- Joined
- Sep 24, 2009
- Messages
- 10,700
- Points
- 3,101
- City
- Walls, MS
- Vehicle Year
- 1988
- Transmission
- Automatic
everyone knows what hella offroad lights look like... and the fact that they are an "OK" light. I didn't want to run a lot of lights and couldn't afford a LED bar or D2's or anything like that. So after some research i figured out I can actually do a HID conversion on my Hella's for around $50-60.
So after more research and talking to a friend; I decided to do the 35 watt 4500k kit from DDMtuning.com... (shipping was a little slower than expected, other than that :tu: )
I started my conversion this morning and I'm not finished yet, b/c I'm slightly OCD and like making things look nice. So the drill a huge hole and then silicone it up was not going to work for me. Also another downfall of the kit IMO, is the fact that if you use the wiring like they have it set up you will have the HID wiring (4 wires) plus the factory 2 wires (+,-) going into the housing... when 2 of the HID wires and the factory 2 wires just hook together...who knows? guess just to make it simple... well I'm not going that route either.
So here's where I started, took apart the lights and end up w/ an empty housing
and the other part
w/ the gourmet pulled out of the housing and wires pulled thru
(no point in these wires going in the housing to pull up to wires that come in for the HID kit when they could just plug up behind the grille)
take the bulb out
take the bulb clip out, won't work w/ the HID bulb, I have something in mind tho
take the ends off the HID bulb wiring, so they can be pushed thru the Hella gourmet and thru the factory hole in the Hella, no drilling in the housings involved, super clean look
the ends do take a little pulling to get off since they have those "watertight" rubbers in there.
this is where it gets interesting, and i stopped b/c I am hungry and b/c I don't have a heat gun. The plan is to "bubble" out the back of the housing in the center just enough to make the HID bulb (has a bigger back and the wires) fit in the housing w/ no drilling. I'm going to get a heat gun after I eat.. mine decided it was finished working, its being retired to the trash can.
**fast forward a few hours**
well went ahead and did the rest of the work minus some fine tuning... still gonna change where the wires come out of my grille.
here's the completed housing
side view--notice the little bump. that's all it needs.
and just to prove the work
next comes night shots to compare to the before pics. plan on getting these after my college class tonight.
So after more research and talking to a friend; I decided to do the 35 watt 4500k kit from DDMtuning.com... (shipping was a little slower than expected, other than that :tu: )
I started my conversion this morning and I'm not finished yet, b/c I'm slightly OCD and like making things look nice. So the drill a huge hole and then silicone it up was not going to work for me. Also another downfall of the kit IMO, is the fact that if you use the wiring like they have it set up you will have the HID wiring (4 wires) plus the factory 2 wires (+,-) going into the housing... when 2 of the HID wires and the factory 2 wires just hook together...who knows? guess just to make it simple... well I'm not going that route either.
So here's where I started, took apart the lights and end up w/ an empty housing
and the other part
w/ the gourmet pulled out of the housing and wires pulled thru
(no point in these wires going in the housing to pull up to wires that come in for the HID kit when they could just plug up behind the grille)
take the bulb out
take the bulb clip out, won't work w/ the HID bulb, I have something in mind tho
take the ends off the HID bulb wiring, so they can be pushed thru the Hella gourmet and thru the factory hole in the Hella, no drilling in the housings involved, super clean look
the ends do take a little pulling to get off since they have those "watertight" rubbers in there.
this is where it gets interesting, and i stopped b/c I am hungry and b/c I don't have a heat gun. The plan is to "bubble" out the back of the housing in the center just enough to make the HID bulb (has a bigger back and the wires) fit in the housing w/ no drilling. I'm going to get a heat gun after I eat.. mine decided it was finished working, its being retired to the trash can.
**fast forward a few hours**
well went ahead and did the rest of the work minus some fine tuning... still gonna change where the wires come out of my grille.
here's the completed housing
side view--notice the little bump. that's all it needs.
and just to prove the work
next comes night shots to compare to the before pics. plan on getting these after my college class tonight.
