This page is for detailing the installation & modification of the different pairs of head lights, fog lights, and HIDs that I have had on my car over the years.

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Project Completed in August 2006 (For Sale )

Halo/LED lights are never a plug-and-play installation because they require extra wiring to get the halos/LEDs to work.  But it is easy to wire them to your parking light like I did.  Just use the wires that go to the corner light.

For these headlights, there are two 194 bulbs in the halos, and 1 194 bulb in the three bars.  All are changeable; I changed them to LEDs.  The low beam projector comes with an H3 bulb (different than stock), but the high beam is the same 9005 bulb.

 

You have to take the black plastic piece off of the back of the headlights in order to change the 194 bulbs, which is a pain.  The two main bulbs are plug-and-play since they have the adapters.  But the 3 194 bulbs have a separate wire coming out of the middle of the light (hard to see in the pic but it is really short because I accidentally broke it).  Those wire to your parking lights.

 

Anyways, I wanted new lights, ones that were cooler and brighter, plus I liked the blue lens over the low beam.  I also liked how the high beam was circular for I was already planning to use them as DRLs.  I liked the projector/halo style for it's low beam cutoff pattern.

 

Here is a pic of what I mean.   The light on the left is my old aftermarket headlight, and the one on the right is my new projector headlight.  You can see how much brighter the new is compared to the old.  This is the same style you see on BMWs, Volvos, Mercedes, Lexus, and other luxury cars.  These lights have almost no glare for oncoming traffic, since there is almost no light above the cutoff line (a piece of metal blocks that).   As a result, these new lights are better-suited for HIDs than the old reflector-style head lights.

 

There was one thing strange about the new headlights.  Normally on cars that have projectors there is a blue color above the beam.  On my lights one was a little blue/purple/green and the other one was very red (you can see it a little in the picture above).  I did not want red headlights, so after researching cutoff patterns I figured out that moving the cutoff shield results in different colors.  The cutoff shield is what blocks the light and produces the sharp line you see.  If you bend the shield one way, it is redder, but if you bend it the other way, you get more blue.  I spent hours trying to bend it correctly.  I used a 0.5 lead pencil with the shirt clip broken off to bend it by sticking it through the hole and either pushing or pulling on the shield to bend it forwards or backwards.  Finally, I was rewarded with the result as you can see in the picture at left.

These are the very first bulbs I had in these head lights.  As you can see from the very first picture on this page the lack of sideways LEDs led to a terrible-looking output.  Also, these types of LED burn out very easily.  Don't buy them!

 

Then I had 4 pairs of these LED bulbs in the head lights and corner lights.  These were very nice and they lasted a very long time.

 

But I wanted brighter.  I found some promising new LED bulbs on Ebay for my headlights that are a lot brighter and the color is perfect.  They are 921 bulbs so they were too big for the headlights.  I drilled out the holes they go in and they fit!  I did not have to drill out the holes in the corner lights.  These bulbs light up the reflectors much better and the rings are lit up the entire way around!

 

The old 194 LED bulbs are in the left head light, and the new 921 ones are in the right head light.  Unfortunately, the heat from the projectors renders any LED bulb in the halos useless after a while. 

 

Daytime Running Light Installation, Project Completed in November 2006

Daytime Running Lights (DRLs) help your car to be safely seen in any situation.  I wanted to design it so that I could use it at night, like an integrated fog light similar to some Infinity's and Acura TL's (although I had them first lol).

I would do this with a dual-filament bulb.  I visited the store to see what bulb would work, and the 9007 bulb was perfect.  It had two filaments, and one was in the same exact place as the filament in my stock high beam, so I knew that the high beam's focus would not be altered.  I bought the bulbs from GP Thunder again because I liked the blue color.  I got the standard wattage of 55/65 watts.  This picture compares the bulbs:  the bulb I got from the store, the GP Thunder bulb, and the stock high beam bulb.  I lined up all of the filaments for the picture to show how they would line up.

