Hey guys, can I replace my housings with something like below and get the lighting I see above? I want to have the bright HID or LED lights for the projectors, but can't afford to spend the $1000 + on OEM's. I just want to make sure something like below would work.

 

No you won't get the same lighting from those. Those kits are very cheap projectors and will have lots of glare (which is terrible for other drivers). My lights cost me $250 on Black Friday and I did the work along with a friend. I didn't want to spend the money on OEM lights either and the retrofit was the way to go. It's time consuming and requires a lot of detail, but if you can do it then it saves you a ton of money and you get better projectors than OEM.

Basically, the brightness comes from the wattage and the bulb. But how much usable/concentrated light you get comes from the projector. More intense, better quality, less likely to get flashed and **** off other drivers are the retrofit. Less light, very easy to install, probably gonna get on some drivers nerves are the spider kits and whatnot.

Sorry for the long response. I was in your boat a year ago and I figured it's my duty to share the knowledge I got

 

So is there a site on how to do retrofit and how much does it cost?

 

Well this thread you are on is my retrofit that I did to my f150. Just go to page one and I have a pretty good write up on what I did and how to do it. Many users also posted various links to other write ups. There are videos everywhere that should also help. The best site to buy everything you need is theretrofitsource.com . You can chat online with the guys there too and they are pretty good at helping you out with any questions you may have. A piece of info I've learned now: it is a pain in the butt to do a retrofit. If you have the money, spend it on an OEM set of lights and save the hassle or pay someone to do the retrofit for you (many guys on here that do it). But if you don't, you save $600-800 by doing the retrofit and you get really good quality projector lights that are insanely bright. My 35W lights compete with the brand new Acura and Audi headlights and mine are about $2500 cheaper!

 

Awesome writeup, so I just opened my headlights and am currently waiting on parts. Now yours are 35W right? And could you explain more in detail how exactly you mounted the projectors and then sealed the reflector cup? I wad thinking abou cutting a slightly bigger hole thats parallel to the facory bulb housing, laying fiberglass, cutting a hole for the projector then bolting it to the flat surface of the fiberglass rather than curverd reflector housing. What do you think?

 

Thanks! Ya mine are 35W.
I've never thought about what you are wanting to do so its hard for me to visualize it. I had a lot of trial and error. I cut into the reflector cup like everyone else does but I did it in small increments. If you go too far you've kinda ruined it and it won't hold. Once I got it to the right size (I judged it off a pic I saw from Bill on this site) then I drilled 4 holes in accordance to the 4 screw holes in my FX-R and I bolted it in. I did this for extra security because I didn't trust my projector to be held up by some glue. Once I bolted it on, I then held it in place with some JB steel stick and made sure I had the line I wanted. The steel dries in 5-10 minutes so i turned the lights on and held the projector in the line that I wanted until the steel dried. It's amazing how solid that stuff is. Once I got the steel on there I also applied some JB kwik weld around it for extra assurance. I live in the country so I need the extra security with all the potholes and bumps and whatnot that I have. I hope this answered your question! If not I'd be happy to try to explain it again

 

I think im going to go with the D2S for the ease of installation and the intense hotspot for longer distance, but thank you for the clearification!!