DIY AP's Bi-Xenon Retrofit DIY Guide

AlienPrime

AlienPrime

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Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
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Civic Si HFP
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2 door Coupe
WELL HERE IT IS! Complete as it'll ever be! PM me for more info, or anything that i may have left out! This shitt is what you need to know to essentially make a duplicate of what you see on my car! :D



Before actually getting directly to the DIY guide i'm going to try and walk through as many aspects to the headlights as i can. First of all, and from what i would consider most important (functionally at least) is the wiring. Now you can always just the projectors as lows alone and leave the Bi-Xenon functionality out, but i figured, if i'm going to get it, why not use it.
This method i'm about to show will not only enable you to keep DRL and 9005 HighBeam, but allow you to you your 9006 Low beam housing and lighting for high beam use as well.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Bi-Xenon is essentially a projector beam with a moveable cutoff flap. The cutoff flap is controlled by a small sensory motor (called a solenoid) in which moves the flap to an upper or lower position as shown below in an E55 Benz. This is what produces the clean cutoff.



Now that we've got that out of the way, i'm sure you can understand that we will need a way of switching this ability on and off. Of course, we would not want to keep the projectors on highbeam all the time either. To do this, is a fairly simple procedure. The way the sensory motor works is on spring action. When power is fed to it, it will open. When the source feed becomes too weak, or is cutoff, the motor contacts will release letting the projector flap fall back into it's NormallyClosed position, as you saw inn the GIF above.

He is a very basic wiring diagram. Please take note that you will see a few additional wires for grounds in your real life installation. Some grounds on switches etc. Additional grounds were kept out of the schematic in order to keep the drawing as simple and to the point as possible.
You will also notice that "HIDxPWR" is written. On this 30A switch, i'll be giving myself the ability to turn on/off power to low beam/projector portion of my headlights at any time. This will also allow me to drive around without DRL's or Lows, just fogs :D



Before we get into anything...

Here's a list of materials you'll be needing! :)
1 - OEM USDM Headlights (chose to buy an extra set!) --------------$350
2 - Morimotto H1 Bi-Xenon Projectors ----------------------------------$130
3 - Black Flexible bumper paint ------------------------------------------$20
4 - #18AWG wire for Hi/Low control ------------------------------------$25
5 - High temp industrial clear silicon ------------------------------------$18
6 - Painters tape and bags -----------------------------------------------$2
7 - H1 HID Kit (regular H1 bulbs don't fit*) -----------------------------$180
8 - 40A Relay 30A fuse (or relay harness on ebay) --------------------$20 +/-
9 - OEM Honda Hi/Low Switch -------------------------------------------$22

TOTAL: ~$750 MAX
It will probably cost you much less unless you go for top tier stuff :) Phillips HID kits and bulbs are a killer too :(

You can always cheap out on many things... but definitely don't cheap out when sealing the headlights
* = Personally tested
 
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AlienPrime

AlienPrime

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Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Vehicle Model
Civic Si HFP
Body Style
2 door Coupe
Headlight Disassembly:

I'd have to say this is probably the easiest part, and won't really go into crazy detail. Had both headlights apart within 45 seconds each after putting them in the oven @ 225f for 11minutes flat. Jnastii does a great job of showing exactly how the headlights should be disasembled, and i suggest you use his guide if you'd like!
http://9thcivic.com/forum/threads/clear-corners-removing-amber-reflectors.7123/
In my case, the headlight came apart like Plato. Jnastii's idea of wood is great, i might just suggest getting it a bit wet first tho! hahahaha! Fire + Headlights make many AP and many users sad sad sad :(


The only clips that may give you a tiny bit of a hard time are around the edges, just keep pulling and they'll keep coming :D



Corner/Reflectors:
This is an important part to doing your own retrofit.
In my case, i've chosen to eliminate the orange/amber park lights. I would have to say it is my least favourite thing about USDM spec cars. In my DIY i will show you how to avoid having these lights and keep your turn signal functionality.
Here is what the corners look like with DRL lights, but still in night mode:


