Some Questions on Doing HIDs the Right Way

Poodles

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Jul 22, 2006
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akito;1972283 said:
3.0 D2S is somewhere betweern h1 and fx-r clear is what someone from TRS told me when i called yesterday. Also, the length for the d2s from lens to base of bulb WITHOUT adapter is 140mm....at this rate. If you go with d2s then you want to do what the other guy did and use d2h or just use h1.

D2S fits just fine if you space the housing away from the bucket. There's plenty of room to clear.

I THINK the H1 will fit fine without spacing, but I've not gotten the projectors mounted in the housings yet, so can't be sure as of yet. Don't take my word on it yet!

figgie;1972310 said:
H1??

seriously?

The point of HID is to have the SHARP clear cut off. H1 housing unless they did some monkeying around or came OEM like that does not have the cut-off needed for PROPER HID retrofit.

That is unless you like to be an pogue and blind oncoming traffic with glare and crappy lighting overall.

They're not a normal H1. Hard to explain, but a normal halogen H1 won't even fit into these projectors. They were specifically made for HID use though.
 

Silver MK3

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Poodles;1972456 said:
D2S fits just fine if you space the housing away from the bucket. There's plenty of room to clear.

I THINK the H1 will fit fine without spacing, but I've not gotten the projectors mounted in the housings yet, so can't be sure as of yet. Don't take my word on it yet!

Well I just placed an order for the Mini H1 system. Hopefully it fits, I wouldn't mind spacing it to make it fit. If not I'll just exchange it for the Mini D2S.

I got my package from amazon today that was supposed to be my plastic headlight housings, but I opened it up to find some wall decals for a baby room and no headlights. :( Looks like I'll have to call Amazon tomorrow and sort it out. I'm hoping there is someway I can get the headlight housings before the weekend because I think I will have the HID system by the weekend since they are based in Atlanta and I am only about 4 hours from there.
 

Silver MK3

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Jan 24, 2011
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I called amazon about the lights and they were great about it, hopefully I will have them by the end of the week. Unfortunately I got an email from The Retrofit Source this morning saying that the harness needed for our cars is on backorder until November 8 - 11. I had them ship everything else out so I can at least get started on mounting the projectors in the headlights and then all I will have to do is plug everything up when the wiring harness comes in.
 

akito

Keep Laughing.You're Next
Jul 31, 2006
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Great. I'm leaning towards the H1 now too. The reason I was considering the d2s is because i have a set of d2s and denso ballasts already from a rx330 projectors that i am now planning to put into my ls400. Get some measurements and pictures when you get the parts in.
 

Silver MK3

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akito;1972560 said:
Great. I'm leaning towards the H1 now too. The reason I was considering the d2s is because i have a set of d2s and denso ballasts already from a rx330 projectors that i am now planning to put into my ls400. Get some measurements and pictures when you get the parts in.

Will do.
 

Mynes_3

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damn..where was i?? lol...i did mini h1 in both my old accord, integra, and now my mk3. i just did some minor trimming on the reflector bowl and it fits wonder, like factory.

supra cut off-


accord-


as you can see, the accord's cutoff is more clear and sharp than the supra, idk why. could it because the supra's len is glass??
but here is how it looks fitted inside.
 

QWIKSTRIKE

475rwhp459torq an climbin
Apr 3, 2005
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akito;1972771 said:
That's really nice QWIKSTRIKE, do you have HID's in the projectors? How are the light output?


Yes I have HID 8000k's but will probably change them to the 6000k's for a tad brighter light. They work excellent and you can see with the white primered hood the cool blues were installed. I forgot to mention that I had to cut and message the stock buckets to get these in, and did not need to cut the radiator support.
 

Silver MK3

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Mynes_3;1972691 said:
damn..where was i?? lol...i did mini h1 in both my old accord, integra, and now my mk3. i just did some minor trimming on the reflector bowl and it fits wonder, like factory.

supra cut off-


accord-


as you can see, the accord's cutoff is more clear and sharp than the supra, idk why. could it because the supra's len is glass??
but here is how it looks fitted inside.

Thanks for posting. They look good. Its good to know that they will fit with only minor trimming.

It probably the glass lens making the cutoff a little fuzzy. That's why I went with plastic.

You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of the back and how you mounted it would you?

QWIKSTRIKE;1972705 said:
http://www.rallylights.com/modular-headlamp-mounting-bracket.html http://www.rallylights.com/all/lights/headlamps.html?p=7 I ordered the 90mm frames and mounting adjusters ans welded them together, and painted them black.

http://www.rallylights.com/all/lights/headlamps.html?p=6 These are DOT street legal

QWIKSTRIKE;1972794 said:
Yes I have HID 8000k's but will probably change them to the 6000k's for a tad brighter light. They work excellent and you can see with the white primered hood the cool blues were installed. I forgot to mention that I had to cut and message the stock buckets to get these in, and did not need to cut the radiator support.

