DIY Color matched headlights/modifications diy

Thinking about painting my lights all white like these



This is how she looks now



Gonna use these



lmk what y’all think and post your custom headlights

 

I did Magnetic Grey in my Magnetic Grey. It didn't pull off how I thought. I did satin black after that. I think color matched looks good on white and red trucks but that's just my thought.

 

Do it.....

 

Your truck is sweet man, magnetic grey looks really clean with all the upgrades you got

 

sweet looking truck man thing about putting eye lids on too

 

Thanks man! I'm pretty happy w the black now

 

Bad ass! DCLB?

 

DCSB
Thanks man!

 

Thanks. Had them on there many years now and they've held up great.

 

I kept the bowl chrome, painted the projector shroud and headlight trim. I like how the angel eye behind the projector shroud reflects. With having the shroud painted it darkened the bowl and give it a black chrome sort of look. Personally I am not a fan of completely painted housings on trucks like ours, to me it looks cheap. That's only my opinion though. But I like to stick with an OEM+ style where people know something is different but can't quite put their finger on it. Also, this was all before I cleaned up the lenses so you'll see a bunch of rock ships and such.

 

that is dope bro you completely changed my plans for my headlight project

 

Ditto on keeping the OEM look

 

Any ideas for the housings I’ve got?

 

Those are rare shrouds now, they didn't make many of the clear ones to my knowledge. Very unique, I like it!!

I'm probably not going to be the best help here. But the black headlight mod looks great on white trucks. It gives it some contrast. I find if you have too much white (or too much of one color) the truck begins to loose it's character and look like a blob of all the same color.

You may be able to get a paint to somewhat match your wheels and that would be a nice setup because it would break up all the chrome, but it would be subtle. If you change wheels later on the silver would still work well. If I knew how to do it I think a black chrome would look amazing....but that paint is tricky to work with. I don't know if I've seen a white shroud and white surround, basically like mine but white where all the black is. Heck, I think a white surround with a black shroud might look good too, the black shroud gives the reflector a darkened look like its somewhat smoked. Also I personally wouldn't paint the blinker bowl since it really reduces the output of your signal bulbs and if drivers are as bad as they are here you want to be noticed as much as possible. haha

Pull out all the stops and see if someone local wrap it in carbon fiber and go toward a JDM trend.

Another recommendation if you're going the DIY route is to get a 3" projector. 2.5" projectors look small in our giant housings and a 3" projector puts out quite a bit more light and width than a 2.5". As for a shroud, this is where you can get creative. There are tons to choose from. But again, a bigger shroud will fill the headlight better.

 

Dude they are! That’s why I’m so inclined on keeping them. I was one of the very few to get these LS460R retrofits done by Andrew like 7 years ago

 

Are those LS460 projectors?? Those are insanely wide and even output, just a plain old amazing blanket of light!

I've got RX350's with a clear lens, Osram NBL bulbs and Hella Gen III ballasts. I love them, but sometimes I want a smidge more color like CBI's.

 

Btw, If anyone is curious wha the difference between an RX350 and some ACME or NHK H1 projectors (can't remember which ones they were).

RX350 with clear lens swap, Osram Night breaker Laser bulbs, Hella Gen III ballasts. This is my Tacoma, the wall is about 100ft away with fog lights off. This is considered the top dog and the setup that all are compared to. This is what a 3" projector is able to provide.


This is my beater Subaru Outback with a 2.5" H1 projector, there are certainly better, but regardless the best 2.5" H1 projector isn't as bright as the dimmest D2S based 3" projector. In fact the most 2.5" projectors have less output than the "Ultimate" headlight upgrade for a Tacoma. The Tacoma has surprisingly great headlights and fog lights for OEM Halogen as long as a decent bulb is used. NOTE: This photo is more exposed than the Tacoma's so it's not the best comparison. This is the same wall and same distance as well.


You can even do something like this, but it would likely look strange on a Tacoma. I don't care for it on my color of outback. But I wanted to play with it and try a new skill.

 

Yeah man they are and by far my favorite mod on my truck! Your setup sounds insane lol! I’ve read nothing but great things about RX350’s. A retrofitter I know always recommends them. I went with Morimoto line-up of 35w ballasts and stuck with the 5500k bulbs(off of memory) because this shit is plenty bright and I usually commute on hilly areas and wouldn’t want to permanently blind oncoming drivers lol.

 

The Hella ballast is still 35w (just like morimoto xb35 ballasts) but warm up is extremely fast, full brightness in a few seconds. They pull around 12-14 amps each when warming up comp[ared to morimotos that pull a max of about 7-8 amps IIRC. Once they are warmed up they both draw similar amperage. You can find them at salvage yard cheap from early 2000's audi A4's or A6's. They are completely sealed and will last FOREVER! They are insanely reliable, I had a set I got from our salvage yard for 8 years on our Fusion that was retrofitted, still going strong for the people we sold them to as well.

My Tacoma build happened over about year of collecting parts. I had a hard time swallowing that much money on the setup all at once.

 

Almost coming together waiting for clearz to send me the side markers



Now I just gotta do one more...