RyannM
New Member
- Thread starter
- #1
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
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)
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.
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.
** 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.
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.
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.
Here's a pic of the Profile Pivot Strip on the left and the OEM DRL on the right.
Pic with the hazards on
Other pics
LINK TO PHOTO GALLERY
https://postimg.cc/gallery/3ft8i6ch4/
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
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)
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.
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.
** 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.
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.
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.
Here's a pic of the Profile Pivot Strip on the left and the OEM DRL on the right.
Pic with the hazards on
Other pics
LINK TO PHOTO GALLERY
https://postimg.cc/gallery/3ft8i6ch4/
Last edited: