NA Headlight Retrofit *Picture Heavy*
 

So i have done some searching on here and various other places. seems that not very many people have retrofitted the NA's headlights due to space constraints... That being said, I'm giving it a shot anyway.
I found a guy that sells small 2.5" LED projectors. Bought some Jeep 7" round housings on ebay for $35. Already have the shrouds I'll be using as well as the halos.
Received the housings yesterday, checked for any damage during shipping, preheated the oven. Carefully opened the housings up (took roughly 20 minutes total) and just set the shrouds in there to check for clearance. Looks like I still have some room to play with, but I'm not sure if I'd recommend using an HID projector as they might cook the plastic lens.

http://i65.tinypic.com/15pg9sl.jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/nlwfhi.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/ibxmdd.jpg

Will update as build continues.

Which 2.5" LED projectors are they? My Mazda 3 comes with a 2.5" projector from the factory, so I'm hoping to find an adequate 2.5" LED projector so I don't have to make clearance for a 3".

I'll be interested to see progress, I like seeing retrofits that aren't just simple plug and play.

The pictures show up for a second then go away. Not sure if anyone else has that issue. Looks like they're hosted on photobucket, which is trash.

Fixed. You're right, Photobucket is trash. looks like I'll only be able to upload pictures when I'm at work where I have access to my computer.
As far as I can see right now, any LED setup should work as long as it fits. The housings are 07-17 Jeep JK housings. I heard the lens is more curved, giving a little more room vs NA replacements. I googled the projectors that the guy is shipping me and got no results. He said he imports them because they're not for sale here (yet?), but the output shots look amazing. We will see.

Sweet, I'm curious if they're the same ones I've inquired about on Facebook. They're likely from Aliexpress or Alibaba, which isn't a bad thing. Even companies like Morimoto just order a dozen Chinese projectors, test them, and re-brand the best ones of the bunch.

Very interested in this, also!! Please do share the projector choice you used. I've always wanted to do a retrofit and I hope seeing this makes me get off my butt to do it. Do the headlights you chose have plastic lenses? I imagine that makes them much easier to pop off.

where is the pic of the LED projectors?

i would think they will be way too deep for these sealed beam headlights.

dont the round jeep LED headlights that are all over amazon and ebay fit miatas?

I am almost sure that the projector is in the housing inside the last pic he posted. It sort of looks like just the shroud but I think I see the projector poking up too. Most projectors you would think are too deep, this might be an exception though.

Yep, the Jeep lights you’re talking about should bolt right up. Plug and play though? That I do not know.

The projectors have not arrived yet. They are due to be delivered tomorrow (Wednesday). They are smaller than all the retrofit kits from Theretrofitsource.
Yes, the Jeep LED lights fit. I saw plenty of people that have swapped them in while doing my retrofit search. I think they’re ugly and the cutoff line looks terrible.

post a picture of these projectors when you receive them... i am curious. or a link to them. ?

any decent projector is 5.5-6 inches deep, these headlights are roughly 3.5-4" deep.

only way to fit a normal projector would be to cut a big hole in the back of the headlight and hard mount the projector to the back with 4 bolts and seal the gaps with epoxy.

The 2.5" LED projector that I've seen before is 4.6" deep, it doesn't have a mounting shaft like a lot of the others, it's really really small compared to like an MLED or Mini D2S. It's like a short version of a Mini H1. I would think you'd want to "nut and bolt", use a PVC cap epoxied to the back of the light, then a short rubber cap to pass the wires through.

So the projectors just got delivered to my house, but I will be at work till 4. I did a google search and even looked on Aliexpress to try and find where this guy gets them from, but it yielded no results. They're called "98K LED Projectors". Here are the pics he sent me when we were talking about them. The output shot shows a Morimoto MLED on top and these on the bottom. If anyone can do a more efficient search than I can to try and find where to buy these things, that would be awesome. 'Till then, this guy is my only source.

http://i67.tinypic.com/20sb0pj.jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/2dqvex.jpg

That looks interesting, im tempted to find a set of these and try them out.

also looks like it has a sort of a black plate in the middle of the projector with some mounting holes, should make mounting easier.

did you ask him what kind of shrouds might fit these projectors?

Yep, those are the ones I was thinking of. They are these ones here. If you got those from Kevin, they're definitely reasonably priced for being in stock in the US, especially if he is willing to answer questions and honor some kind of warranty.

