So I have always wanted to have a vehicle that has good lighting but all the vehicles that have cool lights are too modern (which equals too plastic) so they are a waste of money. Being a photographer I am very anal about light so I decided to make a change. I bought a pair of ballasts, bulbs and projector lenses even before I had the cruiser.
Here are some basics.
The purpose of all headlights is to give you a good view of what's in front, yet not blind oncoming traffic. Therefore all headlights have such a construction that creates a cutoff, a sharp border between light and darkness.
The oldest type of headlights are the ones we have (you have
). These are reflectors created before computers were powerful and therefore they need a ribbed headlight lens to try to direct light. I say 'try' because if you point your truck at a wall you see just two blobs of light without any defined pattern or form.
With the advent of computer design, FF (free form) headlights were designed. They also use a 'conventional' reflector. The reflector is not round but it consists of lots of small squares. Each of these squares has a different angle and throws light onto a different part of the road. These lights are like a puzzle. Every square has a corresponding area on the road, and all these squares create a puzzle which ends up as a continuous light beam, with clearly defined cutoff (but not as good as it gets).
Projector lenses (the ones with the round loupe in front) are a bit different. Light is projected onto the glass lens but before it reaches it, it's cut in half by a metal curtain. This metal curtain defines the cutoff. This type of lights has the biggest efficiency and the best light pattern.
What you shouldn't do.
You cannot just put HID bulbs into any housing and be happy. Each housing is designed with a specific type of light source in mind. If you don't follow this advice you will have unpredictable results and you WILL be a danger and a pain in the ass for other drivers. The best way to manage the enormous luminosity of HID bulbs is to use HID-specific projector housings.
My problems
My problems were quite simple. I had everything except for the headlights. I could sand off the ribs on my headlights but they would be weak and any small pebble could smash them. So I did what most people consider stupid bling, I bought the halo land cruiser lights from ebay.
Let the fun begin.
Here are the lights that people either love or hate. I love them as they substract 8-10 years from my truck and it really looks cool.
Then I chose to go quasi-OEM and here are the Koito ballasts
And here are the projectors from a Lexus car or a Toyota (don't remember the model right now)
First I took off all the bulbs and metal clips
Then I put the housing in the oven and baked it at 150*C for 8-10 minutes (starting with a cold oven). You need to calculate this yourself as different ovens heat up differently.
Then I had to hurry and tear the headlight apart. It's good to have some gloves as it is a bit hot. Not to the point of leaving burns but very uncomfortable. After some pulling, the headlight was in two pieces.
Now clean all the goo glue from both halves of the headlight. This is going to take you an hour per light as the glue is terrible to get rid of. You won't need that glue anymore (at least I didn't bother).
Here is a comparison of the HID projector (left) and the halogen projector (right) which you all hate and probably for a good reason.
After some measuring and thinking it turned out that there's no way my new projector would fit inside. It was too long and too thick and it had different mounting. A rule of thumb is DO NOT TOUCH elements which are visible and irreparable. So I didn't modify the chrome half of the headlight to adapt the longer lens but simply cut off the back. I didn't bother much with that as you see.
Later on I came to the conclusion that the best way to fit the light is to use an aluminum plate and cut an oval hole for the light.
I wanted to achieve the following effect.
But in order to accomplish that, I had to fabricate some light mounts that could be adjusted from outside. This is why I welded on some nuts onto the projector brackets. Moving screws would move the whole projector, thus allowing me to adjust the light.
Here is a close up of a welded nut.
Here are all three nuts welded and painted.
Later I used hot glue to fix the whole assembly. I wanted to make sure that the cutoff line is horizontal and that everything is OK, so I installed the 'headlight' on the truck.
After this checkup I secured the plate with rivets, and then applied special plastic glue and on top of that a layer of silicone to make sure all is secure and tight.
As you can see above, there is some foam around the lens. This is to ensure a good dust seal and still provide flexibility for adjustments.
