Projectors installed in my 1st gen '93 Limited

[cruisin_n_style]

I ran some old hella halogen fog lights for upwards of 17 years on my 1993 Explorer Limited. But the last few years the bulbs have been blowing often and I had disassembled them and cleaned and resoldered connections and resealed the housings countless times. Also with the fogs on one day, super heating the lens, I plowed through a snow bank (in 4x4 with my winter tires to rescue a stranded motorist - was successful at pulling him out too). And when the cold snow smacked onto the hot fog lens, it cracked. I finally decided these old things must go. So I picked up a set of Hella Micro DE halogen projector fog lights. I removed the fog light bracket from the truck and modified it by cutting some out and welding on some steel bar stock I had to fit the new Hellas. Test fit then primed and painted and installed. They are SO much better than the old ones even though they use the exact same bulb. The projector gives a very smooth and very wide output.

I also decided to retrofit hid projectors into the factory headlight housings. So I ordered up a kit from DDM tuning with projectors and hid kit. It ended up being MUCH easier than I anticipated. Pulled old headlights. Trimmed some plastic off the back "collar" but did not need to enlarge the opening at all. Separated the lens from the housing. Test fit the projectors and adjust aim. Did this multiple times. Then painted the reflector black (as I don't need it to reflect any light anymore). Installed and tightened up the projector a final time. Resealed the headlights with new butyl sealant. Put the headlights back in. Hooked up the hid kit and aimed headlights a final time. Done. Of course there are other little details here and there but not much more. It looks awesome and performs amazing. Only thing I regret is not doing this sooner. The combo of hid projector headlights and projector fog lights is killer.

I wanted the crystal clear lens replacement headlights for this project but I was doing this on a budget and the crystal ones are now stupid expensive for what they are (~$300 pair). So I used the factory ones. The cutoff is still perfect and seems nearly unaffected. I'll post more about it if anyone has any questions. I'm currently at work and thought I'd do a quick post from my phone. I'll upload/link photos when I get home.


http://s1271.photobucket.com/user/cruisin_n_style/slideshow/1993 Ford Explorer Limited/Lighting

 

[jd4242]

Nice job

 

[turboranger91]

I absolutely love it! I've been wanting to do some sort of retrofit on mine for some time now. Do you have any pictures of how you modified the back side of the housing?

 

[cruisin_n_style]

I absolutely love it! I've been wanting to do some sort of retrofit on mine for some time now. Do you have any pictures of how you modified the back side of the housing?

Sure. It is pretty straightforward. Simply trimmed some of the bulb mounting "collar" off. Shown below:

This is the collar as it appears originally

And this is how it appears after modifying it.

The only reason I trimmed it off was so the threaded portion of the projector stuck through enough to use the washers and nuts properly. The collar would have been too deep for the projector to stick through properly. Here is a side view. Followed by the projector installed.

 

[Rhett]

That's great detail, thanks for posting the pics.

So how exactly is the light secured to the housing?

 

[cruisin_n_style]

That's great detail, thanks for posting the pics.

So how exactly is the light secured to the housing?

Basically the projector has a threaded stem on the back. That threaded stem simply slides through the factory hole on the explorer headlight housing. And is then secured to the housing by a nut on the back. Simple as that. But to keep the connection from moving and keep it tight there is also a curved silicone washer between the projector and the headlight housing, and another one between the nut and the headlight housing.

The plastic collar on the back of the factory headlight housing that I trimmed down is what the projector stem sticks through. Without trimming the collar the stem would not have been long enough to stick through and get the nut on.

 

[Rhett]

Hmm interesting. Did you simply use a Dremel tool to shave off the collar? Or, as I think about it, maybe a cut-off wheel would be better since you could maintain a flat plane with your cut... ?

 

[cruisin_n_style]

Hmm interesting. Did you simply use a Dremel tool to shave off the collar? Or, as I think about it, maybe a cut-off wheel would be better since you could maintain a flat plane with your cut... ?

I did use a Dremel with a larger cutoff wheel. Then I took a file to the plastic to make it nice and flat.

 

[turboranger91]

Very cool. Thanks for the step by step. Do you have a link to the projectors you got?

 

[cruisin_n_style]

Very cool. Thanks for the step by step. Do you have a link to the projectors you got?

When I purchased them they were version 2 of the projectors and bundled them with an HID kit at a good price because they were releasing the version 3 of the projectors. Now they are selling the version 3 but they should be the same.

Here is the link to the projectors. And I'll add my order summary when I ordered.

http://ddmtuning.com/Products/Projectors-H1-V3-PR

1
Hex Nut for H1 projectors, 27mm, Pair
Hex-Nut-H1-Proj-Pair $3.99

1
9004/7 High / Low Harness, Flat Male Connector
High-Low-Harness-90047-Flat-M $9.99

1
Headlight Sealant: OCI Glue
Headlight-Sealant-OCI-Glue $9.99

1
H1 projector shroud, Pair
H1-Projector-Shrouds-PR $9.99

1
DDM Tuning V2 Projector with DDM 35W H1, 4300K HID kit
HID Kit: DDM 35W, 4300K
Pack-H1-V2-PR.DDM35W-4300K $64

 

[turboranger91]

Awesome. Just a couple more quick questions... Do you have any issues with high beam? How tricky is it to separate the lens from the housing?

 

[cruisin_n_style]

Awesome. Just a couple more quick questions... Do you have any issues with high beam? How tricky is it to separate the lens from the housing?

Wow sorry, never noticed there was a reply to this post. No issues with high beam. It works just fine. When you activate highs, the projector shield is pulled out of the way throwing the light everywhere instead of having the nice clean cutoff line like you do with lows on. And separating the lens was easy. But I've done a half dozen headlights from different vehicles so I know the process well. Warm headlight in an oven on low temp (sub 300), take out and start prying with a couple screwdrivers or whatever tools you think may help. Just be gentle not to damage anything. Put back in the oven and warm as needed. Wear gloves if you need to.

 

[87xjmike]

Can you possibly put some more pics up seeing as photobucket taking a crap on us?

 

[cruisin_n_style]

Can you possibly put some more pics up seeing as photobucket taking a crap on us?

Here you go

 

[87xjmike]

Nice looks great thank you