DIY Bi-Xenon Projector Retrofit, MKIV Golf

KrashDH

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Edit: Make sure to read through the whole thread if you're interested in doing this. I went through iterations of my DIY because of slight issues that I ran into that I needed different modifications for!

Edit: For V2.0, check out this thread:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=498130


Alright guys and gals just figured I'd start this post to document my projector retrofit for my mkiv golf.

After doing the same retrofit for my Cummins, I can't NOT do this to the Golf.

I'll be using a set of DDM Bi-Xenon projectors and ballasts.

Coupled with that I'll use a H4/9003 HID harness, and I decided to make the pigtail that will connect to the factory wiring inside the headlight to the HID harness, as it's pretty simple.

I'll try to keep a running list of everything I'll use, but here are some of the things I've just purchased:

1) 9003/H4 HID Harness: This was on ebay. I chose this style because the relay is replaceable if for some reason it fails. I had this happen on my truck before I started using this style (it was a relay which could not be replaced) and I had to un-route everything because the relay was not replaceable.



2) H4 female pigtail, and 1 H7 male pigtail. These will be used to make the low beam side of the custom harness that will plug into to the HID harness

3) Here is a nifty splitter I found that will plug into the H7 hi plug and allow me to run power over to my custom harness for the projector shutter. You can google search "h7 hi beam splitter" to find these things:



4) Here is the list from DDM tuning for what I ordered. The E46 extended shrouds are known to fill the Golf headlights really well:




5) I've used these 2 pin sealed connectors in place of the horrible ones they use on the harness and projector for the shutter as well:



Link to the kit:
https://www.ddmtuning.com/Products/Pack-H1-V3-PR

Apparently the LED bulbs are coming as a "free gift". Maybe I'll see if they work for the hi beam.

Now I get to play the waiting game and figure out how I'm going to attack the reflector modification!
 
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KrashDH

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2002 Golf
Here are some more bits and pieces that I ordered:

Extensions to allow more options to mount the ballasts away from the housing:



Here's the 3 pin connector which will be the side of the custom harness that plugs into the relay harness in the first post. This will stick out of the driver side cover:



Here is the 2 pin connector that I will use in the custom harness in the low factory low beam plug that will provide the low beam power to the harness:

 
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RexNICO

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I have a set of Golf headlights, BMW shrouds & 2.5” BMW projectors with ballasts & wiring all sitting in a box in the garage. So, I’m fairly interested.
 
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KrashDH

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I got some cutting done on a donor headlight tonight. I think ive narrowed down what pvc caps will fit and pull the projectors back enough without interfering with the internal brace, allowing you to shaft mount the projector for dialing in the horizontal rotation with the headlight on the car.

Once I start cutting on the real deal I'll post up. Got all the parts in today.
 

KrashDH

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Subscribed.

I have a set of Golf headlights, BMW shrouds & 2.5” BMW projectors with ballasts & wiring all sitting in a box in the garage. So, I’m fairly interested.
The concept of what I'm doing might be the same, but I'm using the shaft mount method for the Golf, which I think is done rarely (I'm not aware of anyone who has used a Mini H1 projector and mounted it by the shaft). Most mount directly to the reflector by drilling holes. May be easier, but I wanted a way to level these things out on the car, then be able to epoxy the clocking washer in the correct place so if I ever need to replace them, they clock to exact level.

So I think I finally figured out some PVC and bits and pieces that will work for the Golf. It's fairly off the shelf items.

1) 2" x 1-1/2" ABS reducer, I got it at Lowes. You could find at home depot as well. I picked the black because I liked the material better, it didn't seem as brittle as the standard PVC couplings. The brand is Nibco but I think the alternate is Meuller. The OD of the large side is 2.375" (2-3/8"), so when you're cutting your reflectors, you need this size hole saw. The other way I've been doing it for testing purposes is just tracing the coupler with a sharpie onto the reflector and cutting with a Dremel. Works well too.

There is a nice shelf that sits on the inside of the reducer. I thought, "Man, this would be a perfect place to epoxy in a washer to receive the shaft of the projector:



2) Went over to the hardware section and found a UAJ washer made to accept a 3/4" bolt. 1.995" O.D. This was a bit too large to just drop in the smaller neck of the reducer. There are a couple options...just grind or turn the O.D. of the washer a bit, or because I have access to laser cutting, I cut my own out to match the ID of the coupler (actually, I went about .003" over the ID so it will be a press fit).

