How To: Basic Retrofit

Welcome to my how to retrofit! now i know i am not the best person in the world with retro fitting but i can let people know what kind of problems they could possibly run into!

So what you are going to need:
projectors
shrouds
screws, washers, nuts, lock nuts, springs
"L" brackets of some sort
wiring harness (A MUST!)
bulbs
ballasts
paint

to start things off we will be retro fitting a pair of RX330 projectors into our stock housings.

what i used:
set of OEM housings
RX330 Projectors
A4 Shrouds (mine took a TON of cutting/sanding to fit properly so IMO stay away from these. i will be switching mine to fiberglass at some point if i learn how to do it)
screws, washers, nuts, lock nuts, springs
"L" brackets made out of angle iron
retrofit source wiring harness (A MUST!)
Philips 85122+ bulbs
retrofit source 35w ballasts
automotive engine paint

I used a second set of housings so i could drive my car while doing this retro fit. it is a very good idea to do it that way so you still have a default pair of headlights to go back to if things go waaaayyyy wrong.

on to the how to!

STEP 1: to begin you want to remove everything and anything from the outside of the headlight. all screws off the back, the rubber grommets around the light fixtures, all the metal clips, and of course the bulbs.

then i heated my oven to 250 degrees and threw them in there for 10(ten) minutes.

and since my oven couldn't close all the way i did this:

whatever works ya know?

STEP 2: take it out and pry her open!! i used my hands(bad choice) and a flat head screw driver(better choice) to get them apart. you will hear popping and cracking WHICH IS OK! do not be alarmed by the popping and cracking!!

STEP 3: remove the turn signal/amber reflector thingy

STEP 3A: mask off the turn signal part then alcohol wipe it down so the paint sticks better.

then repeat STEP 3 and STEP 3A for the second headlight housing. I STRONGLY ADVISE that you sand and prime anything and everything you are going to paint as the paint WILL chip off if given the chance to do so. there are chips in the paint on my retro so it does happen.

STEP 4: paint the turn signal thingy
before:

after:

after this i still had some tint film left over from Misha with which to tint my amber reflector. i'll get a good picture of it for everyone as all of the ones i have are horrid. but i'll give one for reference...

STEP 5: cut out a hole in the back of the reflector bowl

now i used a bansaw to cut my hole which probably was not the best idea since i couldn't get a really good cut with mine. i don't have access to a big one.

the tool you want to use is a dremel with a circle saw on it to get a good hole.

BEFORE YOU DO ANY CUTTING as well you do need to map out the lines of the original low beam IE figure out how to mount the projector straight.

now when i mounted my projectors the original holes you see in those pictures became easily double in size. the RX330 projector has a very wide shape to it which made it difficult for me to properly sit it in the housing. but i did get it eventually! just be patient!

STEP 6: mount your hardware onto the projector and test fit and mark where holes go once it's in straight

i took this picture while marking the points for holes...i got really bored so i put the shroud "on" to see what it would look like.

now i had trouble with this part as well. again i blame the projector! but luckily since i drilled more than one mounting holes in the bowl it allowed me to adjust the projector more when aiming. MAKE SURE IT'S STRAIGHT WHEN DRILLING HOLES! IT WILL GIVE YOU A HEADACHE IF YOU DON'T!

STEP 6A: mount the projectors

now what people have been doing lately is using springs to mount their projectors on so they can be adjusted much easier. before you had to stack tons of washers just to get the beam leveled out perfectly and that took a TON of time.

i used some old RC car springs off of my RC Car. they were just laying around and i though hell why not try them? yes they are a little stiff but only one spring was needed to hold the projector up so i'd say it works.

here is my mount:

then once it's all said any mounted:

i also sanded the little hump in the bottom of the bowl so i could move the projector more easily when aiming!

STEP 7: Aim them thangs!

unfortunately i did not take any pictures of me aiming them. but it is very straight forward. also before i aimed mine i alcohol wiped the bowl to get rid of any grease from my fingers, and sprayed it with compressed air to remove the dust. then painted it using the same color paint to match the turn signal thing.

here it is painted:

AIMING PROCEDURE: when going to aim your headlights you want to find level ground, and have a wall 25 ft. away from the front of your car. then measure up to where the projector is located in the housing, and mark that point on the wall 25 ft. away. you are trying to aim your projectors to have the bottom of the step at that point (Someone correct me if i am wrong on this please).

here is a link to a diagram and to get a better understanding on this: http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17073

TO DO THIS: take off the bumper and remove the old headlights, connect all of the wiring harness and ballasts. mount the housings into the car and hook everything up and do as God said...let there be light.(sorry if that is offensive..if it is i'll take it off and use something else!!)

then at this point you will see the beams on the wall and you can tighten/loosen the mounts on the projector to bring the projector either up or down, and if you tighten one side and leave the other side alone it allows you to level the beam out somewhat. but a mounting system that has up down, left right, and rotational adjustment is the best.

STEP 8: cut shrouds to fit/cover the projector

at this point you should have the headlights aimed properly and be at the point where you are all excited to have HID headlights!

TO COVER THE PROJECTOR: i used some plexi glass and took measurements and made cut after cut to finally get it to fit over the projector and block out a lot of what the shroud couldn't cover. i feel like a did an alright job at it but this is where fiberglassing would come in handy!

PUTTING THE SHROUD ON: you have to test fit the shroud and figure out where you need to sand, cut, and then eventually stick the thing. the one on the drivers side went on without any problems, the passenger side was being a freaking annoyance. it took me three extra hours to finally get it on there and for the headlight to seal properly. TEST FIT i can't say it enough for this point. seriously test fit as much as possible so you do not run into the problem i ran into. or you can use another shroud :evil:

heat up both sides of the headlights to get optimum sealing! what i did was heat up both sides for 7 minutes at 250 degrees, stuck them together, then threw the whole thing back into the oven again for 5 minutes at 250 degrees. then as soon as it came out put clamps on it ASAP!

fresh out of the oven and clamped:

after being clamped for half an hour:

after both done:

STEP 10: Seal the back around the projector

this step is still up in the air for me right now. but people say to get some pvc pipe and a cap and place it on the back around the projector to seal it up. what i ended up doing is just sealing around the projector with the stock rubber grommet and then putting high temp sealant around the area not sealed by the grommet. hopefully it works i will post an update with that.

STEP 11: once sealed and all that jazz, put them on your ride and test them out! they should be aimed properly and just be direct bolt on and go!

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Now i really hope this helps someone out. just letting you know before hand: this takes TIME. yes once you get good you can bang a whole retrofit out in one day provided paint dries properly and all of that. but this took me a WEEK and a HALF to do this. so be very patient with it and don't underestimate your abilities. everyone, including myself, thinks it is so much harder than it looks and to be honest, it's fairly easy. opening the housings and cutting the holes in the bowl is probably the hardest part. but after that it's fairly straight forward. just take your time with it and TEST FIT TEST FIT TEST FIT!!!

Disclaimer: i will not take any blame if you screw up your headlights by doing this. i am stating how i did it and by doing it this way you should get it to work out for you! so if something breaks or doesn't line up just right go back and think about how to fix it!

if you need help you can PM me or someone else(timot-one, skippy, viper4343, Nexson, just to name a few people) on this forum who has done their own Retrofit, or you can join the forum at HID Planet which has TONS of advice on how to retrofit. I will post pics of my cut off once they are installed onto my ride (Tomorrow!!!!)

Information was transfered from Gen7Accord.com.