 

The glass of the new bulb fit through the high beam hole but the rest did not.  I had to cut off some of the plastic with my Dremel tool.  This picture shows the bulb before and after I cut off the extra stuff including a metal lip that was in the way.  You can see that the bulb was only supported by the three wires but the bulb stayed in place no problem.  You can see that the remaining plastic just above the red ring is what will rest against the headlight.  The red ring does nothing.

 

Then I had to figure out how to wire it.  I decided to wire the power through this fuse (squared in red) because that fuse only has power when the car is on.  This way the lights will turn on automatically when the key turns but they will turn off when I leave the car (I cannot accidentally leave them on).  I cut some of the plastic out of the way so that the lid would close and the heavy-duty wire would fit through.

 

Next was to figure out how to get the wire into the dash so that I could wire a switch (so that I could turn it off during the night or whenever).  This picture shows where the wires go from the hood to behind the driver's-side fender.

 

I removed the mud guard under the fender and saw that the wires could easily go through the next hole into the car. The hole on the left is where the wires pass under the hood. The hole on the right goes into the car. I stuck a screwdriver (not seen in picture) into the hole (which I don't recommend doing with the battery connected) so that I could see where the wires would come out of the other side.

 

In the car I removed the panel above the pedals (which wasn't necessary after all) after I removed the door jam piece.  That is the hood release hanging down like that.

 

There was the screwdriver sticking into the car (circled in red).

 

Then I easily popped the driver's side vent panel out with enough force.

 

I removed the little panel that goes where the power mirror switch goes so I could install the switch there.

 

Then I drilled a hole for the switch to fit through, and put the switch in place.

 

Here is the switch. I installed it so I could put another one next to it, but I never did.  It lights up to let me know when my lights are on.  Very useful.

 

Next, I finished preparing the light bulbs by soldering wires to them and putting Epoxy on the light bulb wires to hold the glass in place.  These were two of my biggest mistakes.  Never put Epoxy on headlight bulbs- it burns!  Fortunately, I tested out the bulbs before I put them in the headlights, or all that smoke would have gone into the headlights and would have ruined them!  After chipping the Epoxy off completely I was ready to install the bulbs.  Also, use a real 9007 connector -- solder does not stick to the bulbs and the wires kept coming off.

 

I had to make some way to hold the bulb in place.  After removing the existing metal piece that held the old bulb in I fashioned some ghetto paper clips around each screw that would tie in the light bulb.  The paper clip around the opening was extra and was not used.

 

Then, I put the light bulb in place with the DRL filament directly above the high beam filament (which went in the center of the light).  This way my high beam would focus the same way as stock and my DRL would focus underneath of the high beam at about the same level as the low beam. I twisted the paper clips around the bulb to hold it in place and it held.  I was going to caulk the cracks but I figured that it would burn or something so I left it alone. Surprisingly, it never leaked.

 

Getting the bulbs in the right place was really hard, especially since there were two filaments that had to be adjusted in one bulb. At one point I thought that I had it right.  But after a test use one of the DRLs melted the lens right in front of it. After getting over ruining my new headlights, I realized that the DRL filament was focusing on the lens at that point, causing all of the heat to focus there.  Not good.  After more adjustments the DRL didn't not focus anywhere so it did not melt anymore.  The DRL was complete, and it worked great.

But getting the high beam to work was another story.  I used the stock high beam ground to ground both the filaments in the bulb and the stock high beam hot to power the high beam. But for some reason, when the DRLs were on both of the filaments in the DRL bulb would turn on very dim.(?)  Then I would turn on the low beam and the DRL would work normally.  Then I would turn on the high beam and both filaments would get super bright.(???)  I could not figure out why, but I realized that the high beam switches polarity when the low beam turns on (that is why there is a click under the hood every time you Corolla people turn on the low beams).  Therefore, the high beam ground would not be acceptable so I grounded it straight to the battery.  Then the DRL worked normally but the high beam did not work at all. So I acquired and installed a heavy-duty relay from RadioShak and had the high beam switch polarity so that when the relay was on power flowed to the high beam filament.  Finally, everything worked.

Here is a picture of the chaos going on behind the head light.  You can see the blue relays to get my turn signal to work the way it did.  I don't even know if I can explain it all.  The relay at the left with the green wires was for the high beam.