Your washer dimensions should be .835" ID by 1.900"-1.905" OD...somewhere in that tolerance will work. 1/8" thick.

Here's the pieces side by side...UAJ (off the shelf washer) on the right, custom on the left.



Here's the mock-up of the washer in the coupler. Note that it's not seated down fully on the shelf. I'm going to have to tap it fully down with a socket or something because of the interference fit, but I'll wait to do that because I'm going to epoxy it in place.



One thing to note is that in the current state off the shelf, because the of the reducer's dimensions and the size of the body of the projector, the shelves don't completely line up because the body of the projector comes in contact with the opening of the large end of the reducer before they are level. The photo below illustrates what I'm talking about:



They don't need to be perfect, because there is a large rubber washer that gets installed to keep moisture out, but they need to be closer than in the picture, because when I tried this before just as is, the nut that threads onto the shaft will not sit below the flat part of the shaft where the three tiny screws go for the bulb holder. The projector nut has to sit below these to allow installation of the bulb holder.

I'm going to take about .100" off the face of the large side of the reducer to start, and that should get me pretty close, if not all the way seated on the washer. You can grind it, but I'll lathe turn it since I have access to one. I'm not going to sweat not getting fully seated on the metal washer, as I mentioned that the rubber washer will push the body of the projector off of the metal washer anyway.

I should be able to yank and separate the headlights hopefully tomorrow, make the cuts and epoxy/jbweld/quik steel the reducers to the reflectors, so that on Friday I can blast the plastic pieces and prep them for paint on Saturday.

If all goes to plan...but does it ever?:cool:
 
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RexNICO

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I'll have to look for those couplers next time I'm at the hardware store.



Any concern about temperature?


Here's the shrouds and projectors I'm hoping to use.




This is the ballast and wiring




Let's see if this larger linked image works



It appears that pic is of 2 passenger side, as the XENON etching on the bezel is both on the same side.
 

KrashDH

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Washington
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2002 Golf
I'll have to look for those couplers next time I'm at the hardware store.

Any concern about temperature?
Not really concerned about the temp, ABS is good up to around 180°F, I don't anticipate it being an issue. People have done these retrofits with true PVC which has a temp rating of 140°F

Those shrouds look really similar to the ones I have as well (E46 extended) which are "Inspired" (think copied) by the BMW E46 series:



I'll be painting too. I have red sport seats in the car, and some red trim pieces, so I'm thinking I'll black out the housings and do the shroud red. I'm not sure whether or not I should to the headlight trim piece that lines the headlight cover black or red. It might be too much red if I make it that, we'll see when I get there

For the Golf application at least, I was test fitting them, and they basically "cap" the entire reflector, which is nice! It allows the projector shroud to be mounted flush to the reflector to ensure that you get the actual projector pointing correctly and not off to any weird angle. Basically using the reflector to guide the direction instead of having to guess
 
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RexNICO

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...
Those shrouds look really similar to the ones I have as well (E46 extended) which are "Inspired" (think copied) by the BMW E46 series:
...

Yes, they came from a late 90's/early 2000's 3 series BMW, as did the ballasts, wires & projectors.


Funny you mention the red interior accents, I have a set of leather square bolster front seats from a NB with red center sections and a red stitched shift boot. I've also picked up a red stitched e-brake handle and a red stitched flat bottom 3 spoke steering wheel from a newer MK6 GTI, both of which I need to get around to installing.


Similar projects for sure.
 

KrashDH

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2002 Golf
Back Plates Installed

Got my custom washer's JB welded in place. I don't think they'll have an issue holding. If I do it right I can wedge the body of the projector in the large opening, that way it pulls that plate against the shelf, as well as being adhered in place and a press fit into the reducer.

Seated on shelf:



Other side:



I'll take them to the lathe to knock the face back .100" or so either today or tomorrow. Plan on cutting reflectors and adhering tomorrow
 
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KrashDH

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Mocked up the projector in the reducer. Note that this is the reducer that is unmondified at this point, other than JB welding the washer in.

