gold94corolla DIY - HID Projector Retrofit

Hope you dont mind chris i copied this on to here

Well, I finally got around to posting up this DIY lol. This was my second head light retrofit. I have a habit of over-explaining things, so hopefully I don't make this look too complicated. There are many different ways to do the head lights, so feel free to do it your own way! ;D

The JDM head lights have a terrible H4-bulb halogen output (the light even flares up on the wrong side, for RHD application). So HID projectors were a must! I reused a pair of FX-R projectors, 5000K Morimoto D2S bulbs, old ebay ballasts, and amp-to-D2S socket converters from my previous retro, as well as value e46-R extended shrouds to cover the projector and make the head lights look awesome. No LEDs or CCFLs this time lol (remember, I wanted a stock look).

Below are 2 pictures of all the parts, including the head lights taken apart. To open the head lights, preheat the over to 200 degrees, leave it on, and insert one head light at a time for around 30 minutes. The glue will be soft, but not hot enough to damage the chrome or melt the lens. The chrome bezel unscrews out of the lens after pulling the lens off. You will also remove the chrome cap over the H4 bulb (as well as the bulb and holder bracket):




The first order of business was to cut/trim everything to fit together: the projectors, shrouds, and head light reflector buckets. Originally, I wanted to mount the projectors inside the reflectors from the front, so I trimmed off the top of the left projector (marked with a red arrow). But after some test fitting and trimming, it would not fit. So, the projectors would be mounted behind the reflectors instead. So I then cut the shrouds and reflectors as marked with green arrows. This is done a little at a time. Trim some, fit it, trim some more until it fits perfectly:



I then glued the shrouds to the reflectors from the back using lots of JB Weld so that they were completely bonded. But first, I put the head lights on the car and made sure that the shrouds were level and looking straight. Once they were perfect, I used the blue tape to hold them in place prior to gluing:



Finished shrouds/reflectors! Looking very pretty and like it had been made this way. The shrouds were a great match for these head lights. I covered that little hole for the parking light with chrome vinyl:



Since I couldn't fit the projectors in the reflectors, they had to go between the reflectors and the outer head light shell. I had bought a bunch of hardware to mount the projectors to the shell, but as it turns out, the fitment was so tight that simply bolting the reflector back onto the shell with those 2 bolts held the projector firmly in place:



From the back, you can see the back of the projector aligned perfectly in the opening. You can see how I cut the rubber dust cover to fit the projector and bulb perfectly. I used the empty parking light socket to seal the hole. (Oh, look, there's the hardware in the background lol). Also in the background you can see the 2 9005-type connectors that I wired to the red high-beam solenoid wires to plug-and-play with the OEM high-beam socket. Those 2 gold bolts tighten the reflector against the projector for a solid fit. Aiming the projectors up, down, side-to-side, and rotationally is super easy. Just loosen the reflector, hold the projector in the correct position, and tighten the reflector. Good thing I used so much JB Weld to hold the shrouds on!



As part of this project, I modified the corner lights to take some 1156-type LED bulbs I had sitting around (bottom right). It worked rather well, with the white LED color looking good next to the HIDs. I had to drill the bulb opening larger to fit the 1156 bulb and socket (top left). I used a strap of electrical tape to hold it on (top right). It worked very well actually lol. If needed, I could still mount the 7440-type bulbs (bottom right) in the enlarged hole:



And that's it! I pressed the lens back on the head lights. I didn't melt the glue back together, so as a result, I can easily remove the lenses anytime, and water doesn't get in the head lights. This project ended up being a lot easier than I had thought, and the result was a great-looking, high-quality product. Don't they look great??









I had a feeling that the car would look better with a black look, rather than chrome. So, rather than paint the chrome bezel and ruin it, I found a black set of JDM head lights on Ebay for half price. I opened these in the oven and extracted the black bezels. 5 minutes later, I had the new bezels in the retrofitted head lights (good thing I could take off the lenses so easily!)



So here is the finished product, matched with a black grille. Looked much better in my opinion! Even with the chrome bumper lights (I was going to put in black lights with LEDs later but never did of course):








Thank you for checking out my DIY! If you have any questions, please ask!

