I posted up another thread when I first installed these a couple of weeks ago, but I spent some time tweeking everything and thought people might like to see what a retro is like in a 3rd gen. These are E55 bixenons projectors from the new 5-series. I thought I'd post some pics against a wall and down the road to show the difference.

Maybe this will inspire more people to do more retros.

**One thing to note is I have a lift with about 2" in the front and 2.5" in the rear so the projectors are not aimed as high as they would be in a normal car because I don't want to blind people since I'm already so high. This isn't apparent in the wall shots, but you can see that with the down the road shots how large a difference the high beam makes.**

Wall shot LOW:


LOW cutoff pic:


Wall shot HIGH:


Side wall LOW:


Side wall HIGH:


Down the road LOW:


Down the road HIGH:

 

Dang those things look awesome! Nice work, would love to see a write-up

 

very nice...wish my lights were that bright

 

those are freakin briiight! they look brighter than my 4 hellas!...sheessh

 

yea man that looks awesome.

 

Nice, can't wait to see the write-up. All I need is the cash and a spare weekend.

 

Wow that looks amazing!

 

looks very nice. very bright. you could really anoy people driving in front of you.

 

Here is a general writeup for retroing any car. The 4Runner isn't really any different, you just need to figure out how well you need to seal up the back if you go 4wheeling.

http://hidplanet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=166

 

Welcome to the club man!! I don't think I can drive anymore with a regular lights. Do you have any pictures of projectors instaled in housing? Anyway, great output and very nice cut off line, very good choice on projectors.

 

Good job fatty.

 

hey, i've been seeing these "HID conversion kits" on eBay, is this kind of like what this is you installed? I was interested in getting some HIDs on my 2nd gen.

 

Here are some:

Front


Projector close-up


Projector close-up from the side


The kits are really just a cheap ballast and bulb that fit in your stock H4 lamp (or whatever you have), since the factory lamp isn't meant for the HID bulb it causes pretty bad glare, plus you loose your high beam. I actually used a factory HID projector and retrofitted it into the factory headlamp.

 

mismatched tires!

 

looks great! I bet if someone actually started selling these for the 4runner (full modded headlight) a lot of people would buy them. Since my truck is my DD I would be too afraid of screwin something up, and end up without headlights. I guess the only way I would do it is if I actually bought another set of headlights, put the HIDs in those, then sell the old headlights. Anyways, the pics are awesome, I cant believe how crisp those cutoff lines are!

 

Is that a GReddy boost guage hanging from the A-pillar?

 

Man, do any of you think there is any way possible to do this to a 2nd gen? I would really like to get brighter driving lights, but having to switch on my PIAAs everytime is kinda annoying. Would be awesome to have that much light.

Let me clarify. Would it be possible to swap in the 99+ headlights that have the clear front lens, and then do this swap. I would do this as I don't think that doing this with the original light covers, the ones that do most of the reflecting, would really help in the lighting department.

Thanks again.

 

How much do those E55 bixenons projectors from the new 5-series go for?
Where did you buy them from?

 

You could do it on a 2nd gen just as easily as a 3rd. The stock reflectors don't matter for the lighting, they just become a housing for the projectors. It wouldn't be possible (without a crap load of custom work) to swap in the 99+ headlights into a 2nd gen.

 

Is that a custom intake/ram air I see peeping out from under that headlight?