I put the concave silicone washer that came with the kit on the shaft of the projector, then slipped it into the reducer, through the washer hole. Then I used the H7 clocking washer, then the nut. I tightened the nut to hand tight but so I could still spin the projector, to mimic being able to turn the entire projector when it's all glued in to the reflector.

The idea is once I get the cutoff as flat as I can get it on the car, a dab of JB weld on the clocking washer to the larger round washer in the the reducer will permanently set horizontal if I ever have to replace a projector

Here's everything without modification yet:



You can see the surface that has the tiny 3 screw holes for the bulb holder sits lower than the outer face of the hex nut right now. That hex nut needs to be below that face so when it comes time you can bolt the bulb holder in place.

Modification is needed, so I need to take a measurement of how much I need to take off the face of the large end of the reducer:



Here's the measurement I took, about .055":



That would put me flush @ hand tight, so I'll probably knock .065-.070" off of the face of the reducer to ensure I'm below it. I'll be able to crank down on that nut with a 27mm socket once the light output is adjusted level, so the face of the nut should sit nicely below the mounting surface for the bulb holder. If you don't have access to a lathe, you could easily take this to a grinder, dremel, etc, and just go until you have the right amount off the face of that reducer.

Also, I may flip the reducer around and face off the smaller diameter close to the washer and apply some JB weld on that side as a fillet, just for insurance.

Tonight should be go time for yanking the lights, cutting, bonding, and prepping for the blast cabinet tomorrow.
 
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KrashDH

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Alright got some lathe turning done on these bad boys:



Decided to turn down the backside for easier access to bulb and to avoid the internal brace:



New mock set up darn near flush hand tight. Will sit nicely even or below once fully clocked and tightened:



Heading home to yank the headlights
 

KrashDH

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Washington
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2002 Golf
Pic heavy!

I won't bother showing how to remove the headlights, that's straightforward.

Remove all of the internal harnesses, bulbs, etc in the headlights.

First thing is to pop the clips of the headlights, 4 per side:



There are some that separate the lenses from the housing without baking the lights, but I chose to put them in the oven for a few minutes just to make it easy. I've done it both ways though.

250°F for about 8 minutes. Ovens will vary in temp so be careful. I put a piece of wood down on the grate then set the light on it:



Once they're nice 'n toasty, pop the lenses off. I used a flathead screwdriver at one of the clip locations and twisted a little bit to get it started. Then, while wearing gloves, pried the 2 halves apart. I started on the small end of the headlight and pryed towards the large end.

Remove the reflector from the adjuster sockets. I used my flathead again and you'll see there are "slots" where the ball fits in the socket on the reflector. You can slip the flathad in and "lift" the tabs up while you are gently pulling on the reflector. It helps to do this when the headlight is warm. These ball and socket connections are at 2 locations:



This is what you should have after you separate the 2:



Pop the low beam bulb holder off the reflector by just evenly prying around. It will come off eventfully after making some awful scraping sounds.

Then the deflector will be loose so you can just slide it out (the bulb holder actually holds the deflector in):



Now it's time to start cutting. First thing to do is grind down where the deflector was seated. Makes it a lot easier to mark this way.



Center your reducer assembly over the bulb hole by looking down the barrel of the center of the washer and lining it up with the center of the reflector bulb seat hole. Then trace outside with a sharpie or similar:



I tried a hole saw first, but the odd shape of the reflector didn't grip well enough in the vice so I scratched that idea and used a cutoff wheel. You likely won't nail it the first time so prepare to do some fine tuning once you get the hole cut. It's ok for it to not be perfect, that's what the first layer of Quiksteel is for later:)

I took a file to the outside edge to give the Quiksteel and JB weld something to adhere to:

 

KrashDH

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The next thing to do is assemble your reducer with your projector and shroud, like you're putting it on the vehicle.
Ie Projector-->concave silicone washer-->through custom washer hole/abs reducer-->H7 clocking washer that comes with the kit-->shaft nut.
Note that you will have to remove the bulb holder from the projector shaft, but I think I covered that in another post. Make this setup fairly tight, but so it will still spin in the reducer. Because once it's on the car, you'll want to be able to spin it.

Now you can install your shroud.
The nice thing about the E46 extended shrouds is the fit damn near perfect on the reflector. Same diameter and it sits down flush. This is the key component in setting the correct distance of your reducer back into the reflector, as well as knowing the projector is aimed correctly in relation to the reflector.

Here are a couple photos showing the fitment once you drop your assembly through:




Now since you will be flipping the whole thing over to be applying epoxy, and you want everything to stay put (ie keep the shroud against the reflector), I chose to use painters tape to keep everything pulled together:





Quiksteel will be your best friend for the first layer. It's stronger than the JB Stik and it is a putty that you kneed (sp?) together to get it activated. It will also fill any imperfect fit-up between the pvc reducer and the reflector. Some will actually push thorough the joint which is a good thing.
You can basically make a fillet out of the stuff and keep it pretty clean.

I did all of this with my hand:





Here's a shot of the reflectors after the Quiksteel was applied. I let it sit the recommended hour. After the hour was up I removed the projector assemblies:



Finally, I went over it with some JB Weld Original...not the Kwik. You could use the Kwik instead of the QuikSteel, but it runs more and would be harder to work with and could run between your reducer to reflector fit-up.

1 JB weld Original kit did both of the connections. Here is what it will look like after:



Make sure to give yourself some curing time, it takes 4-6 hours for this stuff to set and I think 24 to cure.

Today after work I will be sand blasting all of the bits and hopefully I can start painting tonight.
 
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KrashDH

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Washington
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2002 Golf
So Close Yet So Far

Alright well I put in a big push this weekend to get this project done. Right off the bat, I got very close, was not able to complete the project, due to shroud/headlight cover interference (the projector has plenty of room).

So I sandblasted everything to prep for primer and paint. Custom paint booth:



While I was waiting for paint to dry, I popped the housings in the oven again to scrape the gasket out of them. If it do it while the housings are hot, it's not bad at all with a flathead:



Also while paint was drying, I found a slick location for the harness relay, and mounted it with some double sided 3M tape:



It was extremely convenient to run the rest of the harness over to the passenger side via the hood latch cable. Then you can jump across where the hood latches and keep ziptying along:



Before I sand blasted, I drilled for this tiny grommet that fit the 2 hi beam wires on the projector perfectly. This grommet takes a 1/4" bit. I drilled a bit below where I had JB welded (you want to go through just the reflector material, not the JB weld. You can kind of make them out in the next couple of photos:







 

KrashDH

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Now with the reflector assembled into the housing, it was time to see if everything fit:

Looks like my homework paid off:






Mounted the projector in it's home, hand tight, so I could spin it when it came time to do the leveling. Note at this point, the clocking H7 washer can spin freely:



Couple of teaser shots:





You'll notice when you install the bulb mount and bulb, it sticks out a hair. This is common knowledge that you need to modify the back of the healight cover. Measure from whatever landmarks you see fit:



Mark your spot on the cover for "center". Now, in every thread I've see a DIY, someone has added a PVC cap to the back of the cover to allow room for the bulb, wires, etc. I could see that I was not sticking out the back very much at all from my measurements. I wasn't sure what size to drill the hold out too (either really large if I was to use a PVC cap back there, or the standard 7/8" for the grommet that comes with the bulb.

I decided to start of small, knowing I could increase my size if need be:





As a hint, you want to be as accurate as possible with the small 7/8" hole because you want the bulb as close as centered as possible in the hole
 

KrashDH

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Now I didn't get a photo of the bulb sitting there without the grommet on, but you should get something like this after:



No heavy modification or PVC cap needed (Just Joking....read on till then end...!)

Now, on the passenger side headlight, the only wires that need to exit are the bulb and the high beam wires. I used the same grommet from above for the reflector:



Driver side is a bit of a different story. You need the bulb wires, high beam wires, and you need the female H4 plug (3 pin) that will be the side of the custom wiring you need to plug in to the harness (ie the low and high beam power):

I once again used a grommet to feed these wires out.You should have plenty of wire for the harness you make to be able to separate the back headlight cover for things like a bulb change. I also opted for a grommet here. The size should correlate to the grommet that uses a 3/8" drill bit for the hole.



The high beam plug shown here is the one you'll want to plug the red and black harness into in the first post, that has the 2 extra wires coming from it. The extras will get tied into the 3 pin H4 socket:



The low beam plug shown here has the 2 pin with leads sticking out of it, which will also get tied into the 3 pin H4 socket:



Wiring for this is pretty straightforward. On your relay harness, it should tell you low beam, high beam, and ground. On your custom harness, your low and high beam power wires will tie into your 3 pin female at their corresponding locations. Make sure they match where they will be plugged into your relay.

The 2 grounds from the lo and high can just be tied together, and then tied in with the one ground wire coming from the 3 pin H4.

After all this you can stuff the wiring in the driver side headlight housing, there's lots of room in there.

I mounted them without lenses on the car and plugged everything in, and it worked as it should! I was happy about that. Rotated the beams so they were as level as I could get them. Yanked them out of the car, traced the H7 clocking washer, then pulled the projectors and epoxied the washer in place, as best as I could get it to my outline:



I put them back on the car again for a double check and they were really close. Maybe not perfection, but I was happy with the level.

Now for the disappointing part. I went to test fit the lens back on the housing because I was going to bake them and be done with this project! But they weren't going to have that. When I was fitting the E46 extended shrounds, I basically put the concentric rings onto the projector flush with the end of the projector plastic around the glass. I then installed the shroud, and used the shroud sitting on top of the reflector to set the depth my reducer needed to be.

What I neglected to consider was how far the shroud actually sits about from where you mount it to the ring. Even though my projector wasn't anywhere near the glass, one corner of the shroud came into contact with the lens.

There's a couple things I could do to remedy this. I can sand down the part of the shroud that touches the reflector and slide the shroud down on the plastic part of the projector (instead of having it flush with the end, or I can look into a different shroud. Which is the direction I'm going.

I found the Iris shrouds which I'm going to give a go. They are lower profile than the E46, a little bit smaller in diameter so they should be able to slide down the projector plastic and recess themselves into the reflector.

They will basically sit flush with the concentric ring rather than sticking up above it near the projector glass.

Comparison:




Hopefully they'll be in this week, but I take off for Crankworx up in Whistler on Thursday so I'm not sure I'll be able to get them done in time or not. As well, hopefully the new shrouds work or I will have to possibly design/ 3D print my own?! I hope that's not the case though.
 
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tjpeterson96

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Winter Garden, FL
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04 bew jetta
Looks good so far man! I'm actually working on a pair of quad-hids myself out of a pair of cheap spyder lights I picked up for my jetta. Question though, I thought golfs already had the low beams stay on when the highs are on, so why use the custom harness instead of splicing off the high beams straight to the projector shutter?
 
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KrashDH

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2002 Golf
Question though, I thought golfs already had the low beams stay on when the highs are on, so why use the custom harness instead of splicing off the high beams straight to the projector shutter?
Yah you're right, I could have just kept that internal to the housing and done it that way, just deleting the hi beam connections on the bi xenon harness.

My high beams will power a LED H7 bulb and the shutter, just in case I lose the harness relay for some reason, I'll still have high beams.

But you're absolutely right, I could have deleted the small grommet on the passenger side if I had bought 2 of those hi beam splitter harnesses.

Maybe on the next build, v2:D
 

RexNICO

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Great looking work, sorry to hear about the bezel/lens clearance issue.


Sorry for what may be a stupid question, but where did you mount the ballasts?


I saw where you tucked the relay under the edge near the battery, but I missed the ballast install??


Thanks
 

KrashDH

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Washington
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2002 Golf
Great looking work, sorry to hear about the bezel/lens clearance issue.


Sorry for what may be a stupid question, but where did you mount the ballasts?


I saw where you tucked the relay under the edge near the battery, but I missed the ballast install??


Thanks
Yeah I didn't post that up yet just because I've only got the driver side mounted and working on where to put the passenger side one. It's a bit tricky.

A couple thoughts for this, I want them easy to access because a ballast will more likely fail than a bulb.

As well, I'd like them to be easy to replace without tools. They need to be close to the harness ends to avoid having to buy ballast extensions and running more wire than necessary.

I came up with industrial strength velcro. On the drivers side I went directly to the front of the battery. The ballast doesn't get very hot when moving, and the thick velcro provides an insulation of sorts. I don't think I'll have any trouble.



Another thing I do with all the ballasts I buy is open the cover and put a beat of rtv at the cover interface. The internal electronics are all completely sealed from the factory, but they never seal the actual cover to the body. My ballasts in my truck have lasted the last 5 years without being changed.
 

