argyle409 Posted December 15, 2015 Share Posted December 15, 2015 Hi all I searched and didn't come across anything that seemed to explain how I could convert them to the USDM spec. I'm looking into importing a set of JDM HID's headlights, which have a second set of projectors mounting where the high beams were. However I am unsure if I could just use the cut off from my OEM headlights (I have 3 pairs, lol) to switch the cut off direction, or if I would actually need to fabricate my own. Has anyone converted JDM HID's to USDM spec, if so how did you go about it? Secondly does anyone have DIY guide to making quad projectors in USDM headlight, perhaps that would be cheaper option for me. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ255 Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 I would not recommend attempting quad projectors unless you are experienced with retrofitting. It's not a walk in the park. If you want to modify the USDM lights, retrofit the low beam position. I have done a shield swap before on JDM lights. I utilized USDM shields that I modified to fit on the JDM projectors. That's mostly all you need to do. Some spacing of the lens holder may be necessary as the shields sit in slightly different spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argyle409 Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 I would not recommend attempting quad projectors unless you are experienced with retrofitting. It's not a walk in the park. If you want to modify the USDM lights, retrofit the low beam position. I have done a shield swap before on JDM lights. I utilized USDM shields that I modified to fit on the JDM projectors. That's mostly all you need to do. Some spacing of the lens holder may be necessary as the shields sit in slightly different spots. I currently have two sets of lights I'm retrofitting with h1 projectors, I found a set of JDM lights with what appears to be custom brackets for Hi-Beam HID's so I figured worst case I would just steal those brackets to use in USDM lights I have. However I'd like to ideally keep the JDM lights whole just LHD spec. That said I have 3 sets of stock OEM projects so I could butcher those up if need be, but was more concerned if that was possible to fit or if the JDM projectors are like completely different. Any pictures from your swap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ255 Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 I believe I have some pictures somewhere, I'll have to find them. In all honestly it's just a matter of drilling some new holes and cutting some tabs to fit the USDM shield to the JDM projector bowl/lens holder. It's not difficult at all in my opinion. The projector mounting holes are the same so that doesn't have to be modified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argyle409 Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 I believe I have some pictures somewhere, I'll have to find them. In all honestly it's just a matter of drilling some new holes and cutting some tabs to fit the USDM shield to the JDM projector bowl/lens holder. It's not difficult at all in my opinion. The projector mounting holes are the same so that doesn't have to be modified. Ahh okay so the cut off shield will fit, I just need to make new mounting holes to line up the the JDM projector. Are the JDM HID's phenomenal, or do you believe a retrofitting a Mini H1 v6.0 bi-xenon would be a bigger upgrade. While optimizing the Hi-Beam projectors fitted in the JDM headlight? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJ255 Posted December 17, 2015 Share Posted December 17, 2015 The JDM projectors are very good units. Good intensity, good width. I personally don't like the Mini H1 6.0 projectors much at all. A bit finicky to work with and their hotspot...while nice and bright....gives too much foreground, they make it tough to see in the distance. The new Mini H1 7.0s are definitely an improvement, much wider, better hotspot, great high beam. But I would only make that recommendation if you really wanted the bixenon. Otherwise the JDM projectors are solid and a great upgrade over the USDM halogen projectors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argyle409 Posted December 17, 2015 Author Share Posted December 17, 2015 The JDM projectors are very good units. Good intensity, good width. I personally don't like the Mini H1 6.0 projectors much at all. A bit finicky to work with and their hotspot...while nice and bright....gives too much foreground, they make it tough to see in the distance. The new Mini H1 7.0s are definitely an improvement, much wider, better hotspot, great high beam. But I would only make that recommendation if you really wanted the bixenon. Otherwise the JDM projectors are solid and a great upgrade over the USDM halogen projectors. Funny you mention the 7.0, literally when my 6.0's arrived I saw online that they released the 7.0 I was pretty bummed, but w/e I still feel I'll be an upgraded compared to USDM projects with HID bulb kit only. The JDM lights I found don't have the connecting male harness to the headlight, they just have the female that comes off the headlight. Do you have any experience with that, would it be as simple as cutting off the USDM headlight female plug and soldering it to the JDM headlight as to replace the JDM female plug? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argyle409 Posted December 17, 2015 Author Share Posted December 17, 2015 Heres what the back of the headlight I'm considering looks like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fedaykin Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 Remove the cutoff shield and install your own LHD one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenva Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 OP mentioned quad HIDs. I can't see how that could work. The 2 headlights for the high only beam will give you an issue. HIDs don't come on "instantly" like a halogen does. HIDs take a couple, few seconds to "warm up". Not what you want. Retrofit a new projector in the housing. Bi-Xenon FXR 3.0 would be a good choice for the new low beam projector. Both high and low beam are in the same projector. For the high beams you can then throw in some Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs. You wire it so you will now have 2 functioning pairs of high beams. It's insanely bright. The color temperature makes a huge difference in different conditions. 