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2G How-to: OEM 2Gb (97-99) Quad Projector Retrofit

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Intro:

I am not a professional and these are not instructions on the only way to retrofit. This is my first retrofit and my first time dealing with HID’s. I am not responsible for anything you may do while attempting to follow my instructions.

Below is the method I used to retrofit my 2Gb Eclipse OEM headlights. I am writing with the assumption that you have basic knowledge on the idea of retrofitting and wiring. If anything is not detailed enough for you, let me know. This is for a quad projector retrofit, if you are only doing a dual retrofit then skip any step that I mess with the high beam reflector. I am not responsible for you messing up your high beam reflector or anything else while attempting your retrofit.


Review:

When searching for a place to purchase my retrofit items The Retrofit Source was highly recommended on many websites. Checking their product reviews on multiple websites it seemed like they had great customer service and sold very high end products. Because of their reputation, I purchased my entire Morimoto Mini H1 6.0 kit in hopes that they would live up to their reputation. Shipping was quick and I received every item in proper working condition as specified in the description. I have never done a retrofit before or used HID’s, so I had no idea what anything was that I had ordered. Their website has a link called DIY Installation Guides that explains how every product should be installed. Under the description of each individual item it also explains a detailed description of what the product is and what it does. After reading about what the products are, many of the popular products step-by-step installation can be seen on their YouTube page TheRetrofitSource Inc. I highly recommend The Retrofit Source every chance I get. I had the same great experience with their product when I ordered another set of Generic Mini H1 projects and I will continue to order from them for future projects.

For any questions or help with a retrofit, The Retrofit Source assists over emails on their website theretrofitsource.com or you can get great help from other retrofitters on their forum hidplanet.com.


Item list:

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The Retrofit Source Items:

Or you can buy this complete kit that includes all of the above: Bi-Xenon Morimoto Mini Stage III Kit (H1)

Projectors: Generic Mini H1 (Bi-Xenon)
Shrouds: Mini Gatling Gun (Included with projectors for $15 extra)​


Tools/additional items used:

Computer Power Supply
9v Battery
Car battery
VHT Roll Bar & Chassis paint (Satin Black)
Duplicolor Adhesion Promoter (Clear)
Rustoleum High Heat BBQ paint (Flat black)
Easy Off Heavy Duty Oven Cleaner
320 grit Sand Paper
Painters tape
J-B KwikWeld (Can be purchased from TRS here)
Picture hanging wire
Microfiber Cloth
Medium sized towel
Something to bake the headlight on
Latex Gloves
Mechanic Gloves (Or any gloves you can use to grab the hot headlight)
Phillips Head Screwdriver
Flat Head Screwdriver
Ratchet and sockets
Rotary Tool (Sanding and cutting attachments)
Air compressor
Belt sander


Preparation:

As soon as you receive your retrofit kit in the mail, setup a clean and safe area to open everything and lay it out. Start to remove everything from the boxes. The projectors are delicate so be careful with them when handling. There should be a packing slip that came with a list of everything you ordered, use that as a check list and make sure everything is there. Also make sure you check that everything has its proper equipment like screws and such. Note that if you got anything from the closeout section like the generic Mini H1’s that I purchased then TRS is not responsible for included hardware. You may or may not have some things missing.

Pull out your power supply, 9v battery, or car battery. I recommend a power supply. The 9V battery could not have enough power to efficiently test the projectors if it is used. Eventually the battery could not activate the shield and I switched to power supply. Now check your projector cut off shield with the power source, switch it on 40-50 times per projector. Next test your halos if you ordered them with your power source. You could use a 9V battery to just make sure they work, but the halos will not be as bright. I wanted to test the halo brightness so I used the power supply. In the picture the bottom halo is running off the 9v battery and the top is on the power supply with 12v.

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I decided to do a few custom modifications to the projectors. I won’t go into detail as this is just a retrofit how-to, but I decided to paint the cutoff shield and foreground limiter flat black with the Rustoleum high heat BBQ paint. I also made a custom solenoid shield inspired by the user satrya on hidplanet.com (Thread) that I decided to paint black as well to get a smoked lens look.