KrashDH

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2002 Golf
Back At It

Well I got back from my trip last night from Whistler and was exhausted, but I was excited to put in a couple hours and test out the new Iris shrouds.

Good news was I was able to mount the shrouds and push them back enough to clear the lenses.

Here's a couple of photos of test fitting. I decided that the 2-tone black would look pretty slick, so I ditched the red theme (the Golf is all black):



You can see the "step" between the projector and shroud. For my build there was no way around this. I had to push those shrouds as far back as I could so they could avoid the lenses once mounted.

The more clearance to the lens the better. These headlights don't fully turn when you adjust, it's the reflectors that move internally. So if you don't leave enough room behind the lens, you won't have much adjustment because of the corner of the shroud. One of my shrouds is really close to touching, the other one has enough of a gap to be ok for lots of adjustment. I got them very close to being adjusted on the car without the lenses, so they should be approx where I need them to be and can hopefully have enough adjustment to fine tune.

Just something to keep in mind if you're following this build.



Once you get the plastic internal trim piece in place, you can lay a bead of the headlight sealant:



From here you can dry mount the lense and put the snaps back in place. I then put them back int he oven @ 250° F for about 6-7 minutes each. This softened the glue enough to press them closed a bit more. I didn't go overkill though, because I didn't want to risk touching the shrouds.

I took some pics of them put back together, but for some reason my phone didn't save them.

I'll get some more tonight as I have a few minor modifications that need to be made.

You know earlier when I drilled the 7/8" holes in the back of the headlight cover to utilize the grommet that comes with the HID bulb? Well....those aren't going to work anymore.

I did the adjustment with the lens off on the car, and I had to move the reflectors. This in change moved the bulb position, and it was no longer centered in the hole I drilled.

So what I'm going to have to do is basically turn this hole into a slot to allow the swing of the bulb. I'll then add some small caps over the back of the opened slot and drill the 7/8" hole in the caps for the headlight grommet.

I'll post up when I make some progress.

Installed LED hi and other bulbs in the main headlight to test fit, everything worked fine.
 

KrashDH

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Washington
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2002 Golf
All Sealed Up!

Alright I got some good work put into this last night, and basically I'm to the point where the lenses are ready for clearcoat (yeah, I decided to re-do the lenses too)

First thing I needed to do because of the issue I ran into yesterday (with the bulb not centering in my hole in the back cover) was to open that up to allow the bulb to not make contact with any adjustment the light needed.

This is what it took:



I then used a 2" ABS black plug from Lowes (it has a flange on the bottom) to be the "extension" of my back cover.

I mocked up where the extension could sit on the cover and still seal (only slightly overhanging on a couple of edges, then drilled my 7/8" hole for the bulb dust boot. To get it approximately centered, the hole needed to be slightly offset from center. This may vary on your build:



Then I used some JB Kwik to hold it in place and seal. I was not shy with the epoxy because since the back cover is *slightly* convex, it acted as a bit of filler.

Ensure that the 7/8" hole you drilled is centered over your opening, this stuff sets up quick.



Once that was done, it was time to deal with all the electrical.

Passenger side was easy. The low beam connection I just stuffed some di-electric grease in the plug and zip tied the corner of a sammich back over it:



Here it is with all of the bulbs back in. Stock high beam plug will just tie into your hi bulb if you choose to use one. If not, it can be dealt with the same way as the low beam plug:



Here it is, all sealed up at its final state:

 

KrashDH

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Washington
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2002 Golf
Driver side was a bit more of a zoo electrically but not bad at all. I have a bit more room to work because I'm not running fogs in this setup.

An above poster made a good point earlier, if you don't want to have the high beam wires running out the back cover and tying into the harness, you can connect the high beam splitter harness I outlined in my first post directly to the shutter wires on the projector (internal to the headlight). I used those waterproof plugs on the connections too rather than the ones that come stock on the harness and projector, those are junk.

If I did this over, I'd probably go that route, but my way works too.

The wiring is as I mentioned before.