Yep, got them from Kevin. he was very helpful since I was on the fence about them. Unless he's getting them at a discount, it looks like he only made $20 on the deal. I will be on my way home shortly to check them out and do some test fitting. Will update in the morning with pictures.

Update: these are going to be fun...
http://i63.tinypic.com/2ymvddt.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/rji0ht.jpg


Good to seal up.. Right? :giggle:
http://i66.tinypic.com/280nkmp.jpg

Oh wow

When I did my HID retrofit (Morimoto mini H1) I had to cut out part of the bowl, because there's no way the projector would fit. Apologies for ginormous pics.

Attachment 228225
Attachment 228226

These fit fine in the headlight buckets, BTW.

good to know! I got mine to fit yesterday. Worked on painting today. It has been a long process due to having 3 jobs, but I will update tomorrow. One of the two lights is basically ready to assemble and install. I need to find the time to test fit it, then start on the other one.

As promised... Color-matched shrouds with flat black housings.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2rppwnk.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/35kq4w3.jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/aeo849.jpg

Also took the turn signals out and have a couple questions (sorry, still new to the car)... Are the vampire clamps from factory? Because the corner lights do not work on the drl, or turn signal functions.

http://i66.tinypic.com/2i71z0z.jpg

The 2nd owner of the vehicle went through and changed random bulbs to LED. I'm not sure what's supposed to work with what lighting function.

http://i66.tinypic.com/aov1hz.jpg

Do you have any hyperflash issues?

Nope. None at all. And those LED’s don’t even light up with “parking lights” or turn signals. They’re just... there.
Much confuse. Many wows.

*UPDATE*
I know it has been a while since I last updated on the project. Haven't had time due to working 3 jobs. But now that the snow is gone, I was able to finish these things and get them installed... what a journey it has been. :ugh2:

Color Matched shrouds (left) vs how they came when new (right)
http://i66.tinypic.com/155qatz.jpg

Test fit to see how everything will look all assembled.
http://i66.tinypic.com/2pys65d.jpg

Wired up the headlights and halos... tested operation.
http://i68.tinypic.com/2elwgow.jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/313sox1.jpg

Everything worked perfectly, so I wired up the passenger side and called it a night. Brought the lights into work the next day so I could seal them up.
I had bought 2 4" PVC end caps to fit over the backs of the housings to seal everything up. After fitting one with silicone, I brought it home to test fit for clearance. The end cap was way too big both in circumference and in depth, so I needed to figure out another way to seal the backs... I was looking around my messy work area at home with old and new parts scattered everywhere, when I realized the old headlights (the ones that came with the car) still had their rubber seals on the back... BINGO! :idea:
http://i64.tinypic.com/204ncp.jpg

So the silicone job isn't pretty... But screw it, it's just for myself ans nobody can see it when installed and it works.
All sealed up with lenses on... We're getting close now.
http://i66.tinypic.com/11slcub.jpg

And finally... Installed!
http://i67.tinypic.com/2iw6rns.jpg
http://i68.tinypic.com/6hhlyr.jpg
http://i67.tinypic.com/287gnww.jpg
http://i63.tinypic.com/eg3l6p.jpg

Hazards/turn signals
http://i67.tinypic.com/vwpuno.jpg

http://i67.tinypic.com/68zhvd.jpg

Looks awesome, nice work!

Looks good...but how have you got them aligned and aimed? How were you able to align the projectors with the 3 locating tabs on the housing?

Can confirm these look nice in person. Good work man!

Aligning was basically eyeballing them when i was mounting the projector, using a couple spots on the projector and the center line in the housing. Aiming was actually extremely easy. I needed to get longer bolts for the retaining ring that basically sandwiches the headlight in, but I was able to loosen the bolts up and turn the whole housing until they were flat, then tighten the bolts back down. For up/down alignment, I just used the factory screw on the bottom of the headlight bracket. For left/right alignment, there is a screw on the left/right side of the bracket. Mazda made it a cake walk. :bigtu:

Here are some output shots I took this early this morning before work.
http://i64.tinypic.com/5ev774.jpg
http://i64.tinypic.com/wbe4aw.jpg

No output shot of the high beams yet. I didn't want to wake up the neighbor by shining a massive amount of light through the trees into their windows. :rofl:

So are the tabs in the housings still in the slots in the headlight buckets, or did they rotate out?

The housings don’t have the same tabs that the Miata ones do. I just used the factory ring to mount these. The Jeep housings are thicker, that’s why I needed longer bolts to tighten the ring up.