First off you will need to buy some aftermarket OEM replacements from DEPO or the like because the stock headlights have too strong of a sealant to open via heat. The aftermarket headlights have a much softer rubber butyl compound that gets soft via heat.
Materials/equipment needed:
-pair of DEPO (or other) aftermarket headlights
-HID OEM projectors of your choice
-HID OEM ballasts (I prefer Hella Gen 3)
-HID OEM 4300k bulbs (best performance and comes on all OEM HID cars
- (1) 12v Relay (I prefer Bosch or AAMP)
-wiring for the relay harness
-30 amp fuse
-fuse holder (or make your own via two female spade connectors)
-(2 or more) 12 x 12 ABS sheets
-gloss black paint (if you decide to black-out the stock chrome bezel)
-blue 3M painters tape
-exacto knife or olfa blade knife
-RTV silicone
-perma markers
-machined bolts and nuts
-1/4" lock washers
-1/4" large washers
Tools needed:
-dremel
-fiber reinforced cutting discs
-heavy duty cutting discs
-#3 philips and flat head screwdrivers
-drill bit set (unibits are another very efficient bit I use)
-cordless drill or regular electric drill
-heat gun
-access to a conventional stove oven
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Dis-assembly of the DEPO headlight unit
Here is a DEPO OEM 2003-2005 neon replacement headlight with the protective shipping film on the clear lens removed. [NOTE- Remove and set aside this film for later use before doing anything first.]
First we need to prep the headlight prior to placing it into the oven to open it up. You will need to remove the rubber surround gasket, the 9007 halogen bulb, the 9007 bulb retainer and also the amber parking light bulb. Here are the steps you need to follow first....
Remove the rubber surround gasket from the headlight.
Remove the headlight bulb by twisting the bulb retainer counterclockwise to unlock it from the bulb base.
Remove the parking light bulb by twisting it.
Once you have removed everything, this is the pile you should have in front of you.
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Opening the DEPO headlight
Now that you have removed and prepped the headlight you are now ready to begin the process of opening the headlight. Some people like to use heat guns to open headlights but this is the safest way I'm going to show you.
Preheat the oven at 250 degrees. Once it reaches 250 degrees, turn the oven OFF.
Place one {1} headlight on a large non-slotted baking sheet. Allow the headlight to sit in the oven for 8 minutes. Remove the headlight from the oven. Be careful!!! All plastic and surface areas will be hot or very warm. Use oven mitts if you'd like.
Using a flat head screwdriver or butter knife, begin to run the blade or sharp end around and in between the lens and black housing of the headlight. Once you've worked your way around freeing up some of the sealant, you can then begin to go back around and now gently pry the lens away from the black housing. Use patience and don't rush yourself. Rushing it could possibly damage or crack the lens or chrome interior bezel.
As your working your way around you will notice two 'legs' that are molded onto the chrome stock bezel. Pay close attention to these two legs because you do not want to damage them in the process of separating the lens from the housing so exercise caution and patience on these fragile 'legs'.
Once you've worked your way around prying a good bit, you can now begin to pry from the top of the headlight away even more from the housing. Use caution but when your done it will look like this with sealant still attached lightly on bottom of the headlight.
Completely removed lens from housing.
Using either the same protective film that came with the DEPO headlight or using some saran-wrap, place the film back over the lens to protect it for the time being should anything happen. I do this just for safety sake so its not necessary but its something you should consider speaking from experience. Set the lens out of the way. You won't be using it for quite a while until its time for painting. More on that later on.
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Removing the chrome reflector from the housing
Now that you have opened the headlight, you are now ready to begin the process of removing the chrome reflector from the interior housing. Here is how....
Upon inspection you will notice (3) small black 'brackets' if you will that hold and attach the chrome reflector to the housing. In order to remove the reflector you must drill holes in the rear of the housing to gain access to the (3) philips head screws that affix the bracket to the reflector. The reflector is reverse engineered into the housing so this is the only way to can remove it.
Take note of where the screws are which are not all that visible from looking at the brackets at first glance. Pay close attention here. All screws are facing towards the rear of the housing, not the front!! There are (2) screws below the connecting swivel post (portion that is more visible and also faces toward the reflector) off the bracket and the other (1) screw is located above the swivel post on the bracket.
Using either the unibit or a drill bit, make (3) small holes in the rear of the housing to gain access to the (3) screws. These holes need to be small enough to allow a Philips head screwdriver to gain access to the screws. Nothing too big but not too small.
Pictured showing the (3) holes I drilled.
Picture showing screwdriver entering from the back going through inside to one the of screws.
Once you've removed all the screws, you can now move the rear water gasket out of the way. This is molded onto the chrome reflector and is the final piece holding the reflector onto the housing.
This is how it will look when your done with this step.
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Wiring in your relay harness
Upgraded relay harness' is used to help protect and safeguard your stock wiring, switches and related since they aren't designed to support HID lighting over the long run. Here is info on how to go about wiring up a relay harness.
**For those that will end up using bi-xenon projectors, you must use a diode in order to have low and high beam functionality. Use the diagram below. If you didn't use a diode your low beam (ballast input) power would be disabled once you switch to high beam mode. Using a diode just energizes the low beam circuit to the ballasts once high beam mode is used. This way both ballasts and bi-xenon solenoids will function as they are intended to. Doing so also grants you full fog light use instead of them cutting out once high beams were used like stock once was designed.
