Replacing stock halogens with HID's?

[Y2KFirehawk]

here's an actual one

No dice on that image...

 

[SpartanTS]

HIDs in reflector housings designed for Halogens don't work as well in the real world from what I've seen, which is one of the few reasons I won't change out my halogens. If our Explorer's had a projector housing, then it'd be a no brainer.

And for me, I have the Ironman, which would look odd with HIDs anyway with my huge yellow fogs.

 

[Alienman8]

No dice on that image...

Hey thats my sport trac! What do you need to know, I'm rarely around the forums but occasionally read around the HID stuff.

If you still need some help on it I can get some more pictures.

Edit: Added pictures

 

[Jon04CTSV]

Hey thats my sport trac! What do you need to know, I'm rarely around the forums but occasionally read around the HID stuff.

If you still need some help on it I can get some more pictures.

Edit: Added pictures

How much work was involved in building those? Would you consider doing it for a fee?

 

[Alienman8]

How much work was involved in building those? Would you consider doing it for a fee?

Its not an insane amount of work, basically I had to grind out where the old bulb normally sits to fit the back end of the projector (that thing is what you would find in an OEM headlight, not some cheap china one) then just drill holes for the screws holding it in place, then of course lots of test fitting to get the aim right. Its really more of a "how much you want to spend" issue, than a "is it doable".

I decided to get a used pair of headlights to do it on so I can take them out of the car when I eventually get a new one down the road, then just did it in my spare time. but seeing as how I got the new pair of headlight housings (200+$) and everything needed for the projectors (projectors, bulbs, ballasts, harness, shrouds, misc parts) which is another 300+$ depending on what type you buy etc etc it is a relatively expensive.

But... The end product is 10X better than the stock halogens and a 1000X better than throwing HIDs into the reflectors, I really just never liked the look of that. Theres a thread floating around that has my original picture of light output of them, but I might take another if you'd like tonight seeing as how the camera I had back then was pretty bad.

Edit:
Just read more into your situation, you seem to have the ballasts etc already, yes? (BTW: what capacitors are you using I have resistors right now and they are a pain because they get hot...)

That would mean you really only need the projector/shroud assembly (probably a new bulb for the different socket type) and the headlights, which isn't terribly bad at all

 

[Alienman8]

night shots!
(dont worry its not this blue, just the first image i took was directly in the cutoff line, which is blue)

You can see behind the projector in this picture, never really bothered covering it up due to not many people looking in there.

output in driveway:

Fogs, completely dwarfed by the light of the HIDS:

BTW: if you want to do it yourself, check out The Retrofit Source (not sure if I am allowed to post link or not.)

 

[Jon04CTSV]

Its not an insane amount of work, basically I had to grind out where the old bulb normally sits to fit the back end of the projector (that thing is what you would find in an OEM headlight, not some cheap china one) then just drill holes for the screws holding it in place, then of course lots of test fitting to get the aim right. Its really more of a "how much you want to spend" issue, than a "is it doable".

I decided to get a used pair of headlights to do it on so I can take them out of the car when I eventually get a new one down the road, then just did it in my spare time. but seeing as how I got the new pair of headlight housings (200+$) and everything needed for the projectors (projectors, bulbs, ballasts, harness, shrouds, misc parts) which is another 300+$ depending on what type you buy etc etc it is a relatively expensive.

But... The end product is 10X better than the stock halogens and a 1000X better than throwing HIDs into the reflectors, I really just never liked the look of that. Theres a thread floating around that has my original picture of light output of them, but I might take another if you'd like tonight seeing as how the camera I had back then was pretty bad.

Edit:
Just read more into your situation, you seem to have the ballasts etc already, yes? (BTW: what capacitors are you using I have resistors right now and they are a pain because they get hot...)

That would mean you really only need the projector/shroud assembly (probably a new bulb for the different socket type) and the headlights, which isn't terribly bad at all

Thanks for the info. Seems like too much work for me. Considering it's just my daily driver I'm probably not going to do the retrofit.

As for the capacitors, unfortunately I don't remember what size I'm using. I have it all wrapped in heat shrink to make it look tidy so I can't even see them.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I think I went too big. I had smaller ones before and I would never get the error messages. I think one of them blew so I replaced them with these bigger ones, but now I get the errors from time to time. If they're too small they don't work either. Pain in the ass really.

 

[Alienman8]

Thanks for the info. Seems like too much work for me. Considering it's just my daily driver I'm probably not going to do the retrofit.

