Has anyone attempted to build their own with stock US lights? I’m thinking of searching for a pair from a wreck yard and building them like I’ve seen some Euro guys do. I wasn’t sure if there are any preferred projectors out there or a specific size to look for.
just sounds like a fun project and I love the idea of building something custom.
I have semi first hand knowledge on this:
As other have said, everything I've read is that the stock USDM headlights are very hard to get open. I'm in the process of a retrofit with Depo Euro headlights that have been stalled for over a year. One was easy to get open and the second has been a bitch and the large reason for stalling me, so anything MORE difficult.......ugh.
Also, if you're wanting to retrofit a projector, I think the Euro headlights are the ideal base. If you use the stock US headlights, the way you mount a projector is with a threaded shaft through the hole in the back of the main low beam bulb hole of the reflector housing (after modifying the reflector a little). I have retrofit HID projectors on my Gen 2 Tacoma headlights, and the optics (glass) on the projectors are quite heavy and even tightening the lock rings on the projectors super tight, then running JB weld around the interface of the lock ring to the housing (backside) the lights bounce just a little on the small high frequency bumps on the freeway or wherever.
Since the Euro headlights have stock Halogen projectors that are mounted via threaded bolts, mounting the HID projectors will be as easy as pulling the stock Halogen projectors off and replacing with the HID projectors (I might need to drill a hole in the mounting plate area of the HID projectors but that's small potatoes). And the rest of assembly in the Euro headlights are designed to support the weight of projector optics, so I'm anticipating awesome stable lights.
Plus, with the Euros, you get the added benefit of the LED strip lights as DTRL. But of course the downside is the Euros are $330 (at least when I got mine, not sure if that's still how much they cost). On the other hand, if you're slow and lazy like me, you're not cutting up your stock lights and leaving your car without headlights when you use the Euros.....