I just ordered my $21.99 H4 conversion housings from eBay tonight which will immediately cut up once I source out the projectors I want. I'm still doing some research on which projectors will be the best options because A) I want a low beam projector, not a bi-xenon since I have a Camaro, and B) I don't want a projector that is so long that would require me to move the battery at all.

Any suggestions on a good low beam projector that will fit nicely and safely in front of the stock battery location on the passenger side would be awesome. I may need to email the retrofit source to see what their suggestions are on some smaller low beam pieces.

Can't wait to get this done over the winter though, I think it will be a really cool mod that will compliment the updated looks of the car.

 

The ones i used just fit w/out repositioning the battery.The key is, a max 1/16 gap between the projector lense & H4 lense.This makes it as short as possible.

 

Ok I will have to read your thread again and see what projectors you used. I had wondered how close the projector lense could be to the H4 lense without melting the plastic.

 

Wont melt anything.Lense is glass.

 

make sure to make me another pair for my camaro....k thx.

 

If mine turn out good I may make more sets for people.

 

Just bought a set of Valeo projectors that will use D2S bulbs. Got them for 60 shipped on ebay. Should be here towards the end of the first week of October so I can start doin work. I am going to get the DDM 35w slim ballast kit with either 6000k or 8000k bulbs too.

 

Cheap ebay housings... check.



The box they came in looks like something you'd see cheap fireworks packaged into.

 

I know its a bit late seeing as how you already have a projector bought, but the bi xenon projectors with hi/ lo option still work with the camaro great. I did the lows with a hi/ lo projector, disconnected the old hi beams and they are now painted black with a gold chevy bow tie which a lot of people have said looks great for the car. Just food for thought for you or anyone else reading.

 

My projectors came in the mail today, and I'm getting so antsy to get started on this project...

 

Got to work tonight on the housings. Took out the junk I wont need and started baking them to get the glass off. I only got one off so far. I ended up pouring some Goof Off inside and shaking it around after baking it at 350 degrees for about 8 min and the Goof Off seemed to help a lot.

 

What are those projectors from? That almost looks like a GM part number on the side.

 

I am not sure what they came out of but they are Valeo projectors.

 

Looks pretty good! I'm interested to see how this pans out.

 

I got my shrouds ordered after calling The Retrofit Source. They said that the two shrouds they carry that work best in a 4x6 retrofitted housing are the E55-R and the Ocular piece. They are more oval shape than the others that they carry which makes it easier to fit. I went with the more simplistic design of the E55-R.





I also started working on the housings. I made my initial cuts which in the end will leave me with about 1/4" between the glass and the projector lense. I will be taking these over to my dad's house to cut down an even surface with his belt sander and other tools. I just used a cutting bit on a dremel to get down to a workable surface.

 

The fun BEGINS!

 

Got the surfaces sanded down and at an even 2" from the front edge of the housing. I will be putting some fiberglass on the backsides to give me something to anchor the projectors to and to give me a sirface to put a seal of some sort on to keep it air tight. At this point things have gone smooth amd not taken much time. I think cutting down the shrouds will be the most time consuming and tedious task.


The projector lenses protrude out of the housing by 1/4" but are still 1/4" from the inner surface of the glass lenses for the housings. The glass housing lenses stick out 1/2" from the edge of the ebay housing. I didn't feel comfortable pushing them out further than this.

I really think the Mercedes shrouds I bought are going to be a really nice touch here. They're very simple and I didn't want something that was going to scream aftermarket.

 

My E55-R shrouds from TRS came in today. They look great, I didnt notice any defects with them and they were sold as the "value" option which is a lot cheaper than the premium ones they sell which just means the value set can have minor scuffs or scratches. I am very pleased with them!

I will hopefully have another update later today since I am going tp start working on the fiberglass and trimming down the shrouds here in a few hours

 

Here's another small bump in the road. The opening in the shrouds are a bit bigger than I thought they would be and the projector's metal body can be seen through the empty space. The Retrofit Source said these shrouds would fit with a 2.5 or 3" projector lens. Mine are 2.5" but I guess it's not a universal thing...oh well just means I'm going to have to figure out something to put in the empty space to make it look good.

You can also see how much the shrouds will need to be trimmed down just to fit inside the H4 ebay housings.

 

Thats strange that the shrouds are so big. When I purchased mine, I just searched for Valeo D2S shrouds so I know they were made for the projectors.

 

Yea the retrofit source sent me some trim rings they say would step down the size but the holes are the same size as the shrouds so they wont work either. may be returning the shrouds and getting something else if I cant find something to work.

 

Any luck on the shrouds?

 

Nah I havent tried buying another set yet. Havent had time to try to make something that will work first.

 

Subscribed.

 

Intrigued. Curious as to the look when complete.

 

No updates yet because I went to a hardware store to try to find something to bridge the gap between the shrouds and the projectors and couldn't find anything. I haven't had the time or money to mess with it, it probably will end up being a true winter project that i don't finish until like april or may. haha

 

Got anymore progress?

Have you thought about doing the BMW E36 headlamp swap? I like the looks of it. It may not be for everyone though.

 

Why not something as simple as black plastic/acrylic? A 'bushing' if you will. ID the size of the projector lens, OD slightly larger than hole in the shroud? I did that with a set of morimoto mini projectors on some 7" rounds.

 

Subscribed. I did a retro with Morimoto Mini H1s from TRS. Always like to see HID jobs done right.

Here's a link to my build thread over on HIDPlanet
http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/show...-Mini-H1-retro

 

I've sent some ebay sellers some emails asking if they carry any shrouds that will fit my projectors correctly, as well as reached out to a number of retrofitters on a Cobalt SS forum that I'm on to see if they have any leads I can chase as well. I'm hoping to get started back on this soon. My goal was to get these done before March, and I still don't have the shrouds to work with yet.