 

This explains how the new beams work.   Notice how the high beam focus is not altered and it is above the DRL beam. This is because the DRL filament is located directly above the high beam filament.  Notice how the high beam lights up the dark spot that the DRL does not light up.  Twice as much light!

 

Here is a picture of the DRLs with the low beams.  Notice how much bluer the GP Thunder bulbs are compared to the stock halogens.  I drove with those at night, sort of light auxiliary driving lights (which was the entire point of focusing the DRL underneath the high beam).  You can see that the focus of the DRL is in the same place as the projectors.

 

 

Installing HIDs into my First Head Lights, Project Completed in August 2007

I get my HID kits from HIDOutdoorEquipments on Ebay .  They come with everything needed for a straightforward installation.  I imagine that this kit is identical to many others on Ebay, but I have found that the quality of the kit is very good.  And for $60 it is a good deal as well.  I have gotten several kits of different colors and they are all perfect.  The colors are nice and all of the kits have worked flawlessly to this day.  That is 4 kits!

 

Here I compare the HID bulb with the halogen bulb.  The HID wire sticks out a lot so it gets in the way.  The light source is in the exact same place so the beam will be unaltered with the HID.

 

This is the cover for the back of the projector.  Take it off and remove the bulb by opening the clip.  You won't need these anymore!  You can see the head light in the background with the HID bulb installed.  I had to drill the hole a little bigger for the HID wire to fit through, and then it slips right in and clips in place.

 

I located the ballast here.  The H3 wires go into the stock wires with a little modification and then the HID bulbs plug into the ballast without any possibility for mistakes.  Make sure that the H3 wires go into the stock plug with the correct polarity.  If the HID doesn't light, swap the wires and it should work.

 

Now just reinstall the head light as you would after you replaced a light bulb.  I still have the DRL bulb in the high beams; you can see the wires there all messy.

 

The HIDs were easily three times brighter!  The color of the kit was 5000K, so it was perfectly white.  This was compared to a 100 watt 7500K GP Thunder bulb so imagine the difference to a regular bulb.

 

No glare at all!  That is pretty darn good for aftermarket projectors and an HID kit.  Keep reading for more details.

 

Project Completed in August 2007 (For Sale )

I got these fog lights because they matched my car and because they had the 7-color halo rings.  At the same time, I got an 8000K HID kit for them.  I did not get the projector-style fog lights since I wanted light to go everywhere and light up everything (which I later regretted).  And they sure did!  Somehow I managed to blow the LEDs, but the rest works great!

 

The fog lights came with a wiring harness complete with a fuse, relay, and nice connectors.

 

Too bad the wires were not long enough to go anywhere.  So I extended all 7 or so of the wires.

 

The wire on the side of the HID bulb stuck out too far so I had to drill out a place in the metal for it to go.

 

Now it fit!

 

I decided to mount the switch on the spot where the power mirror switch goes.   I had to take out my DRL switch and relocate it to the panel below.  I drilled a little hole in the bottom of the panel so that the fog light wire could go through.

 

The fog light switch stuck onto the panel with 3M tape and the wire went though the hole.  I ran the wires through the fender and to the fuse exactly like I did in the DRL mod (see above).

 

I had to cut out my mesh to run the fog light wires through and I mounted the brackets.  That is the wire harness hanging down ready to go.

 

Then I screwed the fog lights with the HID bulbs installed in place.

 

I screwed the HID ballasts to the underside of the bumper with the brackets.

 

The HID is so much brighter!!  Halogen vs HID

Now that I had HID fog lights I didn't need the DRL mod in the high beam anymore.   The HIDs were so much brighter and I liked the fog lights as DRLs more.

 

A little glare,

 

but not too much.

 

Those are the GP Thunder high beams above the cutoff which are very, very dim compared to the HID.  Driving on the road I couldn't even tell if the highs were on.  The HIDs were such a nicer color!  The fog lights were on in this picture, too. I thought that the fog light HIDs were bright, but now the head lights make them look really dim!

