Mh1 fog light retrofit guide

Discussion in 'General Discussions' started by 2thousand5four, Dec 23, 2015.

  1. 2thousand5four

    2thousand5four Full Access Member

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    So the factory fog lights on our trucks suck. Depo fog lights look good, but again the output isn't the best. I know a lot of guys including my self have run or are running led bars for fog lights, and the output is pretty decent, but they do cause glare and in my mind I feel like a D-bag riding around with them on. So, since I decided to upgrade the projectors in my headlights to mini d2s, I had a full set of mh1s laying around. I decided to put these projectors in my stock fog lights to get the best possible output and not blind other people.

    What you will need:
    MH1 projectors (I used my old 6.0s)
    A 9006 hid kit
    Mini Gatling gun shrouds
    2 small pieces of .09 inch thick acrylic
    1/8 inch ply wood
    Jig saw
    A dremal tool with various bits
    Jb weld
    Aluminum tape
    Silicon sealant
    Male and female 9006 connectors
    Mh1 foreground limiters from trs
    2 inch 8-32 bolts (x8)
    8-32 nuts (x8)
    Two 30 packs of #8 washers
    3/4 x 1/2 x 1/6 angle aluminum

    Clear lense making process:

    First thing to do is to take the lense off the stock fog light housing (I'm not gonna go over how to do this since it's covered in the headlight retrofit thread). Next we are going to make a lense press to form the acrylic for the clear lenses. Take the lense and trace the outline of it onto the center of the ply wood, then cut that shape out of the center of the wood. I then took a sanding drum on my drill press and enlarged this hole about another 1/8 of and inch all the way around, this is so the lense and the acrylic can fit though the hole.
    [​IMG]
    Now preheat your oven to 340°, while the oven is pre heating wrap the stock lense in aluminum foil. Once the oven pre heats place the lense on a cookie sheet (or a piece of wood) with one acrylic sheet over it, then put that In the oven.
    [​IMG]
    After 5 minutes take the cookie sheet out and quickly press the lense press you just made over the acrylic so it starts to take the shape of the lense under it. Repeat this process until the lense is fully formed.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    You may have to leave it in the oven for longer than 5 minutes to soften the acrylic. Now that the lense is formed you can cut it out with a dremal tool.
    [​IMG]
    I found that a medium-high speed (about 23000 rpm) works the best for cutting the acrylic. Then I trimmed and sanded the new lense until it fit the housing perfectly.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]


    Repeat this process for the other lense, but you don't have to make a new press. Just flip the press over and it should be the correct shape for the second lense.

    Installing the wiring:

    The 9006 kit is pretty straightforward and easy to install. I mounted the relays right in front of the windshield washer fluid reservoir. There is a hole right there too, so I ran the ballast and input wires though that.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2016
  2. 2thousand5four

    2thousand5four Full Access Member

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    Since these projectors will be used as fogs lights there is no need for the cut off step. There are several ways to get rid of this step, but the easiest is grinding the step off the shield so the shield is completely flat.
    [​IMG] (ignore the black paint that's for a pasivepassive demon eye)
    After I ground off the step I then sanded down the very edge of the cut off shield to make it smooth so the cut off is clean and sharp. This takes a lot of testing to see if you have taken enough metal off of the shield, go slow you can always take more metal off, you can't put it back. I assembled and disassembled my projectors countless times during this process, but eventually I got them perfect. In this pic the shield still needs a little more work but you get the idea.
    [​IMG]
    If you can't seem to get one side of your cut off flat your shield is probably bent. For instance if the right side of your cut off is bowing down, the left side of your shield needs to be bent away from the reflector bowl. If the left side of your cut off is bowing up, the right side of your shield needs to be bent towards the reflector bowl. Again go slow and be gentle when you are bending the shields, they are flimsy and can easily crease. Once the cut off is perfectly straight the lense and foreground limiter plate/shield needs to be spaced to get the cut off sharpness and color back. There really is no set method to do this, you kinda just have to play with different washer combinations on the lense holder screws until it's how you want it. It took me about an hour to get both projectors how I wanted them. Always put washers on in pairs, if you put one on the top left screw you have to put one on the top right screw, same for the bottom 2 screws. Generally speaking placing washers on the bottom 2 screws that hold the lense on in between the the lense holder and foreground limiter will add color to the cut off. Also, the further you space out the lense with washers the narrower your beam gets so don't go crazy with the spacing or trying to get some crazy color band. On this projector I ended up having 2 washers on the bottom 2 screws, one behind the foreground limiter and one in between the foreground limiters and the lens holder, then no washers up top.
    [​IMG]


    Since I already had the projectors apart and was tuning them I decided to add some foreground limiters. I got the foreground limiters from TRS under the accessory tab and then under mh1 spare parts. The foreground limiters are actually ment for the mh1 5.0s not the 6.0s so if you are using the 6.0s like me you will have to do some modification. To make the 5.0 limiters fit the 6.0 the top 2 holes have to be enlarged just a little for everything to line up, also you can only use the top right screw to hold the solenoid in place. If you use both screws the solenoid won't sit straight and it will bind up.
    Enlarge these 2 holes
    [​IMG]
    Only use this screw to mount the solenoid

    [​IMG]

    And for anyone interested this is before the passive demon eye (no paint)
    [​IMG]
    And this is after (with paint)
    [​IMG]

    They can be painted any color to have any color demon eye, I just did black because it's subtle and it hids the cut off shield and foreground limiter so instead of seeing those it just looks like a black lense.
     
