I have been searching and searching for quite a while now and I haven't seen one write-up to retro-fit the G's headlights. I know there are many people that have been wanting to take on this mod but have been reluctant because there is no real help posted anywhere. If someone out there that has successfully completed this mod please help the rest of us by posting a DIY projector retro-fit. By the way who want to pay the 2K+ g's on the 06' headlights. Thanks in advance!

 

I will definitely be doing this and writing a DIY. However, I need to purchase a spare set of headlights since my car is a daily driver. Once I find a set I will start the project.

 

hidplanet.com + service manual + g35driver + google.com = DIY

honestly 2 days ago i knew nothing about doing a retrofit, but did some research and trust me the info is all there. If i wanted to do a single projector retro , I could do it right now. However i will be doing my retro as well as a stock navi instalation over winter when i will be driving a jetta and my g will be chillin in the garage.

hidplanet.com is where you should be looking for info.

 

Can you post the link

 

maybe we could all chip in a couple bones and see if gdragon would post a diy with a parts and vendor list.

 

I'd be up for it, assuming the DIY instructions for the Sedan were included.
Lip

 

I would be willing to pay for the info

 

I've done projector retro in the past. No write up will help if you cannot hold basic tools in your hands. Problem is that you are doing mirrorred 3 dimensional parts and if you don't have good eye and steady hand you will end up with botched job. I was asked many times to do write up and I never did it-never wanted to be responsible for some goof who chopped his $1000 headlights in pieces.
Go to HIDplanet.com and get some pointers. Job by itself is not difficult.

 

Man, ever since the 2006 pics are out, people are going nuts over projectors.

Here's a general guideline. It assumes that you know how to do some basic disassembly of the car. I may have forgot some steps here and there. You have to also realize that you can mess up your headlights, if you're not careful. I typed this up really quickly, and it's meant to give you an idea. Not a step by step each bolt affair. You will need basic tools, and a dremel. And at least an entire day if it's the first time. The last time I did this, I got it down to 5 hours.

1. Pop the hood. (easy)

2. Take off the side markers. Just pull them out from the side. They come out very easily, which is one reason why the clears are stolen so much.

3. Take off the bumper. (gets more involved now). You have to remove the black plastic clips on the grille, the two on the top of the bumper. Remove the three clips on the fenderliner in front of each front wheel. You have to also remove the 2 bolts on each side securing the bumper to the body. Then remove the 10mm bolts at the bottom of the bumper. See the attached pic. The ones I crossed out you don't need to remove.

4. Remove the headlights. There are 4 bolts holding each one. Before you do this though, you may want to turn on the lights, and mark the level at which both the low beam and fog beams are at. It'll help with aiming later.

5. Disconnect the headlights from the harness.

6. Remove the ballast (3 screws), and disconnect it. Take out all the bulbs. Unscrew the 3 gray screws holding the headlight lens to the back portion.

7. Open up the headlights (gets harder now). Take your pick of either the heat gun or oven method. I use the oven method. 10 minutes at 200 degrees. But every oven is different. When in doubt, go with a lower temp, and check on the headlights. Also, place the headlight on a cookie tray with aluminum foil, to help prevent warpage. Wear some oven mits if you have to.

When you pry open the headlights, use a screwdriver (flathead) or some chisels. You will have to use some force, but you should not have to be straining here. If you pull too hard, you will break something, and that sucks. There are places on the headlight that have clips for the top and bottom halves to snap together, so pay attention to those.

8. Then remove the low beam reflector.

Create a shroud for the projector, to help shield the light. I use aluminum cans that I polish with white compound. I get the bezel from hidplanet. See pic.

Mount the projector (now it gets interesting). Most people use BMW 3series projectors. When I did my retrofit 2 years ago, I used X5 projectors. You have more room for error with the 3 series, so use those. Or valeos, whatever you like. If the projector is too long, you will hit the dust cover.

There are many ways to mount it. You basically want it 1. secure, 2. level. Here's a pic of when I did alnk32's lights.

You'll have to drill into the metal bracket, so get some goggles, and a good drill with drill bit.

I use 4mm bolts, washers, spacers. Mcmaster.com has everything, if you want bolts.