 

At this point I realized that I was sent the wrong HID color for the projectors.  You see, I thought I got 8000K, but they sent 5000K (I determined much later). I was disappointed at first but I ended up putting the bluer set in the headlights and the yellower set in the fog lights since they have a blue lens.

This picture shows how different colors the lights are. The 5000k is up top and the 8000k is on the bottom. Very different colors, but the 5000k kit is brighter.  Of course the fog lights have that blue lens, but keep reading.

 

With the HIDs taken out of the lights the difference in color was very clear.

 

I decided to swap them (I've swapped the right one only in this picture).  Since the fog lights make the lights bluer I thought they would match better this way.

 

Sure enough, they are almost the same color now!  That is the color I was going for to match all of my LEDs.

 

For your reference I have included more pictures to show you the differences between the 5000k and 8000k colors.

5000k, perfectly white (low beam). Fog lights are off.

 

8000k (low beam). Fogs are off.

 

5000k (blue fog light). You can see how much bluer the fogs make the pure-white light look.

 

8000k (blue fog light).

 

Wow, there are a lot of lights on the front.

 

Project Completed in February 2008 (For Sale )

Most of the procedure for installing these fog lights was the same for installing my first fogs, so I didn't take as many pictures this time. See the first installation for more universal details.

I got these from Ebay and they were great!  Here they are all laid out. This wiring harness was even better than the one for my old fog lights since the wires were much thicker and long enough.  It came with all the same stuff (relay, switch, fuse, etc).

 

After a lot of work I removed all of the old fog light wiring (and my really old high beam DRL wiring) and I ran the new wires.  I did not have to extend them like last time.   I put my 8000K HID bulbs in the fog lights and the 5000k back in the head lights.  I had to sand out a place for the HID bulb wire to fit into the fog light opening.  I did have to extend the wires for the halo rings since they wired straight to the parking light.  Then I mounted the fog lights in the openings which was a pain since the plastic bumper wasn't deep enough. 

 

I installed the switch here over the place I had my old high beam DRL switch. I put a piece of tape over the upper black panel and painted it black to hide the holes from previous switches.  It looked bad but got the power mirror switch later.   You can see that I just ran the wire through the door gap since the wire is black and it was too big to fit through the fender holes.

 

Now it is done!  I installed the turn signal next to it and mesh behind it.  I drove around with the fogs on as daytime running lights.

 

Here is the beam pattern of the new fogs.  No more light into eyes and trees as with my other fog lights. I put my 8000k HID kit in the fogs.

 

Here it is with both pairs of lights on.  I put the 5000k HID kit back in the head lights.   Now it is lots brighter on the road!!

 

Later I replaced the LED halo rings with CCFL ones.

Project Completed in January 2009

As with the first head lights, these were not plug-and-play.  The halos and 3 LEDs had separate wires that wired to the parking light (all of those wire nuts in the fender).  The corner light bulb inserted right into the outermost light.  I still had my 194 LEDs from my first head lights/corner lights in there.  The low and high beams were plug-and-play again.  These head lights mount differently from stock.  See the white plastic piece on the fender?  That came with the head lights and it bolted to the fender where the head lights used to bolt.  Then the head light slipped into the white piece and locked in place. 

 

Here is the parking light after it is all done.  It looked pretty nice!

 

Those 3 LEDs were really bright from the forward direction because of the reflectors in the head lights.  They were almost out-of-place.

 

Of course I had to install HIDs in the new head lights.  I got a 6000K H1 kit.  The upper light on the right is the new head light (6000K) and the left light on the bottom is the old projector head light (5000K).  I had to drill the new head lights a little for the HID bulb wire to fit.  At first I was very disappointed with the output of the new head lights. The beam was very weird and uneven.  But then I installed the other HID....

 

Hmmmm that is much better!  Now the new light is on the bottom and I moved the old head light to the top.  This time the HID is actually installed correctly.  I just put the bulb in the other head light wrong.  So, this picture shows you the difference between the new projector head lights and the old ones.  The new ones shine a lot more light on the road, especially to the sides.  It is also brighter which is a good thing because I wouldn't want to make my head lights dimmer.  Also note the difference in HID color.

 

So I fixed the passenger's side HID and it matched perfectly!  You can see that I had the nice blue cutoff line again.  I did not have to adjust the metal shield in the lights to get that this time like I had to do for my previous projector head lights.  That weird ghost light shining above the cutoff is the projectors reflecting off of the chrome trim in the lights; it does not come directly from the projectors.

 

I turned my projector fog lights and new high beams on in this picture.  One of the nice things about these head lights is that the high beams are adjustable separate from the low beams.  Anyways, the high beams were regular stock halogen bulbs (yellow and dim :P), the projectors were 6000K HID, and the fog lights were 8000K HID. 

 

Now it is just the low beams and fog lights.  The ghost light is nearly gone because it really isn't that bright.  The new head lights are much brighter than the fog lights.

 

Finally the head lights matched the lights underneath like I had originally intended.  But this only stayed like this for a week or less.

 

It didn't take long for the halos to burn out leaving me with this.

 

Here is the 5000K HID kit in the low-beam projectors with the nice sharp blue cutoff.

 

Then I put a 6000K HID kit in the high beams and it was so bright (compare to previous picture)!

 

This shows the 5000K HID kit in the JDM 2004 Corolla fog lights (these are very wide and sharp).

 

Turn on the fogs and the projectors and I get lots of white light for normal night use.

 

If I have all 6 HIDs on it is like the sun!  LOL.

 

Here is just the low-beam projectors shining on the road, you can see the cutoff on the ground.

 

I drive around with the fogs and low beams on so it looks like this.  You can see the extra beam of white light streching across the picture on the crosswalk.  It ends at the cutoff and it is much wider.

 

Now all 6 HIDs are on.  I focused the high beams so that the bright spot was right on the projectors' cutoff (notice the bluer light at the end of the cutoff beam).

 

Just the low beams looking clean.

 

All six!!!

 

Project Completed in September 2009

Before I blacked-out my fog lights, I had them tinted in an attempt to get them to match the head lights.  It didn't work at all... just made them darker and yellowish... AND cut down on a lot of the light at night.  So, I decided to take a chance and black-out the insides of the fog lights and remove the tint.  This should match them to the head lights without cutting down on my light at night.  I needed new fogs, anyway, since one was all scratched up, and the tint didn't come off perfectly, so I figured I could give it a shot.

 

I removed the tint and got ready to open the lights.  Put them on a baking sheet or aluminum foil so that the oven doesn't melt anything.  Preheat the oven to 225 degrees.  Put the lights in the oven for at least 30 minutes, so that the heat can penetrate the glue (more details on opening lights in the oven in the next section).

 

After they have gotten warm enough, take out the lights.  Use a flat, wide screwdriver to help peel the lens away from the light.  These lights had little clips in the plastic, so bend them out of the way when pulling the lens off.  Small lights like these are really easy.  Everything went perfect.  Make sure not to get the glue on anything.

 

Once cooled off, I used painter's masking tape to cover the reflectors after removing the bulb covers.  I wanted those to be chrome so that the light would reflect and so that they'd have some shininess in there like the head lights.

 

This is what I use for the black-out (VHT Nite-Shades from Ebay ).  This is the best tail light lens painter, so I decided to use it on the chrome surfaces inside the fog lights because I really liked how it applied.  Later, I found the same thing at Pep Boys for a lot less money ($12.99).

 

I sprayed it on in enough coats for it to be completely black.  The Nite Shades worked super well.  As you can see, it is super glossy, and it went on without running or anything.  Very very easy.

 

I pulled off the tape, and wow!!!!  Super cool!  It turned out really nice.  Look at the bottom of the inside of the lights... it is painted black, but it still has the mirror reflection of the chrome part.  Basically, I made it black chrome.  This also cut down on the glare from the HIDs.

 

Then, repeat the oven procedure to get the lenses back on.  Push the lenses onto the lights as much as they go, as shown.  Once they are in the oven, let them sit for about 15 minutes, since the glue is already exposed.  Take them out, and then push them together easily.

