Honda Accord DIY

STEP 1: Opening headlight

Put headlight in oven for 10-15 mins at 200degs.

Then take the headlight out and start to pry open the end farthest away from the turn signal with a flat head screw driver. Pry open until there is enough to get your hands in then gently separate the res of the headlight apart. Be careful not to break any clips that are down near the turn signal side.

STEP 2: Removing trim

Once apart you can now work on getting out the headlight trim. There are a few reasons to remove this, whether it is to black-out the trim or changing the color of the reflectors. I already have my headlights blacked out, as you can see, so I will be able to skip that part. However I am going to swap my clear reflectors for the orange reflectors I have from my OEM headlights.

Before you can take out the trim you first must unscrew two screws that hold it in place.

Also there may, and prob will, be some glue on the inside of the housing preventing you from easily removing the trim. To defeat this problem get your screw driver and pull out/off the glue from the trim.

Once the glue has been separated from all the edges you can now separate the trim from the lens. To do this first pull the trim up from the end farthest away from the turn signal.

Now I had some of the glue stick to the trim, so to clean it up I took some Goo Gone to take it off. If you do this you need to be quick to apply and quick to remove the goo gone. Not only will it take off the glue, it will also take the paint off.

Once the trim Is taken out you can now work on getting the reflectors changed. In order to get them swapped out you will need to sand down a little on them.

After you get it sanded down you can go ahead and put the trim back in reverse order of how it was taken out.

STEP 3: Removing Reflector

This is a simple step but still needs to be done carefully! To get the reflector out all you need to do is unscrew the reflector from the housing. Unscrew the two screws (highlighted in red) then turn the high beam screw counter clockwise.

Once you have the reflector removed tape it up and get it ready for the retro!

I spent the rest of the night getting the projector lined up and fitted for just one headlight…..I need to pick up some shrouds to clean everything up (yet something else to buy on the build….)

I just picked up there shrouds….More work will be done once I receive the shrouds!

So I spent over a month waiting on a fellow accord owner to finish my harness…and I received it yesterday. I didn’t work anymore on my retro as I was making sure the x,y,z angles were right to finish the retro. Thus without the harness I couldnt test the lights to see if i had angled everything correctly.

Here are some pics of my harness:

Here is the harness:

Once I looked at it closer I noticed that the pars were not sealed properly….that down the road moisture would have its way with the harness.

If you look at the connections you can see the liquid electrical glue that i used to seal the openings…..

I still have to wire up the lights and see how the angles are. then i can continue the progress!

I just did quick test of the light and everything looks to be in working order and level!

I finished putting together the 2nd headlight! Tomorrow I plan on installing them on the car and checking everything for levelness then they will be sealed up!

well I wired up the car today, went to turn the lights on and blew a fuse…I tried again and the same fuse went…then again….so now im a little puzzled as it worked yesterday but now its not…

Here are a few pics of the install…note the covers are not on the car as I WAS going to test the lights tonight to see if they were level but that is not going to happen now….

Well after talking to some ppl I have found out that my harness was made incorrectly. I either need to add more fuses to it or get a totally new one form someone else…. So while I was waiting to figure that out I sealed up my ballast and redid SOME of the harness.

GOD DAMNIT!!!! I got new fuses and tested it out again….i blew boh of my ballast….$415 to get new ones!!! **** ME!

A little update:

I was able to find the same ballast online for $99 shipped so I will see if they were worth the money when they get here, meaning I dont know for sure if they will work…ebay….

I added fuse holders to both of the positive leads to the ballasts. I saudered the ends and taped everything up very well. I also extended the grounds on the back of the ignitors along with adding the liquid electrical tape to the back of them so they are protected in case of contact with any other metal objects in the engine bay.

I havent been able to get into my mail as my mac crashed (thus the reason this update has no pics…)on me Sat and the online log-in isnt working correctly. So im not sure when I will receive the other ballast to continue the DIY, .

pics:

well today I worked on the setup a little more…I finished re-running all the wires and have test fit the ballasts in prep for the new ones so once i get them I can get back on track with the retro…im HOPING to have it done by friday!!! that is if i get the ballasts tomorrow…

I received the ballasts 3 days later…..the guy sold me fried ballasts! damnit!

I have just finished my bezels and am one step closer to finishing!
Im now in need of some chrome spray as the chrome has came off the bezels that i just fitted to my lights to cover up the projectors.

well i tested out the paint…..now what…

im not sure if i like this color. Im prob going to go back to home depot tomorrow and get a different color.

Well I took apart the headlight (left side) last night and fixed my problem, resealed them up and and installed them today. I washed the car yesterday which was the first wash it has had in 3 months!!! Once I got the light installed I went out on a photo shoot! ENJOY! If I don’t go and do anything tonight I’ll have some pics up from night time

Ohh and on a final note I took the orange reflectors out and swapped in the clear one….they will look better now and when ever I get around to painting the car. (another color…shhh)

I just went out and took pics of the cut off. I wasnt on level ground and still need to be adjust some more. but you get an idea on what it looks like.