Projector HID Retrofit:

[SAV912]

Originally Posted by thebarber

to me, it looks like both of your projectors need to be rotated clockwise a bit....which should sort out your rhd lookalike setup

here are how mine look

Ah, okay. Good to have a reference point. When I get some time, I'll try to tear into them again.

[cali yaris]

The manufacturers stopped including sealant last year as they were getting hassled by customs

I get sealant included with mine.... must be a Canada thing?

[thebarber]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

I get sealant included with mine.... must be a Canada thing?

Might be the company.... I know my friend in Ottawa got a shipment sent back due to the sealant...

[SAV912]

After 10 days in a row of working nights (gotta love pharmacy life and how many 'sick' people there are) I finally got some time after I got off work tonight to crack into these again and do some digging around.

My poor car all one-eye'd again. I'm sure he thought this poking him in the eyes thing was finally done with. lol



Took a projector out and this is the view through it.



Remember, that everything you see in a projector is mirrored and upside down. With that in mind, the cutoff is correct and these are indeed LHD projectors. I shined a flashlight through it and pointed it at a wall with the 'top' marker as straight as possible and this was the result:



As you can see, the cut off is correct and kicks up to the right. So, not only did I install them incorrectly, I did so in such a perfect manner as to mimick RHD projectors. Essentially, the proper beam to be facing straight horizontal was kicking up to the left and the part that should kick up to the right was straight across. I guess this is me eating my crow, and my apologies to Garm/MI. I feel a little sheepish. lol

I'm still hesitant to paint the reflector bowls, mostly because now it is too cold to be painting (tonight, at least...it's about 35F out at the moment). I had to brew an idea up to see if I could get around the reflection of the light bouncing around in the bowl of the projector until it warms up enough to paint. Here is my solution for now:



It's not perfect, but I may just paint the tape itself and see how that goes before I go painting the whole thing. One other thing I noted is that it's been almost two weeks here on the Georgia beach with two nights of rain passing by. My lights have not been sealed this entire time. It's not exactly 0% humidity around here either and at no point has condensation found its way into the inside of my lights. I thought that was astounding. I still intend to seal them after I get everything lined up as close to perfect as I can, but is sealing the lights back up overrated or did I just happen to get lucky on that aspect?

Now to get back down into the garage and finish putting together light #1.

-C

[thebarber]

paint the bowl or you'll get light reflecting off the long side...

[SAV912]

This was the remainder of my work from last night. I went a little too far the other way and now the horizontal line is a little tilted but it's easier to adjust it now. Here is the new position on the right side:



This is with the bowl just taped up, and not yet painted.





As you can see, much less light is being wasted by bouncing around inside the bowl as it leaves the projector. Perhaps this tip of painting the bowls could be added to the how-tos.



This is the culprit for my initial 'RHD' looking cutoffs. Notice the locking washer has a tab that is suppose to line up with the indentation on the projector itself. I lined these up in order to squeeze enough threads through the hole and crank down on the nut. The fact of the matter is, when you line the slot and tab up, the result is the different cut off since the projector will sit in the bowl slightly crooked by about 15 degrees. Unfortunately, if you do not line the tab and slot up, you can't push enough threads through and get the tightening nut securely on. My solution was to ditch the locking washer and just use the tightening nut to keep things secure. As a result, there are now plenty of threads to crank down and secure the projector in the bowl without much frustration.

I'm about to start painting before it gets too cold again, and then will work on the second light.

-C

[SAV912]

HOLY. CRAP.





It's an entirely different LEAGUE of brightness!! I can see for what feels like MILES!! Decided against paint tonight since it never got out of the low 50s today and it had been cloudy all afternoon and threatening rain. I did get the second bowl taped up, and have the projectors in perfectly horizontal and with cutoffs in their proper locations. Also aimed them vertically and it is just incredible how much light was being wasted bouncing around in the reflectors and shooting up into the air with the incorrect cutoffs. THIS was the kind of light on the road I was hoping for at the beginning of this project.

Garm, don't worry about any refunds. I will definitely be keeping these now.

Yay MicroImage!!

[thebarber]

You can totally see in your pics where the.light will bounce.off the buckets if you don't paint them....the yaris is a super deep headlight..

[SAV912]

Originally Posted by thebarber

You can totally see in your pics where the.light will bounce.off the buckets if you don't paint them....the yaris is a super deep headlight..

They will be painted when the conditions allow. It's been very rainy and humid here lately. When it hasn't been raining, it's been too cold. Months and months of not-at-all-like-winter conditions and then I finally start to do stuff and it gets too cold.

But yes, painting the bowls is almost mandatory. Did you end up painting yours?

-C

[yaris2010RS]

i painted mine when it was about 0 out. no issues, i also used a heat gun to bake the paint and was dry within 30 mins and ready for install

[Dadams]

Looks great glad you could figure it out! You should definitely paint them when you can

[SAV912]

I'm gonna see if I can try the heat gun method of baking the paint. I have a good heat gun. Then I'll get 'em sealed.

Hopefully sometime this weekend, I can get full high-res shots. Maybe even send some to Garm as sample photos that he can use on the MI page.

-C

[bzinn 1]

I have to do a lot of painting and airbrush work on some of the art I restore and basically to get paint to stick right and dry right in winter and rain....I live in Seattle area....lol....

What I do is make sure the item I need to paint has been inside the house for a few days and climatized and warm and dry.

I paint usually on my patio and then take the item inside to dry. Use light coats and multiple coats....in summer I lay paint much thicker than in winter.

Make sure as always the item you are painting has been scuffed,and cleaned,and tacked.

Love all the pictures you have been posting.You were so frustrated when you began and now you are actaully beating all the troubles and helping others by showing us where your having issues....thanks man.

[Dadams]

agreed!!

[SAV912]

BAM. All done. Painted, legal, and thoroughly awesome.



The ONLY quibble I still have is maybe going 5K instead of 6K. It's a touch too blue at times for my case, such as in the rain at night. Which it seems to do often here lately. Otherwise, I'm happy I stuck with them and worked out all the kinks. I was a gnat's whisker from taking Garm up on returning them.

For any potential retrofitters, use the how-tos that have been posted. Do some research on the MI Forums as well, and write down all the details you can because they may not be all in one how-to. If it can be done, I want to change the title of this thread to better suit those who are searching the forums by thread, and to benefit the community. The product Garm sells doesn't suck at all. The idiot installing them sucked on the first go round.

-C

[yaris2010RS]

nice final write up, glad u got thru it all, they look great

[SAV912]

Originally Posted by yaris2010RS

nice final write up, glad u got thru it all, they look great

Thanks.

And also, thanks for essentially telling me to quit being a pussy and to get these together. I was so over it after that first night when I started the thread. lol

-C

[yaris2010RS]

lol well i didnt wanna say it...but since u said it first :D