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Discussion starter · #41 · (Edited)
Got everything in to do the hid projector conversion. Since I'd taken apart headlights before it wasn't that big of a deal. Just heat up the oven at 210 degrees and let em sit for 10-15 mins then the black rubber / glue stuff is pliable enough to come apart easily enough.

It required very little to install the projectors but on the Xterra housing there is VERY LITTLE room for the threaded shaft. Meaning that once installed you only have about a .25" of thread sticking out the back side of the housing to use to tighten down the mounting nut. I actually somehow screwed up the threads on one and ended up just buying an additional projector. I didn't realize when I first bought the set from hidprojectors.com that the 7.1 H1 BI-XENON Projectors I were buying were NOT Morimoto's (widely considered to be the best...from Japan) but were actually copies of them. So since they were the same price as buying Morimoto's I decided to just buy a Morimoto and if they weren't a perfect match (light output wise) I'd just order another Morimoto and chalk it up to a expensive learning curve.

As it turns out, once installed, you can't tell which one is the clone and which one is real, so.......

Here are some pics from the mod and install.

The original Headlight (upgraded to all black late model about a year ago)




Take em apart

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When you do the mod......if you want to do it right, you mod the housings to hold the projectors and then do a "soft install" back on the truck so that you can do a fine adjustment for the horizontal alignment. A lot of the instructions on the net just tell you to eye it out and then put the housing back together and install. Well, if I had it wouldn't have been perfect. It doesn't take a lot of time so you put the housings back in the truck, wire it back up and then adjust them against the garage door.





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Here is the "Before" pic against the garage door with just HID bulbs / ballasts (No Projectors)

image hosting no register

So here you can see the dramatic, distinct "cut off" that the lights have with the projectors.....it's kinda badass. Note that this is before I adjusted them, you can plainly see the passenger side is / was off.

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Here's how they look all buttoned up....

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I didn't think I'd like the "projector look" and I really didn't want the halos......but now that I have em, I like em.

Here's a "Before" pic taken with just add in HID bulb /ballast set (No projectors)

Low Beam





and high beam





Here's a couple shots down my street to the end. The house at the end is about 10 house down or more. Pretty far....I don't know....150 yards?

Here's low beam





And here's high beam......





Holy CRAP.

The 20" led light bar I installed last year?

Completely obsolete now. All it does is add a little flood light close to the car. These things are AMAZING and worth every penny....

AND

I haven't completely dialed them in yet. I still can go up some in adjustment I think. But wow, they are a GREAT upgrade.

So, to sum it up....if you have the means, I'd rate this as a 10/10 on the mod scale.
 
Discussion starter · #42 · (Edited)
Next on the list........

Horns

On my old F250 CC Diesel with 39's and a 8" lift.....I had a train horn installed. It was AMAZING. But, honestly it was too loud. Too loud to use very often that's for sure. But, it was like a $600 system, so I guess I got what I paid for. lol

So ever since I got the Xterra, I wanted to do something about the anemic factory Nissan horn. I ordered some other horn off Amazon, wired it up. Wait what? That's it? I sent it back.

I ordered a set of Hellas. Hmmm, no, didn't like those and just not really much louder.

I was thinking a Wolo at this point but then I realized that the horns on my Nissan Quest mini van were WAY louder than on the X. Ok, so I bought a pair off eBay.

Got em in and hmmm. something was wrong.....think one wasn't working right or something. But I ended up using one of the Quest horns and one of the Xterra horns.

Well my brother in Texas was bobbing around the internet and saw that some guys were installing mid to late seventies Caddilac horns with great results. So he bought a set for him and installed them in his car and said they were WAY louder. So he bought a set me me (about $50) and had em sent to me here in California.

I installed them (they're a set of 4) and what? Sounded like crap. Turns out two of them were fudged up. So he initiated a return and back they went.

During this whole time ( 3 weeks or so) my assistants dad had wrecked his old ford truck. Well, for Xmas a couple years ago she'd had me source a reasonable (cheap) set of train horns for him cause she'd been so impressed with the ones I'd had before. So she has him pull then off and I gave her $100 for the set up. They'd cost about $200 originally.

So I set about to install them. They turned out nice. I have my original Quest / Xterra horn set back in as the primary horn and the new horns (actuated off the button)as well. They are pretty loud....way louded than my brothers Caddie horns and should do well.

I put them where the spare goes as there is just NOT room under there. And I hid the horn button by the ignition so it's not out in the open, but is easily accessible by touch without having to look for it. And has a little led ring for it to help at night.

The horns / compressor


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And the button.


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Discussion starter · #43 ·
The bumpers look great! Hows the paint holding up with daily driving?
Update on the Bumpers and Trim paint. It's been a year and they still look GREAT.

Here's a couple quick pics. Dirty and some scratches but still black and better than I ever thought it would be after a year!




 
Discussion starter · #45 ·
Well I went and did it. Since I drive this thing every day.......I just can't stand the anemic stereo anymore. It had a upgraded JVC but it just isn't cutting it. So I went and picked up a Pioneer W4400NEX (wireless carplay) a couple of Pioneer Amps (GM8701 1600w Mono and a GM8704 1200w 4/3/2 channel), two sets of JBL 6.5's and tweeters and a Pioneer 10" Sub, Clarion EQ and some other bits and pieces.



Dropping it off at my installers tomorrow and it ought to be night and DAY when it's done. I'm really looking forward to damaging my hearing once again.

 
X is looking good! Since you have had the HIDprojectors.com 7.1s for awhile now have you noticed any problems? I've been talking to Tom on there and was about to pull the trigger. Figured I would see how everything is holding up on your end.
 
Loved the thread.
Keep us updated
 
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Discussion starter · #54 ·
Looking good, but gotta ask cus I want to do the same back up lighting & would you by chance know where you got the lights and the switches by the mirror control came from ?
TIA
Thanks!

Honestly I don’t remember anymore… There are used to be just one guy doing the custom switches but now they’re all over the place… Just do a search on Amazon for custom auto switches… I bought the lights on Amazon to… They were cheap… Maybe 40 bucks for the set… But they work great
 
Discussion starter · #57 · (Edited)
Long time without an update. I haven't done much with the X in the last couple of years. I bought a Cadillac CTS for my daily and modded that till it was just right. The X sits under a car cover most weeks now. 5 years and just crossed 100,000 miles a bit back. I did install new coils about 6 months ago. I also went to install the bilsteins last weekend and damn if those lower 19mm nut and bolts aren't frozen on. WTH? I'm in SoCal so rust isn't an issue. I'm thinking someone torqued them to about 500 ftlbs when the PO had them first installed. So I've hit it with Break Free twice a day for the last two days, if I still can't budge em tonight when I get home I'm gonna have to run it over to the local garage this weekend and have them break em loose.

Its not supposed to be that hard. lol

Here's a couple pics for fun.

Here's the Caddie


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