Then of course, as you're all aware, the corners come on when the lows are on. Without modification the only way to drive with them off is to have only DRL's on (generally is not safe at night, although i would do it all the time to look cool :dancingcoolsmiley:)

At the same time, i removed the reflectors because my car is all black and red so orange is just a appearance ruiner!
With all headlights on, orange still comes on :(


So, getting to the how to part... The work around is extremely simple...
In the housing right now you have a 7443 bulb as pictured:


You'll simply need to get a 7440 bulb type, as shown i picked this projector type because i liked the look (less than $30 on ebay)




And simple flip around the leads on either side. (Therefore making the left one on bottom, right one on top)
Either way you flip it it will be in that configuration. Simply make it as you see my bulb wires placed. The wires themselves will connect to bottom left and top right as pictured in the corner/reflector socket:


The 7443 (OEM bulb) simple set both sides, top and bottom to ground the park lights as well. If you choose not to buy new corner reflector bulbs, you can cut off bottom right and top left.

Lastly, you need to be careful. I used an extended bulb on my reflector but it is not that excessively long. If you choose to use one of these 11W LED side and projector bulbs that may be too long.
As reference, you can only get about 1/2" longer than this one:


This section/wiring is important to insure you are not stuck with LED hyperflash;

Thought i might add this for people going with LED/LED style signal bulbs that use less than the 50w req.

Simple wattage correction :)

Shown below, you can see only a 50W 60ohm resisot. it is attached to the center and ground. the wire color changes on either side. It's blue on left, brown on right. it is aux/secondary power for signals :D



Physical Removal:

So lets get to the more exciting stuff! We want to make this:


Turn to this:

Here is the inbetween! :D

Once you'd get the headlight apart, flip the headlight lense over like so. You can see two phillips screws on the left of this picture

Remove those screws and gently jiggle the reflector and reflective housing back and forth the get the outer clip off. Once the clip is off. you'd have the whole portion in your hand. The orange casing is held in there by the secondary portion of the housing, so as soon as its removed the orange plastic falls out. To remove the reflective "bicycle reflector" pry at the following locations:
TOP

INNER CORNER

BACK


All these are simply wedged in there, so once you've been able to clear the spot, the ugly little reflector will tumble out. You can let it fall to the floor and mash it with your foot like i did (due to rage towards USDM Honda's) or you can simply discard it in your nearest garbage disposal :)

You can then place it back in place and put the two phillips screws back in. Clean the lense or reflective housing as needed before re-installing! You don't want to leave little finger prints in there :)

Once you've completed that, i suggest sealing it off from any potential contamination. I sealed the ends as shown below and covered the lens with 5 or 6 microfiber clothes. It won't seal it entirely as the lens is open to the air bit it will make your life easier when trying to clean it all up before sealing :)


Lol just noticed that you can see my OEM Si matts in the top right of this picture! haha they're still in bags! LOL!
 
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AlienPrime

AlienPrime

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Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Vehicle Model
Civic Si HFP
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2 door Coupe
Painting
So you may not choose to go this route, but if you do, this will be a very simple section where you can see how i did mine.

First, i started by outlining the portion you don't want painted and the portions you do. I made a relatively straight cut line along the bridge chrome between the highs and lows. I started with a single strand of tape to isolate them, then worked on having all cracks and sections covered. In my scenerio (seeing how flimsy the clips were) i chose to leave the reflective housing in the back portion of the headlight and simply wrap and paint into it.