 

Finished!  This is in my garage, so the chrome doesn't shine through as before, but the lens helps to blend it all together.

 

Installed!  Beautiful!  Exactly what I wanted it to look like.  BTW I also used light coats of the Nite Shades on the chrome strip around the grille and on the mesh.... the dark chrome worked really well.

 

There we go, that's what I'm talking about.  It made such a big difference; I was surprised.  Now, the lights all match, and I actually like the black look.

 

Project Started in August 2009

The time had come to finally get around to opening a set of head lights and customizing them to my tastes.  I had never done this before, so this was a big project.  And I might as well go all out.

After removing the head lights from the car and putting the black head light on, I set to open the lens.  Remove all of the clips holding the lens on, and there is a screw holding the lens on as well (see 2 pics later).  Remove all of the LEDs and other parts.  I learned from all of my previous mistakes with my tail light lenses.  Preheat the oven to 225 and do one light at a time.  Put it on a baking sheet or aluminum foil so that the heat is all spread out and it doesn't melt/sear anything.  Have handy a large flat screwdriver, oven mits, and something to put the parts on.  After it preheats, put the lights in for a long time.  I waited at least 30 minutes so that the heat could penetrate the glue.

 

Wow, it worked!  Very easily actually.  The entire front comes apart from the back as shown.  Both sides were a success.  To remove the high beams, pop off all 3 white connectors and it falls out.  Then unscrew the bolts from the lights.  To remove the projectors, pop out the top mounting point, and screw the two bolts all the way so that the projector goes off the ends of them.

 

From the back.  The green part circled to the right is where that screw is that needs to be taken out first before putting the lights in the oven.  To remove the chrome bezel from the lens, take off the three screws circled in red.  I also removed the 2 halos and clear cover over the corner light; those tabs are circled in blue.

 

Undoing the 3 red screws yields this.

 

Halos and clear cover removed (for good!)  Note that the orange reflector comes out just as easily, and I was going to remove it, but there wasn't any chrome behind it, so I left it in place for now.

 

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The largest part of this project was replacing the low beam and high beam with real bi-xenon projectors.

These are FX-R bi-xenon projectors from theretrofitsource.com .  Bi-xenon means that the projector has both low beam and high beam in one.  So, I could replace my separate low and high beams with these, so I'd have 4 lows and highs total!!!  In addition to being the coolest thing ever, these projectors are built for the retrofitter in mind.  Instead of taking an OEM HID projector from another car, TRS made these for ease of mounting.  They also have a perfectly-clear lens for a sharp, colorful cutoff.  It doesn't get any better than these projectors.  Ok, enough of that lol.

 

These are the D2S bulbs for the projectors .  They are 5000K, the color I've come to love.  They fit right into the HID projectors.

 

And these are the connectors to connect the new bulbs with the ballasts that I already had.  With these 3 components together, I could fire up my new projectors.

 

Here is the assembled FX-R on the left with the aftermarket H1 halogen projector on the right.  They are about the same length, and the lenses are almost identical in dimensions.  The two red wires coming off of the FX-R power the solenoid that triggers the high beam.  The wires do not matter which is positive or negative.

 

From the front, you can see the real differences.  The FX-R is wider and taller, due to the high-beam solenoid on the bottom.  It was going to take a lot of cutting to get the FX-R into the head lights.

 

Here's a comparison with the FX-R on top and the aftermarket H1 projector on the bottom.  The top is the brand-new bulbs, so they haven't shifted to the pure-white color yet.  Notice how wide the FX-R are and how better spread the light is.  The FX-R also have a very sharp and colorful cutoff.  Very nice!

 

Wire the 2 red wires on the FX-R to a power source triggers the solenoid and reveals the high beam.  The H1 projector has no comparison to this lol.  Such a nice high beam, the hot spot shines way down the road and goes to the sides. 

 

From far away, the comparison is clearer.  There really is no comparison.  The FX-R is not as bright in the middle since it distributes the light more evenly along the entire width of the beam, which is much wider than the H1 projector.  And such a sharp cutoff!  I was going to have 2 of those on each side!