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Procedure:

Remove your headlights from your car. If you do no know how, here are instructions. Once you remove the headlights you need to prepare them for baking. Optionally you can use the heat gun method (Google it) but I chose the easy way.


Remove the clips surrounding the lens with a flat head screwdriver. Watch out, the clips shoot out when you remove them. Then remove the plastic covers and bulbs then unscrew the bottom wire harness with a Phillips head screwdriver. I tucked the harness into the headlight housing to make sure it won’t touch any metal in the oven. Once done, get something to put your headlight on to bake. Place a small/medium-sized towel on it enough to cover the entire surface; you don’t want your headlight touching metal. Place one of your headlights on it and test fit it in the oven to make sure it fits. If it’s a little too close for comfort or it doesn’t fit because the headlight is too long, try fitting it in diagonally. I did this because I only had about 1-2cm of clearance on the sides of the headlight. Once you finish the test fit, pre-heat the oven at 265 degrees F. Drench the towel in water and wring it just enough so that water isn’t dripping. I rather have a too wet of a towel than a too dry of one. Place it back on whatever you are using to bake with and place your headlight on top the way you did for your test fit. Place your headlight in the oven and let it bake for 8 minutes.


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After the 8 minutes are up, take your headlight out of the oven but keep the oven running. Wear some mechanic gloves and try separating the lens from the housing at the turn signal side. It should be easy to spread apart a little bit (In my experience). Use a flat head screwdriver to separate the lens starting at that corner. I would recommend separating as much as you can on the top of the headlight. After you separate what you could, you may need to put it in the over for 2-3 more minutes. Once the 2-3 minutes are up you should be able to have at least half of the lens off. The bottom might be hard since it is sitting on a wet towel. Flip the headlight over and place it to bake upside down. Make sure you do not have ANY part of your headlight touching metal. Bake for another 3 minutes. After that you should be able to finish off separating the lens with little effort. This was my experience with both lights. The worst and hardest part is over.

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Once the lens if off you can optionally remove the bezel if you want to clean it or paint it to match your cars color. I removed mine to clean it because it was dusty. I will also be restoring the lens. The bezel has 2 Phillips screws holding it in place. You may need to use a little force to pull the bezel out as it has these 2 little bumps that hold the bezel tight in the lens.

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If you want to clear your turn signals, you can remove the amber cover that’s held by 2 Phillips head screws. I will be removing mine but I don’t recommend removing it until before you seal your lights. It can protect the reflector underneath while the lens it off. If you want to keep the amber for legality reasons, you can Google “Switchback LED turn signals”. You can remove the amber insert and use switchback LED’s which will shine white for parking lights and amber for turn signals. You’re welcome.

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Now you need to find a way to mark your halogen cutoff. Either find a place to mount your lights that can be replicated once you install the projectors or use your car against a wall. Since I had no flat wall in front of my car I was forced to find a place I could replicate. Make sure wherever you mount the headlights will be almost exactly the same each time you test. I screwed the headlight to a scrap piece of wood and marked on the drier top where the wood sits. This way each time I test the light I can place the wood exactly the same place and same distance from the garage door. I used the lip of the drier to make sure the wood sits up against it the same way each time. Place your low beam halogen bulb back in the reflector and project it on a wall. From here you can mark your cutoff. Forgot to get a picture of the halogen light on but I got the picture of the cutoff marked.

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Once you mark the cutoff you can remove the little piece in the middle of the reflector. Don’t know the name for it. It is mounted from the back with a Phillips screw. You won’t need this anymore. While you have the Phillips screwdriver back there, remove the other two Phillips screws that are for the bulb holder. Now remove the high beam bulb holder as well.

