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I have been wanted to do a retrofit for a while after some persuasion from fellow members so i decided to do it. However,being a college student, I wanted to keep it low cost without sacrificing too much quality. This is my first retrofit and i am by no means an expert, i just wanted to share what I did.
First, a little background info on the headlights. One of the first mods i did to the car when i got it was get a new pair of Ebay black housed headlights which were the ones i was running until yesterday. Becuse they were cheap ebay headlights after two years the clear coat was flaking off. I had kept the OEM headlights which had a lot of oxidation and cracking on the lens but i figured i would combine the best aspects of each pair in order to make ONE good retrofitted pair of headlights.
I bought everything from www.headlightsquick.com. They are an authorized disributor from The Retrofit Source and Morimoto. James Wachs the President of the company was very helpful and handled all of my orders personally. Oh and the best part, they have FREE 2-Day SHIPPING.
Materials and Cost:
HQ Mini H1 Projectors: $45.00 http://www.headlightsquick.com/products/hq-brand-mini-h1-projectors.html
Full Sized Gatling Gun Shroud:$40.00 http://www.headlightsquick.com/products/full-sized-gatling-gun-shrouds.html
*But if you buy it through Amazon you get both for $60.00 Shipped*
H1 Bulbs: $9.98 on Ebay
HID Kit: Already had one from Ebay.
High Beam Splitters: $10.00 Headlights Quick (If you cant find it on the website, send James an email, tell him what you need and he will get it for you)
Projector Selenoid Plug: $13.00 Headlights Quick
Butyl Glue (optional): $13.00 Ebay. (the roll was huge, way more than i will ever need in my life)
TOTAL: $105.98
Projector Review:: A lot of peopple may be a little skeptical about not using the mainstream/famous H1 Morimoto Minis but let me tell you that these projector are probably as good. I didn't want to spend $120 on projectors alone so i went this route, i figured ANY projector would be better than my plug and play HID kit on a reflector housing. I have never had the Morimotos in my hand but i did look at a lot of pictures and videos of them and they look exactly the same as these HQ Projectors. The cut off line is very sharp and it even has a bluish/purple tint out of the box, which i know some people usually have to modify the projectors to achieve this.
Proectors:
This is a comparison picture of my retrofit cutoff and my brother in law"s 2012 Infinity G37 Sedan.
Left= G37 Sedan OEM Headlights
Right= My Retrofit
Close up of blue/purple tint
Here are the OEM Headlights, from which i kept the reflectors and the plastic housing.
From the Ebay Headlights i used the black trim thingy (dont know the name) with the clear reflector and the flaking lens. Obviously i didn't leave the flaking lens, i sanded it down starting with 400 grit sandpaper, followed by 600, 800, 1000, 1200, and 1500. Then i used automotive 2k clear coat that i had left over from when i painted my rear lip and gave the lenses 7 coats of clear coat.
I used this AMAZING little gun that i got from amazon. Very good gun, exceeded my expectation tremendously.
Painted the projector shields and interior stuff graphite gray to match the color of the car.
Trimmed the shrouds to fit the reflectors as exact as i could.
Placed the reflector on the housing.
Went to see if i could aim and adjust the headlights during the day but then realized i had no choice but to wait until it got dark. Fail!
After it got dark and i aimed the headlights it got late so i stopped taking pictures because i wanted to finish. Sorry.
I sealed the headlights back up and this is the end result.
Overall i am very happy with the result, the only reason why i hadn't done this before was because of the cost, but i found a way to do it on a budget so i am happy. Definitely one of my favorite mods. I love how the full sized Gatling Gun shrouds fill up the headlight and they don't look small like the Mini Gatling Gun shrouds.
Let me know what you guys think and feel free to ask any questions.
First, a little background info on the headlights. One of the first mods i did to the car when i got it was get a new pair of Ebay black housed headlights which were the ones i was running until yesterday. Becuse they were cheap ebay headlights after two years the clear coat was flaking off. I had kept the OEM headlights which had a lot of oxidation and cracking on the lens but i figured i would combine the best aspects of each pair in order to make ONE good retrofitted pair of headlights.
I bought everything from www.headlightsquick.com. They are an authorized disributor from The Retrofit Source and Morimoto. James Wachs the President of the company was very helpful and handled all of my orders personally. Oh and the best part, they have FREE 2-Day SHIPPING.
Materials and Cost:
HQ Mini H1 Projectors: $45.00 http://www.headlightsquick.com/products/hq-brand-mini-h1-projectors.html
Full Sized Gatling Gun Shroud:$40.00 http://www.headlightsquick.com/products/full-sized-gatling-gun-shrouds.html
*But if you buy it through Amazon you get both for $60.00 Shipped*
H1 Bulbs: $9.98 on Ebay
HID Kit: Already had one from Ebay.
High Beam Splitters: $10.00 Headlights Quick (If you cant find it on the website, send James an email, tell him what you need and he will get it for you)
Projector Selenoid Plug: $13.00 Headlights Quick
Butyl Glue (optional): $13.00 Ebay. (the roll was huge, way more than i will ever need in my life)
TOTAL: $105.98
Projector Review:: A lot of peopple may be a little skeptical about not using the mainstream/famous H1 Morimoto Minis but let me tell you that these projector are probably as good. I didn't want to spend $120 on projectors alone so i went this route, i figured ANY projector would be better than my plug and play HID kit on a reflector housing. I have never had the Morimotos in my hand but i did look at a lot of pictures and videos of them and they look exactly the same as these HQ Projectors. The cut off line is very sharp and it even has a bluish/purple tint out of the box, which i know some people usually have to modify the projectors to achieve this.
Proectors:
This is a comparison picture of my retrofit cutoff and my brother in law"s 2012 Infinity G37 Sedan.
Left= G37 Sedan OEM Headlights
Right= My Retrofit
Close up of blue/purple tint
Here are the OEM Headlights, from which i kept the reflectors and the plastic housing.
From the Ebay Headlights i used the black trim thingy (dont know the name) with the clear reflector and the flaking lens. Obviously i didn't leave the flaking lens, i sanded it down starting with 400 grit sandpaper, followed by 600, 800, 1000, 1200, and 1500. Then i used automotive 2k clear coat that i had left over from when i painted my rear lip and gave the lenses 7 coats of clear coat.
I used this AMAZING little gun that i got from amazon. Very good gun, exceeded my expectation tremendously.
Painted the projector shields and interior stuff graphite gray to match the color of the car.
Trimmed the shrouds to fit the reflectors as exact as i could.
Placed the reflector on the housing.
Went to see if i could aim and adjust the headlights during the day but then realized i had no choice but to wait until it got dark. Fail!
After it got dark and i aimed the headlights it got late so i stopped taking pictures because i wanted to finish. Sorry.
I sealed the headlights back up and this is the end result.
Overall i am very happy with the result, the only reason why i hadn't done this before was because of the cost, but i found a way to do it on a budget so i am happy. Definitely one of my favorite mods. I love how the full sized Gatling Gun shrouds fill up the headlight and they don't look small like the Mini Gatling Gun shrouds.
Let me know what you guys think and feel free to ask any questions.