The H4 plug that exits out the back has a lo, hi, and ground connection.
The red of the high beam splitter harness will ti into the hi wire of the H4 female (after it's plugged into the OEM high beam socket, and the "extra" high beam socket from the harness goes to your high bulb if you choose to run it), the low beam adapter plugged into the lo beam OEM vehicle socket will have a hot wire that will plug into the lo connection of the H4 female socket, and the grounds from the hi and lo adapters will be tied together then connected to the ground of the H4 female socket.

Here is the back after all the bulbs are back in and the wiring was neatly routed:



This is what the HID bulb should look like approximately coming out the back of the 2" ABS plug:



A couple shots of the sealed up driver's side headlight. Remember, if you opt for the internal connection of the high beam wires, the small black and red wires with the sealed plug won't be coming out the back:





Here's a shot of the drivers side headlight clearance from the back. You can see the 2" ABS plug "extension" of the back cover:



...and the passenger. Lots of room leftover:

 
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KrashDH

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Location
Washington
TDI
2002 Golf
Shot before I rouged up the lenses:





Here it is ready for clearcoat:



Hopefully I'll tackle finishing this up this week, along with my coolant leak!
 

boertje

Veteran Member
Joined
May 24, 2002
Location
Coeur d'Alene, ID
TDI
'01, '01, '03, ‘06 NB - TDIs all.
Gee and I thought retro fitting my new beetle headlights was hard. Looks easy compared to your project. Good luck!
 

KrashDH

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Location
Washington
TDI
2002 Golf
Gee and I thought retro fitting my new beetle headlights was hard. Looks easy compared to your project. Good luck!
Ha thanks. Definitely involved, but worth it.
Figured out the final harness routing and ballast mounting tonight. Time to plug in this weekend.
 

KrashDH

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Location
Washington
TDI
2002 Golf
Wiring

Well I modified the wiring a bit so I could mount the ballasts next to each other. There is really nowhere on the passenger side to mount how I wanted to, so I just mounted both ballasts w/ HD velcro right to the battery.

I had to modify the harness a bit because I had to cut the corrugated protective wire cover to fish the ballast plug back to the driver side (passenger side ballast connection). The high beam plug stayed over on the passenger side.

Then I ran the bulb wiring extension I bought over from the newly mounted ballast over to the passenger side.

A few photos.

Here's the ballasts mounted:



Birds eye view of the driver side wiring. Note that more will get tucked away lower once the headlights are installed:



Running the ballast extension up along the top of the fan shroud:



Here's where the harness terminates on the passenger side...plenty of harness:



And a huge thanks to my buddy for shooting a 2-part clearcoat over the lenses to freshen them up. He did 5 coats! They should be good for a long time to come. No orange peel at all so I don't need to wet sand and buff.
You can actually see the streaks/scratches on the inside of the lens it's so vivid!



I'll try and get all the project buttoned up this weekend, but the coolant leak at the hard line is the main thing I need to get done this weekend. Should be able to do both and get some output shots!
 

KrashDH

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 22, 2013
Location
Washington
TDI
2002 Golf
Retro Complete!

Alright well I got it all buttoned up yesterday and aimed.


Here are the final photos
Apologies about the reflections, I tried to keep them out but my buddies clear coat job was insanely good!







Some output shots:



Now, unfortunately I might need to live with the next photo. It bugs me but I may have to learn to live with it if I can't fix it.

I was very diligent in aligning the light output on the car before I put the lenses on and then subsequently JB kwik'd the clocking washer on. The thing is, those clocking washers have enough play in them to allow a slight "tiwst" of the projector.

Since the nut is tightened down now and the lens is on, this will be very difficult to remedy without damaging anything. It doesn't bother me/you don't even notice it when you're driving, but you can tell that one is slightly skewed when you're up against a wall:



Here's the high beam output:



It's an understatement to say this is better than stock. It brings a whole different game to lighting on your vehicle. I held off on doing this for so long because the Golf IMO has one of the better ouputs for halogens of any vehicle. This is just mind blowing to me.

I did this retro on my Cummins as well. I have a light bar on the front of that, and the projector high beams render that light bar useless. That's the power of these things.

Anyway, thanks all for anyone who followed, I hope this thread can motivate people if they want to DIY. After the fact I can say that it was more scary thinking about doing it than actually doing it, which probably turns a lot of people away.

I'll post up if I figure out how to spin that skewed one inside of the clocking washer.
 
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