Full HID Retro conversion. (Not just bulbs and ballasts)

[mick.]

Well I know how much people are liking HIDs these days and I know there are a lot of people just fitting HIDs to there conventional lights which aren't designed for HIDs. So I thought this mod might suit people who want HIDs like what you see in all the new prestige cars. This mod will look factory and the beam will be focused not just spread everywhere like the EBay HID kits that are getting around blinding everyone now.

This is not just a straight bulb swap and add ballast though. I'm hopping the kit I've bought will be pretty straight forward though and I've also done a lot of reading on a forum which is all about HIDs. There's also a buildup on the patrol forum which is where I got the idea.

I'll also be adding Angel Eyes for some bling. I've got 3 options there but until the HID kit turns up I don't know which ones I'll use. I'll also post links to all the places I've sourced parts from to help others if there interested. As I don't want my 4wd off the road while I'm doing the mod and do a bit of night driving I thought I'd buy some new aftermarket headlights to fit the kit too. The other reason for this is I wanted series 2 headlights for my patrol as they look more bling then the standard series 1 lights.

Now for the links. These are the guys I got the headlights off. Make sure if you ever purchase headlights you order ones for a right hand drive and this also goes for this whole conversion. The actual protectors need to be ordered for right hand drive also.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300654794...84.m1439.l2649

What I ordered out of that kit are below.

Morimoto 5five 50 watt ballasts x 2
Bulbs are new phillips 85122 + D2S x 2
Right hand drive reflectors x 2
Orbit shrouds x 2
Wiring loom H4/9003


These where recomended to me from heliflyer73 on the patrol forum and also by the guys at Retrofit. There is some pictures on the patrol forum which he has posted up.

Now for the angel eyes I did order a set off those guys but I've also ordered a set from 2 other places as I couldn't really work out which ones will work and what wont. I also didn't want to wait 2 weeks for a set to come from the States and only to have to wait another 2 weeks for more so for the sake of a few extra dollars I ordered 3 types and what I don't use on mine will probably end up being used on another set of lights I may do down the track.

[mick.]

All the gear turned up yesterday and luckily I ordered 3 types of angel eyes as one set didn't fit, one had a broken wire which wasn't repairable. Fortunately the ones which come which the kit which where supposed to be pretty hard to fit without breaking them went in without dramas.

The only real mods I had to do where modify the shrouds for the projectors to fit in the lights. I did this with a Dremel. I also had to drill a couple of holes to fit the angel eyes. Again this was pretty easy. I found the hardest part was to remove the glass from the light without burning yourself or getting sticky sealer everywhere. To remove the glass you need to put the light in the oven for 7 minutes on 125 degrees and then remove the glass while it's hot. The only drama I had was getting sealer in the cover a bit but it's easily cleaned up with Wax and Grease remover.

A picture of the angel eyes test fitted.


The shroud mods before and after. If you look closely you can see the little holes where the angel eyes are wired into the shrouds.






This is not my picture but it came out better then mine. This is the exact same projector that I used and as you can see there is a little solenoid in there that operates the cover which varies the light output depending on whether your on high or low beam. It works just like an eyelid. Low beam the eyes are only half open giving a sharp cut off and on high beam the eye lids are fully open.

These projectors literally fall straight in and are held in my a big washer that has a slot in it so you cant put it in wrong and everything has rubber seals making everything totally water proof. Prior to fitting these you have the option to paint your reflectors if you like and in any colour as there not used at all. A lot of people paint them black but I don't mind the chrome bling look and it would look silly with black reflectors in the lights and chrome in the indicators.




Here's a picture of the projector fitted along with the lens. I didn't get any photos of it pulled apart as I wanted to get them pulled apart and put together as quick as possible to minimise the amount of dust that could get in the light.




This is what the back of the light looks like after it's all fitted. The 2 white wires go to power supply box. The power supply box has 2 wires coming out of it which the red wire goes to your parkers and the black to your battery or any good ground. The other 2 wires plug straight into your loom which operate your eye lids for high and low beam.

[mick.]

Everything is finished. It took about 3 hours to fit the projectors which I could probably do in 2 if I did it again and 3 hours to fit the lights up and wire it all up. I couldn't really save any time here as I had no dramas it's really just unbolt a few things and bolt them back up. The hardest part was finding somewhere to bolt the ballasts as the leads aren't long enough to fit in front of the radiator.

Here's a before shot of the standard series 1 lights.



And here's a shot of them fitted to some series new 2 lights I bought a little earlier especially for this project.



Project supervisor.




I bolted the angel eyes power box to the back of the ballasts.



The ballasts all fitted up.





My accessory fuse box




The only soldering I had to do was to wire up the angle eyes to the parkers.





And a shot of it all finished.



I'll post some before and after tonight after I've adjusted them.

Cheers Mick.

[Clunk]

Looking good there Mick, you'll have to let us know what the light output is like on those things

Tap tap tappity crap

[mick.]

Before shot



After shot from the same spot.



How many HIDs can you look into like this.



Just the angel eyes on.



High Beam



The lights a 10 times better then before and the sharp cut off makes them totally glare free for oncoming traffic. I still have a little bit of adjusting to do but I took the wrong tools and I wasn't driving home again to get them.

Cheers Mick.

[num_301]

Hey mate,
The conversion looks awesome, sure solved the problem of the dodgey stock ones.

Did the series 2 lights slot straight into where the series 1 wholes are? like bolts and all or did you have to make some new brackets up?

cheers

[mick.]

Looking good there Mick, you'll have to let us know what the light output is like on those things

Tap tap tappity crap

Thanks mate. As you can see they made a huge difference. I've also just bought a Digital Lux Meter which measure lumens so I'll be able be give some accurate measurements.

Hey mate,
The conversion looks awesome, sure solved the problem of the dodgey stock ones.

Did the series 2 lights slot straight into where the series 1 wholes are? like bolts and all or did you have to make some new brackets up?

cheers

Yes it solved that problem. The series 2 ones fit straight in without any mods what so ever. You just have to make sure you buy the indicators to as there slightly different shape where they butt up to the light. If you choose to buy them lights make sure you get them for right hand drive. The only people on ebay that sold them that I could find where the ones I bought. This is the link.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300654794...ht_4402wt_1209

Cheers Mick.

[gregs]

Top job Mick, though I don't know how the missus would feel if I did that to our patrol. Might just have to look at an HID upgrade at some point.

Thanks for the pics.

Cheers

Greg

[macca86]

very nice might need to look into this

[num_301]

Yes it solved that problem. The series 2 ones fit straight in without any mods what so ever. You just have to make sure you buy the indicators to as there slightly different shape where they butt up to the light. If you choose to buy them lights make sure you get them for right hand drive. The only people on ebay that sold them that I could find where the ones I bought. This is the link.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/300654794...ht_4402wt_1209

Cheers Mick.[/QUOTE]

Cheers mate, Thanks for the info