HID projector headlights. (1 Viewer)

[Mace]

My fj60's sealed beam headlights have never been impressive, they actually have never been even satisfactory...
fitzmooney started a thread in the 60 section asking about projector headlights. A company called Dapper Lighting was brought up and One of their representatives signed up to the site to answer questions.
After chatting with him for a while, I decided that these would be a neat upgrade for my 60.

Fast forward a couple weeks and I have the HID kit on hand (pic 1).
( http://www.dapperlighting.com/colle...lighting-7-classic-black-series-projector-kit )
The kit is very complete, and well packed. The projector housings have glass lenses and plastic rear housings. I do not see that as an issue due to the light not having a standard reflector. The kits come with both a halogen bulb and the HID bulbs. The HID bulbs use a replacement wiring harness, but the Halogen bulbs are designed to plug into the standard wiring harness. I planned on hooking everything up today, but realized that I wanted to do a multiple step setup, and I needed darkness to compare each light. So tonight, I took some baseline pictures (pic 2) and then swapped the drivers side light to the halogen projector and took a comparison shot (pic 3).

Honestly, even the halogen light with the stock harness has significantly more light than the stock sealed beams. I can't wait to see how bright the projectors are tomorrow night.

And, the black on black projectors look cool (pic 5), which is good for about 50 hp alone....

Tomorrow, I'll get on how they are actually hooked up. The halogen bulbs were basically a plug-n-play, the HID's have an additional ballast and complete wiring harness that needs to be added.

 

[90FJ]

looks more like 60 hp.

awesome, makes me wish my truck wasn't a beater so I could justify something like this.

 

[Mace]

Cause my truck is a show car lol. And even beaters need to see..

These also have an extra bulb for daytime running lights. I'm trying to figure out which LED's (wattage wise) would be the best choice.

 

[Tapage]

nice mace .. hooked to see how it's the HID performance light cut ..

 

[MicahMan]

I'm copying from another post but these look like Space Odyssey 2001 Lights.
"Hal, Hal"

Look sharp though!

 

[Mace]

On to the install.

On a 60 there are 4 screws holding the headlight bezel on. Three are sunk into the face of the bezel (pic one circled in red), and the 4th is accessible with the hood open (pic 2 circled in red). The three screws in the face have to come completely out, but the 4th one at the top just has to be loosened up.

Once the screws are free, the bezel can hang free (it will hang by the wiring to the side marker lights if you do not disconnect the lights from the harness at the plug). I didn't see any reason to futz with old plastic plugs, so I just let the bezel hang (pic 3).

 

[Crick60]

I've never seen these lights before and just quietly in shadows where know one else can hear me, IM FARKING JEALOUS!

Just sayin'

Nice job, fair amount of coin to shell out for lights but it looks well worth it.

 

[Mace]

Once the bezel has been pulled out of the way, the headlight can be removed by unscrewing the three small screws on the chrome headlight retaining ring. These screws are designed to be loosened and the ring rotates a couple degrees and then the screw heads can be passed through the bigger holes on the retainer ring tabs. I have never had this method work, so I just remove all three screws (carefully, they are not easy to find new ones on Sunday). (pic 1)

Due to the location of the battery I am using and the length of the supplied connector cable from the HID Ballast I I had to mount the ballast in between the grill and the headlight bezel. It actually fit beautifully there all things considered (pic 2, and 3).

The kit was supplied with some double sticky pads. I used one to temporarily locate the ballast mounting bracket and drilled some holes to secure it with sheet metal screws (pic 4). Again, because of the battery location and wiring lengths, It was easier to mount the relay (the HID lights do not use the existing headlight wiring for their main power, they just use it to turn the lights on and off) in front of the radiator support. The Stock Horn location turned out to be a perfect location for the relay mount (pic 5).

 

[Mace]

Wiring of the lights was fairly straight forward. You use the two supplied harnesses (only one is necessary to run the Halogen bulb but a second one is needed for the HID bulb). I could get into specific details on which wires go where, but the diagram is supplied by Dapper lighting
Halogen harness http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0179/5453/files/Halogen_Guide.png?581

HID harness http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/01..._e0decd48-2c8e-4f75-9b2f-eb864be2a384.png?731

Once you get everything plugged in and wired you end up with something that looks like this (pic 1). Be aware, in Pic 1 there are an extra set of wires going into the light. Those are for the Daytime running lights, and I have not hooked them up at this time. However, as soon as I get the LED's I want to run, I will hook them up as well.

Also in pic 1 you will notice that there are tabs in the light housing itself. Those are to align the headlights in the headlight buckets. They are oriented in a specific fashion, and the light will not sit flush in the bucket if they are not in the proper spot.

Once the headlight is aligned and the headlight retaining rig is back in place, you should look like pic 2. Position the headlight bezel back in place and tighten the 4 retention screws (pic 3).