 

Here is what it looks like with the 2 projectors sitting behind the head lights.  Pretty cool, huh?  Don't see that too often XD

 

From the top.... see how close they are, but it is enough space!!!

 

This is how I cut the back of the head lights out.  Basically, I wanted to have access to every part of the head light once it was sealed up just in case I needed to fix an LED or something.  So, I cut the part behind the 3 inner LEDs out, I cut the back of the projector area out, I cut the circle out where the LED signal/DRL would go, and I cut out a triangle behind the reflector for LEDs that could go back there.

 

This shows that once the head light is all sealed up (it isn't in this pic though), I have access to every part.  You can also see that I had to trim the back around the projector a lot so that they could fit.  Hmmm I hope I don't have water leaks LOL.

 

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Onto the LEDs and CCFL rings. 

I got the same types of CCFL rings that I had for my projector fog lights, but this time, they would be a little bigger.  The two pairs are the 80 mm CCFL rings from retro-source on Ebay .  They fit perfectly, and they are sooooooooooooo cool!!!!!  I love these things!!!  Super bright, very evenly lit all the way around and from any angle, and they won't burn out like the LEDs did.  There is just no comparison between these and the LEDs.

 

I loved those so much that I took the old 72 mm CCFL rings off of my projector fog lights and put them in the outer circles.  They fit perfectly!  mmmmmmm

 

They even look awesome from the sides... wow.  As of these pics, the CCFL rings are just sitting in there, I'd mount them later.

 

I decided to reuse my custom white-LED chrome turn signals that I had mounted on my first 2002 Corolla bumper in the fog light openings (see page 4 for details ).  I cracked off the blue lens with a small flat screwdriver, and I removed the backing from the lights..  I then used my Dremel to trim the outer lip off so that the lights would fit.

 

I test-fit the LEDs in the corner lights, first without the CCFL around them.  To see how it looked.  The LEDs were super dim in these pics; when I was done, they would be properly powered and dimmed so that they matched in color.  At this point, I had not put the three LEDs in the inner lights, but they would be the same as the LEDs in the outer lights.

 

Then I test-fit the CCFLs around the LEDs to see how that looked.  I liked it much better, it really filled out the light, and it could be seen from the side this way.  As you can see, I took the CCFL out of the protecting plastic ring to see if it fit better.  It didn't really, but it left gaps.

 

That's better, now the corner light had the filled-in look I was going for.  Boy it was going to be bright!  You'll never seen anything like this again lol.  It was right after this that I broke the CCFL for the corner light since I had taken the plastic off.  Oh well.  I bought another pair and would leave the plastic on.

 

Since I liked the way that looked in the corner light, I went ahead with it.  I cut off the back of the light as shown so that I could put the LEDs in there from the back.

 

With just a slight modification to the way the wires exited the halo, it fit perfectly!  It snapped into place just like this and looked like part of the light.  Nice!  Made that really easy.  It looks a lot better with the plastic, so I'm glad I broke the other one LOL.

 

From the back, you can see how the wires come out straight back.  Before they came out pointing down.  The LED light fixture will glue to the back of that perfectly once the head lights are sealed up.

 

Here's two more, showing how the LEDs sat in the middle (they were taped in for these pics):

 

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Next, I decided to black out the edges of the head lights, just like I did with the fog lights.  So, a nice balance between chrome and black.  I taped up all the parts I didn't want painted (it looked really cool LOL).  That was really hard to do with all the different shapes to tape up.  When you apply the tape, make sure to use a small flat screwdriver to go around the edges of the tape to press it down and make sure that the paint will not creep under the tape.  Use a nice tape like this, and make sure to leave it on for less than a day, the less the better.  The chrome will come off, even with tape like this.

 

After a few thick coats of the VHT Nite Shades, the edges were blacked out for a sweet black chrome look.  This stuff sprays so nicely.  It doesn't run easily, so it can go on thick.  And it sticks no problem (for the most part) to the chrome without sanding.

