Members projector retrofits

[Mounce]

Teaser. Probably about to go buy a dremel, need to trim a bezel in the headlight.

 

[dmanns67]

Idk if I wanna know the sick things you people order

That's what will make the thread interesting

Bake #2 first wasn't hot enough nor long enough. Good news is it seems like butyl. When they're cold I can pull pieces off, rubber like.

Crank it up to 250*F?

Teaser. Probably about to go buy a dremel, need to trim a bezel in the headlight.

I think someone once said, "You could always have a use for a Dremel."

A Dremel is a must have tool with retros I have found many uses for mine so far.

 

[Mounce]

That's what will make the thread interesting


Crank it up to 250*F?


I think someone once said, "You could always have a use for a Dremel."

A Dremel is a must have tool with retros I have found many uses for mine so far.

Lol I was thinking that bezel might give me issues.

Need opinions... Go buy a dremel and trim things...or cheap out and don't buy one and leave this exposed? Now that I think about it I could use our band saw for what I need. Still, got opinions?

 

[Aarkon]

Scuff it all up and paint the bowl

 

[dmanns67]

Paint the whole thing black.

 

[Mounce]

I thought about painting it but won't black on a primarily red car look bad? If I painted it should I paint the shrouds too?

 

[Mounce]

And then my turn signals will still be silver.

 

[Aarkon]

You could always bodymatch

 

[Mounce]

Damn lol so many ideas running through my head right now.

 

[Mounce]

I'm not sure, if I paint the headlights black I would need to but new turn signal housings because the ones I currently have are uh...gorilla glued. They both came apart during the summer so I fixed them lol. I can get black-reflector turn signals for around $30.

On a side note, how bad does this look? I sharpie'd those vents so they're black instead of white now.

 

[Aarkon]

Just so we can have our own little corner to share what we are doing and be able to give each other tips. Here is the last set I built for the ls style headlights

 

[coolasice]

Damn sexy.. Wish I could do that

 

[Harpo]

What brand of aftermarket housing do you use?.

I would like to do this on my truck but I have to save the original housings because I have to change to them once a year at the annual inspection.

I found some on E-bay that are sold in pairs at a good price.
The problem is that the shipping cost mostly is as much as the headlights themselvesthemselves.

Are these any good?http://www.ebay.com/itm/AFTERMARKET-CHEVROLET-TRAILBLAZER-06-LSSSLT-SS-MODELS-PAIR-HEADLIGHT-02-08-/321551551414?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Model%3ATrailblazer&hash=item4addf74bb6&vxp=mtr

 

[Aarkon]

The vision brand ones are permasealed so avoid those depo is a good brand and carlton used eagle eyes and has had good luck with them

 

[Mounce]

Bought a dremel and some silver spray paint to paint over what I cut. Probably won't work much more on them until tomorrow.

 

[Aarkon]

Took a pic of the lights on old blue

 

[littleblazer]

It's a shame I didn't take pictures while I did mine. I think I'll follow this for ideas though, I might bake mine open in the distant future and add halos... But it's good for now.

 

[Mounce]

Mock up. Got the 9007 bulb holder cut off and ground flat and drilled a hole for solenoid wires. Still have to trim the bezel then it's time for on-car adjusting.

 

[Mounce]

Dave, you mentioned some rtv earlier and I've seen Carlton mention it before...what kind is it? The black permatex?

Also, what is recommended for cleaning the projector lenses?

 

[Aarkon]

Black rtv is preferred since it handles high heat and resists most contaminantsand I just wiped all my stuff down with a microfiber

 

[Mounce]

Thanks Ryan. Know if it's easy to open them back up?

 

[dmanns67]

Dave, you mentioned some rtv earlier and I've seen Carlton mention it before...what kind is it? The black permatex?

Yeah I picked up Permatex from Advance Auto. Pic is below. The packaging does not give technical specs, but I searched the Permatex's website and this one appeared to be the best for temperature range -40° to 450°. Stays flexible, waterproof, resists fuel, oils, etc.

Also, what is recommended for cleaning the projector lenses?

I used a micro fiber towel like Aarkon mentioned on the lens. I used hot water to clean out the reflector bowl.

Thanks Ryan. Know if it's easy to open them back up?

I believe Carlton said he used a razor knife to open them back up. I dont think he put them in the oven since it is good up to 450°.

 

[Aarkon]

Ya you will cave to cut them open if you use silicone

 

[Mounce]

Above cutoff vs.

-looks like I'll have to upload pics separately because of their size.

 

[Mounce]

Below cutoff

 

[Aarkon]

Looks good man you got them finished?

 

[Mounce]

Finished up dremel work and sanded bezels. Currently painting them.

