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NNBS Silverado Bi-xenon Headlight Retro

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3.9K views 8 replies 8 participants last post by  semicrazy  
#1 ·
This is the first project for my new 09 LTZ and came after driving for the first night. The factory headlights are okay for urban or suburban living, but where i live in the sticks, they pretty much suck.

I have done headlight swaps on the NNBS before using Ebay headlights, but there are a few problems with those:
- the UV coating only lasts a few years then the lights start to yellow
- the projectors can only be aimed from the backside of the housing...which means you have to remove the headlights to aim them (kinda stupid)
- there is no provision for rotational adjustment of projectors
- most of them look distinctly aftermarket...and with all the halos and LEDs it's a little overkill in my opinion.
- The biggest problem is the location of the projector sitting so far back that use of an HID bulbs is nearly impossible as it will hit the support beam. Even when modified the HID bulb comes dangerously close.

Here's before:


The Plan involved 5 components:
1) Bi-xenon Projector headlight retrofit
2) XB LED strip on divider "bar"
3) Cree 1512 LED high beam (something I had laying around)
4) Cree 30w LED turn signal/parking lights
5) Hella Micro DR fog lights with 3000K HID bulbs

Parts list:
- Morimoto Bi-xenon projectors (I prefer the Gen 5 version for it's more uniform high beam pattern)
- Morimoto 5Five HID kit with 5000K bulbs
- Apollo 1.0.style shrouds w/ centric rings
- Morimoto XB 12" Amber LED strip
- Cree 1512 type 9005 LED bulbs
- (4) Cree 3157 30w Amber LED bulbs
- Hella Micro DE fog lights
- 3000K 55w H3 HID kit

For the headlight retros I've done in the past, I cut a section off the back of the housing and try to do all the work without removing the lens. For this project I decided to remove the lens and leave the backside intact.

I removed the lens using a 1 1/4" ripsaw for the Dremel. The ripsaw works far better for cutting plastic than cutoff wheels because it doesn't melt the plastic and the gap it leaves is far thinner.

The Morimoto Projectors have a very hand single-mount point design that allows them to make use of the original bulb opening. For most applications, you can simply sand down the locking tabs for the bulb into a hole and insert the backside of the projector into the hole and secure it with the large nut supplied. For this application I needed additional clearance for the shrouds so some sanding was required to mount the projectors about 1/4" further back than normal. Note: sanding or cutting of the reflector makes a crap-ton of powder similar to fiberglass powder. Make sure to wear a mask and have compressed air/shop available.

The Apollo 1.0 shrouds are nearly the perfect size for the factory reflector bowl (about 1/4" smaller diameter than the reflector) It's also worth noting that the Bulb is not perfectly centered in the reflector, it's shifted about 1/4" towards the outer edge. This dictated the modifications needed to larger shrouds like the Apollo series. (smaller shrouds aren't affected by this)

The HID bulb presented a possible clearance issue I've learned from previous retrofits. Compared to the factory bulb, the HID bulb sticks out almost an additional 1.5 when mounted to the projector. To remedy and clearance problems. I cut the HID wires and cut off about half of the HID bulb's base. Re-soldered the wires to exist sideways instead of straight back. The wires were re-insulated with 2 layers of heat shrink and sealed with ABS Cement. Testing showed zero sign of possible arcing.

The morimoto XB LED strip is a COB-type LED strip with aluminum support and mounting tape. The only difficult part of installing the strip was running the wires where they would stay hidden. I decided to use the dremel diamond point needle bit to punch a tiny slot in the chrome where the wires and the end of the strip could hide.

Projector installed with shroud and LED strip wired and installed.


The LED strip is wired to a switchback-strip type circuit board to allow dual-function with the parking lights and turn signals. The strips will come on solid with the parking lights but flash with the turn signals (regardless if the parking lights are on or not)

The LED high beam bulb is a Cree 1512 type. It's rated at 3300 Lumens which combined with the HID light source will give a high beam output of over 12000 lumens! Despite the bulb having a large heat sink on the back with a cooling fan, it did manage to fit when re-mounted without any modifications.

The Lenses were cleaned as much as possible and re-installed using OCI Butyl rubber glue. This stuff is like sticky silly puddy and is very easy to work with and significantly less messy than silicone. The thin-cut line with the dremel ripsaw allowed a very snug fit and the butyl glue filled any small gaps nicely. As an added measure I applied a layer of ABS Cement to the seal line just to make sure there were no leaks.

The fog lights were easier. I did build my own brackets to allow them to sit centered in the square openings. The brackets were mounted using self-tapping screws. A custom-cut insert piece will fill in the empty space, but the parts for that haven't arrived yet. (photos of that to come)

Here is the end result:

Parking lights:




Low beam headlights:








High beam:






Fog lights: above cutoff:


Fog lights below cutoff:


Night photos to come....when the temps get above20 degrees.
 
#7 ·
Dmanj said:
Any pictures of the back of the headlight? Had you not cut the wires on the bulb, would they have interfered with the support behind the headlight?
Don't have any photos right now, but I"ll try to get some tomorrow. I'm pretty sure the UN-modified bulb would have at the very least had the wires touch the metal. Over time this would have rubbed them to the point where it arced. This happened on a friend's suburban we did lights on. I ended up modifying the HID bulbs like i described to solve the problem.

More pictures at night (the cornfield is about 80' from the truck) it was a pitch black night so this is a very accurate representation of these headlights.

Low beam (note the foreground limiter)


High beam The LED bulbs actually throw out a very wide pattern (wider then the projectors) which makes them great for seeing around corners or off to the side)


Fog only


Just a couple cool shots:


right at the top of the cutoff of the headlights
 
#8 ·
Great looking and functional of work. And your attention to detail is astounding :) If I had a newer truck I would totally do something like that!
 
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