing but I was surprised at how low it really was compared to it's tensile strength.

 

Ya it is good for 500f, 200c. It will take a bit higher for short periods as well. I actually considered this and didnt think the projector lens would actually reach this temp, but could be wrong.

Plus only holding on the shroud, not exactly load bearing.