merchant, the original opening for the DTRL socket is exactly the same size as the opening necessary for a 9006 bulb, just happens to be the exact same diameter, I tried several different bulbs to find the best match & 9006 is it. only thing is, of course it Will not have the same locking tabs, so you won't stick it in with slots lined up & turn 1/4 turn to lock, no, in this case the bulb will need a little high temp silicone around the seal to lock the bulbs in place as one alternative, there are other alternatives, but the bulb itself fits the opening & seals with the o ring of the 9006 bulb, I'll get you some pics tonight....
if your thinking of trying to build these yourself you can, but it is a lot of cutting & a lot of fitting & a lot of playing to get it to look right & get everything lined up properly. also, the bulb is not directly centered behind the final resting place of the projector, so there is a bit of light manipulation & management necessary to have these project correctly. Hid's also get very hot, so there is aluminum shielding necessary, & finally, the light output of the added hid bulb needs to be shielded in a way to not flood the inside of the housing with light or it Will be visible from outside too & hurt the look of these. expect a whole lot of playing around with shielding & altering the angles of the light projection.
honestly it would probably be way too much work in R&D to just build one set of these, I justify the amount of R&D by the fact that I have at least 8 guys who want these & more after that, so it's worth me investing this much development to get it right. once I get it right then I'll have it down for duplication easily. you know me, I'm more than happy to share all of my mods & methods with everyone here, even put up DIY's no problem, but on this particular mod I have a lot invested in time & R&D, which is not going to be fully recovered with just this one batch of lights at the price I set these for, I set the prices here BEFORE I even got the bug to add HID ability here & am not even charging extra for this, so I will need to keep this mod as my own & not put up a DIY guide, I need to build some more of these to re-coupe my investment at this point.... I won't be putting up templates or anything for this mod at least right now, but I'll still answer questions & offer guidance if you really wanted to put the effort into building your own set...
OK, ton & whoever else doesn't know the history of these lights....
I originally set out to build a sick set of headlights for myself. I grafted 2 complete headlights into one, had to extend the housing quite a bit to fit the double setup & rework the pivot setup & motorization end of them & this required me also having to alter my radiator support to accept these lights. my original lights were an extreme amount of work, there is no way I could duplicate them without them being astronomically expensive. here is what my headlights look like:
OK, so now after I built these, several have asked for them, but the amount of intense work & the very high cost would not be practical.
now dr2k was the one who was very adamant about having these lights, he really liked the look & in our conversations I started to consider the option you guys see here in this group buy, building similar look to my custom lights, BUT built in such a way to #1, fit within the stock headlight housing so you don't have to cut & re support your radiator support like I had to & #2, have them be more cost effective....
well to make a long story short, dr2k sent me headlights to build these, & in doing so I took several apart & butchered them to create a way to build these, realized that I could duplicate this process, & started a thread to see if anyone else would be interested in them. really, we all have DR2K to thank for these headlights, had it not been for his initiative I really had no intension's of building these for others.
dr2k has no desire for his inners to be HID & that was never in the original plan, he more wants the LED dot look & the dual projector look, but I don't want to send him a set of lights that don't at least have this capability should he decide after that he does want hid's, especially after seeing all the others with them eventually, so when I came up with the hid addition I delayed his lights so I can incorporate this into his as well. now I have him waiting on these forever like everyone else, because I want him to have a set as perfect as everyone elses... the HID addition is all my fault, I don't think I'd be 100% happy with these if they didn't include this ability once I decided that I can indeed add hid's, I decided to add this after the fact.
trust me, even though I am charging for these & what some might even consider to be a lot, my main goal here has never been for just the $$$, if that was the case I coulda pumped something out sooner & with less effort, but, my name is on each & every one of these & I want them to be great... profit margin on this project is very low for me & I'm not so much treating this like a business venture but more of a hobby venture. this keeps the costs down for everyone but also makes it take more time. had I treated this like a regular work project then they would be done a lot faster, but I would never be able to do them for the cost that I am doing them...
after I finish this batch I will reevaluate what these really wind up taking me & see what can happen for the next batch if I do a next batch, which at this point I think I may, either that or may do a one by one basis worse case...
one problem is that sources for these lights are starting to dry up, where I used to have many of these available from several dealer sources, there drying up, most recalls are done already & the ones that are coming in now are the lease returns that were never recall performed.... in another 6 months these headlights will start to become more scarce & don't be surprised if prices eventually go up on them. I'm pricing my cores right now at ~$100 each but they were more readily available, good cores will be harder to find in upcoming months & further I think.. don't forget, this recall was only up to 06, sources are going to dry up eventually, trust me
I couldn't get another 15-20 sets of these now if I wanted to, I'm getting dribs & drabs now, no ones got anything anymore... soon well be talking about "remember the good ole days, we used to be able to get a set of these headlights for $100 or less" I don't think that's going to last forever & may dry up sooner than you think...