9. Now you have to make sure everything is level. A surefire way is to mount the headlight without sealing it up. Check to see if you can make the projector beams level with the stock level. Also make sure that your fog beam level is still even. This can be time consuming. It would help if you have a modified PC power supply that can fire up the HIDs in your room.

10. If you want, paint the bezel. I would at least paint the bottom part of the low beam black, to reduce glare. The G35 headlight is fairly deep, so the projector beam tends to hit the bezel before it hits the road. Infiniti does this on the 2006, I wonder how they figured out to do that.


11. If you want, clear out the amber. The entire piece with the signal light is actually orange colored. It has chrome paint on the chrome parts. I mention this because, if you just remove the orange circle, you will have an orange line left behind. You can also take some clear plastic from those fluorescent office light covers, and fabricate your own clear lens. I just painted mine silver.



12. Then put the headlight back together. Make sure that the projector is not hitting the bezel. Make sure that you can still put the dust covers back on.

Some people use silicone sealant to seal it. I just put the headlight back in the oven, 200 degrees for 5-7 minutes, then press it back together. Then I take extra factory sealant (you can get it from performancenissanparts.com), and make another layer all around the two halves.

13. D2S bulbs. If you already have them, great, if not, you can modify your D2Rs. Scrape the black shielding off with rubbing alcohol and a sharp blade. Be careful with the bulb. Then dremel a notch on the base so that you can put it into the projector. This step will be obvious when you get to it, and try and put a D2R bulb in a projector.

14. Then put the headlights back on the car, turn on the lights, and make sure everything is ok, and that the level is ok. Ideally, you have a 2 in drop at 25ft (if I remember correctly).

15. Put bumper back on.

16. Enjoy.

A lot of this is your own artistic talent. You don't HAVE to use the same projector that everyone does. How you make a shroud is up to you.

Here are some useful links:

hidplanet.com go here to buy stuff like the projectors, bezel
hidforum.com (the same site as hidplanet) but this is the forum. People do some pretty amazing stuff there. It wouldn't be hard to find someone in your area willing to help.
ebaymotors.com sometimes you can get cheap or rare stuff. I just bought some clear (not fresnel) 3" lenses for my projectors. So alas, I'll be going in once again.
performancenissanparts.com go here for the factory OEM sealant

 

Oh yeah, there's other obvious stuff that I left out. Like reconnecting the yellow ground wire for the HID connector. Just hook it up to one of the mounting bolts for the projector. As well as reattaching the ballast, wires, etc. This should be obvious, if it's not, then you may want to get help with such a project.

The hardest part is taking apart the lights and not messing them up, mounting the projectors and making sure that they are level. The easy part is resealing everything and driving around town being mesmorized by the sharp cutoff. You come to appreciate that white van in front of you at night when you get projectors.


There's other stuff you can do with this to get fancy. You can bend the shield to get more color, add washers (didn't work for me though), or even modify the ballast to run at 50W instead of 35W (super bright HIDs). But for those, you'll want to browse hidforum.

 

Nice write up E K. I used Valeos, I couldnt find anything to use as shrouds so they are open right now causing some glare. Any suggestions on shrouds? I tried soda cans but the back side of the Valeos is too big around to fit the can over.

 

In the local hobby stores here, they have thin aluminum plates. You could try buying 2 of those, they're only $1.50 here.

Also try mcmaster.com. I forgot to put that at the end for useful links. They have everything. You can get aluminum sheets there as well. Make sure you polish them. If you don't have white compound, then Mother's Aluminum polish works fairly well.

 

E K, I truely appricate your write-up and the time you took to do it. I am pretty good with tools and I'm confident I could do this mod now. The task will be easier with the help you provided, Thanks again. One more thing with the shroud, you just cut the ends of a regular coke can and polish it then glue or what?

 

any1 in the SFL area thats willing to do this for me, i'd be willing to pay good money so that i dont screw then up

 

If you guys want someone in your area to do it, you can try posting in the Buy/Sell/Trade section in hidforum. There's bound to be someone in your area willing to do with for the cash.

As far as my coke can shrouds, I secured them with 3M mounting tape. If you secure a bezel in the front using JB weld, that'll also help hold the shroud in place.