 

[Mounce]

How's that look for rotation, fellas? I've got some bowing going on with both of them but not even gonna mess with it, it's probably my bulbs. Got a small color band but can't see it in pics because everything else is so intense.

 

[dmanns67]

Cutoff looks good. I am sure the bowing is due to the way the HID is seated. I believe Carlton had the same issue and used washers to space the bulb to correct the issue. You also did some trimming of the bulb base which could affect it as well.

Whats the hi beam look like?

 

[Mounce]

Only thing I trimmed on the base was a misplaced tab but they still don't seem to be sitting flush.

And I haven't hooked the solenoid up yet, didn't wanna do that until the end in case I need to take the projector out for some reason. About to solder a connector on to the wires though that interfaces with a connector on my wiring harness.

 

[dmanns67]

Nice. I found an easy way to wire the bi-xenon solenoid in my fogs. Just going to run a couple feet of wire from the solenoid to a hi beam splitter I had sitting around. Already tested it and it works great. So I will be running two splitters on each headlight. Tests looked good, we will see how the long term setup works.

 

[Mounce]

I thought you'd had issues with the splitters

 

[dmanns67]

The TRS GM specific correctional splitter is what I had problems with. I think they soldered the diode in place with the wrong orientation. I seen a post on HIDP where a guy cut his splitter open and confirmed the diode was in the wrong directional. Please it was soldered into the ground wire. That is why I went with the diode mod on the BCM since the TRS correctional splitter is garbage.

I am talking about their basic splitter. It has one female end that connects to the hi beam input and has two males inputs coming off of the female.

One male will be for the Cree hi beam headlights and the other male will be for the hi beam solenoid for the fogs. I hooked everything up behind the headlights and the Crees come on as well as activating the hi beam solenoid in the Matchbox projectors.

 

[Mounce]

Gotcha. Try to get some pics of the hole you cut in your bumper and maybe some "over-head" pics of the fogs uninstalled so we can see how much of the bowl is outside of the reflector and how big of a hole is needed in the bumper.

 

[dmanns67]

I was planning on taking some before and after pics of the mounting holes. 95% of the projector is outside of the fog light housing, but most of that is covered by the mounting bracket.

Here is a pic of the projector mounted from the back side. You can see most of the reflector bowl is outside of the housing which is why I painted them with high temp caliper paint. The locking nut you see on the threads can be removed as it is not needed with this application.



Mounting bracket installed.



Starting point of the 880 bulb locking tabs. Its big enough to slip in the sanding drum on a Dremel. Back and front side.





Back and front side of fog after dremeling. Still had some more cleanup.





Also, had to open up the mounting bracket quite a bit on the back and top so it would swivel properly.



I had to relocate the hole for the screw and spring on the driver's side fog to the left of the OE hole because it was hitting the reflector bowl due to the angle in the OE location. Passenger side OE mounting location was not an issue. You can see there is only an inch or so that sticks out past the mounting bracket.



As Aarkon suggested, I used two 4mm stainless steel bolts, nuts, and washers to secure the projector to the housing. I used the mounting holes for the shroud on the projector to secure them to the housing. I had to drill out the shroud mounting hole with a 5/32" drill bit to fit a 4mm bolt. You can see the head of the bolt on each side of the lens.



Here is a mockup pic with the micro gatling 2.0 shrouds, but think I am going to use the 1.0 shrouds.



Below are the very hard to find 1.0 shrouds that are no longer made, but look better than the 2.0s IMO. The 1.0s are like a press fit versus the 2.0s where they are mounted with screws.



To be able to fit the 2.0 shrouds, there is an inner lip on the inside of the shroud that needs to be ground down flush so that it slips over the lens mounting bracket. You have to do this so that you have enough clearance to put the fog light lens cover on.

Aarkon, if you have additional information or pics, feel free to add them as I might have forgot something.

 

[dmanns67]

Here is a pic of the inner lip on the inside of the 2.0 shroud prior to dremeling flush so it fits over the lens mounting bracket.

 

[littleblazer]

Cutoff looks good. I am sure the bowing is due to the way the HID is seated. I believe Carlton had the same issue and used washers to space the bulb to correct the issue. You also did some trimming of the bulb base which could affect it as well.

Whats the hi beam look like?

I thought the bowing was the cut-off shield itself? By not letting it not retract all the way I thought that fixed it? I have it a little as well, but not quite as pronounced.

 

[Mounce]

Bowing can be from mis-aligned bulbs or lenses not spaced away from the projector correctly from what I understand.

 

[dmanns67]

Thats correct. 99% of the time, the issue is with the way the bulb is seated. Thats why I hate changing D2S bulbs or removing my headlights, alignment gets jacked up.

 

[Mounce]

Boom