I found this especially easy due to the fact that i could tuck bags all around the headlight housing to prevent getting paint on the now dried glue. If you do get paint on the glue it could potentially weaken the strength of the glue. The nice thing about this is that everyone will do it differently. I taped approximately 1/32nd of an inch of the bumpy sides you see there. I really liked the look of the chrome and matt black on the rumbly stuff :)

Before you start anything, you will need to remove the reflector hats (portion that covers the bulb in a standard installation) You simply remove these because you'll be getting rid of them :)



Outlining the paint-able area




After the tape is applied to the right spots, i bagged each section that needed to be covered. Starting one section at a time i began to cover... As you'll see in the next few pictures, i covered the dried glue portion with bags as well :)







I started sanding the reflective housing with a 300 grit sandpaper. You can also use a steel wool. This works extremely well because it scuffs all surfaces extremely evening and makes for a picture perfect touch! :D

In my case, i used both because i wanted to get it all scuffed nicely then get anything i missed lightly wqith the steel wool :D



I must say, using this method made me very happy because it turned out so well!!

Once you've sanded the headlight extremely well, and leave absolutely no shine to it, wipe it out very well with a microfiber cloth and use an air compressor to blow all the little dusts you can out of it. Remember, these will be inside and once installed, you won't be able to clean them :p

I got a few secrets from the retrofitting guys, best one was this!! Mar-Hyde, Black bumper paint! This is an absolute must if you are going to be painting! The headlight housing (reflector) is all plastic, and with some head will expand and shrink, even to a very minimal degree. Over time, it can put stress on the paint and eventually cause it to lift, bubble or even crack! This paint is quite flexible and is an amazing match for the inside of headlights! The paint applies very nicely, and as long as the surface is smooth and clean, you'll get a nearly perfect application every time!!





I took two quick pictures after the first coat 9i only did two coats total) This is when it was still wet. It dries with a fairly matted color.




For the painting portion itself, i made quick sweeping motions.. not going to go into great detail because you can find great info on youtube :)
I painted on a pizza box at first, then just hld the headlight in the air like an idiot looking in the sun to see if i could see anything that wasn't perfect..

Oh yess! Almost forgot, used facial tweezers to grab any dust or stray grass that happened to be flying in the air when i was painting. Grabbed those out and made the whole thing look perfecttt :D



While i was at it, i painted my exhaust silencer (TSUDO 70mm) just so that it's not visible. Used this great cheap paint! :D



Also painted the tops of the bolts cuz i'm kinda OCD :(



After drying for about 5 mins it looked like this!


I let my headlights dry overnight (10hrs) just to be sure it was dry enough to touch. Keep in mind, paint can take 24 to 48 hours to cure entirely, so i wouldn't suggest trying to bake them etc before the paint is cured.. just in case.

When peeling the tape off, be sure to pull away from the seam, if the paint isn't 100% dry, you can cause sectional paint tearing and could potentially ruin your whole paint job :(
I won't lie, i took my time taking the tape off. I say on my bed and took a good 6 or 7 minutes untaping each headlight. I was so excited to see how they would look i didn't want to wait the 48hrs to cure lol

Just for fun this is what they may look like without the projectors! :D Of course, light output would be poor so i would not suggest painting unless you'll be doing projectors.



 
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AlienPrime

AlienPrime

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Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
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Civic Si HFP
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2 door Coupe
Porjector installation!

Well, lets be honest! This is the hardest part!!

So take your time! Hopefully you bough an extra set of OEM's so that you can take the week, or more to make this perfect! And trust me, even if you're not a perfectionist, you're going to want to make this perfect!!
First, pull your hot and ground cables throw the projector and tape them to the projector with reflective tape! :) If you choose not to do bi-xenon's ignore this step! :)


Remove all washers and nuts from the threading on the projector

Remove all screws from 9006 socket hole! Tape from inside to prevent debris going in!


Trim all three pins around the socket hole.


This is one trimmed...


Once all of the pins are trimmed, place the largest inner seal inside and push the projector through the hole.

Make sure there are no finger prints inside or outside the lens of the projector

It will poke out quite a bit, make sure to cover it from dust if you decide to wire it and point it. Use only ONE single tightening washer when point the headlights

**not you will need to install the headlight on the car to point it


Trim the outter seal to fit inside the socket rin of the headlight and place it under that primary first washer.

