HID Retrofit Log 99 Explorer *LOTS OF PICS* | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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HID Retrofit Log 99 Explorer *LOTS OF PICS*

Ive always loved the look of HID and aftermarket lighting on cars. On my old explorer, I had the diamond cuts with high temp harness and hyper white 80 watt halogen bulbs. On my new explorer, I wanted to do something new and go beyond what I used to have. Eairly on I decided to buy one of those 9007 HID kits on ebay that are plug and play but after doing some homework I found that they are actually illegal and dangerous to operate due to the amount of glare and stare light they give out. I then decided to fork out the extra money and do it the right way. (Plus I love the way projectors look!)

I bought a kit off ebay that consisted of the projectors, 4300k D2S bulbs, ignitors, and ballasts. ($350 shipped) I also had to buy a new set of diamond cuts because my old set on my old truck got smashed in the wreck ($100 overnighted, Thanks sideswiped for the awsome deal

Now to the pics

It was a friday nite and instead of going out with my friend and such, I decided to stay home and work on this project. I started around 8 and ended at 12 so i got 4 hours in of measuring, cutting, recutting, and playing around in. Heres what I have so far...

Diamond Cut with projector sitting inside with lense on, this will be about what it will look like when it is all done (Plus the shroud)
hid4.jpg


Halo Eyes from Advance Autoparts
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Shoud that will go around the projector, had to be trimmed at the top
hid8.jpg


Lense on again with projector inside
hid4.jpg


Lense off, projector inside...test fitting
hid2.jpg


....
hid3.jpg


Rear before trimming
hid6.jpg


Rear after
hid5.jpg

A lot more trimming to go, the whole inner circle needs to be cut out.

BMW Projectors I am using
hid7.jpg


Ballast and ignitors with 9006 plug. I already have a 9007 high power harness so I will just cut off the 9007 plugs and splice these 9006 in and bam...power to the ballast. The only easy thing to this project!
hid9.jpg


More to come tomarrow night when I get more progress! I will try and show I mount the projectors and seal everything up
 



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very cool...you got more guts then me opening up a pair of new dimond heads..lol

cant wait to see it all done!
 






very cool indeed. HIDs are one of the greatest things out there now. :thumbsup:

-Drew
 






Well I got it all done today, very fun stuff. I know it needs adjusting but I am too tired tonite to do it and it is fine for now....10x better than stock. I advise anyone who has a lot of patience, time, and money to do this lol. Well here are the pics. I want to get 6000k next because these are too white(i know, 6000k is less light output bla bla o well)


fin1.JPG

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fin5.JPG
 






That looks GREAT. I'm glad it has gone so well for you. HID is deffinetly very cool.
 






That looks awsome. I want a set now! :p
 






amazing!! looks great. would you be interested in making a kit or selling yours when youwant to upgrade? i'm very interested in this but i ont have the time/know how to do this.

its awsome good job!
 






thanks for the compliments all. Total this project took me 2 days, 9 hours one day and 11 the next. I learned A LOT about hid systems and how they work and such. Most of the time I was trying to figure out how to make stuff fit, where to place stuff, what and what not to cut, etc etc. Since I had no other examples of explorers to go off to, it all came off the top of my head.

96limited, honestly i wouldnt. I dont think someone could pay me for me to go through it all again. If you are honestly truly interested, I can maybe draw some diagrams and talk over aim one day and try to step you through how I did it. Im not upgrading because well HID is the highest you can go! Im going to change the bulbs but not the headlights. I can DEF see now why people buy those cheap kits off ebay and not do the actual retrofit itself. Atleast I know now what to do and not due. (Note, when mounting the ballast....dont mount it to pure metal, it will ground out!) that was a good 1-2 hours of fun
 






If I were to get 12000K d2s bulbs (purple) how much less light output is this compared to 4300k? If its that bad, im going to go 6000k
 






very nice, great job
 






I envy you....LMAO.... Being stationed in Germany, I see the HID all the time. I love those dam things and I will be following in your footsteps once I get back to the states.

That is a great mod, and you did a really good. I have one question though, do you still have High and Low beam?

Laterz
Jeremy
 






no i dont have high and low beams and that is because I had to detach the highbeam solenoid off the top of the project due to limited space in the projector housing. Its HID tho and I live in florida...the flatest state in the world....I dont need highbeams. When I use my fogs now I cant even tell I turn them on

And I hear you on seeing HID all the time. I live in tampa where everyone drives a nav, beamer, altima, rover or other HID equiped vechicles and I was getting jealous :p.

I am really jealous of the Range rovers HID systems. Their color is so amazing
 






Daytime Pics

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light5.jpg

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awesome job, im up next, u should post some links for the stuff u used, and a more specific write up would help a lot because i know a lot of ppl are looking into this now HID's are the way to go!
 






Well done, man! It takes a lot of balls to cut into such a nice street truck ;)

Get yourself some euro diamond clear corners and you'd be golden!
 

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this weekend I will attempt to make a write up for your guys

Spas, I want to get those but money is tight right now with Xmas coming up. I am only a college student with limited funds. That is next on the list tho
 






Wow that's awesome!!!! I'd love to do that!!
 






looks awesome
 






Wht about those halos? Did you decide against them?
 



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Very impressive. Great job.
 






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