The inside of the light housing
My canine quality control
The beam pattern comparison. Left is a broad and bright HID light and right is the typical old fashioned blob of light (aimed way too high because I couldn't see anything)
Working hard at night
Here are some basics.
The purpose of all headlights is to give you a good view of what's in front, yet not blind oncoming traffic. Therefore all headlights have such a construction that creates a cutoff, a sharp border between light and darkness.
The oldest type of headlights are the ones we have (you have
). These are reflectors created before computers were powerful and therefore they need a ribbed headlight lens to try to direct light. I say 'try' because if you point your truck at a wall you see just two blobs of light without any defined pattern or form.With the advent of computer design, FF (free form) headlights were designed. They also use a 'conventional' reflector. The reflector is not round but it consists of lots of small squares. Each of these squares has a different angle and throws light onto a different part of the road. These lights are like a puzzle. Every square has a corresponding area on the road, and all these squares create a puzzle which ends up as a continuous light beam, with clearly defined cutoff (but not as good as it gets).
Projector lenses (the ones with the round loupe in front) are a bit different. Light is projected onto the glass lens but before it reaches it, it's cut in half by a metal curtain. This metal curtain defines the cutoff. This type of lights has the biggest efficiency and the best light pattern.
What you shouldn't do.
You cannot just put HID bulbs into any housing and be happy. Each housing is designed with a specific type of light source in mind. If you don't follow this advice you will have unpredictable results and you WILL be a danger and a pain in the ass for other drivers. The best way to manage the enormous luminosity of HID bulbs is to use HID-specific projector housings.
My problems
My problems were quite simple. I had everything except for the headlights. I could sand off the ribs on my headlights but they would be weak and any small pebble could smash them. So I did what most people consider stupid bling, I bought the halo land cruiser lights from ebay.
Let the fun begin.
Here are the lights that people either love or hate. I love them as they substract 8-10 years from my truck and it really looks cool.
Then I chose to go quasi-OEM and here are the Koito ballasts
And here are the projectors from a Lexus car or a Toyota (don't remember the model right now)
First I took off all the bulbs and metal clips
Then I put the housing in the oven and baked it at 150*C for 8-10 minutes (starting with a cold oven). You need to calculate this yourself as different ovens heat up differently.
Then I had to hurry and tear the headlight apart. It's good to have some gloves as it is a bit hot. Not to the point of leaving burns but very uncomfortable. After some pulling, the headlight was in two pieces.
Now clean all the goo glue from both halves of the headlight. This is going to take you an hour per light as the glue is terrible to get rid of. You won't need that glue anymore (at least I didn't bother).
Here is a comparison of the HID projector (left) and the halogen projector (right) which you all hate and probably for a good reason.
After some measuring and thinking it turned out that there's no way my new projector would fit inside. It was too long and too thick and it had different mounting. A rule of thumb is DO NOT TOUCH elements which are visible and irreparable. So I didn't modify the chrome half of the headlight to adapt the longer lens but simply cut off the back. I didn't bother much with that as you see.
Later on I came to the conclusion that the best way to fit the light is to use an aluminum plate and cut an oval hole for the light.
I wanted to achieve the following effect.
But in order to accomplish that, I had to fabricate some light mounts that could be adjusted from outside. This is why I welded on some nuts onto the projector brackets. Moving screws would move the whole projector, thus allowing me to adjust the light.
Here is a close up of a welded nut.
Here are all three nuts welded and painted.
Later I used hot glue to fix the whole assembly. I wanted to make sure that the cutoff line is horizontal and that everything is OK, so I installed the 'headlight' on the truck.
After this checkup I secured the plate with rivets, and then applied special plastic glue and on top of that a layer of silicone to make sure all is secure and tight.
As you can see above, there is some foam around the lens. This is to ensure a good dust seal and still provide flexibility for adjustments.
The inside of the light housing
My canine quality control
The beam pattern comparison. Left is a broad and bright HID light and right is the typical old fashioned blob of light (aimed way too high because I couldn't see anything)
Working hard at night
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