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Now it’s time to de-chrome the reflectors and shrouds to get ready for paint. You could scuff it up, sand it, spray over it, and a number of other methods to paint the reflectors and shrouds. I prefer to go for a max adhesion by de-chroming them, sanding them, then using adhesion promoter. Do as you wish, but I will cover my process. Get some Easy Off Heavy Duty oven cleaner and make sure you use gloves. I put some newspaper under the reflector and over the wire harness to make sure none of the spray gets on the surface I was on or on the wires. I first tried some cheap fume free brand that I found laying around and left it over night. I woke up to very clean and shiny chrome. The cleaner did absolutely nothing. Then I found some Easy off fume free (blue can) and tried that on a shroud for 30 min. It took off a little paint but not enough. That’s when I went to Wal-Mart and got myself the yellow can of Easy Off HD. By the time I finished spraying everything, the first shroud I sprayed was already stripping down to black. This stuff works great. I let it sit for a few minutes. I filled the sink with hot water and threw the shrouds in then wiped down the reflectors with wet paper towels. 80% of the chrome was gone. I sprayed everything back down and waited a few more minutes. I washed everything up again and it was like 98% de-chromed. After another spray and wash with the oven cleaner everything was completely de-chromed.

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Now it’s time to modify the low beam reflector bowl. To be able to thread the lock nut on the Mini H1’s you need to sand or cut off the butt of the reflector bowl. I couldn’t remove the reflector bowl (I eventually figured it out below) so I had to just use a rotary tool to cut it away slowly while still in the headlight housing. After you cut away the butt of the reflector bowl use an air compressor to blow away all the dust.
 
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The high beam location is too shallow and the projector sticks out a lot not allowing the lens and bezel to fit.

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After realizing now I really need to remove the reflector bowl to modify the high beam bowl, I finally figured out how. There are 3 screws on the back of the headlight housing, unscrew the two right screws (In blue) and then the left screw and gears (In red). The gears in red is what I didn’t understand how to remove. I thought that adjusting it had to do something with the screw, but it didn’t. I removed the screw and took off the big gear and took some pliers to turn the small gear. Once it broke free (It was stuck) I hand loosened it completely till the reflector bowl fell out. Since I needed to shave the base down more, I took this opportunity to use a belt sander to finish the job. For my second headlight I removed the bowl and sanded it down from the start.

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Now that the reflector bowl is out and you have the base modified and ready for the projector in the low beam location, you can paint the reflector bowl and shrouds. There are many types of paint people use and different ways to paint the bowl. I will just go over the method I used. First sand the bowl and shrouds with 320 grit sand paper. You do not need to get every little bit; this is just an extra step for adhesion. I sanded everything until it was all scuffed up. Ideally wash the surface with a wax and grease remover, but I washed it down in the sink then once dry I wiped it down with rubbing alcohol on a microfiber cloth. Now you are ready to paint. Make sure to use a mask when painting.

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Now to spray the reflector bowl start off with 3 light coats of adhesion promoter with 2 minutes flash time in between. After your 3rd coat, let it dry 8 minutes before starting to paint it black (Or whatever color). Now apply 2 light coats of the VHT satin black, an optional medium-light 3rd coat, and finally a final 4th medium-wet coat with 10 minutes of flash time in between coats. This should ensure that it has good adhesion and coverage. Now let it dry over night or for 3 hours and it will be cured enough for handling. Then re-mount the reflector bowl to the three screws. The same process applies to the shrouds. A good tip for painting is use soda cans to place the shroud over. This way you can turn/move the shrouds without having to handle them directly.

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Here is the still wet finished product of the reflector bowl. I forgot to get pics of the shrouds but you will see the cured outcome further down.

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If you are installing halos, now is the time to mount them on your shrouds. There are two methods of mounting, using thin picture hanging wire or JB weld. I happened to do both to see which one I liked and I will go through both methods and show the outcome. I ended up using the JB weld method.


Before mounting the halos you first need to modify the shroud to allow the wires to fit through the inside of the shroud. I first placed the halo over the shroud to see where I need to trim so that the wires could fit in the slit and allow the halos to sit flat. Using a cutting disk on a rotary tool cut out a slit for the wires to pass.

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Don’t cut too much, you just want the wires to fit in the slit but still want the halo to cover the hole. Once the wires fit, you need to sand down the inner rim to allow the wires to clear the projector and allow the projector to be seated properly. I used the rotary tool and a small sanding attachment for this.

