Thought I'd post up some pictures of a retrofit that my brother and I did today. Took about 9 hours all in.
Everything used in the retrofit:- Bi-Xenon Morimoto Mini D2S 4.0 Projectors
- 35W Ballasts
- 5500K HIDs
- H11 Harness
- Bullet Shrouds
- High Beam Splitters
- Amber Chrome Signal Bulbs
- Yellow Halogen High Beams
- Krylon Black (Fusion For Plastic) Paint
1. Remove BumperFirst thing to do was remove the bumper. There are 6 clips on top attached to the grill. There are also 5-6 clips on the bottom which are insanely annoying to remove sometimes.
2. Remove HeadlightsWith the bumper off, you can get to all of the necessary clips and pins to remove the headlights. There should be (5) 10mm bolts for each headlight if I can remember. (Don't have any pictures, as I wasn't planning to do a thorough write-up).
3. Remove Everything From HeadlightsNext, you'll want to unplug and disconnect all of the wiring and bulbs from the lights. The wiring harness for the bulbs is wedged into the back of the light and connected by one grey connector.
You also want to remove all of the grommets, screws, etc. There's a mounting plate for the high beam that is held on by 2 screws. Basically, the only thing that I didn't remove from the back of the housings were the vertical adjustments screws.
4. Opening the HeadlightsAfter watching multiple videos and reading up on different temperature/time combinations for the lights, I decided to go with a conservative
200F for 17 minutes. I wanted to apply the least heat for as long as necessary in fear of melting the headlight. I know some people say 260-270F for 7 minutes, but this worked just fine. There are tabs on the top and bottom of the headlights that you'll want to pry with a flathead while also pulling the 2 pieces away from each other. Once you get the separation going, make sure that you are mindful of the adhesive. It stretches quite a bit and if you let it shoot off, it could hit the inside of the lens and that wouldn't be good.
There are a few screws holding this piece to the lens. You won't need to remove this if you aren't planning on touching the reflector. Since I wanted to paint the reflector black, I took it off. The reflector is held on by 3 tabs.
At this point, we removed the signal housing (2 screws) from the rest of the housing and painted the housing and the
back of the reflector.
5. Fitting the ProjectorsYou'll want to use a dremel with a sanding band in order to cut down the plastic. The shaft of the Mini D2S projector is 35mm wide. If I had to do this project again, I would recommend going with the
Mini H1 projector, as the shaft is 20mm
(15mm skinnier). If you went with the Mini H1, you'd be able to get the Mini Gatling Gun shroud, which would require minimal cutting.
Anyways, eye it up and start trimming.
This is how much you need to cut in order to fit the D2S projectors:
6. Fitting the ShroudsI didn't take any pictures of us lining up the shrouds, but this is what it should look like. We needed to take quite a bit off of the top of the shrouds in order to clear the top of the housing.
7. Painting the Housings and ShroudsNext, I masked the housings off. We did 3-4 light coats with 15 minutes in between for both the housings an the shrouds. The paint we used was good to handle after 15 minutes and fully dried after 1 hour, so we waited an hour.
8. Mounting the HeadlightsSince you want to make sure the projectors are horizontal, you want to mount the projectors and bulbs and then mount the headlights onto the car. Once you are happy with the orientation of the projectors, tighten down the mounting nut on the back. This part is terrifying because the nut is designed to deform on itself if it starts to loosen.
This part is permanent.
You can see how I mounted the relay in an upright position to try to prevent water from harming it. There was a pre-existing hole that was conveniently drilled.
9. Mounting the ShroudsUsing JB Weld, you want to put some onto the rim of the inside of the shroud or onto the edges of the projector. Since we had to cut the tops of the shrouds so much, there was only one way to mount it onto the projector. Obviously, if you had a smaller shroud, then the orientation of it likely wouldn't matter.
With some regret of obliviously getting massive shrouds, I
love how much they fill in the housing.
10. ReassemblyFinally, you'll want to take the headlights back inside and turn the oven back on.
Make sure you take the bulb and the ignitor out before putting the headlight back in the oven. Screw the 2 pieces of the headlight back together the best you can, and then put it in the oven for 5-10 minutes at 200F. Once you take it out of the oven, pry all the tabs back together and everything is straight forward from there.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of the wiring harness. You want to mount the relay in an upright position to ensure that water doesn't go inside. Then, mount the ballasts wherever works. I also want to mention that I bought the high beam splitters because my high beams are my DRL's. This also means that I have quad high beams, but yellow halogens in a blacked out reflector don't do much. There is a picture farther down the thread.