They look good, but that's a little to much fabrication for me. I've never used a welder before so this is a little out of my league.


I got another package from amazon, this time the right thing, which was the headlight housings. They don't look like the highest of quality, but you cant expect perfection for $30. I'm sure they will be fine for my purposes. Also, my package from The Retrofit Source should be here tomorrow. It will have everything except for the wiring harness that was backordered.
 

Mynes_3

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Only pic of the back and to mount, it comes with a h4 ring u put in the slot but with the mini in, the projector sits a kittle far back so your gonna have to make something to fill in the slot so the lock ring can tighten up the h4 ring. Oh btw, u just have to enlarge the bulb hole little by little til the projector fits with the lens on.
p1972879_1.jpg
 

Poodles

I play with fire
Jul 22, 2006
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Yep, I have the parts to make a kit with those 90mm units too. Too much fabrication for my tastes though as my OCD wouldn't allow me to just make a mount for the units, but it would need a fitted bezel as well.

Also, yes, the cutoff is fuzzy because of the glass. Plastic cover is more optically clear than glass (because of the type of glass, it's not polished, etc... it's complicated)
 

QWIKSTRIKE

475rwhp459torq an climbin
Apr 3, 2005
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Poodles;1972884 said:
Yep, I have the parts to make a kit with those 90mm units too. Too much fabrication for my tastes though as my OCD wouldn't allow me to just make a mount for the units, but it would need a fitted bezel as well.

Also, yes, the cutoff is fuzzy because of the glass. Plastic cover is more optically clear than glass (because of the type of glass, it's not polished, etc... it's complicated)


To get 2 plates welded to make one double unit took lest than 15 minutes Cutting AND GETTING THE BUCKETS TO WORK TOOK MORE TIME. I need to decide if I will lower the height when they open, or to leave them at stock height with DRL under them or not. The bezel will come when it is decided.
 

Silver MK3

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Mynes_3;1972879 said:
Only pic of the back and to mount, it comes with a h4 ring u put in the slot but with the mini in, the projector sits a kittle far back so your gonna have to make something to fill in the slot so the lock ring can tighten up the h4 ring. Oh btw, u just have to enlarge the bulb hole little by little til the projector fits with the lens on.
p1972918_1.jpg

OK, thanks. I've read about people spacing the plastic lens out from the housing body using strips of aluminum so that the projector fits without having to cut the housing, but I'm not sure how secure that would be. I'm leaning towards doing it the way you did, or kind of like this guy did. http://headlightretrofits.com/2013/05/my-first-retrofit-7x6-sealed-beam-mini-h1/

QWIKSTRIKE;1972898 said:
To get 2 plates welded to make one double unit took lest than 15 minutes Cutting AND GETTING THE BUCKETS TO WORK TOOK MORE TIME. I need to decide if I will lower the height when they open, or to leave them at stock height with DRL under them or not. The bezel will come when it is decided.

I would lower the opening height if it doesn't affect the light output. DRLs wouldn't do much on our cars because the lights aren't up usually during the daytime.
 

Silver MK3

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Mynes_3;1972939 said:
Yea..mine was ghetto rigged for the back but it works and secured tight so not complaining lol...

That's all that really matters, as long as everything is tight no one will ever see it anyway.
 

QWIKSTRIKE

475rwhp459torq an climbin
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Silver MK3;1972918 said:
OK, thanks. I've read about people spacing the plastic lens out from the housing body using strips of aluminum so that the projector fits without having to cut the housing, but I'm not sure how secure that would be. I'm leaning towards doing it the way you did, or kind of like this guy did. http://headlightretrofits.com/2013/05/my-first-retrofit-7x6-sealed-beam-mini-h1/



I would lower the opening height if it doesn't affect the light output. DRLs wouldn't do much on our cars because the lights aren't up usually during the daytime.


Agreed....DRL's is the lazy just leave and dress it up route.LOL
 

Silver MK3

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Well I spent a good bit of time today working on one of the housings. I dremeled out everything inside of the circle on the light where the rubber boot goes over and then took a file and got everything as far back as I could without filing through the housing and creating a hole. I got a 2 inch PVC end cap from Lowes and cut it down so only about a quarter inch sticks out past the head of it. Then I cut a hole in it so the threaded shaft on the projector could stick through it. Now my problem is that I still don't have enough clearance to mount the front lens.

Apparently when they revised the Mini H1 to the 6.0 they made the projector bowl ever so slightly larger which matters a lot when you are dealing with millimeters. So right now my options are to just cut into the housing to get the projector to sink farther back into the housing, or space the lens out away from the housing. I would rather not cut any more of the housing because I want it to stay water tight.

Any suggestions or thoughts are welcome.

Here's some pictures of the progress from today.