As for the capacitors, unfortunately I don't remember what size I'm using. I have it all wrapped in heat shrink to make it look tidy so I can't even see them.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I think I went too big. I had smaller ones before and I would never get the error messages. I think one of them blew so I replaced them with these bigger ones, but now I get the errors from time to time. If they're too small they don't work either. Pain in the ass really.

I could do the work, but it would take some time not only to get the parts and assemble them, but its also a tad costly, plus you'd have to pick out what projector/shroud you would like.

Like I said initially, if you purchased two used headlights, then you dont even have to use the ones in your car (thus still being able to drive it around) and work at your own pace, thats what I did, just if you were to do that, be sure that the lens' of the used headlights are actually good since one of them had cracks all over the place and had to get another... I could even get some pictures of the back and such to help with the general idea for ya.

Also, I guess I'll stick with the resistors, dont fix what isnt broken huh? :

 

[omero]

Hey thats my sport trac! What do you need to know, I'm rarely around the forums but occasionally read around the HID stuff.

If you still need some help on it I can get some more pictures.

Edit: Added pictures

Thanks Alienman8. Actually, your sport trac encouraged me to do the retrofit.
Here is a quick pic taken with my phone.

I have high resolution pics of the whole process but I'm currently insanely busy and when I have time, I'll post a complete writeup for the retrofit both here and on hidplanet.com

 

[Alienman8]

Thanks Alienman8. Actually, your sport trac encouraged me to do the retrofit.
Here is a quick pic taken with my phone.

I have high resolution pics of the whole process but I'm currently insanely busy and when I have time, I'll post a complete writeup for the retrofit both here and on hidplanet.com

that looks really nice man, Apollo shrouds yes? it also looks like you pushed the projector back really far unlike me (you can see behind mine, but meh I didn't care
I'm glad people liked mine so much that they are being influenced by it and since you seem to already have them in, the comparison between the stock and the retrofit are night and day, no pun intended. I would neverrrr drive with the stock housings in my car again at night, just isn't the same.

 

[TowingExplorer]

Awesome job guys on those projector retrofits! When you post your pictorial Omero, be sure to put a link in this thread for those of us who are following. I would really like to see the guts of the housings and tools used to cut etc.

 

[omero]

that looks really nice man, Apollo shrouds yes? it also looks like you pushed the projector back really far unlike me (you can see behind mine, but meh I didn't care
I'm glad people liked mine so much that they are being influenced by it and since you seem to already have them in, the comparison between the stock and the retrofit are night and day, no pun intended. I would neverrrr drive with the stock housings in my car again at night, just isn't the same.

Thanks, I was actually reading your posts here and on hidplanet

I used morimoto mini D2S which is the shortest, that's why it looks pushed in. And indeed it's day and night difference. last week I took an 800 kilometers trip to Riyadh and back home and it felt much safer. At night I could see wild camels from a safe distance. Camels - and their owners - are the main cause of fatal accidents on highways here in Arabia.

 

[omero]

Awesome job guys on those projector retrofits! When you post your pictorial Omero, be sure to put a link in this thread for those of us who are following. I would really like to see the guts of the housings and tools used to cut etc.

Sure, I'll do that

 

[King of So Cal]

God damn.. I want to do this SOO bad now

 

[chrisejandadddi]

Those projectors are great... I am interested to see how much of a pain and how much $ they are to install, I have HIDs but would much prefer to have them in a projector unit

 

[striker5427]

http://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/DDM-HID-Kit-Slim-Ballast-35W-or-55W
the above is a great site for kits and bulbs (cheap) and quality I own 2 kits and 21 sets of bulbs from these guys. Color is great, there 3000k yellow is very yellow not faded. and I have there 4500k (closest they have to factory 4300k) for the heads and they look great as well.

Theres plenty of bixenon kits for h13, i had one on my ex but whats the point when the low beam is so damn bright?

itallian.....do you get the "error bulb mess" with your set-up? thx.

 

[The SuphiX]

Link Omero pleaseeeee

 

[east1la]

someone needs to start making this projectors and sell them here. they look awsome. I bet someone would make a lot of money selling the projectors, since I can't find none for the 4th gen explorers.

 

[Alienman8]

someone needs to start making this projectors and sell them here. they look awsome. I bet someone would make a lot of money selling the projectors, since I can't find none for the 4th gen explorers.

They are retrofits, you have to buy the projector and then modify the stock headlight housing to fit it.

Theretrofitsource.com is a good place to start looking.