Cool Ishaq! I didn't know my mates across the pond were interested in this DIY!

You guys need autoleveling and head light washers required with HID. And, don't forget to use projectors with the proper cutoff orientation (RHD or LHD).

ok cool bro

That looks so easy, i'm quessing the rears are the same concept?

Rears? What do you mean, rears.

gold94corolla wrote:

Cool Ishaq! I didn't know my mates across the pond were interested in this DIY!

You guys need autoleveling and head light washers required with HID. And, don't forget to use projectors with the proper cutoff orientation (RHD or LHD).

In the NL we only need autoleveling/washers if the car was registered after 2007...

you willing to do a group buy just for AE101 Owners Club

heck yea i def want a set of those projectors for mine as well!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I finished this retro-fit, I felt real proud of myself. The hardest part for me was dis assembly of the headlights, the trimming, the gluing, and the alignment. lol actually, this whole project was quite a challenge for me. It took forever to pry the headlights apart. And when I tried to align the lights, the JB weld broke because I didn't use enough. So I had to take it apart again and give it more glue. Took me nearly 6 hours to finish (what a noob!) but man was it worth it. The light beams project further and wider on the road than pretty much any other car I see. Even further and wider than a Ferrari 599 I drove next to! All without blinding on-coming traffic.

miib14 wrote:

you willing to do a group buy just for AE101 Owners Club

I'd do them if I had the time! Maybe one day

However, the Morimoto H1 projector kit from www.theretrofitsource.com is super easy to do, no cutting or gluing needed. It's plug-and-play once you get the lens off!

lol

kennydang91 wrote:

When I finished this retro-fit, I felt real proud of myself. The hardest part for me was dis assembly of the headlights, the trimming, the gluing, and the alignment. lol actually, this whole project was quite a challenge for me. It took forever to pry the headlights apart. And when I tried to align the lights, the JB weld broke because I didn't use enough. So I had to take it apart again and give it more glue. Took me nearly 6 hours to finish (what a noob!) but man was it worth it. The light beams project further and wider on the road than pretty much any other car I see. Even further and wider than a Ferrari 599 I drove next to! All without blinding on-coming traffic.

I guess the hardest part was the whole thing LOL! To make the lens removal easier, try a little more heat or a lot more time.

It took you 6 hours from start to finish???? It took me way longer! Good job

so once the lense is off, just unscrew the original bulb holder and this bolts in its place and you dont have to cut the chrome surround like you did in your HOW-TO?

Nope! No cutting on the MH1 projectors. Just insert it where the bulb holder thing was, and tighten the nut from the back. Once the lights are reinstalled, you can aim horizontal and vertical by the head lights still, and you can rotate the projectors by the locking nut in the back. It is really really easy. The shroud attaches to the projector, and you'll probably have to trim that like I did (depending on which shroud you get), but that's easy enough and doesn't affect the original head light if you mess up.

oh wow, thats definetly next on my list

TRS has many DIY articles and resources, plus HIDplanet is very useful.

Here is TRS's DIY for the MH1 projectors, for starters:

http://www.theretrofitsource.com/pdf/trs_tech/Morimoto_Mini_H1_Retrofit.pdf

nice one chris

gold94corolla wrote:

I guess the hardest part was the whole thing LOL! To make the lens removal easier, try a little more heat or a lot more time.

It took you 6 hours from start to finish???? It took me way longer! Good job

lol the 6 hours didn't include the time it took to wait for the JB weld to dry. Plus I had instructions and help from you via email.

I was thinking of doing this retrofit a while back when I saw it on your car, still thinking of doin it, looks awesome

I'm not very good at doing these kind of stuffs, does anyone sell this as a finished product?

if only, they would sell like hot cakes

If I have the time, I'll try to learn this, then... for sure im gonna sell this finished product over the net haha!

I wish I had time to make lights for everyone!! I actually just shipped out the lights in my sig pic today. But just read through the articles I posted, and if that doesn't help, just get the parts and dive in! Doing is learning, learning is doing.

Maybe you and I should do a little tag team? lol Who'd you send them out to? I'm excited to see what it looks like on other Rollas.