Headlight Conversion

Hey everyone, forgot that I had asked for advice on the headlight conversion. Funny, I actually did a "reverse" conversion. I swapped the clear "projector" style with the old fashioned faceted lenses last year. I did this to get a broader light pattern which I prefer, similar to my Grand Cherokee. Not quite the result I wanted, but it gave me a reason to get my hands dirty. The real question is will this thread last longer than my 4Runner's rusting undercarriage.
 
Don't flame me but I put these on my 98 4runner, and they fit perfect. All the adjustments work fine as well. They are also glass, I was considering replacing my OEM brackets with the new glass but even my brackets were broken. Can't beat the price.
 

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Wow...this thread is older than my kids! Has anyone used these headlights? And am I reading the price right? $139.99 for the pair? Seems like a really good deal.

Jason's are from the factory the '99 upgrade. They are glass.

Yes, per pair. They are very nice and I have in stock right now. I love the glass factor as they never look old and dingy like plastic versions on just about every other car. Here's a nice cleaned up pic.

136401d1415903353-my-4runner-limited-cleaned-up-image.jpg


ALso, be sure to click "more pictures" here for more pics:

Burtman Industries, headlight write-up, etc.
 
Yes, per pair. They are very nice and I have in stock right now. I love the glass factor as they never look old and dingy like plastic versions on just about every other car. Here's a nice cleaned up pic.

136401d1415903353-my-4runner-limited-cleaned-up-image.jpg


ALso, be sure to click "more pictures" here for more pics:

Burtman Industries, headlight write-up, etc.

I might have to get some of these then. I had been looking for a pair of oem to replace my old 98 headlights. So these are new and glass and just as good as oem??
 
Yes, per pair. They are very nice and I have in stock right now. I love the glass factor as they never look old and dingy like plastic versions on just about every other car. Here's a nice cleaned up pic.

136401d1415903353-my-4runner-limited-cleaned-up-image.jpg


ALso, be sure to click "more pictures" here for more pics:

Burtman Industries, headlight write-up, etc.

Those look nice and clean! Any chance we can see what they look like at night? A night pic facing the headlights and a night pic behind the wheel from a driver's perspective?
 
Yea, glass. I've seen some companies start to use plastic, and I would never do that on this truck. I have Piaa bulbs in my heads and that really helped the light output. I don't have any night pics yet, but they look great.

I sold a whole new front setup for this customer below, who was recenetly in a front end collision. I wish I could get a better pic, this is what he texted me. New crystal headlights, crystal corners, new crystal bumper lenses and the custom fornt spoiler, which I have on my truck as well. Ignore the grille, I didn't do that.
 

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When I did my retrofit I blacked out my headlights and shrouds, I ended up getting some clear corners as well, I used a heavy duty detergent inside them to actually dissolve the chrome. the detergent worked great on the first set but i added some sodium hydroxide powder to speed up the reaction. I rinsed them thoroughly, then i vacuumed and blew out as much water as possible. I then used a silicon packet to get the remaining moisture out. and was able to black them out without even taking them apart. which is cool since they are easy to melt.
 
Having dealt with both the OEM 99-02 lights and the cheaper eagle eyes brand lights, I can say without a doubt the OEM lights are higher quality, the glass is much thinner on the eagle eyes housings, and the adjusters are very fragile, but I will say the actual light housings are comparable to OEM, not sure about the light pattern since I never ran the eagle eyes though.
 
When I did my retrofit I blacked out my headlights and shrouds, I ended up getting some clear corners as well, I used a heavy duty detergent inside them to actually dissolve the chrome. the detergent worked great on the first set but i added some sodium hydroxide powder to speed up the reaction. I rinsed them thoroughly, then i vacuumed and blew out as much water as possible. I then used a silicon packet to get the remaining moisture out. and was able to black them out without even taking them apart. which is cool since they are easy to melt.


I want some more information on this. How did you black them out after you cleared off the chrome? I looked at your build thread but didn't see any pictures of them. I'm curious to see some pictures as well.
 
yeah i just did it this weekend. basically the plastic is black underneath so once the chrome is stripped off they are black out, and thats it. its the same process thats used to strip chrome from hotwheels.
 
yeah i just did it this weekend. basically the plastic is black underneath so once the chrome is stripped off they are black out, and thats it. its the same process thats used to strip chrome from hotwheels.

Gotta say those look amazing!
 
yeah i just did it this weekend. basically the plastic is black underneath so once the chrome is stripped off they are black out, and thats it. its the same process thats used to strip chrome from hotwheels.


Hmmm. Interesting. I'd love to see how they look.
 
Gotta say those look amazing!


yeah i have not taken a picture of them haha, the picture in my sig is old, i had taken then original corners apart but they were melted and never fit back together correctly.
 

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How did you get them apart? I have a friend of mine right now that wasn't to take the one apart I got him, and I've never done it. He wants to add custom LED's inside. Any advice?
 
the beauty of this is it didnt even need to come apart, i poured the solution in and it disloved the chrome then i rinsed them out. to get them apart you bake them in the oven for 6 minutes around 275, then pry apart carefully. If you grind down the nubs that are on the acrylic part and kind of help clip them acrylic into the back piece. i think it would be a lot easier to get apart without damaging tools, after grinding the nubs down. I did actually put some leds in mine for a while but they were weak as hell. anyways make sure the leds are nice and bright before you spend the time getting them apart in one piece.

im actually going to be doing some custom led drls with orange leds, its going to look similar to the smaller audi suv, but with orange and also a hexagon around my projectors. i love the way they make it looks continuous, just like the dodge charger brake lights.

2014_Audi_Q5_TDI_F_My.jpg
 
the beauty of this is it didnt even need to come apart, i poured the solution in and it disloved the chrome then i rinsed them out. to get them apart you bake them in the oven for 6 minutes around 275, then pry apart carefully. If you grind down the nubs that are on the acrylic part and kind of help clip them acrylic into the back piece. i think it would be a lot easier to get apart without damaging tools, after grinding the nubs down. I did actually put some leds in mine for a while but they were weak as hell. anyways make sure the leds are nice and bright before you spend the time getting them apart in one piece.

im actually going to be doing some custom led drls with orange leds, its going to look similar to the smaller audi suv, but with orange and also a hexagon around my projectors. i love the way they make it looks continuous, just like the dodge charger brake lights.

2014_Audi_Q5_TDI_F_My.jpg

Awesome!! I want to do the same thing. Did you see my post on this? SEe here and feel free to comment in the thread.:

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-gen-t4rs/181848-leds-headlights-like.html
 
ill post on my build thread when i start them, ive ordered orange 5050 smd leds, ill be laser etching some pcbs, they apparently wont be here until february, ive ordered 300 of them, and ill be doing some lasercut optics in front of them to make them seem continuos. the lights will go all around the border of the headlights and continue into the corner markers. if i use all 300 leds ive ordered the output should be around 108 watts, thats the same as my hid headlights, except in orange. the advantage with the 5050 leds is its a 3 in one package so i can choose how bright they are without a complicated dimmer.

next time you see a dodge charger or durango in a parking lot take a close look at the tail lights, they have these ridges to distribute the light evenly.
 
Hey guys, just a heads up there was a few things on the retrofitsource's closeout section that had to do with those smooth led line deals, like an audi emitter and some amber rope light
 
Are there more pics (preferably on an Evergreen Pearl runner) with the Crystal Black Headlights and Cystal Black Corner Lenses (JDM style)? Considering these or the 99+ headlights. Just not sure how the black would look on my evergreen.

Burtman Industries
 

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