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Test fit the halos and also test fit the projector to make sure it clears and seats properly.

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At this point you should already have decided what method you want to mount the halos with.

WIRE: TRS has a great video on mounting the XB LED halos with wire here I will still go over exactly what I did. I used 28 gauge steel wire for the halo mounting. It was the thinnest gauge I could find, but try to find something thinner for the best result. It’s very simple to do, lay the halo on the shroud how you want it to stay and mark 2-4 positions that you want the wire to hold the halo. I used 3 so that it is as little wire as possible but still very secure. Now using a very small drill bit (Don’t remember what size I used, I just took the smallest I found) drill out the mounting holes. I chose 3 mounts in a triangular shape, 1 on the top and 2 on the bottom sides. In the picture it’s hard to see the left one because of the shadow. I didn’t notice it when I took the picture, sorry. You can make it out if you look closely though.

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I then cut 2” pieces of the wire to ensure I had more than enough. Place a wire halfway through each hole and put your halo on the shroud. Then bend the outside wires over the halo and into the back and twist the two ends tightly with needle nose pliers. Once it’s secure you can cut the excess wire. I used electrical tape to tape the wires to the inside bottom of the shroud so that they will stay in place while I put in the projector. Now mount the projector to the shroud with the supplied mounting screws. Align the posts with the projector mounting holes.

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JB Weld: JB weld turned out to be the easiest and most aesthetically pleasing way to mount the halos. I used JB WikWeld. First clean the surface of the shroud where the halo will mount and under the LED halo. I used a little rubbing alcohol on a q-tip. When mixing the hardener and steel only mix enough for one halo. Since it sets so quickly I only had enough time to do one at a time. I used a toothpick to apply JB weld on the rim of the shroud and then quickly placed the halo. Align the halo how you want it and hold it into position, it shouldn’t be long before it sets. Once both (or 4 if you are doing a quad halo setup) halos are set, let them cure for 6 hours. Now mount the projector to the shroud with the supplied mounting screws. Align the posts with the projector mounting holes.

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It’s finally time to mount and align the projectors! From the included hardware bag that came with your projectors, you will need the small silicone washer, lock nut, bulb holder, the bulb holder clip, and the three screws for the bulb holder. You will also need to get one or both of your ballasts and bulbs. I only used a single bulb and ballast for testing the projectors alignment while off the car. I did the final alignment while on the car with both bulbs and ballasts wired in. Your choice. To power the ballast you need the included test wire (pic below) and a power supply or car battery. I use a power supply.

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Slide the small silicone washer over the threads of the Mini H1 projector and place the projector in the reflector bowl. From the back, hand screw the lock nut on as much as you can. You will be able to still change rotation and your projector also may be sagging a bit, don’t worry about that. Now install the bulb holder with the 3 small screws, place the bulb into the projector, and install the bulb holder clip. It should look like this.

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Place the headlight housing back how it was when you were marking the halogen cut off. If you used a car it will be best, but if you were like me and had to just make your own way of marking the cutoff then put it back together however it was before. Make sure it’s as close to possible as before. Connect the ballast to your bulbs and test lead and then attach your test leads to your power supply or car battery. The first time firing the bulbs they may smoke, that’s normal. Rotate the projector so that it has a straight cutoff and try to match up the alignment using the factory alignment screws as close to possible to the halogen cutoff you marked earlier. If your projector is sagging a bit then don’t worry about height as much, once you tighten the nut it will not sag anymore. Once the projectors have proper rotation in your test environment turn off the HID’s and wait for them to cool down. Once they are cool, carefully take out the bulb without misaligning the projector. Take a 27mm socket and by hand tighten the nut a little more using the socket and NO ratchet. This should ensure a snug fit but you can still move the projector around if needed. You are now almost done if you are only doing a dual projector setup.

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Now get your ballasts and relay harness to install on the car. If you already know how to install the wiring, then skip this part. If you do not know how to install it then keep reading. I will explain where and how I installed my ballasts and wiring, but you can choose to install it anywhere you want. If you own a 4G63 or 4G64 you will not be able to mount your wiring like I did. This is only for 420a. The relays must be closest to your battery so I installed them next to the fuse box in an existing hole.

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Next my worry was how the wiring was going to get to the other side of the car and how I was going to mount the passenger side ballast. Since my bumper was already off I decided to run it through the front of the car so that the bumper cover will cover it. I used zip ties to hold it in place in 3 different locations. These pictures from driver to passenger side should show you better than I can explain it.

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To mount the ballast on the passenger side of the car I moved over a factory ground screw and took its old location for the ballast. Make sure to sand the new ground down to bare metal first. I also used this factory ground for the wire harness ground as well.

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On the driver side it was difficult to find a good place to put the ballast. I preferred to use a mounting location somewhere that the ballast won’t look out of place. I decided to do what I did for the relays and take advantage of an existing hole. The only location that it seemed to fit was the top hole circled in red in this picture. Drill the hole out so that it fits the ballast mounting bolt.

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The only problem was that the nut below got in the way of mounting the ballast flat against the surface. Grind the nut down and clean the surface (I just used rubbing alcohol). Mask the surrounding area and use the left over VHT roll bar and chassis paint to paint the bare metal. Spray 2 light coats and one medium wet coat with 10 minutes in between coats. Let it dry for 3 hours before proceeding.

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While the paint dries you can take off the factory ground by the ECU and sand the metal to ensure a better ground. Use this location for the wire harness ground.

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When mounting the ballast place the lock washer and nut behind the metal. You will have to bend the top lip of the metal back to gain easier access to behind the mounting location. The first picture below outlines what you need to bend in red.

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Now hook up the wiring to the ballast and connect the wire positive to the battery positive terminal. The wire harness comes with an already installed inline fuse.


Next step is to install the headlights without the lens to test your alignment. Aligning the projector rotation on the car is best done at night when you can clearly see the cutoff. Also, it’s best to drive to a flat wall and part 25’ away. With the projectors on, you can rotate the projectors to tweak them so that they are perfectly horizontal. Once they are perfect you can remove the bulb and bulb holder again and this time use a ratchet with a 27mm socket to tighten the lock nut. The lock nuts threads deform so that they can stay in place so make sure you only tighten it when you are sure of the rotation. You won’t be able to take off the nut again. In the cutoff picture, the rotation was off on the right projector (I didn’t notice until after) so I fixed it before finally tightening it.

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DUAL PROJECTORS ONLY: If you are only doing dual projectors then you are done! I will explain the finishing process for duals, but I do not have pictures since I am doing quads. If you removed the bezel, screw it back onto the lens. If you are using new butyl then place a thin strand into the groove where the old butyl is. You can replace the old glue or just add to it, either one works. You can also just re-seal the headlight using the original glue. Place the lens over the housing and make sure to remove the bulbs from the projectors. Place the housing back in the oven the same way you did to open them. Bake for 8 minutes at 265 degrees F. Once the 8 minutes are up, quickly take out the housing and push the edges of the lens together with the housing by hand. Install all of the OEM clips and optionally you can use clamps along the edge of the housing to hold it together until the butyl dries or use a ratcheting strap.


Now cut a hole to fit the HID bulbs rubber grommet into the OEM bulb caps. The rubber grommet has two extra holes that you can use for anything. I recommend using this for the halo wires. Now there are multiple ways to wire your high beams to the existing halogen high beams. The easiest way would be to cut the pins off of the solenoid wiring and tap the wires into the high beam wiring. You can use splice tap connectors for a simple install. To wire the halo’s there are also many methods. The most simple and widely use method is tap them into the parking lights. You could use the splice tap connectors to tap a wire into the parking lights then run that wire into the grommet of the HID bulbs. Cut the pins off the halo regulator wires and use a butt connector to connect the wires. Close the cap and test your new projector headlights! The halos should come on with the parking lights.


If you would like to see the alternative method I will be using of wiring the projector solenoid and halos, I will post instructions once part 2 of the DIY is finished. It will contain information on completing the quad projector retrofit.

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