Man, for the few of you that retro'd projectors into your headlights, how the heck did you do it? I bought everything I need, including 04 Maxima projectors, bulbs, and ballasts and 2 sets of 00/01 headlights... First attempt, I finally forced the headlight open and started removing the chrome and cracked that piece in half. Second attempt, done today, and I was able to dremel out the back of the housing, then tried to dremel the reflector and cracked that part in half.... Damn, how the hell did you guys managed to do this right?

I think I may just invest in some 02/03 headlights and redo my harness with 9005 highs and use the 04 ballast...

 

Basically do everything very slowly... Don't force anything you don't have to.

Also, when cutting with a dremel, make sure you have GOOD cutting discs. I use some fiberglass ones that have made my cutting jobs soooo much easier. The cutting discs included with Dremels (IMO) are worthless.

But if you want an easy-go of retrofitting, why not just get some 5th gen (eBay) projector headlights and just swap the projectors? Would make your life a LOT easier. You could even use single xenon projectors which would take up less space in the housing and be one less thing to wire up.

 

You should search or ask the ppl with bi-xenon setups on HIDPlanet.

Not sure if the 04 ballast is similar to the ones on 02/03. In addition depending on who and where you buy them from, the ballast and bulbs already come with the headlights.


You do have the ebay projector retrofit option, but that's up to you.

 

See, my whole thought was that if I went the 02/03 headlights route, I wouldn't bother going through the hassle of replacing the reflectors with projectors (even low beam only). I wanted to go through the learning experience of retrofitting (which I have, with mild success), but actually sitting down and attempting to dremel open my headlights has me fairly discouraged after damaging 2 of them....

And, I already made the harness for my existing setup, not that it can't be easily changed, though. And I could pick up some ebay projectors (or 02/03) and put in some low-beam projectors, but that requires more thought about projector selection, then picking them out... I'm not in this for instant satisfaction, but I've had this little project ongoing for nearly 5 months now and just want to finish.

Edit: Here's what I first bought: 2 pairs of 00/01 headlights, 04 projector/bulbs/ballasts, and already made the harness for it.

 

Like MetaOrbit said it's all about taking your time. When cutting the reflector part it's good to put tape around where your going to cut. At least it works for me when I cuttin some shizzz up.

 

I think I may find someone that can do the retro for me, as I don't completely feel confident in trying to retro my second set of headlights... *browses HIDplanet more*

 

If I were you, I'd sell the 00/01 headlights and '04 Max projectors and buy the eBay projectors and some sort of single xenon projector (TSX, e46 even). I would think you'd make enough money off the sale of the above to cover nicely on the new purchases.

Then swap the projectors out. The harness, like you said, can be fairly easily changed. The projector swap wouldn't be very difficult either, and I think Dr. Roy has a write-up floating around here somewhere that should make it even easier.

BTW - when you say, "dremel open my headlights," you mean you're cutting the reflector, right? That's all you should need to be dremel-ing. (Just checking to make sure you're not removing the lenses with a dremel, LOL).

 

^ Yeah, I'm definitely not using the dremel to open the headlights; that's what the oven is for! It takes some doing, but it's not too bad to open the lights, altough the sealer gets freakin' everywhere....

I guess the main part that scares me is screwing up the headlights to the point of no return... Takes too much money and sometimes time to buy and open multiple headlights...

 

After baking quite a few headlights of different makes, the best solution I found was 15min of baking at 250-300 degrees. Then the sealant is so soft the entire lens will pry off from a single corner. As for the cutting, only patience and being careful can yield good results.

 

Heh, not in my pansy oven! It takes 275 for 20 min to soften it up enough. 250 for 20 will allow about 1/4 to come off. Yeah, I agree... I'm just not sure exactly what I want to do about it. Ah, well... I've got my spring break this week to think about it!

 

HIDplanet.com forums is helping me some - I havent bought anything just yet, I need to learn more about it first.

 

Hot water and taking your time which is always key will remove the chrome from the headlights. I took an entire day just to black mine out. a Retrofit project should take you much longer and you should be willing to take your time especially when it comes to aiming them properly.