 

hurry up I need a set too

 

After getting a second set of centric rings shipped to me from TRS and them not fitting, I bit the bullet and bought a second set of shrouds. This is the Mini Gatling Gun made for their aftermarket 2.5" morimoto projector. It is a conical style shroud which is not going to cover the big hole in the back of the 4x6 housing that I created, so what I'm going to end up doing is trimming off just the center section of the Gatling Gun shroud that will mount to the lens of my projector, and then apoxy it onto the front side of the E55R. Hard to explain, but it should work and will look pretty good I think.

 

The mini gatling guns are the shrouds i used on my Mini H1s, but I had a smaller hole in the back of the housing. I only cut the housing enough to fit the front half of the projector through the back.

 

Hmmm perhaps if the gatling guns will fit over the whole of my Valeo projectors, I won't need the E55-R shrouds after all. We shall see!

I hope that's the case, because that could work fairly easily. I looked at the hole I made in the 4x6's and it may actually be able to be covered by the gatling guns, but again I don't have them in my hands yet to determine this is the case.

 

Well looks like I finally caught a break with the mini gatling guns, they will require minimal trimming to fit over my shrouds. No pics since its like 25 degrees outside but I want to try to get the housings finished up maybe this weekend or next.

 

Now the rubber is meeting the road. Made some progress this morning with the shrouds and projectors.



The mini gatling guns come with four posts on the inner edge that you can use to screw the shroud to a projector. With the Valeo projectors I'm using, I had to trim off these posts in order for the shroud to slide over the body of the projector. The 2.5" lens fits perfectly in the inner diameter of the new shroud, but my next step is going to be to trim off the back edge of the shrouds about a half inch or so because the shroud is currently deeper than the length of the projector.

Also, the new shrouds actually fit inside the 4x6 housing with some persuasion. After I trim off the back side of them about a half inch they should fit nice and snug in there, and I will only have a minimal gap between where I cut the 4x6 housing and the shrouds that I can fill with some fiberglass and then paint the bowls of the 4x6's.

Oh and good news!!! I don't have to worry about the passenger side projector hitting the battery because I measured it and the total depth of my projector will be about 7" with the socket, and I've got about 8-9" before it hits the corner of the battery because I actually moved the location of the battery slightly when I put in the 4th gen coolant reservoir/battery tray.

 

My first set of shrouds were those e55.They were beat up when purchased, but i ended up switching them.Takes a bit of trimming to fit.I painted the housing around the lense to soften the gap.

 

subscribed.

 

Well the housings are 90% done. I got a lot of work done on them tonight. The mini gatling gun shrouds worked perfectly after I trimmed like 3/4" off the back side of them to shorten their depth. I did the projectors a little different: instead of using fiberglass to mount them I used cut out pieces of plexiglass with short screws anchoring them to it, and I'm going to glue the plexiglass to the 4x6 housings next time I work on them and get it all sealed up. The shrouds were glued to the 4x6 housings and are drying right now.


I also cut out the backside of the metal housing holders that go in the header panel. Those are going to get powder coated black this week, and I'm hoping to order the HID kit within the next week so I can get it all buttoned up.

 

This morning I dropped off those metal retainers pictured above at the powder coating shop to get done in satin black.

I also placed my order at DDM Tuning for the following:

(1) H1/H7 to 9006 Adaptor Cable
(1) HID Kit Wiring Harness (dual in/dual out)
(1) DDM HID Kit, 35W, D2S, 6000K (Kit / Package)
(1) Pair of Mounting brackets for 35W DDM Ballasts

The total with shipping was $89.51

 

For the low beams, I think the factory harness is more similar to H4 than H1/H7...they make an adapter that goes from H4 to H4656 (sealed beam) that you can just plug in between the H4 relay harness and factory harness.

 

I'm not using H4 HID's, they're D2S. I haven't found an H4 to D2S adapter harness anywhere.

 

What you need to connect the ballast to the bulbs are AMP to D2S adapters. They sell them at TRS. http://www.theretrofitsource.com/adv...rds=Amp+to+d2s

 

Yea I just bought those after reading your first reply, I went on DDM's site again looking for an H4 adapter that you mentioned, didn't see anything like that but saw those D2S adapter cables and bought a set.

 

Ballast also have a 9006 style connecter (female), which connect to your stock headlamp (thru the relay/harness).Dont need H4, i just used spade type terminals to the stock 4656 plug.

 

That would work as well...I just used one of these and an H4 relay harness http://www.sharphid.com/product_p/hella164adp.htm

 

I have the projectors glued to the housings with silicone now, waiting for that to dry and then I can glue the glass lens to the housing. I put some black paint on the front edge of the housings where the chrome flaked off during the removal of the lens, should look pretty nice when finished.

 

Lookin' strong. How are you going to protect the back side of the projector? I know that it has to be encased. I have a pair of those projectors as well and used them in the past for other HID retrofits.

 

Do you mean how will I keep it sealed from the elements? It is completely sealed up using the same silicone I used to attach them to the housings.

There is a bead of silicone around the outer edge of the projectors where the two halves are screwed together from the factory and then also attaching the projector to the plexiglass and the plexiglass to the housing. I will have used an entire 5 oz tube of silicone by the tine I get the glass lenses onto the housings. haha

 

I mean the back part of the projector where the bulb sits. It's not completely sealed back there and dirt/moisture will get in. From my knowledge and understanding the entire projector assembly needs to be encased. They were completely encased in their original housing.

I am curious to well it will hold up because doing this retro mod this way looks Great and I am sure the light output will be outstanding. Would be sweet to have the same projector conversion for the high beam but using the H7 projector base and modding the cutoff shield to increase light output, and a yellow bulb.