4300K is best for city, wet pavement, street signs. 5000K seems brighter to the eyes. I do like the color. However, When they hit road signs, they get so bright that you can't come close to reading them. They're blinding. Wet pavement does not illuminate well. I wish I did not go to 5000s RIP 96 Legacy 2.2 4EAT lost reverse @ 374,000 miles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argyle409 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 OP mentioned quad HIDs. I can't see how that could work. The 2 headlights for the high only beam will give you an issue. HIDs don't come on "instantly" like a halogen does. HIDs take a couple, few seconds to "warm up". Not what you want. Retrofit a new projector in the housing. Bi-Xenon FXR 3.0 would be a good choice for the new low beam projector. Both high and low beam are in the same projector. For the high beams you can then throw in some Osram Nightbreaker Unlimited bulbs. You wire it so you will now have 2 functioning pairs of high beams. It's insanely bright. The color temperature makes a huge difference in different conditions. 4300K is best for city, wet pavement, street signs. 5000K seems brighter to the eyes. I do like the color. However, When they hit road signs, they get so bright that you can't come close to reading them. They're blinding. Wet pavement does not illuminate well. I wish I did not go to 5000s I mean the listing is in Japanese translated with google to english so perhaps the high beams are just projector halogens??! However I thought they would look good on my car, however since it's translated I can't figure out if they are just oem projector lens fitted in there or if they are upgrade or halogen or HID, etc. I've seen twin projector headlights online for an 08+ wrx and for LGT, however I couldn't find specs on what kind of bulbs they were running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenva Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 Looking back through this. You don't have them yet. The photos aren't from you. They are from the web. If so. Those lights are halogen projectors. No HID or xenon RIP 96 Legacy 2.2 4EAT lost reverse @ 374,000 miles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
argyle409 Posted December 27, 2015 Author Share Posted December 27, 2015 Looking back through this. You don't have them yet. The photos aren't from you. They are from the web. If so. Those lights are halogen projectors. No HID or xenon Yes that is correct I have no purchase the dual projectors yet, but the ones pictured with the halos are the ones I considered buying. As I cannot find a DIY walk through of how to make a bracket for High Beam projector fitting. So I was considering buying these JDM headlights soley to figure out how they mounted the High Beam projector, as the japanese translation isn't the greatest I don't know the specs of the light bulbs. Having thought about what you said it does make sense the High Beams would be halogen as HID have a warm up time. Slightly off topic, but how are BMW quad projectors setup? Is the driving light/low beam a HID while the high beam is halogen with a projector lens? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenva Posted December 28, 2015 Share Posted December 28, 2015 Is the driving light/low beam a HID while the high beam is halogen with a projector lens? Most likely RIP 96 Legacy 2.2 4EAT lost reverse @ 374,000 miles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utc_pyro Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Hum, looks like we're thinking the same thing on light design... I actually have a set of JDM hid's on the way for a quad retro. All the quads in the pics look like DIY or shop done retrofit. The third pic is literally mini H1's with blacked out "gattling" shrouds mounted in the highbeam bowl. The USDM 08+ headlights actually have the highbeam reflector mount to a bracket, making a quad retro easier. The earlier ones (pre 06JDM/07USDM) the high beam reflector is integrated into the bracket. Looking at pics from the inside of the JDM hid's, it appears to be the same. So buying those will only get you the cool corner marker lights, leveling motors, RX330 non ASF equivalent projector bowls, and nice oem denso ballast. So for doing quads, you have three options: Build/hackup the frame, buy a set of cheap/broken 08+ lights for it's frame, or do a miniH1 H4/H7 style retro into the highs. I'm leaning toward the latter, and actually have a spare set of broken USDM lights to experiment with. The diameter of the high beam opening is slightly too small to fit a miniH1 stock, but it should be easy to reame it out slightly. It's also a bit too deep, so you'll have to cut off the back as well. You can then use a standard 80mm (?) rubber boot to replace the stock one on the high beam and seal the whole thing up a lot nicer than the one you posted. You can fit the boot from the standard hid kits into the same hole the stock wiring went through, making things MUCH cleaner. Here is my current plan: JDM hid's with custom curved cutoffs (taken from mini h1) and mini H1 7.0's mounted in the high beam bowls. OEM Denso ballasts on the stock location, DTL fastbright F35's on the mini H1's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utc_pyro Posted January 9, 2016 Share Posted January 9, 2016 Digging around last night I found a guy that modded a set of USDM lights as quads: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/retrofit-projector-high-beam-225033.html?t=225033 http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=181949&d=1399593209 http://legacygt.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=181950&d=1399593209 Looks pretty damn sick. It also LOOKS like he put minih1 cutoff shields in the stock/rx330/jdm projectors as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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