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Getting started with the initial retro
Here are the bolts, nuts, washers and lock washers I use in my retros.... Get quality pieces only.
Bolts/nuts package (Home Depot or the like)
Zoomed in view.
Over-sized 1/4" washer and also the 1/4" lock washer
Follow your manual on how to remove/install your headlights. Remove the OEM headlights from the car. You should already have them removed if you did the relay wiring harness step prior to this point. Replace them with the black empty housing from the DEPO aftermarket ones. Ensure they are installed properly and bolt them down.
Place the projectors in the housing and connect up the ballast connectors. Fire up the headlights so that you can begin the basics of getting the projectors aimed and positioned in the right area. Using your hand to hold the projectors (yes it gets warm LOL) grab any sort of tool that you can mark or scribe the housing with, mark Through the mounting holes on the projector and onto the housings interior as you are looking on a flat wall to judge your beam and it is level. Make marks or scribes so that you can clearly tell where you marked on the housing. This may take some time to get used to so don't get frustrated. Remember, this is only to get you in the rough general area of aiming and positioning. You can/will fine tune the headlight later on but you need to get them as close to the final aim as possible in these steps.
Once you have scribed your areas on the housing, you will now need to drill small holes so that you can have a bolt go Through the rear of the housing and through the projector. This will be your mounts. The best thing about these neon headlight housings is that they give you the opportunity to use the rear large round opening as a 'axis point' if you will that allows you to mount the projector and use the round hole as a axis spot for the projector to revolve around on horizontally, vertically and along a rotational axis. Tension from the bolts with the use of lock washers allows you to 'adjust' your beam accordingly. Its rudimentary but its tried and proved to work time after time
. Be sure to use lock washers with the nuts behind them! Otherwise when you try to fine tune the adjusters from the rear with the screwdriver the bolt and nut would just turn thus nothing would 'adjust' or move for you. The lock washers do just as they are designed and lock the nut from moving once pressure is applied to the bolt. The tension is caused by the pressure of the bowl of the projector sitting against the housings round opening. Its like this headlight is made for a retro . Once you have the projector aimed and positioned correctly, it will look like this.
Here is the wall I'm using the Guage my rough estimate of where my beam should sit horizontally, vertically and also on a rotational level axis. Ensure you are on a level ground to begin with and are using a level and flat wall to judge your beam from. Otherwise you can't and won't have a level and correct beam pattern. Excuse the mess
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Molding your enclosure
Ok so now your ready to being making a shroud enclosure to create a cosmetic piece to complete the retro instead of having just the projectors exposed. Shrouds give your work a finish and completed look. Without them the retro will look incomplete and very unattractive. So now we need to make something appealing out of materials you can buy local and you can put to good use. I chose to use some ABS 12 x 12 sheets from a local car audio shop I used to work at. You can but ABS all over the place locally and on the net. Here I will show you how to make a custom mold using a heat gun and a little creative imagination.
First I grabbed a scrap piece of cardboard to use as a template for my initial shape and design of my soon to be enclosure. I held the piece up to the cavity of the housing and imagined and followed a shape very close to the outline shape of the stock chrome reflector. This would ensure that my shape would fit and flow with the interior lines of the housing. After drawing the lines and shape up on the cardboard, I then cut the shape out so that all I had left was a template to use forever and forever, never changing. Always the same shape every time. You get the idea. In this picture and enclosure you will notice a keyhole shape. This is used only for Acura TL projectors because if you look close at the polished trim bezel that holds the projector lens on the TL, you will notice it is keyhole shaped as well. The idea and method of getting a exact diameter circle pattern on your template varies on different projectors. For Stanley/Kioto-made projectors, most of them have this remove-able polished trim bezel that allows you to remove that outer bezel to give you a exact piece to trace out onto your template. Whatever you use, be sure to trace as close as possible to the material. Do this so that when you cut that traced out portion, you want the template to be as close and error free as possible. In the end your going for a very snug circle so that you have to almost force the enclosure onto the mounted projector. Doing so allows you to not have to worry with a way to affix the enclosure to the projector or housing. It basically will hold itself there, and very well too I might add if you take your time and do it right. It might take a few trial and error mistakes and sheet of ABS to get it right, then again you could be a natural and do it right every time. Regardless, patience is the biggest thing to keep in mind. It will make or break this project into being either a fun learning experience or a nightmare you wished you never started
This is the 12 x 12 black ABS sheet I use.
Here is the template I made using the cardboard. I then transfer this template design onto a sheet of ABS for my enclosure material.
Here is a rough, initial phases to get the shapes you need to get. Remember, these two pictures are not final enclosures or anything. They are just rough shapes to give you an idea of the shape you are trying/going to create.
As you can see, this is what I meant by tracing and cutting your template and material as close as possible. Infact make your template just a hair smaller diameter than reality. that way you can ever so slightly dremel away material until you get the perfect and exact diameter for a snug fit like so.
(this is a different projector but same principle)
ATTN: A ton of more info and pics to come like the custom molded shroud enclosure, masking and painting the bezel, final fine tuning, etc etc etc ......so please be patient....I am in no way done with this write-up. Going to be finishing it up throughout the weekend so bare with me