Switch to the other side, lather, rinse repeat (pic 4). I kept the ballast in the same location as the Passengers side, but moved the relay into the engine compartment. No real reason for that other than a pre-threaded bolt hole was there and it worked out nicely.

 

[Mace]

Just for giggles I compared the Halogen bulb to the HID bulb (pic1). As you can see, the HID (right side) produces a much cleaner and brighter light than the halogen. The volume of light produced is impressive. I am still playing with the alignment of the lights. Projector beams do not use the typical double filament bulb. Instead they rely on guards that pop up and down to protect oncoming traffic from being blinded. So, pointing them up too much is not a good thing, but having them pointed down too much really reduces the distance you can see. Flip the high beams on and the world lights up tho. The improvement over stock sealed beams is significant. I can't wait to take them out on to a dirt road to see the improved visibility.

Pic 2 shows the blue white light of the HID and the more standard yellow color Halogen.

 

[lovetoski]

Nice write-up Mace, thanks.

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Can u take a picture of your door with the high beams on? Curious if the line goes away or if it stays.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using IH8MUD

 

[Mace]

Can u take a picture of your door with the high beams on? Curious if the line goes away or if it stays.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using IH8MUD

I will take a pic, but the answer is yes, the line effectively goes away...

 

[tornadoalleycruiser]

Thanks. I've been looking for a long time for a safe way to properly install hid's in a 40 or wagon. Looks like you found a cost effective way without cutting and jb welding like the ricers do.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using IH8MUD

 

[MicahMan]

Well done

 

[Crick60]

Looks awesome but just one little minor point; HID really doesn't give you any extra lumens it just adjusts the temperature of the light to a frequency that is better suited to contrast and identify objects in the dark. The extra lumens that are usually seen in demonstrations come from higher wattage lamps and thicker gauge wiring.

Not taking anything away from the lights or the install, they are awesome and I'm crazy envious.
I'm just saying don't believe all the hype. You paid good money for good product where as some Chinese HID kits are rubbish and should be left in the shopping cart.

 

[dapperlighting]

Looks awesome but just one little minor point; HID really doesn't give you any extra lumens it just adjusts the temperature of the light to a frequency that is better suited to contrast and identify objects in the dark. The extra lumens that are usually seen in demonstrations come from higher wattage lamps and thicker gauge wiring.

Not taking anything away from the lights or the install, they are awesome and I'm crazy envious.
I'm just saying don't believe all the hype. You paid good money for good product where as some Chinese HID kits are rubbish and should be left in the shopping cart.

Hmm... I'm curious where you got that information from? That doesn't seem right. HIDs are more efficient at producing light. You can get 50-100LM per W with an HID while halogen only puts out ~20-30LM per W.

When HIDs are at their least efficient, they might put out as much as a halogen but once they reach peak efficiency, they should put out more light. From my experience a 3200K HID bulb on a 35W ballast is brighter than a 3200K 55W halogen bulb. Thoughts?

 

[js93cruiser]

Has anyone used the 4x6" version yet? Did they just plug in? I read something about an h3 bulb or something but I have an h1-h4 set up

 

[Mace]

Looks awesome but just one little minor point; HID really doesn't give you any extra lumens it just adjusts the temperature of the light to a frequency that is better suited to contrast and identify objects in the dark. The extra lumens that are usually seen in demonstrations come from higher wattage lamps and thicker gauge wiring.

Not taking anything away from the lights or the install, they are awesome and I'm crazy envious.
I'm just saying don't believe all the hype. You paid good money for good product where as some Chinese HID kits are rubbish and should be left in the shopping cart.

Lumens per watt varies depending on which type of bulb you use. So yes, you can get more lumens out of the same wattage. 35 watt HID (or LED) produces significantly more lumens than a 35w incandescent.

http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/light/how-lumen-to-watt.htm

 

[Crick60]

Hmm... I'm curious where you got that information from? That doesn't seem right. HIDs are more efficient at producing light. You can get 50-100LM per W with an HID while halogen only puts out ~20-30LM per W. When HIDs are at their least efficient, they might put out as much as a halogen but once they reach peak efficiency, they should put out more light. From my experience a 3200K HID bulb on a 35W ballast is brighter than a 3200K 55W halogen bulb. Thoughts?

Sorry I should clarify I'm not talking about source luminous flux or source lumens or efficiency or manufacturers claims.
It's difficult to compare a poor efficiency halogen to a great performing HID and vice versa, if under lab conditions or even if you purchased the best of both examples at say 60w and compare the two and walk out with a lumen/light meter you will find that they will both reach 0.25 lux at the same distance.

So I'm saying is watt for watt HID produces no more ANSI lumens than halogen. Not taking into account ballast, temperature or environmental degradation or warming/cooling times.
I'm trying to find the data now but I remember having an argument on candlepower about it and losing and it all came down to the temperature of the HID being about to pick up objects a halogen light couldn't.

There is a peer reviewed article about it I read about 7 years ago I'll try and get my hands on it. Sorry I know that's a bit vague.