HID's in projector housing (not retro)

[chris4851]

My current headlight setup is the following: DDM HID Kit, 35W, H13 High / Low, 5000K, Bulb Type: H13/9008 Hi/Lo. I am using the HID’s with the stock headlight reflector housing. For obvious “glare” reasons which I do not want to debate in this thread I am looking to swap headlight housings to projector type. I DO NOT want to take on a custom retro of the existing headlight housing to put in projector’s.

What I am looking to do is utilize my current HID setup but buy projector headlight housings. I have searched this entire site and found the following housings, which I think look really good in black (I have a black 08 Denali).
http://shopcustomcreations.com/GMC-Yukon-Yukon-XL-Denali-07-09-CCFL-Halo-Projector-Headlights/prod-2211.html

I have a couple questions about what I am trying to do:
1. I exchanged emails with custom creation’s and they said that my HID would work but I would need a different bulb. Does anyone know why and what bulb I would need?
2. Anyone have any experience with this housing? This type seems to be all over the internet.

 

[STORMIN08]

correct me if im wrong, but i believe the housing you are looking at, is for a halogen bulb. the hid bulb you are using is longer in length, the base may work but the physical length is too long.

 

[soulsea]

I can't answer question one, but I can kinda answer question two.

The problem with those, and pretty much any aftermarket housing like that is that those projectors are a. terrible, and b. made for halogens.

So whereas glare will likely not be a big problem, you will get similar result to this:

I know this because I purchased a similar set for my tahoe before my retro and that's exactly what I got. And someone warned me back then about it and I didn't want to believe it, so it was 200 or so bucks down the drain.

 

[drroy]

The low beam projector on those uses a H3 bulb, so your current bulbs would not work and you would need to purchase new H3 bulbs. The projectors in those aftermarket housings are usually low quality and the type in these housings that use a H3 are the worst, realy poor beam pattern with hot and dark spots. But do have a clean cuttoff line and will not glare and blind oncoming traffic.
So unless you absolutely love the looks of the housings and looks are all you care about . you would be better off sticking with your current setup, you will get no performance benefit from theses and will be worse off

 

[chris4851]

Does anyone know if the Escalade headlights will fit the Yukon without major modification? Something makes me think these are not direct replacements if people are doing a retro to the stock Yukon headlights.

 

[soulsea]

Just eyeballing it, it looks like the Yukon headlights are much wider in the front ... I've never heard of anyone swapping them.

For what it's worth, for the price of a set of Escalade headlights you can get pre-retrofitted Yukon assys from BFC: http://blackflamecustoms.com/produc...on-denali-projector-retrofit-headlights-p-100

 

[chris4851]

Yea I saw those but would never pay that price for a retro. After doing some more research I may just take on the retro myself. I am very knowledgable in this field just don't like to spend the time or have any downtime. Plus most retro's look like an afterthought.

 

[soulsea]

 

[drroy]

I disagree about retros looking like an afterthought, if done well. Regardless plenty of cheap OEM headlight on ebay to use for a retro. If you have limited chunks of time to work on a retro- you don't want to use the set on your car.
But you also have a few aftermarket options that aren't horrendous, these are generally the easiest to retro as you remove the crappy projector and put in a new HID projector (+/- a few steps). The smaller projectors should be easiest -morimoto H1, E46, valeo. A larger projector may take some trimming of the bracket TSX,FX-R, still pretty simple and easily accomplished in a few hours if you are good with this kind of stuff

 

[tbrooks80]

What are the expert thoughts?

http://www.carid.com/2007-gmc-yukon-denali-headlights/spec-d-euro-headlights-348337.html

 

[soulsea]

See pics I posted above.

And it's not an 'expert' thing, it's a 'I was a dumbass I tried those myself so learn from my experience' thing.

 

[chris4851]

So I took everyone’s advice here and decided to do a retro. I ordered the Bi-xenon Morimoto Mini Stage III Kit (H1 5000) from TRS.

I ordered a cheap OEM headlight off eBay to hack up and see how easy this install would be. To my surprise baking the headlight and opening it up was fairly easy. The rest I’m afraid was not as simple as people make it seem. You need to be somewhat knowledgeable at fabrication to take something like this on. Personally I do not do a lot of fabrication work so I did not have all the required tools, epoxy, fiberglass, bondo, etc. Also reading up at HID planet in regards to leveling, painting, sealing, fabricating, securing and anything else needed to do a retro correctly I decided it’s better leave this up to someone who specializes in this. I spent enough money on the parts that I did not want a half ass the install.

At that point I decided to contact Black Flame Customs to do this install. I had BFC order a set of replica headlights instead of the OEM headlights to save some $$ there. The install was quick and they look amazing. I had some initial issues with epoxy buildup which was not allowing one of the headlights to fully adjust with the adjustment screws. BFC has been very helpful with this issue and fixed the problem. I had them paint the inside of the headlights black to match the color of my Yukon.

The only regret I have is using replica headlights. In my opinion these are replica for a reason, the build quality is nothing compared to the OEM. The headlight adjustment screw assembly is made of cheap plastic and they do not bolt onto the car and fit like a glove like the OEM ones do. If your spending the money on a retro I would look for OEM headlights, I’m sure you can get a good used set on eBay for the same price as a new set of replica’s.

The headlights should arrive today and I will install them. I’ll take some pics and post them back up here. Total cost of the retro was just over $1,000 which includes parts & labor.

 

[Aschoeppner]

I am looking into doing a retro on my 07 tahoe with just low beams. I was looking at the headlights on blackflamecustoms that have the exact set up I am looking at doing. Ive been reading all the threads on it and still have a bit of a dilemma.
The morimoto mini full kit from TRS is $270. New headlight housings that you can actually get open are around $150. Blackflame gets $949 for the whole thing all finished.
My question is....is it worth over $500 in labor to do the work? Everybody is saying that its a pain but is it worth spending the extra $500 to have someone else do it? $949 for the whole thing seems a little steep when theres only around $420 in parts into it.

 

[soulsea]

Well ... a 50/50 ratio parts to labor cost seems to be where a professional retrofit usually ends up, give or take a few percentage points.

Undoubtably you pay a premium with BFC for the ease of a pre-retrofitted PnP setup as they are the only ones (that I know of) that offer it.

BFC is usually the only option for those who don't have a qualified retrofitter near them and who don't want/aren't able to tackle the build themselves.

It's always best to have retrofits done custom to one's vehicle to ensure perfect alignment ... but some folks don't have the option.

So it's probably $100 more than you could get an in person retrofit, but it also could be less. Keep in mind that this is a pretty small community of qualified installers, and depending on demand for their services at any particular time, they can add more premium on their labor. There's no set industry standard that one can use to shop and compare prices.

 

[clayp]

does anyone know of a Houston area retrofitter?

 

[chris4851]

Some bad news. Looks like UPS decided to have a field day with my one of the headlights that got shipped back yesterday. The reflector housing which the projector is mounted to broke off as well as several headlight mounting tabs.

In any event BFC is going to purchase and rebuild a new headlight. BFC has been very helpful this whole process. I highly recommend them for anyone who is looking for a retrofitter. Yes you pay a premium for the labor however they are very professional.

Once I receive the new headlight, hopefully by the weekend, I will take some pictures.

 

[chris4851]

Here are a couple photos. When I have some time ill take some night photos.

 

[NathanJax]

Looks good!