True HID retro into a 98 Ranger

[orion_134]

Got started on the driver side headlight. I cut a hole with a dremel just big enough for the lens to come through. So here's my dilemma. I'm wanting the angel eyes, and my intention was to vacuum form a shroud over the Apollo shroud with the projector in the lamp. But now, after seeing just the lens poking through, it looks kind of nice back there. Everything will be painted flat black, just so y'all know. Here's the pics, what do y'all think?
Jesse

Projector completely behind lamp...may very well not have enough room to do this...and I may be losing too much angle (we'll find out when my bulbs come in) ...EDIT: I was able to mod my aftermarket bulbs to fit and there is NO angle of light lost from the projector being mounted that far back. Now I just need to decide which I like better and if I want to give up the angel eyes...

or projector in lamp

 

[orion_134]

Some more pics of it on the truck. This is with the projector mounted in the lamp. I need to trim the header panel for the projector clearance to see if I want to mount the projector behind the lamp.

Personally, I hate how rice this looks. So picture all of the shroud covered with a black vacuum shroud. The angel eyes would also be nightshaded black.

Here's the way I want to mount them, but projector stability is a big isse as well as the elements.

Jesse

 

[orion_134]

If I go with the projector in the lamps vs. behind the lamp, there will be a vacuum-molded plastic shroud covering the entire concave surface. The shroud will be painted black (with a hole cutout for the angel eye and projector), and even the angel eye will be nightshaded black. The angel eye will still be pleeeeenty bright even through the nightshade. Hard to explain, this video has a better explanation, but be sure to mute it. You can fastforward through it and catch the drift. YouTube - (3) How to build HID projector headlights
Jesse

 

[orion_134]

Decided to mount the projector in the housing. Got one aimed and I need to finish the other one. What do y'all think?

 

[JarvisB]

very nice!

how hard was it?

I really would love to do the same to my explorer's headlights but I am afraid that I am not going to be able to do it right.

For the record, it does not look rice at all IMO. That is how projectors look, not how ricers look ha.

Wanna do my explorer's headlights? lol

P.S. Do you have diamond clear corners? They look a bit off comparing to the headlights.

 

[orion_134]

Here's a linky to a guy who did an Explorer. It wasn't that hard, just work slow and check/measure everything twice before cutting. I also purposely removed too little material and gradually moved up to the right size. Not the most engineered approach, but better safe than sorry. I don't have diamond corners yet, still need to find a set I like.

 

[orion_134]

After a long summer semester, I can finally get back to working on these. Hopefully some finished pics coming this week. Found a dark wall and was able to get test the horizontal alignment. Surprise, it came out perfect! Not bad for a first retro. Tomorrow I will clean the insides of the reflectors and the shrouds and get to spraying the night shade coats. All I need is the Nissan sealer and to seal 'em up...oh, and to make a harness...
Jesse

 

[orion_134]

Finished! Don't have any output shots, but these are awesome!

 

[backfrmcolorado]

out of curiosity...can this be done to a first gen X due to a clearence issue behind the headlight to coresupport. ive been tryin to find halo lights but cant find them. if this can be done where do i get the projectors that you got?

 

[orion_134]

No idea, never owned a first gen.

 

[backfrmcolorado]

guess the only way to find out is to do it...where did you het the halo projectors?

 

[orion_134]

I bought them off hidplanet.com classifieds. Great forum with more than you'll ever need to know about doing a retrofit...maybe even one very similar to yours.
Jesse