DIY Land Cruiser Projector Retrofit (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Jun 8, 2016
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Location
Puerto Rico
First off, I'd like to thanks Andrew from The Retrofit Source who guided me in purchasing the right things.

Here's what I bought:
Projectors: Morimoto Mini H1 7.0
Compatible Ballasts: 35W: Morimoto XB35 only
HID bulbs: H1 XB 5500K
Shroud Style: Mini Gatling
Harness: 9006 HD Relay
Headlight Sealant: I had some black one left over but the grey should match better

I don't cover the electrical connections in this DIY but the cables are all marked and in their website they have a wiring diagram if you are still confused. On to the DIY then.

Headlight removal:
I found this is easier if you remove the grill first, wich is held on by 3 screws at the top and a couple of tabs in the bottom corners. After this, remove the screw that holds on the indicator housing and pull straight out (You need to use some force to do this). After that, there are 3 10mm bolts that hold the headlight assembly in. Two are on the bottom and one on top, should be easy to find.

Baking your headlights:
After you removed the headlights, disconnected all the cables, and removed the clips around the lens, you are ready to bake the headlight assembly. I baked mine for about 7 minutes at ~250F. Be careful with the plastic tabs not being close to the top, they might melt. After this I used these to pry the headlight lens off:
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
After you get the lens off put it somewhere else and continue working with the rest of the assembly.

Sanding:
You have to sand down the back of the headlight assembly low beam. Before you do this try to remove the outside plastic so it's easier to get the plastic dust off. There must be a different way or a faster way to do this but this is how I did it. Buy some of these small sanding pads:
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Then put them in your drill and go at it. Here's two pictures, the first one is halfway there and the second one is when finished:
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Be careful not to sand off to much and break the plastic. Try to not go as thin as I did, you just need enough for the back of the projector to go all the way through. After doing this take compressed air (I used a leaf blower) and take all the remaining plastic dust off the housing. Try to clean it and your working area as much as possible at this point because getting dust off the projector is a PITA.

 
Preparing the housing:
You have to do two things - First you remove the thing that sits in front of the reflector that is held on from two holes and after that you use either a drill or a screwdriver to open up a bigger hole in the bottom one. After this make sure to clean the area once again.
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Now put some gloves on and remove these parts from the packaging
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
You will be using the smaller silicone washer and the adapter that only has one "arm" pointing up, discard the rest
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr

Mounting the projector and bulb:
Take the four small screws and assemble the shroud into the projector, but make sure the projector is clean first. The holes will only align in one orientation.
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Now assemble the cable that you will later connect to the high beam, which activates the solenoid. These are the cables that go through the hole you opened earlier.
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Now you take off the bulb holder (3 screws) and unscrew the nut. After that you put the silicone washer in the back of the projector and pass the projector though the hole. Then you screw the nut back and screw the bulb holder again, being careful not to damage the small screws.
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Then you mount the bulb like so:
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
And then you do the wiring as explained in the diagram. I reccommend doing the driver's side first as that's where most of the connections are. After that, test that everything is wired correctly and working.
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
Re-sealing the headlight:
Before baking the headlight, I like to remove the bulb just in case, although I don't think this will affect it but it's just held on by the clip. Now you take the sealant you bought and apply it to places where the old sealant came off. Don't use too much or it will be very hard to press the lens to the rest of the housing. If you're really OCD, you can remove all the old sealant and put new sealant in, but I didn't find it necessary. Try to heat it toghether for a while, enough to put the clips and then heat is some more time so it seals correctly.

Almost done:
Now you mount the headlights back to your truck and adjust the height via a 8mm in the back.
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr

Finally, put eveything back together and find an appropriate place to mount your ballasts and the relay. I just used Zip-ties in the most convenient spots I found, you might find a more sturdy solution in your case.

ENJOY!
Sin título by josegt5, en Flickr
 
Nice write up! How long was the entire process?
Thanks! It was about 10 hours total divided into 2 days. The first day I did one headlight and worked out what I had to do so the second day I knocked out the projector part really fast and dealt with aiming, wiring and refitting everything the rest of the time
 
Great retrofit guide for my headlights on my 2001 under/over design. There are many variations on this website, the Lexus style seperated side by sides the integrated side by side the double headlights and the double over and under now this single version over and under. Did you consider a 55W ballast to give some more grunt to the lumens?
 
Did you set the cut off?
 
Hmm...I don't think that would pass inspection here. Maybe it could be used as a DRL only.
I think it's DOT approved. IMO as long as you have HIDs in projectors the cops can't tell if they're OEM or not unless they research it.
Neat! Of course, though, we need to see a night shot against a wall to see that beautiful cutoff! ;)
Will do next time I drive at night
 
Rotate the projector on the passenger side. Should be a clean cutoff. Measure the throw for a 2" drop at 25' from the height of your projector to the wall. TRS has a good YouTube video showing the property alignment technique.
 
Thanks! I did align the height on a place 25 feet away (that wall is like 10 feet away) and I didn't see that twist that's in the last pic I posted but I'll have to check out the rotation.
 
I just put the old high beam bulb in the bottom so that it's sealed well, but of course it's not connected to anything.

Quick question- I did basically the exact same thing, except had this professionally done. The installer asked me if I wanted to run the stock high beams alongside the new HID bulbs. I said sure, more light= better. So that's how its set up. Now I have one HID bulb that has already burnt out after 6 months of operation- do you think using the old high beam creates too much heat which in turn causes the HID bulbs to fail prematurely? I might have to rewire this setup. Thanks!!
 
Quick question- I did basically the exact same thing, except had this professionally done. The installer asked me if I wanted to run the stock high beams alongside the new HID bulbs. I said sure, more light= better. So that's how its set up. Now I have one HID bulb that has already burnt out after 6 months of operation- do you think using the old high beam creates too much heat which in turn causes the HID bulbs to fail prematurely? I might have to rewire this setup. Thanks!!
More than likely, the bulb wasn't cleaned with an alcohol wipe and had grease from your fingerprints on it when installed and caused it to fail or a cheap bulb.
 
Quick question- I did basically the exact same thing, except had this professionally done. The installer asked me if I wanted to run the stock high beams alongside the new HID bulbs. I said sure, more light= better. So that's how its set up. Now I have one HID bulb that has already burnt out after 6 months of operation- do you think using the old high beam creates too much heat which in turn causes the HID bulbs to fail prematurely? I might have to rewire this setup. Thanks!!
Being bi-xenon, there is no need for stock high beams, they are literally doing nothing if the system is set up correctly. Considering that the wiring needs the high beam part of the OE harness to work, I don't know how your system was wired up. I'd say the ballast is what got damaged because of either bad wiring or using it to get power to the OE bulbs as well. What bamabrock said could also be a possibility.
 
I just did mine the other day, is there a way to run the highbeam bi xenon without disabling DRLs? If i wanted Bi Xenon then i have to disable DRL or else it'll activate the solenoid for the highbeam and potentially burning it out or something.
 

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