You can place the lens on top to see how it looks. Mine didn't look that great because there was a hairline scratch on the shroud I took the screws out and spun the shroud around :)

With flash

When installing the projector (before you install the shroud) keep in mind to either use clean cloths or gloves to avoid any contamination to the projectors


Prime example :D


Once you have you projector installed, wipe out the entire headlight with a glasses cleaner, or equivalent!


After wiping mine out, i placed the lens on and used a air gun to blow the air out, then put my vacuum up to the 9005 socket and let it run for a minute. to my suprise it cleaned it out pretty good :)


Place the lens on top, verify for dirt, take apart as needed until you feel it's perfect. The more careful you were, the easier this last step will be.

Once you put the lens back on, it's pretty smooth sailing :D


Installation

Not going to lie, sealing them up is a breeze!! Clean the headlights out to the best of your ability, and simply squish em together! Toss em in the oven for very short segments (3 minutes at 225F)

Do that three or four times as you make sure all the clips are back in place.

Voila! They are re-sealed. Now for myself, i siliconed around the outer edges, here are some before and after pics!


In my case, i bought an extra set of headlights, so i had to take the bumper off and removed OEM headlights :)
You can see many bumper removal guides HERE by jasonandre

Either way, remove the bumper and headlights in their holders




I put them in and tested all the lighting to make sure everything worked properly! Of course i removed park lights, which you can see in later pictures! :)

Also isolated fogs to make them independent as you can see in the follow below pictures as well.










For completion sake, i used the 5 pin magic OEM Honda button to complete all my installations! :D

FYI: I took this pic before i put heatshrink and wrapped all cable in cable loom! I would never do that! HAHAHA!




Check out the magic 5 pin switch >HERE<

Any other questions please feel free to let me know! Will do my best to help you out and provide more pics of installation! :D


NOW THAT IS ONE CLEAN *** CUTOFF!!!!!
 
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AlienPrime

AlienPrime

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Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
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Civic Si HFP
Body Style
2 door Coupe
VNPP said:
So how much did all this cost you? I thought I was done doing exterior mods, but I really like the way those headlights look!
Click to expand...
well all depends how you do it :)

Here's a lost of materials you'll be needing! :)
1 - OEM USDM Headlights (chose to buy an extra set!) --------------$350
2 - Morimotto H1 Bi-Xenon Projectors ----------------------------------$130
3 - Black Flexible bumper paint ------------------------------------------$20
4 - #18AWG wire for Hi/Low control ------------------------------------$25
5 - High temp industrial clear silicon ------------------------------------$18
6 - Painters tape and bags -----------------------------------------------$2
7 - H1 HID Kit (regular H1 bulbs don't fit*) -----------------------------$180
8 - 40A Relay 30A fuse (or relay harness on ebay) --------------------$20 +/-
9 - OEM Honda Hi/Low Switch -------------------------------------------$22

TOTAL: ~$750

You can always cheap out on many things... but definitely don't cheap out when sealing the headlights
* = Personally tested
 
webby

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AlienPrime

AlienPrime

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1,873
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
Vehicle Model
Civic Si HFP
Body Style
2 door Coupe
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VNPP

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Rob Maust

Rob Maust

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wow. that seems like a lot of work for me haha. I want to do this to mine!!! ASAP. Help me out, oh wait i just spent 10k on a turbo set up. let me get back to you on that one when i get out of this hole. or want to make it bigger lol. really nice bro! I like them alot. were those 8000k or 6k?
 
Marchael

Marchael

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is all that wiring necessary? i was just planning to heatup, remove amber, add projectors, paint housing, slap back together, throw some bulbs in and call it a day after adjusting cutoffs lol....
 
webby

webby

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that's his wire diagram...which is essentially a relay harness. You can buy a relay harness on ebay for around $15. That powers the hid kit, protects your stock wiring, and provides a dedicated ground/power line to the battery.
 
Rob Maust

Rob Maust

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could you do all of this for me if i came to your crib? and pay you to do them?
 
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