cooki3mnster's build - The Black Pearl

[cooki3mnster]

Big brother is watching.

Pretty much, you can’t get away with a whole lot on our campus. It doesn’t really help that the campus is so open and accessible though. We get protests that come through pretty frequently.

 

[cooki3mnster]

Off of work for a few days leading up to a vacation, so I thought I’d try my hand at my Retrofit. Threw some housings in the oven at 170* for 15 min and split the housings. I trimmed out the standoffs, and made some adjustments with a dremel. I was able to get the Mini H1s installed with the demon eyes, and the Mini Gatling gun shrouds. They look so awesome. But when I went to test fit the lens it doesn’t sit flush and hits the projector. *sigh* So much for that, I really didn’t want to buy new Denali housings but what can you do. Also don’t tell my wife I put headlights in the oven and was working on them at the kitchen table…

 

[89Suburban]

It looks like this when it’s all unfolded. Basically a mobile overwatch/command center/camera platform. View attachment 344280

I saw those things in a Transformer movie.

 

[Tonyrodz]

Off of work for a few days leading up to a vacation, so I thought I’d try my hand at my Retrofit. Threw some housings in the oven at 170* for 15 min and split the housings. I trimmed out the standoffs, and made some adjustments with a dremel. I was able to get the Mini H1s installed with the demon eyes, and the Mini Gatling gun shrouds. They look so awesome. But when I went to test fit the lens it doesn’t sit flush and hits the projector. *sigh* So much for that, I really didn’t want to buy new Denali housings but what can you do. Also don’t tell my wife I put headlights in the oven and was working on them at the kitchen table…

View attachment 345479
View attachment 345480

View attachment 345481View attachment 345482

I'm sure she wouldn't mind

 

[cooki3mnster]

Well, had a great vacation in Maui. Now that we’re back I ordered up some new Denali OE style headlight housings. Hopefully will be here by EOW.

in other news finally ordered the tube doors for Wifeys Jeep and those should be here Thursday. She has no idea and I can’t wait to give them to her.

 

[cooki3mnster]

Ok, got the new OE style Denali housings and started breaking them down for the swap. I’m having trouble getting the adhesive they used on the projector body itself to come apart. @adventurenali92 and/or @Rocket Man how much heat and how long did you hit them with to swap the Morimotos in? I started with 15min at 170* and then went to 250* for 10 min and still won’t budge. I’m tempted to try 350* for 10-15 and see what happens.

 

[adventurenali92]

Ok, got the new OE style Denali housings and started breaking them down for the swap. I’m having trouble getting the adhesive they used on the projector body itself to come apart. @adventurenali92 and/or @Rocket Man how much heat and how long did you hit them with to swap the Morimotos in? I started with 15min at 170* and then went to 250* for 10 min and still won’t budge. I’m tempted to try 350* for 10-15 and see what happens.

For some reason the aftermarket companies use super strong adhesive to hold those projector bowls in to the headlight itself. I mean I guess it keeps them from leaking. Lol
anyways I ended up very carefully using a heat gun to heat up the adhesive that held the projector bowls into my anzo u bars, and I had to work the heat gun and a pry tool at the same time to get the adhesive to give way and let the projector bowls separate. It was really trick and in the process I actually chipped off one of the screw mounts. I had to JB weld that back in place before I could reassemble. Lol. So I messed mine up a bit. Maybe @Rocket Man has a better solution for getting those bowls separated?!?!

 

[cooki3mnster]

Welp, so much for that. I attempted again this morning first with my heat gun and got nothing. Then I tried 350* for 12min. Two things happened - 1) the clear lens separated very very easily and 2) the Headlight itself crumbled in my hand as I tried to separate the projector bowl from the back. That sealant is no joke and now I‘m out a passenger side headlight. Not gonna lie a little more than frustrated but c’est la vie. Going to try something with the older housing I have and started modifying.

On the upside if anyone needs a Driver side OE style Denali headlight from Eagle Eyes I have one for sale.

 

[cooki3mnster]

well after lots of frustration and a lot more money than I wanted to spend Projector Retrofit V1.0 is completed. I’m going to start the install hopefully later today after work.

As a reminder here is the parts list:
Morimoto Mini H1 projectors
Mini Gatling Gun shrouds
Morimoto 6k HID bulbs
Morimoto 35w ballasts
Profile LED Demon Eyes
Profile LED XBT Bluetooth controller
Morimoto Retrorubber sealant

I also have a pair of Klearz Clear reflectors that I might install at a later date.

 

[cooki3mnster]

Projector Update! Got Everything installed last night and I'm so stoked on the results. The light output is insane compared to the old halogens. I need to do a little more adjustment to the driver side as I think the projector is rotated a bit in the housing as you can see in the output pic. Need to still wire up the XBT controller and the High beam on the Mini H1s and its all done. Hopefully going to have that done today or tomorrow.