Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille

RyannM

New Member
First Name
Ryan
Joined
Dec 20, 2018
Threads
1
Messages
3
Reaction score
6
Location
Delaware
Vehicle(s)
2016 Civic EX-T, 2015 Ford F-150 XLT heavy modded
Hey everyone,
I'll post some pics of the before and after upgrading from the chrome grille to the black hatchback grille and retrofitting my headlights to bright led switchbacks, blacking the housings out, and the process how I did it in case anyone else wants to try it out! I love the outcome of it! It makes a difference when driving at night. It gives my peripheral views to the left and right more light as well.


Overall I felt like this was an easy mod and advise other people who are handy to attempt it. Make sure you have vise grips and clamps for when you go to seal the headlights. Watch plenty of videos on resealing the headlights to ensure the lights are fully sealed. I think LightWerkz put out a good video on resealing headlights and how to form the bead from retrorubber butyl. If you find a cheap set of used headlights, that would be a good opportunity to try this mod as it's very cheap.
Cost:
Grille conversion: $191.59
Headlights: Free (use your current ones)
LED strips: $40
Rubber butyl: $17
It was only $57 for the headlight mod plus paint, but how expensive is a spray paint can? This is much better than paying tons of money to get them professionally retrofitted if you don't want to spend $400 on HID projectors to install yourself as well.

Time needed:

Opening headlights: 20 minutes each
Taking out the old factory DRL: 3 minutes each
Installing new DRL: 5-10 minutes each
Re-sealing headlights: 20 minutes each (plus time for butyl to dry before you remove clamps)
Installing headlights (included process of taking grill and bumper off): 1-1.5 hours

Before and after pics
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3710
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3711
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3712

I ended up getting a set of 2018 lights free for my 2016 EX-T. I work at a bodyshop and on both of the headlights there was a small scratch next to the tabs. So small and didn't affect anything so I was able to keep them instead of throwing them out since they had to be replaced.
Here are some pics of before and after the grille and headlight upgrade.
(Look for the difference with the blacked out headlight housings)

Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3664
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3684




1.) So the first thing I did was take the headlights apart. This is done by baking them between 200-240 degrees Fahrenheit. I had it set to 240 for 3 or 4 minutes sitting in my oven on top of wood planks so the metal in the oven won't damage the light. I have a double oven so I was able to bake both headlights at the same time. You unsnap the tabs and pull the headlight apart. It's pretty easy you can watch a youtube video how to take headlights apart. Google: "How To Customize your HEADLIGHTS - 12 Tips to Open with NO Damage" by FlyRyde.

Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3522 Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3523

2.) Next thing I did was painted the chrome inside housings of the light black. This was done with lesonal automotive paint using fords paint code UA black. Then I used a flat clear coat from Sikkens which had 40% flattening agent in it so it didn't come out completely matte. I painted the turn signal spot as well because I didn't want a fully orange looking headlight on the corners. The high beam I left the reflective housing so it won't affect my high beam light output.
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3529
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3530
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3531
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3533
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3534
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3537
** If you don't have access to automotive paint or real spray guns, use an enamel flat black spray can. **
I used a gray scuff pad from 3M's Scotchbrite to scuff wherever was going to be painted to ensure adhesion. You don't want to add deep scratches, just open the pores so the new paint will stick.

3.) I bought 2 18" strips of Profile Pivot switchback LED strips from LightWerkz on ebay because they had a 30% deal. 18" was a little too long so I actually bent and snapped the first 3" backwards so you only need to order 15" strips. The first 3" of my strips don't work but it turned out the way I wanted anyway. You'll also need rubber butyl to reseal the lights so I bought morimoto's retrorubber when I got the Profile Pivot strips.


4.) You want to wire the led strips as following: white from led goes to white from the factory drl harness inside headlight, and black to the black from the factory drl headlight harness. I just soldered them together and taped them up on the inside. The orange wire will be for the switchback turnsignal tap. So that wire has to be ran outside the headlight. I ran it through the projector firewall housing.
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille profile_pivot_xsb_switchback_led_strips_8_2048x2048

Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3575


5.) I took out the factory DRL boards and piece of crap tubing to carry the light over, but I kept the plastic bracket and used that to hold the new LED strip. I used 26 gauge silver artistic wire from Michaels to secure the LED strip. I drilled small 1/32 or 1/16 holes to feed the wire in and use pliers to twist it to form a safety wire. I ran the wires behind the housings by the halogen turn signal bulb and had the orange wire for the turn signal switchback through the projector seal to get outside the headlight assembly.
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3576
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3577
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3580


6.) The Profile Pivot strips actually come with a great wire tap so you can unplug and plug in whenever you want. The turn signal plugs have a black wire and another color wire. The black is the ground, so don't tap into that one. Tap into the colored one. I have pics, I think they're orange and brown or something. Each side is a different color.
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3631
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3677
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3678
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3638
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3639
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3656
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3657
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3661
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3692
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3696
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3686
Here's a pic of the Profile Pivot Strip on the left and the OEM DRL on the right.
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3672
Pic with the hazards on
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3681


Other pics
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3682
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3684
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3685
Honda Civic 10th gen Retrofitted LED Switchback DRL & Black Headlight Housing + Hatchback Grille IMG-3689




LINK TO PHOTO GALLERY
https://postimg.cc/gallery/3ft8i6ch4/
 
Last edited:

Donuyen18

Senior Member
Joined
May 22, 2016
Threads
31
Messages
719
Reaction score
583
Location
Garden grove
Vehicle(s)
Honda s2000
Country flag
Good job man. I wanted to paint the bezels light when I did retrofit but they are held in with molded plastic and have to be cut out. I felt it wasn't worth it at that point.
 
OP
OP

RyannM

New Member
First Name
Ryan
Joined
Dec 20, 2018
Threads
1
Messages
3
Reaction score
6
Location
Delaware
Vehicle(s)
2016 Civic EX-T, 2015 Ford F-150 XLT heavy modded
Thanks. It was a fun process in my free time to actually do this and have them come out this good.
 
Joined
May 23, 2017
Threads
55
Messages
971
Reaction score
475
Location
Chicago
Vehicle(s)
17 civic hb sport
Vehicle Showcase
1
Country flag
Should have added the sequential one
 
OP
OP

RyannM

New Member
First Name
Ryan
Joined
Dec 20, 2018
Threads
1
Messages
3
Reaction score
6
Location
Delaware
Vehicle(s)
2016 Civic EX-T, 2015 Ford F-150 XLT heavy modded
Should have added the sequential one
I thought about it but I don’t like the sequential that much. I really thought about having the ones that you control the color through the app controller. So the drl could be whatever you were feeling like. End of the day I’m happy I got the plain switchbacks. Very clean look
Sponsored

 


 


Top