  3. 2thousand5four

    2thousand5four Full Access Member

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    Alright now for the hardest part, mounting the projectors.
    First cut a hole in the back of the housing that is roughly this shape. [​IMG]. I found it was a lot easier to use the sanding drum on my dremal than it was to use the cutting wheel. you will know when the whole is big enough when the front of the projector bowl almost touches the back of the housing. [​IMG]. Now it's time to make the brackets. Next take the angle aluminum and cut a piece that is about 3/8 of an inch long. Now drill two 3/16th holes in the piece you cut off like this. The holes should be roughly in the center off each side and on the same line (I didn't use this piece because the holes where out of alignment, also I found it easier to drill the holes the cut the small piece off.) [​IMG]. Make two of these brackets. unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the finished brackets, I'll try to get some tommorow. OK now for the hardest part. Park your truck 25 feet away from a large flat wall. Install housing back onto the truck with nothing in it. Now install the bulb back into the back of your projector. At this point you should have the wiring installed on the truck, an empty housing (no lense or anything just a hole in the back), and a projector with a bulb installed In the back. Now take the projector and hold it In the housing and plug the wiring into the bulb. Turn the fog lights on and do your best to align the projector by hand so that the beam is flat, the horizontal alignment is correct, and the vertical alignment is correct. While you are holding the projector in alignment take one of the brackets and put it in front of the bottom left hole so the hole on the long side of the bracket lines up with the mounting hole on the projector. Once you have the bracket in place mark the position of the bottom bracket hole on the housing. Then do the same for other bracket but on the bottom left hole.(it's OK if these holes or the alignment isn't perfect, as long as it's pretty close it will be ok). Alright I know that was confusing but it will make more sense when I get some pictures of the process. Now you can take the projector and housing back out of the truck. Once you get the housing out drill 2 holes though the bottom of the housing where you marked where the bracket holes should be. At this point you should be able to put the projector back into the housing and install the brackets. Put one of the 1 inch long bolts through the bottom hole of the bracket that holds it to the housing, and put one of the 2 inch long machine screws though the top hole of the bracket that holds the bracket go the projector. [​IMG] [​IMG] Should look like this on both sides but with a bolt holding the bracket to the housing, not a machine screw. You can't tighten it if you use machine screws. I had to do some more trimming to get the 2 inch machine screws to come all the way through, it should look something like this [​IMG] (ignore that top screw for now). These 2 brackets will allow you to adjust the rotation of the projector and the horizontal aim of the projector. To adjust the rotation clockwise put washers in between the right bracket and the housing, to adjust the rotation counter clockwise put washers between the left bracket and the housing. To adjust the aim to the right put washers between the left bracket and the projector, to adjust the aim to the left put washers between the right bracket and the projector. Now you just have to drill one more hole. This hole should line up with either the top left or top right hole on the projector. It doesn't matter what side you put it on. Once you get this whole drilled put a 2 inch machine screw though the projector and this hole in the housing, then put a nut on the back. This screw will allow you to adjust the vertical aim of the projector. Tighten the nut to adjust the aim up, and lossen the nut to adjust the aim down. [​IMG]OK once you get everything installed put the housing with projector mounted in it back on the truck and make sure everything is aligned correctly. If it is out of alignment adjust it using the methods I described above. Once you get everything aligned you can Tighten down the bottom nuts. In order to be able to Tighten the bottom nuts holding the bracket to the projector I had to install about 10 washers behind the projector so the nut sat outside of the housing like this. [​IMG][​IMG]. That's it, just repeat the process for the other housing! I know that was confusing so feel free to ask questions, I should be able to get more pics up tommorow. The method I used to mount the projectors is known as the JNC method, I modified it a little bit but here's the link to the original method.
    http://www.hidplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=63137
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2016
  4. 2thousand5four

    2thousand5four Full Access Member

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    Reserved for output pictures and high beam wiring
     
  5. Roush PSD Interceptor

    Roush PSD Interceptor 7.3L Straight Piped Diesel

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    Awesome write up Jake.

    Can't wait to finish the read and see the final output/result.

    Galaxy S4 Cetane Powered Android
     
  6. 2thousand5four

    2thousand5four Full Access Member

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    Thank you! unfortunately I'm not gonna be able to work on them for about a week :( I'm leaving to go hunting the day after Christmas and not coming back till the 30th then there is all the new years stuff. But I am hoping to be done with them in mid January
     
  7. ak_cowboy

    ak_cowboy Penguin Hunter

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    Great write up!!
     
  8. 2thousand5four

    2thousand5four Full Access Member

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    Got one of my projector mounted and I updated the how to. Now I have a problem tho. The shroud doesn't cover my brackets [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG] Anyone have an idea of how to cover these and still Make it looked good? Im think maybe something like a PVC pipe shroud extention
     
  9. ak_cowboy

    ak_cowboy Penguin Hunter

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    I would just use some JB weld to cover up the hole and then paint the brackets black. Nobody is going to be looking that close at them.
     
  10. 2thousand5four

    2thousand5four Full Access Member

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    I'm gonna paint them black and try to cover them up with something, but if I can't I'm not to worried about it. Like you said no one will really see them
     

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