Quad retro on aftermarket housings or OEM?

[krzyd]

So I ordered and installed a fleabay special, I also went LED for all other bulbs except for turn signals (the resistors didn't seem to work). There will not be any night shots as yet because of course, they SUCK. I knew this would likely be the case going in, but my OEM's looked so bad, and I drive a different car at night, so I installed the aftermarket lights. I'm pleased with the rear look and function, now what to do with the front? I'm ready to retrofit now that I have a spare set and can take my time, I'm looking for opinions and suggestions, my budget is around $800. I really like the look of my new housings and prefer to use them, but I'm not ruling anything out. Please see my pics below, flame on...

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It looks like a projector, no?

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[soulsea]

- Your OE housings are almost impossible to bake open, so it might be easier to retro the aftermarket.

- Quad retrofit is VERY difficult on your truck because of the lack of space behind the high beam location. It requires a lot of retro experience and will require you to drill into a vertical structural beam to receded the back of the projector. So if you're going to retro the aftermarket set, just use a bi-xenon projectors in the low beam space. The upshot of this is that you won't have to depend on the poor high beam that's there now.

- That said, I'm not sure how a projector will be mounted on those housings as I've never seen a set of them opened up. That's the only way to know if the task will be a difficult or practically impossible.

 

[krzyd]

I originally thought of just replacing the two projectors and modifying the high beams back to stock bulb sockets, probably cheaper and easier. I'll try to find a link that shows the rear of these housings.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Smoked-07-13-Avalanche-Suburban-Tahoe-2x-Halo-LED-Projector-Head-Lights-Fog-Lamp-/290937076158?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&fits=Make%3AChevrolet&hash=item43bd3379be&vxp=mtr

 

[soulsea]

Putting stock bulbs won't help your high beam in those housings, the issue as best I can tell from the pic is the very small reflector. By using a b-x projector in the lows you'll have both a high and a low hid beam.

And looking at the back of the housing won't tell much about how a projector can be retrofitted in those housings. On OE housings the projector gets mounted on the reflector inside the housing and not on the back of the housing. Without taking those housings apart and seeing the shape and nature of the middle section, it's impossible to predict if a retro can be done and how it would be done.

Sometimes people get lucky and the crap projectors inside those housings are removable. If so an adaptor bracket can be made to bolt an existing proper projector. Most of the time that's not the case and it's even harder to do the retro cause there isn't a regular shaped surface there.

This is where my knowledge is at its limits. I just don't know what you'd find if/when you bake those open. That's why, unless someone is a highly experienced retrofitter, most folks won't touch those types of housings and use OE clone housings. Not that they're necessarily easier to retro, but at least there's a knowledge base on what it takes to retro them.

Make sense?

 

[krzyd]

Yep, guess I'll crack one next weekend and see.

 

[imi4tth3w]

this whole thread makes zero sense and is a cluster ****.

quad retro? wtf are you talking about? when you say you put leds in every thing else, you mean you only put them in the DRL and reverse bulbs right? would have been much easier. i hope your not running LEDS for regular lows/highs.

just do a normal bi xenon retro fit into the lows. leave everything else alone.

 

[NathanJax]

this whole thread makes zero sense and is a cluster ****.

quad retro? wtf are you talking about? when you say you put leds in every thing else, you mean you only put them in the DRL and reverse bulbs right? would have been much easier. i hope your not running LEDS for regular lows/highs.

just do a normal bi xenon retro fit into the lows. leave everything else alone.

Actually it makes a lot of sense. If you look at Serges signature, you'll see his quad retro. It's 2 projectors in each headlight for a total of 4 (quad)

here's his video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsDhdnb-70

no need to be mean/rude

 

[08grey]

Don't spend too much retrofitting those aftermarket ones. The clear lense will yellow in about 2 years time. Better to retro your oem lights.

 

[imi4tth3w]

Actually it makes a lot of sense. If you look at Serges signature, you'll see his quad retro. It's 2 projectors in each headlight for a total of 4 (quad)

here's his video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsDhdnb-70

no need to be mean/rude

quad makes it sound like there are 4 projectors in each headlight to me. its 2 sets of hids i'd call its a dual retro fit. highs/lows.

 

[krzyd]

Actually it makes a lot of sense. If you look at Serges signature, you'll see his quad retro. It's 2 projectors in each headlight for a total of 4 (quad)

here's his video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsDhdnb-70

no need to be mean/rude

I guess people are nicer in Jax, must be why I live there too.

 

[soulsea]

quad makes it sound like there are 4 projectors in each headlight to me. its 2 sets of hids i'd call its a dual retro fit. highs/lows.

YOU can call it banana pants if you want to ... but it's called a quad retro.

 

[NathanJax]

I guess people are nicer in Jax, must be why I live there too.

what part of town? I'm in Mandarin near Mandarin Middle School

YOU can call it banana pants if you want to ... but it's called a quad retro.

 

[krzyd]

what part of town? I'm in Mandarin near Mandarin Middle School

Cty Rd 210

 

[krzyd]

Okay,
So I am going to attempt a retrofit of my new housings, I plan to use thesehttp://www.theretrofitsource.com/product_info.php?products_id=237
I plan to replace the high beam with a standard H3 (I think) socket housing and HID bulbs. I want the projector high beams and standard high beams on simultaneously, so I think I need a high beam splitter. I'm not sure which harness to order, any recommendations? I only want to do this one more time, thanks in advance. Of course, if it turns into a clusterf#@k I'll send them to a pro.

 

[soulsea]

Call TRS and ask them which harness you need. They're very good about taking the time to help folks with their retro.

Personally I'd highly recommend against using the mini d2s projectors. Their only benefit is they give you the option of using oem bulbs, but they are generally known to have the poorest output of any projector. The mini H1s are a superior option without much added cost.

 

[krzyd]

Thanks, the H1's are actually cheaper, so win win.

 

[krzyd]

Okay, finally ordered the projectors, I'll try to take pics as I go.

 

[krzyd]

So I've got my stuff in, any suggestions on baking the housings open? Temp/how long? Thanks in advance.

 

[sumo]

oem? FOrget about it. Dremel it or buy aftermarket oem style headlights. They can be heated up and lens removed easily. Ive done a quad retro. Havent got them right and still sitting on the backburner. I had them installed and working, Even painted the cutoff flaps red to give it a Terminatorish look.

http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/forum/picture.php?
albumid=1552&pictureid=12294

 

[krzyd]

Getting started

Got the first housing opened, heated it at 270 for 12 min, came apart pretty cleanly, everything disassembled, this is what I've got. My plan is to fab new mounts for the morimoto and install in the OEM projector location, as you can see, the OEM projector is a good bit shorter, I think it will fit nicely in the high beam location, I plan on running HID's in that projector, probably high beam only.

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