 

After the tape is removed, the chrome is exposed and this is the look!  Very nice.  You can still see that the blacked-out chrome is still 100% reflective for a black chrome look.  That's what I love about the VHT.  When I took the tape off, none of the chrome peeled off.  But I could tell that it wanted to come off lol.

 

Here's another shot, in different lighting.  The contrast between the chrome and black is what will set these lights apart and look great on the blue paint.  And all 100% shiny.  Even with the tape applied really well for the most part, there were a couple of places were the VHT had creeped under the tape and looked bad.  Fortunately, it actually scrapes off pretty well from the chrome.  Just be careful.  I used that small flat screwdriver.  Like scraping paint off a window or mirror.  But the chrome here will scratch.  But the black came off and the edge was tidy enough. 

 

Now, the CCFLs on both sides are done.  They are painted, the LEDs are in the corner lights, and the projectors are sitting in there to show how the final look would be.  Almost there.... but the 3 inner LEDs were still missing.  All of the LEDs and projectors would be installed after the lights were sealed up.

 

Man, I really REALLY loved the way these looked!  The black tint just worked so well.  It was still reflective, but it gave the head lights a darker look.  I also decided to remove the amber reflectors and make my own clear ones to fit.  It looked much better without the amber.

 

Ohhhh mmmmmm.... I'm lovin' it!  Lighting will never cease to amaze me lol.  All 3 of the rings are on, as well as the corner LEDs.  The LEDs are a lot brighter in these pics from the pics above.  This shows their truer color and more the brightness they would be in dim mode.  But that's only less then HALF as bright as they get LOL.

 

I'm still not sure if I'll put LEDs where the reflector goes..... the corner light CCFL lights up out the side fine, so I might just leave it.  Notice how the black chrome still reflects the lights perfectly, just not as bright.

 

Look at how crowded the garage is.  LOL! 

 

Since I couldn't find any real clear reflectors, I decided to make my own.  Or something similar, anyway.  I traced out the amber reflector onto this florescent light fixture cover, cut them out with the Dremel, and then applied chrome vinyl to the backs.  While these aren't real reflectors, they worked pretty well, since the clear cover thing had the pattern in there and the vinyl was like a mirror.

 

Here's a closeup to show the diamond pattern achieved as a result.  Pretty nice I think!  And just using parts I had lying around.

 

I taped it in place to see what it looked like....... decent enough.  It worked pretty well actually.  It looked better when it is all sealed up and installed on the car.

 

When I got my projectors and other parts from The Retrofit Source, they included two pairs of these neat BIXENON emblems.  The fit perfectly on my lights!!  They looked super awesome and added the finishing touch to the lights.  Made them look more OEM.  And, they let everyone know that my lights were brighter than theirs LOL.

 

They were hard to get in the pictures; they look sweeter in person, but here are two more (the reflector on the side was a preliminary design, using a different backing which didn't look as good, too white):

 

Now the lights are ready for reassembly!  Going in reverse order, the lens gets snapped/screwed onto the chrome (and now black) part....

 

Then, I put the head lights back in the oven (preheat to 200 degrees, put one light at a time on a baking sheet..... stick it in there with the heat still on..... wait at least 15 minutes.... pull out the light and push it together!) and put the clips/screws back in so that it was tight.  I didn't think that the seal was very good, so later I put clear silicone caulk all around the edges to make sure that the water stayed out.  I still can't believe how GOOD these look!!

 

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Tomorrow (Friday) on my way home from work, I'm going to pick up some metal and hardware for mounting the projectors to the car, separate from the head lights.  They will sit behind the head lights and shine through the openings.  I'm also going to glue in the reflectors and corner LEDs.  I'm going to build the 3 LEDs for the inner lights and glue those in.  Then the head lights themselves will be FINISHED!!!!  This weekend, I hope to get the projectors all mounted to the car and then have the head lights on.  I've also got some wiring to do on the car, but I need to wait for the components to come in before the LEDs are fully operational. the head lights won't be able to support them.  And sealing it all up from water/dust..........

 

That is all for now.  If you have any questions or comments let me know in my guestbook!  Don't forget to rate!